Best mystery movie plot holes of all time

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The Prowler picture

Plot hole: After the first murder in Pam's dorm room there should be blood everywhere but when Pam returns to change her dress there is only a single stripe of it on the bedsheets.

Jack Vaughan

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Murder at 1600 picture

Plot hole: Regis could have saved himself a lot of time and solved the case much quicker if he had just verified the entries in Carla Town's day planner with the businesses listed. A few phone calls would have told him the entries were forgeries without going to the technician for help.

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The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones picture

Plot hole: When Clary uses the rune that temporarily freezes the demons, the group just slowly creeps past them to escape rather than destroying the demons when they're are completely helpless. When the rune wears off, they begin fighting and killing the demons again.

raywest

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Masquerade picture

Plot hole: At Tim's funeral, Olivia's attorney tells her that Tim had himself removed from Olivia's Last Will and Testament, proving he loved her and didn't want her money. However, an attorney could not legally change a client's Will without that person's knowledge and drafting a revised version.

raywest

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Suggested correction: Not true. Anyone can have themselves removed as a beneficiary of a will. This is done by signing an Affidavit of Disclaimer of Inheritance at such time as someone becomes aware that they have been included in a will as a beneficiary. This is what Tim meant when he said he had removed himself from Olivia's will.

Yes, someone can have themselves removed, but the person whose Will this affects would have to be informed so they could reallocate how their estate will be divided after their death. That would include having a new Will drawn.

raywest

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Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte picture

Plot hole: In the beginning, Charlotte insists to Velma that cousin Miriam is coming, but Velma says "She's never answered any of your letters." And Drew says she's not coming. But when Miriam does come, only seconds later, Velma and Drew now act like they were expecting her. Velma says "You nearly beat your telegram. We weren't expecting you till tomorrow." It's like the film has been badly edited, with Miriam's announcement of her arrival ending up on the cutting room floor.

kh1616

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Plot hole: For the murder on the highway to happen, the killer (who is not a mastermind, but someone who has a daily job and who never killed before) had to sabotage the car of the victim in such a clever way that he'd stop at a specific point and time (so, predicting also he'd escape out of town and do it through a certain route, which he had no way to predict), and that he'd react to the mechanical problem waving at passing cars walking in the middle (literally in the middle, not the side, or the emergency lane; perfectly in the middle of it) of a highway, where he can drive his semi into him - all while the fog is incredibly thick. Needless to say, it is all a bit too convenient.

Sammo

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From Hell picture

Plot hole: Early in the film, we learn that the former prostitute Annie Crook is married to and has an infant daughter (Alice) with Prince Edward Albert Victor. Secretly outraged, Queen Victoria dispatches various high-ranking operatives to eliminate this potential royal scandal. To that end, Prince Edward Albert Victor is secreted away, and his wife Annie Crook is kidnapped and barbarically lobotomized. We then learn that he baby, Alice (who was fortunately in the care of two other prostitutes at the time of the kidnapping), was sent to live with the parents of Annie Crook, no doubt saving the baby's life. That is the last time we hear of baby Alice until near the end of the film, where we are puzzled to learn that Alice was not sent to live with her grandparents at all, as stated earlier. Rather, the prostitute Mary Kelly took baby Alice away from an orphanage to raise as her own. No explanation is offered for this discrepancy.

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Heathers picture

Plot hole: Three gunshots were fired for Kurt and Ram's "double suicide" and almost two minutes pass between shots 2 and 3. Doubtful two police officers could think they shot each other.

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Suggested correction: An officer could think that one boy shot the other twice, killing him with the second bullet, before that boy was successful in killing him. The remaining boy would then kill himself. "Shot each other" might be a sloppy description, but basically, Kurt and Ram are both dead. There is a letter - forged by Veronica - which "reveals" that they were a couple. No signs of anyone else being involved. The police consider it a "double suicide" because they believe the letter.

Interesting theory, but I respectfully disagree with your correction. Three gunshots to two dead bodies, each with one bullet wound, would arouse suspicion despite what a letter found at the scene says. If one of the boys killed himself, there would be some evidence to support that such as powder burns around the wound or powder residue on his hands. In fact, a forensic scientist would have performed a GSR test on the hands of the shooters to confirm they did in fact fire the weapons.

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Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare picture

Plot hole: The pipe bomb that Maggie uses to kill Freddy is the same one that was found in Spencer's room earlier in the film. It's already been established that Freddy was erasing the people he's been killing from existence, so that pipe bomb wouldn't be there to use on Freddy.

brianjr0412

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And Then There Were None picture

Plot hole: Blore's death is fairly absurd, since the killer couldn't plan that he'd be standing, with all the possible room outside of the house, exactly in that spot at that distance from the window, with a ton of bricks that are precariously balanced on stone spheres that survived storms and heavy winds but somehow are loose enough to require a gentle push to fall down. (01:25:30)

Sammo

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Cube Zero picture

Plot hole: When the fat guy throws a boot into the ice-spray room, it freezes and shatters on the ground. You can see the length of the shoelace on the ground as well. The shot cuts to the guy in the shaft, and he pulls up the shoelace to reveal the end encased in ice, while the end is halfway into the ice block. This wouldn't be possible, because the other end of the shoelace had no ice at all, and there's no sign either of it breaking.

Knever

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The Twin picture

Plot hole: Derek, who escaped the mental hospital by pretending to be his twin brother Tyler, was able to locate Tyler's vehicle by using the keys to beep its horn. Once inside the SUV, he apparently found Tyler's cell phone, which is odd because most people carry their cell phones with them. But Derek did not ask Tyler for his cell phone's password before rendering him unconscious - so how did he gain access to the cell phone without the password? (It isn't likely that Tyler previously gave it to him). (00:20:40)

KeyZOid

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Suggested correction: Tyler never left his cell phone in the car. He had with him when visiting Derek. We see him pull out his cell phone to show Derek a picture, so the phone was already unlocked, assuming he locks it with a password in the first place.

Bishop73

I haven't had time to finish posting the rest of the mistakes I have, but I just uploaded two that should show up under "pending submissions." They probably should have been posted before the one above. I suppose the real question is where the cell phone came from each time.

KeyZOid

The cell phones came from their pockets. None of my pants show an outline of my phone in my pocket.

Bishop73

What about the pat-down?

KeyZOid

He was checking for weapons, not phones.

Bishop73

Ha.

KeyZOid

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Crawlspace picture

Plot hole: The killer has been living in the (apparently big enough) crawlspace between walls and floors, for over a decade. There is no explanation (or rationale) given on how he moved the various objects inside every room, closed doors, fed when the house was not occupied, hid the various corpses and, silly detail, concealed his own BO and the stench of his own living quarters, which is something hinted at when they find out his hideout. It is explicitly said that he is agoraphobic and does not get out, ever.

Sammo

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The Ravine picture

Plot hole: Tony said, "If Danny beat him [Kevin] any more, he would have never lived" and Kevin spent a month recovering in the hospital. Tony and Danny were "advised to take a plea" and agreed to 10-25 years in prison. When Kevin went to the correctional facility to "forgive them in person", Kevin said, "We never properly met. I was in the hospital during your trial." Guilty pleas do not result in a trial and a felony criminal case would not be resolved within 30 days of the commission of the crime. (00:44:50 - 00:49:06)

KeyZOid

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Eagle Eye picture

Plot hole: This observation regards a computer whose memory architecture is on a physical scale (e.g., size) that allows multiple humans to enter and maneuver within it. With electronic components, scale imposes a design limitation such that the greater the distance between components, the more time is required for a signal to traverse between components. This computer's massive size would assure substantial performance limitations which are inconsistent with the plot line of the computer's overall power.

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Clue picture

Plot hole: When Miss Scarlet tells the other guests, they can pay her in government information, she forgets Mrs White is the only to have no connection to the government and thus can't pay her that way, nor does she have any more money like the others.

Rob245

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Daphne & Velma picture

Plot hole: The introductory clip with the girl later in the movie identified as Olivia has the date January 08 2018. When Daphne looks into the file she uploaded with the alien pen drive, it is dated February 04 2019. Those two events can't happen in different years. (00:19:20)

Sammo

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Infinity Pool picture

Plot hole: When James leaves the resort after finding his passport, he packs his bags and boards a bus headed for the airport. The bus is then intercepted by Gabi and the gang, and James gets off, leaving his belongings on the bus. The following morning, when he proceeds to leave the resort a second time, he is shown packing his bags in his hotel room, despite having left them on the bus.

Casual Person

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Suggested correction: We only see him get off the bus, the next shot is him walking with the cars behind him. They could have got his stuff from the bus in between shots.

lionhead

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Morirai a mezzanotte picture

Plot hole: During the whole movie, the killer is supposed to wear a mask with the semblance of someone else, but the murder scenes have enough of a bright lighting for us to tell it's a real actor's face. Besides, the eye colours do not match.

Sammo

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Vanilla Sky picture

Plot hole: The female employee says he's going to inherit everything, he gets it all. No he only gets 51%, the 7 dwarfs still make many decisions. (00:10:37)

matthewgregorycox

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