Best family movie plot holes of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over picture

Plot hole: The Toymaker throws that toy bird at the hippie version of himself. The toy goes through him because he is a hologram. Later, he pushes the soldier version of himself at the screen making it crack. How could he if the three others are holograms?

More Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over plot holes
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets picture

Plot hole: At the beginning of the movie, Hedwig rattles her cage, and Harry says apologetically, "I can't let you out, Hedwig; I'm not allowed to use magic outside of school." But he wouldn't have to use magic to let her out - the key is visible sticking out of the lock on the cage, so all he would have to do is turn the key. (00:01:10)

Aerinah

More Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets plot holes
Cutthroat Island picture

Plot hole: When Morgan and her Slave/New Boyfriend are escaping from the burning ship, which is going to explode any second, they emerge onto the deck, run up a flight of stairs, cross the deck to the stern rail, look about themselves, then dive overboard. They know the ship is about to explode and are desperate to get overboard. The railings are about a metre away from the hatch they emerge from in the first place - why not just jump overboard there?

More Cutthroat Island plot holes
Home Alone 4 picture

Plot hole: In the scene when the robbers first enter the house, Kevin goes to hide in the shower. It looks like there is only one way out of the shower. How can Kevin possibly get out of the shower, let alone the bathroom, without getting wet after he turns it on?

More Home Alone 4 plot holes
On the Line picture

Plot hole: When the Chicago Post first runs the story on Kevin, there is a picture of him on the front page, next to the headline. So anyone who was following the story would have known what he looked like, which would make it impossible for Kevin's friends to get away with pretending to be him.

More On the Line plot holes
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb picture

Plot hole: In Night at the Museum 2, the parts of the tablet that are missing were attached to the gate to the underworld, which implies it was originally attached to that, and those parts were left behind when it was removed. But in this film we see the tablet getting found on the wall in Ahkmenrah's tomb, and the missing parts are left behind on the wall of the tomb.

Aled Wesker

More Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb plot holes
Paddington picture

Plot hole: While on the boat, Paddington suddenly appears inside the mail sack, thus implying he managed to open the precinct, get inside the sack and find someone who closed the precinct again. An impossible task.

Sacha

More Paddington plot holes
Mulan picture

Plot hole: There is no reason at all why, being targeted by a few arrows by unseen enemies - a fire suppressed already by the salvo of their own archers - the Rourans would turn around their heavy siege equipment, away from the bulk of the enemy forces, and fire it, hurling a single heavy stone to the middle of nowhere when they have the whole rest of the army who could storm the rock the supposed enemy commandos hide behind, or the archers who could keep shooting - again, they proved to be completely successful. It also makes no sense that the all-powerful witch who made the warriors flee managed to do any of this, 'sneaking' by horse in the middle of the steppe.

Sammo

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Mulan used the helmets of the fallen warriors to make it appear that a large force has flanked Rourans. Rourans didn't expect this new "force" and knew nothing about it. They didn't know its size. And while their original target seemed harmless, this new "force" was killing Rourans. Fear and death were the reasons. What you see in this scene is an enactment of one of Sun Tzu's famous quotes: "All warfare is based on deception. [...] Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."

FleetCommand

What we see in the scene is laughable, and not because of the idea, which surely is based on the profound strategic motto you mentioned and we find in many folkloric tales in other cultures as well; what we actually see in the movie, is that she grabbed a couple helmets lining them up on a rock, and she shot a few arrows. Then she stops shooting, and we see helmets knocked down in their full view. The movie truly surpassed itself in showing it in the most phony way; had they shown her shooting from behind the rock responding to their fire, or the helmets not falling, or them just shooting at mist, terrified, it would have maybe worked. It's an enormous overreaction. That and, under no circumstance trebuchets are used that way anyway. And she did all this setup unseen, again.

Sammo

In response to death, nothing is an enormous overreaction. Something or someone was killing them. They wanted to kill it, and they didn't have time for Facebook's famous brand of pseudo-myth-busting. What if they knew it was one girl shooting at them? They'd still have done the same. Being killed is a very personal matter.

FleetCommand

More Mulan plot holes
Despicable Me 2 picture

Plot hole: We see the purple form of the minions be able to devour any kind of metal easily, so how it's possible that El Macho is able to confine them in a metallic cage?

More Despicable Me 2 plot holes
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace picture

Plot hole: Superman traps the supervillain (whose power depends on sunlight) inside of an elevator to incapacitate him. Superman then ripped the elevator out of the building. He then plants it on the far side of the moon. Later on, sunlight starts to shine into the elevator through a slit at where the doors meet. The villain of course recharges and comes after Superman again. Now, if light could get through that crack there, then why couldn't it get through when the elevator was ripped out of the building in BROAD DAYLIGHT?

More Superman IV: The Quest for Peace plot holes
The Care Bears Movie picture

Plot hole: What was the point of Jason holding onto the key to the evil spirit's book when Secret Heart Bear can simply create a key herself?

More The Care Bears Movie plot holes
Hotel Transylvania 2 picture

Plot hole: In the beginning, vampires are shown to be invisible in photos but then they seem to appear in videos like security footage and social media posts.

More Hotel Transylvania 2 plot holes
Brother Bear 2 picture

Plot hole: The whole plot of the first "Brother Bear" was that Kenai had to go to that mountain to become human. But at the end of this movie, the spirits were about to change Kenai back into a human in the middle of a cliff, which makes the entire first movie completely pointless.

Brad

More Brother Bear 2 plot holes
Are We There Yet? picture

Plot hole: Near the end, when Ice asks to say goodbye to the kids in the hotel room, the kids have on their pajamas, yet their luggage was left on the train earlier in the day. It is unlikely that they would have gone to the train station to get their belongings following the chaos of the Christmas party.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: They have backpacks so their pyjamas were probably in their bags.

In a scene right after the train scene the kids tell the mom that Nick lost their luggage. The mom may have picked up some pyjamas for the kids after learning that they lost their luggage.

More Are We There Yet? plot holes
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa picture

Plot hole: The newspaper headline showing young Alex being rescued from a crate is dated April 8, 1972. In the next scene, we see young Alex dancing in the Central Park Zoo, and watching him are Marty, Melman and Gloria as baby animals. This makes no sense at all. In the first film, Marty celebrates his tenth birthday. Key word: tenth. It is also known that the scenes of the main characters as adults take place in the present i.e. Alex confessing to breaking Marty's iPod. Seeing how the animals age quicker than humans, Marty, let alone his three friends, would have to have been born in the mid-1990s and the flashback scenes could not have taken place in 1972.

More Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa plot holes
Bedknobs And Broomsticks picture

Plot hole: When Miss Price, Professor Browne and the children return from their magical journey to the island of Naboombu and realize they no longer have the Star of Astroroth pendant, Miss Price says, "I should have known it would be quite impossible to take an object from one world into another." Yet, they had no problem taking themselves, the bed, blankets and pillows from one world into another.

More Bedknobs And Broomsticks plot holes
Bugsy Malone picture

Plot hole: Captain Smolsky only gets hit in the back with the plaster. So why, later on, is his entire body covered in hardened plaster, like a mummy?

More Bugsy Malone plot holes
The Golden Compass picture

Plot hole: During the climatic battle in the snow, Lyra Belacqua is about to get shot by one of the soldiers, and Iorek Byrnison comes to her rescue and is able to surprise & kill the soldier. The problems with this is where Iorek appears would have been right in the line of sight of the solider, and bearing in mind that Iorek is VERY big, wearing armour so as not to blend in with the white surroundings, and making lots of noise, it would have been impossible for Iorek to stealthily appear from nowhere.

More The Golden Compass plot holes
Chicken Run picture

Plot hole: When Ginger and Rocky escape from being made into a pie, it cuts to them back in the chicken coop. The movie is based on being unable to escape the coop, yet they can get back in no problem.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: We see how Rocky got in the barn, and it's not far from their chicken coop. You really think they would escape without the others and think nothing of it? Also, as stated above, we don't see exactly HOW they got back, so how exactly is this a plot hole?

More Chicken Run plot holes
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island picture

Plot hole: As the island is sinking you can see parts break off, like the island is falling apart, but if it does this every 70 years then there wouldn't be an island. It should have completely fallen apart hundreds of years ago.

brianjr0412

More Journey 2: The Mysterious Island plot holes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.