Most obvious plot hole.

[RJ Dalton]

Original series had no problem with ignoring continuity and then making stuff up later. *Cough* Vader killed your father. *Cough* Why can't the prequels do the same? Not to mention all the other stuff that just doesn't make sense, 1 man plots millions of people against each other destroys the jedi order and forgets that a few laser blasts from the outside makes their planet destroyer explode? Vader goes past the point of no return then returns from the point of no return? Why can't the ghost jedi's do anything if they were made more powerful than before? Reminders to use the force is tape recorder power. Why is there no DNA protection so that someone other than a clone will be noticed if they're walking around as storm troopers? Isn't the emperor the most powerful sith to ever live at that point? Why couldn't he find luke?

Well, actually, the part about Vader being Luke's father was a part of the plot all along and that was explained to an acceptable degree within the trilogy.
The bit about the emperor plotting millions of people against each other is discontinuity between the old and new trilogy and the Death Star being blown up was one weakness that could only be found through careful analysis of the battlestation's plans. Top it off, the emperor was probably not a mechanic, so there's no reason to expect him to know about it. It also doesn't help that Lucas portrayed the Jedi as legendarily thick in the prequels. I mean, Mace Windu has a line "I sense a plot to destroy the Jedi." What, he needed to use the force to see what anyone paying the slightest bit of attention could see? Bah!
The point of no return was a belief held by the Jedi. I always took Vader's redemption not as a point of discontinuity, but proving that there really is no point-of-no-return and the Jedi were simply wrong about it.
No DNA protection? That's a retrospective plot hole because at the time, we hadn't developed that kind of technology and it hadn't really been discussed in sci-fi literature, so it was one of those things Lucas probably just didn't think of. It is still a plot-hole, though, I will give you that.
The idea of the the emperor being able to find Luke easily is treating the force like all purpose plot resolution. There were lots of factors working against the emperor, none the least of which being the light side of the force itself (and Obi-Wan being a part of it) potentially clouding his ability to see everything. The emperor was clever and had a lot of knowledge and power in the Force, but he wasn't invincible or all-knowing. He just thought he was.

 

[InsanelyZanter]

Transformers-effing-two.

Five robots go underwater, one mook dies to resurrect Megatron.

Military goon yells out that six are coming back up.

5 - 1 + 1 = 5

 

[IamSofaKingRaw]

Ha, pretty much the entire series of Dragonball, Why don't trunks and goten fuse and beat the crap out of everyone? Why don't they go along with Goku when he goes off to save the galaxy with Pan, the weakest character in the universe? Why is Pan alive? Why does Gohan, the coolest character ever fall to the wayside, while the brats fuse and save the world? etc. etc.

1. Why would they want to beat up everyone? Its the same as askin why Goku didn't kill everyone once he mastered how to be a super saiyan.

2. Pan snuck aboard the ship the Goku and Trunks were using to go save the world, and Goen stayed because he had a girlfriend and didn't want to leave her.

3. WTF? Why shouldn't Pan be alive?

4. Gohan (almost) died fighting Majin Buu but was saved by Supreme Kai before he slipped into deaths clutches. During his short stay on the Kai planet, he had his powers unlocked while Trunks and Goten (I'm assming that those two are the brats you speak of) had to buy some time for Goku and Gohan to return. (Goku was given a new life by Elder Kai[footnote]He was another Supreme Kai that was on the Kai planet[/footnote], and Gohan was healed to full health (he didn't die remember?) and they were transported back to Earth separately.

 

[CplDustov]

I think the story takes places over about a year. No? It's been a while I'll admit. So I agree with that in mind your point makes a loooooot of sense. Tolkien had an explanation of Eagles not meddling in human affairs too much but it was pretty.... lame.

Jesus dying on top of a tower? Yeah, lets meddle there. Billions of other people's suffering and lives on the line? No, lets pass. That Jesus guy can handle it.

Exactly. And then they come and pick the travellers up afterwards anyway.... well at least in the films but I remember that being in the books too.

 

[Death God]

Spoiler: Terminator

Why trust just ONE terminator to do the job. She barley killed one so just send in 5 or 6 to do the job better. And why not kill Sarah when she is no threat at all. A.K.A. When she's 5! There are so many point to exploit.

How about this? By stopping Judgment Day in T2, wouldn't this prevent John Connor from even existing? And if he still existed, wouldn't they realize that their effort to stop Judgment Day didn't work?

Exactly. So many plot hole in this movie!

 

[Death God]

Spoiler: Terminator

Why trust just ONE terminator to do the job. She barley killed one so just send in 5 or 6 to do the job better. And why not kill Sarah when she is no threat at all. A.K.A. When she's 5! There are so many point to exploit.

There's worse plot holes with Terminator. Apologies if this doesn't make sense, it's a bit hard to work out. Fuck it, I'll just copy and paste from cracked.

Spoiler: Why time travel is a fucking stupid idea

If you've found your way to this article, odds are you remember The Terminator, but let's refresh some key plot points. In the mysterious and distant future--1997, to be exact--Skynet, a highly-advanced artificial intelligence, is introduced to the world. Humans decide to hand over all military control to this system because in the Terminator universe the people have not seen The Terminator.

Decades later, the humans are at war with the robots and a brave warrior named John Connor takes charge and turns the tide. The machines strike back by sending the Governor of California back to the 80s to kill Connor's mom before he's born. The humans send Michael Biehn back to protect her.

Along the way, he makes it part of his mission to protect her vagina from not having his penis in it. And that, readers, is where everything in the space-time continuum gets "iffy."

As it turns out, when Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton sleep together, they conceive John Connor. And, as we learn in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, when the Terminator is destroyed in the first film, the microchip in its skull survives, falls into the hands of computer company Cyberdyne Systems, and allows for the creation of Skynet in the first place.

Therefore, the only reason either John Connor or the machines exist is because the Terminator went back in time, and the only reason the Terminator went back in time is because the machines and John Connor exist. Get it?

Oh, and John Connor and our heroes spend the last act of the second movie trying to prevent said war, meaning John Connor is trying to prevent his own existence, by eliminating the reason for his dad to travel back in time to conceive him. And, if he does prevent his own existence, well, he certainly won't be around to prevent the war thus prevent his existence and...

Well, you get the idea.

Yeah. Can't believe they left so many plot holes in such a good movie. I mean, I still enjoy the movies despite the holes but... how? How did they miss those holes? They are so big you could drive a truck through them.

 

[Death God]

Spoiler: Terminator

Why trust just ONE terminator to do the job. She barley killed one so just send in 5 or 6 to do the job better. And why not kill Sarah when she is no threat at all. A.K.A. When she's 5! There are so many point to exploit.

That was cut from the original script,John Conner was taking over the last of Skynet, breaking down the door in fact. Skynet sent all the Terminators at the same point in time. The Terminator T-101 in the first movie and the untested prototype T-1000 model done at the last minute in order to preserve itself. John sent his father Kyle Reese and The 850 model 101. Then the time line gets all messed up after that. The Terminators that appear to be made by Dell or Alienware appear in the later movies.

Ah, well that's somethings I never knew before.

 

[Blemontea]

LOTR..the Giant Eagle Race could just fly someone with the ring right into Mordor, into mount doom and drop off the ring. completely bypassing hours of unnecessary bother.

I think the story takes places over about a year. No? It's been a while I'll admit. So I agree with that in mind your point makes a loooooot of sense. Tolkien had an explanation of Eagles not meddling in human affairs too much but it was pretty.... lame.

actually one explanation also is that the eye of suaron would over power the eagles killing them and the ring would drop into mordor... but then again the fellow ship could just distract the eye like they did at the end of the movie so its a massive plot hole.

OT: ... give me an hour or so ...

 

[BelmontClan]

God had altered His law prior to that without requiring anything of that magnitude. Amazingly enough, the idea of absolving sins through an act of horrific brutality is kind of weird. Not to mention if this event was predetermined, it undermines the free will we're supposed to have.

But mostly, God could have just said "knock it off."

Your answer doesn't explain why God would do it, it explains why an offshoot of Jewish culture would fabricate the concept of absolution through further sacrifice.

It is a difficult thing to comprehend, I agree. But in the Christian tradition, the point of Jesus dying for our sins was he became a person like you and me and took on that burden of saving people from sin. Although God could have come, waved a hand and made it better, then it takes away from the entire point of his Son becoming human and saving people from their sin.

If you look at the Bible, even Jesus wasn't really thrilled with what he could tell was coming. He even goes so far as to plead "If you can take this away from me, do it, but if you can't, then I will do this for you."

This is such a difficult thing to explain, so I hope I'm making sense. Other people have tried to make sense of this concept too. I'd suggest reading "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" for one interpretation (at times humorous, at times sad) as to why the sacrifice.

 

[CplDustov]

LOTR..the Giant Eagle Race could just fly someone with the ring right into Mordor, into mount doom and drop off the ring. completely bypassing hours of unnecessary bother.

I think the story takes places over about a year. No? It's been a while I'll admit. So I agree with that in mind your point makes a loooooot of sense. Tolkien had an explanation of Eagles not meddling in human affairs too much but it was pretty.... lame.

actually one explanation also is that the eye of suaron would over power the eagles killing them and the ring would drop into mordor... but then again the fellow ship could just distract the eye like they did at the end of the movie so its a massive plot hole.

OT: ... give me an hour or so ...

hmm well a slight plot hole but it lends more credibility I guess. "more" being the operative word.

 

[omicron1]

LOTR..the Giant Eagle Race could just fly someone with the ring right into Mordor, into mount doom and drop off the ring. completely bypassing hours of unnecessary bother.

I think the story takes places over about a year. No? It's been a while I'll admit. So I agree with that in mind your point makes a loooooot of sense. Tolkien had an explanation of Eagles not meddling in human affairs too much but it was pretty.... lame.

actually one explanation also is that the eye of suaron would over power the eagles killing them and the ring would drop into mordor... but then again the fellow ship could just distract the eye like they did at the end of the movie so its a massive plot hole.

OT: ... give me an hour or so ...

Ok, geekery coming up.
You saw the point in the battle at the Black Gates where the eagles entered the battle, right? They were up against the Nazgul, which were on pretty much an even footing with them. Problems start when you think about the eagles just flying straight into Mordor at pretty much any point from the Council of Rivendell through that last battle...
* They would be seen. The Eye can look a lot farther than just inside the bounds of Mordor, and tends to be drawn to the ring. Carrying it in the sky makes it a pretty easy target.
* It's questionable whether the ring wouldn't count as being worn if grasped on an eagle's talon. If it would be worn, the implications are severe. If Gandalf could not wear the ring, Gwaihir the Windlord would be just as susceptible to its effects.
* You've got a whole country full of orcs between you and Mount Doom. A large number of these orcs have bows. Does "pincushion" sound like fun?
* Nine nazgul (at the beginning of the story), prepared and ready for anti-Eagle combat. No surprise on the eagles' side. Assuming Gandalf rode one of the eagles, that evens the odds a bit in his favor, but I think (judging by the "Gandalf vs Witch King" face-off in the White City) that the Witch King just tips the scales back the other way.

* So in order for the eagles to have even a chance of succeeding, they have to be sent out when the Witch King is no longer in the equation - by the official storyline, this means after the Battle of Pelennor Fields - and while the Eye is somewhat distracted, E.G. at the beginning of the Black Gate confrontation. They can't be sent out from the Rivendell council. They can't be sent out from Lothlorien. Thus, to the fellowship, they are a nonviable tactic. Unfortunately, by the time they become viable Frodo and Sam are long gone, and their only chance to get back with the group (their encounter with Faramir) ends with them tromping off towards Mordor, alone.



Worst plot hole ever... hmm... can't think of much right now. Oh, I remember. Spoiler Warning sez: Why do you need to turn into a Big Daddy to tell a little sister (whom you've rescued about fifty of) to open the little sister door? Why not just ask nicely?

 

[Knight Templar]

I think I'll target another good game.

Spoiler: Baldur's Gate

In the Game when a character is killed but their body is still mostly intact you can bring them back to life with a divine spell item or what-have-you. When you (the main character) dies this doesn't happen. Now initially this makes sense, you die and the Bhaalspawn taint returns to the throne of blood ergo your soul is now broken, unable to put back together by "normal" means. However Imoen is also a child of Bhaal yet she can be brought back the same way any other party members can.

What the hell?

 

[Blemontea]

LOTR..the Giant Eagle Race could just fly someone with the ring right into Mordor, into mount doom and drop off the ring. completely bypassing hours of unnecessary bother.

I think the story takes places over about a year. No? It's been a while I'll admit. So I agree with that in mind your point makes a loooooot of sense. Tolkien had an explanation of Eagles not meddling in human affairs too much but it was pretty.... lame.

actually one explanation also is that the eye of suaron would over power the eagles killing them and the ring would drop into mordor... but then again the fellow ship could just distract the eye like they did at the end of the movie so its a massive plot hole.

OT: ... give me an hour or so ...

Ok, geekery coming up.
You saw the point in the battle at the Black Gates where the eagles entered the battle, right? They were up against the Nazgul, which were on pretty much an even footing with them. Problems start when you think about the eagles just flying straight into Mordor at pretty much any point from the Council of Rivendell through that last battle...
* They would be seen. The Eye can look a lot farther than just inside the bounds of Mordor, and tends to be drawn to the ring. Carrying it in the sky makes it a pretty easy target.
* It's questionable whether the ring wouldn't count as being worn if grasped on an eagle's talon. If it would be worn, the implications are severe. If Gandalf could not wear the ring, Gwaihir the Windlord would be just as susceptible to its effects.
* You've got a whole country full of orcs between you and Mount Doom. A large number of these orcs have bows. Does "pincushion" sound like fun?
* Nine nazgul (at the beginning of the story), prepared and ready for anti-Eagle combat. No surprise on the eagles' side. Assuming Gandalf rode one of the eagles, that evens the odds a bit in his favor, but I think (judging by the "Gandalf vs Witch King" face-off in the White City) that the Witch King just tips the scales back the other way.

* So in order for the eagles to have even a chance of succeeding, they have to be sent out when the Witch King is no longer in the equation - by the official storyline, this means after the Battle of Pelennor Fields - and while the Eye is somewhat distracted, E.G. at the beginning of the Black Gate confrontation. They can't be sent out from the Rivendell council. They can't be sent out from Lothlorien. Thus, to the fellowship, they are a nonviable tactic. Unfortunately, by the time they become viable Frodo and Sam are long gone, and their only chance to get back with the group (their encounter with Faramir) ends with them tromping off towards Mordor, alone.



Worst plot hole ever... hmm... can't think of much right now. Oh, I remember. Spoiler Warning sez: Why do you need to turn into a Big Daddy to tell a little sister (whom you've rescued about fifty of) to open the little sister door? Why not just ask nicely?

If you ever had any questions about the eagle plot hole read above this good sir just obliterated every question i had about the eagles.

OT:... still working on it ...

 

[CargoHold]

Terminator Salvation-
The motorbike-bot can sense and dodge multiple flying chunks of metal debris while in motion, and yet is tripped up by a single piece of wire stretched across the road? Whut?

 

[Canid117]

Star Wars Episode 2:

If the jedi aren't allowed to love, why were two obviously consenting 19-to-20-something-year-olds sent on an all expenses paid vacation to the planet-o-love?

I think Plinkett had far more material there than he actually used.

They are not allowed to form a bond of love. There is nuthin in the rule book against certain fun activities.

 

[Nomanslander]

Star Trek 2009

How the hell does that red stuff create black holes and time travel?

District 9

How the hell does that red stuff work as spaceship fuel and turning you into one of the prawns?

 

[x434343]

Modern Warfare 2

The No Russian mission.

Why do the members of the airport security/government/ANYONE not check security recordings to check and make sure it wasn't only an American slaughtering people... but instead just invaded the US.

In order to have a plausible reason to invade the US. It's a helluva lot easier to find the ID that points to the US and invade than find 2 Russian bodies and one American body and say that it was America's bloody nature.

Alternatively, they forged US IDs.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

The entire new Star Wars Trilogy is just dripping with plot holes and terrible storytelling but I'm going to focus on the one plot hole that always stands out for me because it's the basis for so much of the prequel setting including the video games.

My Issue is with the Clone Army and everything associated with it.

Where do I begin? Okay so Obi-Wan tracks down a Mandelorian Bounty Hunter to Kamino where he finds out that Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas had ordered a Clone Army. Well right away I have to ask why. To what end did Sifo-Dyas order this army to be made? Was he working for Palpatine, or with Count Dooku? Did he just think having a bunch of clones on standby would be nifty? Pick any answer you choose because the movie doesn't seem to give a shit.
Still Ordering Clones isn't like ordering a fucking Pizza, you don't order an Army of killer Mandelorians without having a good God Damn reason.

Okay leaving that aside for a moment.
The Jedi Council spends most of Attack of the Clones explaining that they're peace keepers not soldiers and that they don't have the manpower to fight an all out war for the Republic.
So I guess it's handy that Palpatine just happens to have this Clone Army on standby?
These clones take about 10-15 years to grow meaning he would have had to have started the cloning process years before all this shit started going down.
And nobody blinks an eye at this? Nodoby thinks that maybe some shit is up?
clearly not because the Jedi just jump right in and start fighting alongside the clones happy as the day is long!

Lastly, this Clone Army is fully equipped! They have space ships, tanks, air speeders, battle cruisers, boats, walkers...so on and so forth. Well where did this Shit come from? What distant Imperial Forge World spent the past 15 years or so making enough armour, artillery, munitions and heavy support vehicles to outfit a whole damned army? The prequels make such a big damned deal about the economic goings on of the Galaxy that I find it hard to believe nobody noticed this huge stockpile.


Look I'm sure that a lot of this is explained in the Expanded Universe and if that's the case then it's still bullshit. If a storyteller has to rely on supplementary material that other people write in order to fill in the gaping holes in the original narrative...well then it's a shitty story to begin with.

 

[LogicNProportion]

Definitely Lord of the Rings

Why didn't they just ride the eagles to Mordor, drop the ring while flying by over the damn volcano, and end it all?

Goddamn...

And thus:

Star Wars > LotR

 

[Lotet]

Avatar
1. Why didn't you orbital bomb those tree huggers
2. Just drop two tank on top of their main base
3. How they are able to sharpen the spears but they can go through bullet proof gas. I mean if you can sharpen them, so they can't be too hard... (my logic may be flawed, don't be ass holes when proving it)
4. Maybe I am just being a baby because the bad guys won.

My issue with that movie is that they spend all this time saying they are after a mineral then blow up the only thing stopping them from getting it yet they completely ignore it to try to wipe out the aliens for no better reason than assholeism.

Just posting because I'm addicted to TVTropes, but:

1: The Corp wasn't a military group, it was simply private contractors made mostly of ex-soldiers. I doubt that they had the ability to attempt orbital bombardment. After all, they seem fairly arrogant, and I doubt the Stockholders would be happy with them packing orbital bombardment weaponry against an enemy armed with bows and arrows.

You don't need weaponry to bombard someone from orbit. They came there on a starship, all they have to do is chuck asteroids at them, with absolute impunity.
It's not even hard, anyone with any decent level of maths ability could do the math, so people that can build and pilot FTL starships could certainly do it.

Jupiter stops asteroids from hitting us. Pandora is a moon of a gas giant, likly no asteroids and good luck trying to pluck one from an asteroid belt (if there is one). they trying to get stuff worth 20 Million per Kilogram, causing massive damage to the place is, well, counter-productive.

spend 5 million in starship fuel and logistics to cause a Billion Trillion dollars worth of damage so you can save 120 million dollars worth of military gear and personel? (numbers pulled out of the air)

A moon in a gas giant likely means tons of rocks, since around most gas giants, you get a planetary ring (although in some cases it is rather small). And you don't need a huge rock to really mess up someone's day, especially after they all gathered in one spot. You don't even need massive amounts of energy to pluck a rock out and put it into an injection orbit, for any people advanced enough to have starships and FTL, they should know all about orbital dynamics.

Hell even now, people have done the maths that would get asteroids from the asteroid belt injected into stable earth orbits for mining purposes. To say they can't do it is just stupid. You don't need an asteroid big enough to cause an extinction event, you can pretty much rain down small rocks with absolute and utter impunity, wiping out any centre of resistance - broadcast a message telling them 'play nice or daddy wipes out you and your entire species'.

you're either incredibly intelligent or you have no idea what you're talking about.

*scratches head*
I mean, I'm no mathematical whiz but I don't see how our current technology and understandings can allow us to get an asteroid from a swirling ring of rock and metal using something made by us that likely has less mass than the asteroid in question and have it sent over to us. what IS the energy or method used for that kind of act anyway?

Admittedly most current theories are just that - theories, and are entirely thought experiments, since we really have no way to reach asteroids or rocks.
Well there are many ways to manage it, it all depends on the level of technology, and how fast you want the asteroid to arrive. The cheapest (but slowest method) is the method used in most space probes these days, which is a very low energy, low fuel consuming engine, that constantly accelerates. Strap a few of those onto the surface of a rock, and a few months/years later, you've got an asteroid arriving.

The fastest method, has been used in hard sci-fi (most notably in the Night's Dawn Trilogy by Hamilton) and that's controlled nuclear explosions, similar to the Orion Engine concept, you simply knock the asteroid into an insertion orbit.

In these terms, it's simply a matter of the energy inputted, once you put that energy in, the asteroid will move - whether it be slowly or somewhat faster. Mass matters very little with a massive injection of energy, or with constant low acceleration.

plus why are you behaving with such a simplified approach to this? you're acting like you enemies will do exactly what you want them to do so you can cause maximum damage, instead of say, attacking you're ground base? and that's just the simplest approach. c'mon though, even if you calculate, object mass, planetary rotation, level of gravity and all that I don't see how you can acuratly direct a big lumpy (incredibly lumpy) rock thousands of miles down. I like pointless debates, can you tell?

need I repeat $20,000,000 per Kilogram? a chunk as heavy as a car gone will cost you $20 Billion!

to quote a much enjoyed fictional report on a similar, though not quite the same, subject:

Rocks are NOT 'free', citizen.

and you can't use the word "impunity" if you're striking your source of income when you're attacking.

Except they did do exactly what I would want. Most natives on the planet, congregated in exactly the same place. Hell you don't even need to use a giant rock. Sacrifice the shuttle, set it on an orbital trajectory similar to the kind ships like Virgin Galactic and the Vomit Comet use. Instant kinetic kill object. This kind of thing has long been theorised by most militaries with access to space, simply because it is very cost effective. You wipe out all those pesky natives, you instantly clear out any vegetation.
Any species that has control of space, can strike with absolute impunity, and there would be nothing the natives could do about it. Hell even hurling a few tons of metal at select points would cause massive damage if they were accelerated sufficiently.

I don't know man, that tree is pretty freakin' huge, it would stop a lot of mass coming down. they could knock the tree down though, which is what they did. didn't they then proceed to torch the place? anyway, if you don't cause a lot of damage you won't get them, if you casue too much you lose your resources. these people, like humans, keep fighting as long as thier leader (or current leader for revolutions and the like) thinks it's in thier people best interests and would casue you harm in one way or another unless you get to the ground and cut off their escape, ready for some genocide. and how long does it take for them to move out of the impact radius compared to the time it takes a rock to get from orbit to surface?. I find a direct attack with automatic weapons, mechs and gunships seemed like the appropriate action to take for "costs vs damage". it only seems wrong in hind-sight, after all, they're just barbarians, how hard could they be to beat?.

EDIT: they were congregating. it probably was the most native on the planet but it wouldn't have been most of the total (or the continents total). if they even spent that much time trying to set up an obital bombardment the natives would have swarmed ground zero anyway.