Top 20 Major Movie Plot Holes
#20: Electro Doesn’t Know Peter Is Spider-Man
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) The storytelling of the MCU got increasingly complex as it progressed, eventually incorporating the likes of time travel and multiverses. Unfortunately, as is often the case with time-hoppy stories, this opened up a slew of questions and potential plot holes. “No Way Home” has great fun with its manipulation of dimensions, but it also has a wicked plot hole concerning Jamie Foxx’s Electro. Doctor Strange informs us that only the villains who know Spider Man’s identity were pulled through the multiverse. But Electro never knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, and he says as much during the climax. So why is he here? Probably just so we could see Jamie Foxx again. We can’t be too mad about that.
#19: The Unrecognizable Teenager
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“17 Again” (2009) As the title suggests, this movie sees a fully-grown man named Mike O'Donnell turning back into his 17-year-old self with the help of some magic. It’s established at the beginning of the film that Mike and his high school sweetheart Scarlet eventually wed and had kids. Yet when Scarlet meets the younger version of Mike, she barely reacts. Yes, she notices there’s a similarity between the two, but she just kind of shrugs it off. We know it’s been two decades, but surely she would have instantly recognized the teenage version of her own husband. She was even dating him at the time that he looked exactly like this. Heck, one look at the yearbook would prove that it’s more than a strong resemblance!
#18: Whistler’s Resurrection
“Blade II” (2002) This might be an example of a sequel bringing back a fan favorite character, even if it doesn’t make a lick of sense within the context of the story. In the first “Blade,” Abraham Whistler is infected and takes his own life with a special vampire-killing bullet. We even see Whistler’s hand dropping, indicating that he is dead. Yet “Blade II” opens with the titular hero saving his mentor from confinement in Prague. Apparently Whistler was too late with the gunshot, as he had already started transforming. But that doesn’t add up, because the bullets in that gun are explicitly designed to kill vampires and turn them into ash. Why was Whistler immune to it? And why was he still intact?
#17: Time-Proof Jets
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“Battlefield Earth” (2000) This is not a film to be taken very seriously - despite what the filmmakers’ intentions might have been. It’s widely considered one of the worst movies ever made, and the story is riddled with plot holes. The most glaring has to be the issue with the jets. The movie takes place in the year 3000, with humans subservient to a gold-mining race of aliens. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler starts a revolution against the oppressors and steals some Harrier jets. Not only do the revolutionaries become expert jet flyers after just one week of simulation training, but the jets also retain their ability to function after 1,000 years of stagnation. We’re not jet experts or anything, but we don’t think Harriers would still operate after sitting underground for a millennium.
#16: The Facehugger
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“Alien 3” (1992) It’s never a good sign when a director disowns their own movie. David Fincher is not a fan of “Alien 3,” and some fans consider the opening sequence a travesty of the canon. The story begins in somber fashion, with Newt and Hicks dying in a pod crash. The escape pod was jettisoned from the Sulaco owing to the presence of a Facehugger, which emerged from an egg that the Alien Queen had somehow planted in the previous movie. But did she? She didn’t bring any eggs from the nest, and even if she did, she didn’t appear to have any time to emerge from the dropship and plant one aboard the Sulaco. There’s simply no logical way that that egg ended up on the spaceship.
#15: Cypher Plugs Himself In
“The Matrix” (1999) This movie is about as close to sci-fi perfection as you can get, but alas, there appears to be a glaring issue. Cypher meets with Agent Smith inside what’s presumably the Matrix to discuss his betrayal of Morpheus and Zion. However, Cypher would’ve theoretically needed someone to plug him and take him back out again. Therefore, his betrayal would’ve been revealed to whoever’s monitoring him. Cypher’s usually in charge of operating, so maybe he constructed some kind of function allowing him to enter and exit without help, which is why he’s so startled when Neo interrupts him. But that’s pure speculation and isn’t made clear - and what about getting to broadcast depth without a captain’s order or knowledge? Maybe he was actually in a Construct and working with the Machines and the agents? Who knows?
#14: The Prince’s Age
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“Beauty and the Beast” (1991) Even Disney’s masterpiece isn’t without mistakes. It’s made clear in the prologue that the Beast had until his 21st year to find true love as the petals of an enchanted rose would begin to fall once he turned that age. Later, Lumiere mentions that they have been stuck inside the castle without guests for a decade, seemingly placing the Beast around 10 or 11 when the curse was set. There appears to be a few problems with this though. One: what is with that Enchantress putting a curse on a pre-teen? Rebelliousness is normal at that age, and certainly not worth a wicked curse - admittedly, social norms towards kids were different back in the 18th century, but still! And two: the Beast rips apart a portrait of himself, and that portrait shows a man much older than 10 or 11. Yeah, people seemed to age faster back in the 1700s, but not that fast!
#13: What Happened to the Crew?
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“The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (1997) While this sequel fails to measure up to its iconic predecessor, it nevertheless contains a riveting climax. A T-Rex is brought back to the mainland and wreaks havoc through the streets of San Diego. That’s not the problem. The problem is how it got there. When the ship arrives at port, the entire crew is dead. There’s no damage to the ship, and the T-Rex is still confined in the hold. So just what the heck happened to everybody? The answer reportedly lies in a deleted scene. The idea was to have velociraptors infiltrate the ship and kill everyone, but this scene was abandoned. However, other sources claim this is incorrect, and that storyboards sent to auction demonstrate instead that the T-rex somehow got loose and unleashed the destruction. Neither scenario is shown or referenced though, meaning that the inclusion of the aftermath of a removed attack resulted in a plot hole.
#12: The Issue with Time
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“Gremlins” (1984) Time can be a pain in the neck, what with the different zones and Daylight Savings and whatnot. But does it bother the mogwai? These little creatures come with three important rules, one of which is to never feed them after midnight. OK, that’s fine in theory, but what exactly constitutes “midnight?” What happens when Daylight savings begins and the clocks go forward an hour? Does the mogwai’s conception of “midnight” become the new 12:00, or does it stay at the old 11:00? Furthermore, what happens if someone enters a new time zone with their mogwai? Does the rule take on the boundaries of the new zone? Does “midnight” suddenly become 5 AM in England? The questions are endless!
#11: The Conservation of Mass
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“Ant-Man” (2015) The problem with superhero movies is that they often fly in the face of logic. We don’t typically mind, but “Ant-Man” falls into a lot of traps when it comes to physics. The biggest offender is that the movie seemingly ignores its own rules about the conservation of mass. Despite having the weight of a fully grown man, Scott in his Ant-Man suit is able to ride ants and jump on guns without causing the wielder to buckle. Heck, he even carries a shrunken tank as a keychain, even though it should weigh thousands of pounds. “Ant-Man” is a fun movie and a technical marvel, but there’s a ton of holes when it comes to the abilities of its central character.
#10: Nothing About the Plan Makes Sense
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“Batman Begins” (2005) The big plan of “Batman Begins” is to spike the city’s water with a hallucinogen and vaporize it with a microwave. The water will go airborne, people will breathe in vapor LSD, and sheer madness will ensue! Only, this horrible plan is riddled with holes. The water inside the metal supply lines probably wouldn’t be vaporized. What about the citizens presumably taking showers and boiling water, thereby inhaling the vapor, then going crazy too early, and completely foiling the plan? Furthermore, wouldn’t all humans in the immediate vicinity just sort of blow up once the microwave was activated? Then again, this film series is seemingly full of magic, as it appears that Batman teleports from the prison to Gotham in “The Dark Knight Rises.”
#9: Minerva McGonagall’s Lifespan
The “Fantastic Beasts” franchise (2016-) Plot holes aren’t new to the “Harry Potter” franchise. For example, the very concept of time-turners opens up a slew of problems that aren’t really addressed. But what bugs us the most is the inclusion of McGonagall in the “Fantastic Beasts” series. The timeline just doesn’t add up at all. McGonagall’s age is never explicitly mentioned in the movies, but Maggie Smith was almost 67 when the first movie was released, so we can assume McGonagall is around that. Yet in “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” she’s teaching at Hogwarts in 1927, and she’s already in her 30s. That means she was born in the late 1800s, which would make her much older than 67 by the time Harry Potter strolled into Hogwarts.
#8: Doc Tries to Kill Peter
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“Spider-Man 2” (2004) Sometimes, logic is sacrificed for a cool visual. “Spider-Man 2” is pretty darned perfect, but it contains a baffling decision on the part of Doc Ock. Octavius meets with Harry, who agrees to give him tritium in exchange for Spider-Man. Harry tells him to seek out Peter owing to his association with Spider-Man, and he very clearly tells Octavius not to hurt him. Yet the next time we see Octavius, he’s throwing an entire car directly at Peter and Mary Jane. This makes for a fun scene, as we know that Peter is Spider-Man and that he’d be able to dodge the car. But Octavius doesn’t know that. So why did he throw a car at someone he wanted to interrogate?
#7: Leia Remembers Her Mother
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The “Star Wars” franchise (1977-) The Harry Potter canon isn’t the only one that was negatively impacted by prequels. Long before the “Fantastic Beasts” series, the “Star Wars” prequels opened up some major plot holes in regards to the original storyline. In “Return of the Jedi,” Leia tells Luke that she remembers a little bit about her mother, specifically “images” and “feelings.” She gets a bit more specific, explicitly mentioning her mother’s beauty and personality. Yet in “Revenge of the Sith,” Padme clearly dies right after childbirth. Newborn Leia couldn’t remember anything about her mother, let alone that she was beautiful and sad. We mean, she’s right, Padme was those things, but there’s simply no way Leia knows that.
#6: Different Body Types
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“Face/Off” (1997) This futuristic John Woo action flick has an engrossing premise. Sean Archer and Castor Troy, respectively played by John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, change faces. Literally. Through a highly advanced procedure, Sean and Castor swap both faces and voices, successfully allowing them to imitate each other. But the face transplants in this movie don’t alter things like body type, height or muscle mass. The differences in body type are sort of brushed off by Dr. Walsh, who explains that they’ll be handled - very briefly and minimally, if at all [love handles quote]. But what does that mean exactly and is that really enough? And not to get too graphic, but wouldn’t Sean’s wife notice something… different about her husband?
#5: Evan’s Hands
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“The Butterfly Effect” (2004) Evan Treborn uses his journal to time travel and change various things about the past. But once Evan alters the past, the new timeline will be the only one that people remember. For example, if Evan A goes back and changes something as Evan B, no one will know Evan A. That’s all thrown out the window with his prison cellmate. Evan proves that he can time travel by impaling his palms as a child, thereby giving himself scars. In the new timeline that he created with the impalement, Evan would have already had the scars and maybe wouldn’t even be in prison. Yet the same cellmate from before reacts with complete shock when he sees Evan’s hands. He has knowledge of both Evan A and Evan B, which according to the way time travel works in this film, is impossible.
#4: Face Shot
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“The Karate Kid” (1984) In the iconic climax to this classic movie, Daniel LaRusso stands on one leg and delivers a winning kick to Johnny’s face. But to this day, no one can agree on the legality of this move. Many people agree that the kick was legal, but many also argue that it shouldn’t have counted. While it’s only in the third film of the series that it’s explicitly established that the head is forbidden, even Ralph Macchio, the actor who plays Daniel, agrees that the finishing move shouldn’t have counted. If the Karate Kid himself thinks it was illegal, then that’s good enough for us! This famous crane kick is referenced numerous times in the sequel series “Cobra Kai.” Maybe this is a clever bit of metacommentary, with the show referencing the never-ending debate.
#3: The Infinity Gauntlet
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe (2008-) The MCU is well known for their post-credit sequences that introduce exciting new elements to the overarching story. Unfortunately, one of these sequences came back to bite them. At the end of “Age of Ultron,” Thanos is clearly seen taking the Infinity Gauntlet out of a vault. However, within the timeline of the MCU, this would have occurred years before Thanos actually acquired the gauntlet from Eitri. The writers of “Infinity War,” Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, jokingly answered that the one seen in “Age of Ultron” was a “practice gauntlet.” It’s a funny response, but it really doesn’t do much to close the gaping plot hole.
#2: The Poster
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“The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) One of the most famous escapes in movie history sees Andy Dufresne tunneling through his cell wall, traversing the sewage pipe, and emerging in a culvert outside the prison, where he basks in the rain. It’s a wonderful sequence, but it’s marred by one major problem. When the guards examine Andy’s cell the next morning, they find the Raquel Welch poster hiding the hole in the wall. How on Earth did Andy manage to reattach the poster to the wall from the inside? Even if it was taped at the top, the bottom would have loudly flapped in the draft and make noise. Furthermore, a guard would almost certainly have lifted that poster during a routine cell check to look for contraband, thereby finding the hole. Or at least they should have, if they were doing their jobs properly.
#1: Water, Water Everywhere
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“Signs” (2002) A good 90% of “Signs” works exceptionally well. It’s just too bad that everything falls apart with the ending. In a twist that no one would consider one of Shyamalan’s best, it’s revealed that the aliens are weak to water. And it’s not like a small allergic reaction. No, the water seems to act like acid and melts them to death. So why, pray tell, did these aliens invade a planet that is over 70% water? They could certainly tell that from space, what with the enormous expanses of blue and all. Sure, maybe they didn’t know what water was or that it hurt them. But still, maybe next time, do a little preliminary research on the planet you’re about to take over?
