Plot hole: When John tries to start his car with the flat battery the least he should have done is switch the windshield wipers off. (01:33:50)
Plot hole: The watch that is presented to Collier by Elise which starts this entire story is never purchased, stolen or acquired in any way, but left behind by Collier. It is just there, which is a paradox in itself.
Plot hole: Kazam is supposed to be a math genius, something that the plot hinges on, but he makes several mistakes when calculating the number of prime factors to find out whether a room is trapped or not. He says that 462 has three prime factors, when it has four, that 206 has four when it only has two and that 563 has two and 911 has three when both are actually prime numbers.
Plot hole: When Kate went to the aid of the man lying in the street, she was very upset about his death. Would she not have got his name being that she works in a hospital? Also she could have easily Googled him in 2006 to find out where he was or that he had died already. It seemed an obvious ending that she would save his life to change history.
Plot hole: Now why the heck is one of the stealth fighters anywhere near the train? Stealth fighters use advanced targeting and do not need to be anywhere near their target, yet in the movie the one fighter is so close to the train when it gets blown up that it looks like it's on a collision course.
Plot hole: The suitcase with all the money is at the fake doctor guy. This makes absolutely no sense - it was given to the girl. Why would she hand it over to that guy when they could have done the splitting of the money right that night?
Plot hole: The whole concept of how Brandon was stop-lossed was obviously done to further the plot and is in no way accurate on how a soldier was stop-lossed in reality during the Iraq War. Apparently, he returned from Iraq, was scheduled to leave the Army a few days later, and was told he was stop-lossed on his ETS (discharge) date and was going back in a matter of weeks. First of all, no soldier returned from Iraq and got discharged a few days later, there are mandatory procedures required that usually take up to 90 days after return to complete. As for the stop-loss itself, it was implemented a minimum of 90 days prior to a planned deployment. If you can forget those oversights by the writer, then when at the end of the movie Brandon returned to deploy after all he wouldn't have just been let back in with open arms by his chain of command. Considering the charges he could have received (Disrespect to a Commissioned Officer, Disobeying a Lawful Order, Assault, and Absent without Leave), he would have at a minimum been demoted one rank. More than likely, instead of deploying, he would have faced a court-martial or been discharged. A Lieutenant Colonel wouldn't have been able to save him from the charges at that point like he claimed in the deal he would give Brandon for returning to base. Facts about the actual process of stop-loss were either not researched or were blatantly ignored to further an anti-war agenda from the writer of the movie.
Plot hole: According to the denouement sequence shown in the film, Linnet Ridgeway is shot asleep in her bed approximately three minutes after retreating from the lounge. Less than 2.5 minutes pass from the moment Linnet leaves the lounge to the moment when Doyle is left alone by the other guests. It takes another 30 to 45 seconds for him to pick up the pistol, rush into his cabin and kill his sleeping wife. How could Linnet have walked to her cabin, taken off her jewelry, changed into her night-dress, retired to bed, and fallen asleep in 180 seconds? (00:59:00)
Suggested correction: The sequence never showed when Linnet goes to sleep. We can't be sure how long it is between her leaving and Simon shooting. All we know is in the actual scene she leaves after having already taken a sleeping pill. This is "movie time", not real time. 3 mins can be 30 mins in movie time. The flashback sequence doesn't clarify anything based on her timeline.
This...is not at all what happens. This is the 1978 movie; Linnet is playing cards with the others up until a moment before cutting the game short not by her choice but because of Jackie's interference, so certainly took no pill in advance nor does she take one on screen, and the characters interact with no interruption from that point on leaving no room for an implied 'movie time' elapsing at a significantly slower rate than 'real' time.
Plot hole: There are numerous problems with the final solution to putting out multiple burning floors of a skyscraper by blowing the water tanks under the roof. Blowing the floor under the tanks only channels the water into the Promanade Room. From there it cascades out the windows and - as we see in the film - falls to the ground without touching the fires on the lower floors. A tiny percentage makes it into the stairwell door and elevator shaft, despite the fact that the elevator doors were closed. All of the stairwell and elevator doors in the building were shut; none of this water makes it to the fire. Also, as we see the flames going out from all the floors no water is coming out of any of those windows, proving that the fires are going out without any water.
Plot hole: Detective Mason Storm has been in a coma for a number of years, so how is it that on the day he awakens from the coma, he not only has the strength to move his bed down corridors, but also knows the layout of the hospital?
Plot hole: The scene in Central Park where Bud tapes Gekko never would have happened. Gekko's comments imply that he was unaware of Bud's arrest earlier that morning (not just that Gekko was unaware he was being taped). (1) Gekko makes comments that the Feds are pleased with, at least to some extent incriminating himself. (2) Gekko doesn't say something like: "OK, now you've been pinched, here's what you do." BUT - how in the world would Gekko not know of Bud's arrest? Even in the days before the internet, information spread like wildfire on Wall Street. All the brokers in Bud's office would be on the phones saying "they just arrested Gekko's broker!" Everyone on Wall Street, especially someone like Gekko, would find out, and far more quickly than the time it took to schlep Bud up to Central Park and strap a recorder on him.
Plot hole: While the wedding party is getting ready to leave Charlotte's apartment, Big calls Carrie's cell phone. Lily (Charlotte's young daughter) answers, immediately closes it without speaking, then drops the phone into her purse that she takes with her to the wedding. Big continually calls back, but even though Lily is always with one of her parents, no can hear Carrie's phone is ringing inside Lily's purse. Lily only closed the phone, it was not turned off, the ringer was turned up, and the battery was charged. Lily and Harry rode to the library separately and during the time Big had been trying to call Carrie. Harry should have heard the phone.
Plot hole: When the cop is in the room and he realises how the teacher escaped from the hotel, he pictures him walking out in the bellboy uniform while the cop is downstairs. However at this time he should be upstairs with the girl in her room, because he is still in the room when she runs out of the room into the cop. For this to work out, the teacher would have to have left the room before the girl even got there.
Plot hole: When Henry rings Maurice's doorbell to give the bad news about Sarah's fatal illness, Maurice and Sarah are upstairs in the bedroom. Maurice approaches the window and looks down while we see Henry looking up in his direction. That he walks away without trying to make contact makes no sense. (01:13:45)
Plot hole: They go and buy Anne Marie a whole new wardrobe. So, how come in the remainder of the movie she continues to wear her old rags?
Plot hole: In multiple scenes in the movie the starship is in a gentle rotation which allows 1G gravity on the ship. When the power to the propellant is cut the rotation stops and gravity is lost. Such a design for a starship doesn't make sense as the entire structure could be put in a continuous motion, as is indeed done with many probes today without requiring the continuous addition of power. Even if this design was chosen with part of the structure fixed and party of it moving around it still seems unlikely that the rotating part would come to a grinding halt within seconds (if it did, the friction of the structure would be huge, requiring enormous levels of energy to keep it moving) The only reason the movie chooses this unlikely design is to integrate the crucial shot of Aurora floating out of the pool when power is first lost.
Suggested correction: There are parts spinning with different speeds and directions. Spinning an entire solid ship wouldn't allow for things like that. Regardless, we can't say which starship designs make sense or not. The ship has a reactor with seemingly endless energy, so powering the rotation is not a problem. The sudden stop is because whatever spins the ship has lost power. If you try to turn an unpowered motor or engine, especially if geared, you will feel resistance because the mechanism is acting as a brake.
Plot hole: Sarah breaks a mirror in frustration by throwing something against it. Then she buries her face in her arms and sobs. It remains a mystery how she managed to cut her hand so bad that it needed to be fixed with five stitches, as she isn't even seen picking up the pieces. (00:59:15)
Suggested correction: The aliens also demonstrate the ability to run extremely fast, easily able to outmaneuver a slow-moving tank. They would most likely jump on the top of the tank or rip the treads off, considering they still are extremely strong. They would also quickly jump onto a helicopter and take it down. As for other vehicles such as jets or aircraft carriers, the aliens either would have attacked military bases or taken the fight out to sea in ships. Whatever the answer, that particular element of the aliens is a large amount of possibilities, not a mistake.
If a waterfall can disorientate them, so would a jet engine or gunfire.
Something they teach in the military is the "ghost walk" - how to move silently. As the newspaper cuttings suggest, the noise angle was known about while there were still working printing presses, so it must have been a slow event. And a helicopter gunship can engage from up to 1km away, that's a long jump.
Yeah, how does the military never tried to use loud and/or high sound to defeat them once they found that they hunt using the sound? But to be fair they seem to be everywhere, so maybe they attacked in very large numbers.
That's actually clever (assuming the aliens didn't rip everything apart before coordinated strikes). Have some jets fly at low speed and A10s behind light up the space.