Best sci-fi movie plot holes of all time

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Pokémon Detective Pikachu picture

Plot hole: After Pikachu and Mewtwo begin falling down, Tim is suddenly on the ground in a matter of seconds, with little to no time to arrive there. There are multiple stairs, and he does not have any Pokémon to help him get down. He couldn't have gotten to the ground that fast.

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Plan 9 From Outer Space picture

Plot hole: When the flying saucer first appears, it is supposed to be 4 AM. But the grave diggers are still there from the burial of Bela Lugosi's wife.

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The Faculty picture

Plot hole: If Marybeth was able to seal her nostrils and use her extended finger to remove the cap and make nobody suspicious about her, why didn't Delilah do the same thing? She was alien, so she should've still been able to do it, same as Marybeth.

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story picture

Plot hole: Revelations in this film create a potential plot hole in Episode IV, in which Vader says Princess Leia is his only link to learning the location of the Rebel base. In this film, Vader captures the Profundity (Raddus' command ship), which is transporting the Tantive IV in its cargo hold. Vader then watches the Tantive IV fly away with the Death Star plans, leading into the beginning of A New Hope in which he captures that ship. So, the first question is, were there no survivors of the Profundity Vader could interrogate to learn of the location of the Rebel base (assuming the navicomputer has been scrubbed). Even if the entire crew were killed, in A New Hope we see several crewmembers of the Tantive IV have been captured. This film shows that the Tantive IV was at Yavin prior to the battle (evidenced by R2-D2 and C-3PO in the hangar). That then raises the question of why Vader couldn't have interrogated those other crewmembers to learn the location of Yavin as the Rebel base.

Vader47000

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28 Weeks Later picture

Plot hole: There is no way Don could have met his children at the underground station at the end of the film, with no way of knowing where they were going, and with no means of transport to get there that quickly.

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Beneath the Planet of the Apes picture

Plot hole: Brent discovers that Taylor is on the planet and has a connection to Nova through the dog tags she is wearing. However, throughout the first movie, Taylor never had any dog tags on his person. Also, his ship was destroyed, and he only managed to retrieve a life raft and supplies. His belongings and clothing were taken from him when he was apprehended by the apes. Taylor should never have had any dog tags to give to Nova or for Brent to discover. (00:11:10)

Casual Person

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Journey to the Center of the Earth picture

Plot hole: We don't see any herbivores in the underground world - just fish and little birds. A T-Rex would need lots of big game to survive.

Jacob La Cour

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Demolition Man picture

Plot hole: Even if the 30 bus passengers that were already dead had been burned up in the explosion of the building their bodies would still have been autopsied after the fact, thus proving that Phoenix had killed them beforehand and vindicated Spartan.

jbrbbt

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Suggested correction: Considering a building fell on the bodies it would be extremely hard to determine the actual cause of death. Phoenix also could have killed them in a way that doesn't easily show in an autopsy, like asphyxiation.

lionhead

True, but why would they take the word of a known murdering kingpin over a police officer that while may not do things by the book, has always been for the greater good? It just seems way too far fetched.

wb6vpm

The lack of soot and other ignition debris in the lungs and tracheas of the dead bodies would have immediately told the pathologists and coroners who examined the bodies that the hostages were dead before the building was destroyed by an explosion supposedly set off by John Spartan. It doesn't matter how badly mangled the bodies were - a tissue sample no bigger than your little finger would have told them everything they needed to know. John Spartan did not commit manslaughter.

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The Toxic Avenger Part III picture

Plot hole: If the Devil made Claire blind again, how did she read the fine print of the devils contract with Toxie saying that there was an escape pod?

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The Lost World picture

Plot hole: In the arial shot of the plateau, it's obvious its just a mesa. It's not at all large enough to support such big animals like those dinosaurs, who would have to eat great amounts of food. All small animals would be hunted into extinction, and all of the trees would have been cleared out long ago. Plus, there would be no place for the dinosaurs to hide, so the team should have seen the monsters right away.

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D.A.R.Y.L. picture

Plot hole: If the government guys could see Daryl in the cockpit, they should have known they could finish him off. If they launched a missile, he would either be hit by it or cook himself himself trying to outrun or outclimb it.

Grumpy Scot

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Mimic picture

Plot hole: Susan theorises that the insects have evolved to resemble people because of predatory pressure. However, for this to be true people must have been killing them - apart from the handful of 'moles and junkies' (who were the prey, not the killers) this film shows the first contact between humans and the evolved 'Judas bug'.

jle

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Quatermass and the Pit picture

Plot hole: When Quatermass is being admonished by the senior minister for talking to the press, Breen gives his own theory to explain the presence of the spaceship: He says that it was used a propaganda weapon in 1944 and that the figures inside were made up of scraps old skin and bone, why was he unable to explain how the hull of the spaceship was heat resistant up to 3,000 degrees and harder than diamond?

Will

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Hobgoblins picture

Plot hole: After Dennis (the first guard assistant) gets killed, the vault is open for several minutes before the old guard arrives. The hobgoblins, however, do not run for their freedom, but patiently wait until the hero, Kevin, comes in a later scene and opens the door. Then they escape as quickly as they can.

Twotall

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Species II picture

Plot hole: The rape scene in the parking lot... there is no one around for THAT long? But wait, once the detectives come in the scene two people are walking in the background with a shopping cart - they must have seen something!

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Mars Attacks! picture

Plot hole: If the president thinks it's so important that the Martians comes to the Congress to present their excuses, why didn't they bring the translating machine? (00:52:35)

Dr Wilson

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Suggested correction: Because, as has been demonstrated, the "translating" machine is about as much use as t*ts on a tomcat.

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The Postman picture

Plot hole: When Bethlehem is shot you can see the bullet come through his chest. But why doesn't Ford get hit by the bullet? Ford is standing right in front of him. (02:39:55)

Mortug

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Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday picture

Plot hole: After Steven breaks out of prison, he goes to Jason's home. Then Jessica's boyfriend shows up talking on the phone and he says he will ask Jessica for permission to shoot their show at Jason's house. He should know that Jessica doesn't know she is a relative of Jason.

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Twelve Monkeys picture

Plot hole: At the end the police shoot Cole while he was chasing Dr Peters but the police do not stop Dr Peters and question him as to why a man was chasing him at the airport with a gun, instead he is unchallenged and allowed to continue his journey.

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Suggested correction: There is no connection between Cole and Dr. Peters, nobody knows he is specifically chasing him. Dr. Peters is beyond the gates and on his way into the plane so unless they want to stop the entire flight, which is unlikely, he is left alone. Perfectly reasonable.

lionhead

Cole is chasing a man and Dr. Peters is running away (and knocking people over in the process). Further, they were screaming "there he is...stop him he's got a deadly virus" and pointing at Dr. Peters. Highly unlikely they would have let the plane depart.

There was a dude with a gun, a lot of people were running, panicking. Perfectly reasonable reaction from Peters. The police were after Cole anyway, so the attention was on him, not on Peters. And as I said, Peters was already past the inspection, so he was where he was supposed to be and there was no reason to stop him.

lionhead

Not to mention that Dr. Railly can also corroborate the reason Dr. Peters is being chased.

Dr. Railly can corroborate the reason Cole is chasing Dr. Peters. When she points out that he is even on the front page of USA Today with a Nobel Prize winner, I think they'd definitely investigate.

The shrink was still alive and seemed to give up quickly on her mission to stop a virus from killing billions. Like she just let them take her while she remained silent instead of continuing to scream that he had a virus so Cole died in vain. And they would know why he was chasing them because all they would need to do was ask him.

Her concern was with Cole, she tries to protect him throughout the movie. After Cole is shot she knows there is no way they let her continue the chase, all she cares about is Cole. Cole is being chased by the cops, no reason for them to believe what he is yelling, no reason to believe her either, since she is as an accomplice.

lionhead

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The Mothman Prophecies picture

Plot hole: In the scene where Richard Gere is looking at his reflection in the motel bathroom mirror, he imagines smashing his face into the mirror. When the phone rings, breaking his hallucination, he still has blood on his hands but it is never addressed.

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