Best thriller movie plot holes of all time

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The Sum of All Fears picture

Plot hole: When the President of the United States attends a public gathering (such as the SuperBowl) the level of security is extremely high. So why wasn't Mason's delivery on the day of the game checked for explosive devices?

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Into the Night picture

Plot hole: When Diana turns up at her director friend's house she finds it crawling with cops as his girlfriend Christie has been murdered and the house is now a crime scene. She explains she lent Christie a coat and is there to pick it up - and a cop helpfully finds it on the floor and hands it to her. Are we to believe that a homicide policeman will hand over an artifact from a murder scene to an unidentified woman without making any attempt to confirm her identity, or even if the coat is even hers!? They don't even ask.

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Jaws picture

Plot hole: When Hooper and Chief Brody are trying to get the Mayor to re-close the beach after finding Ben Gardner's boat, they fail to mention they also found Ben Gardner's severed head. The Mayor would be forced to re-close the beach if yet another confirmed shark fatality had been mentioned, but Hooper and Brody never bring that important detail up. [This is still a mistake, but the explanation for this is that the scene where they find Ben Gardner's head was not in the original script. Originally, they just found his boat. Spielberg felt the scene needed a little more shock value so they shot the part with the head in a swimming pool long after the main filming had been completed.] (00:50:20)

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Suggested correction: First off, it wasn't a severed head as you can still see the body attached to it, and second, what difference would that make? Two people and a dog already died, with the death of the Kitner boy being witnessed by several people, and the beaches still stayed open because the mayor was too stupid to close them. Not only that, but during the scene you mentioned, I believe it was Hooper who said that THREE incidents had occurred BEFORE the third killing takes place on-screen.

And not only that, but the mayor witnessed Hooper saying that the shark they caught was not the same one, or at least it was possible that it wasn't. Either way, shark attacks were happening, but the mayor did nothing about it.

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Wrong Turn picture

Plot hole: The fearless trio is in the watch tower when the hillbillies set fire to it. Realizing their fate if they stay, the three then jump out the window and onto nearby tree branches in order to escape the blaze. After escaping the towering inferno, it seems that the fire dies immediately. These three don't go far after jumping and are in the trees for some time. Shouldn't there be a great glow and lots of noise and smoke from the fire as the watch tower burns down? (00:53:45 - 00:56:00)

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Halloween 4 picture

Plot hole: When the deputy arrives at the sheriff's house, Michael gets out and leaves the door open. The deputy comes out to the car and sees it open. And he thinks nothing of it, despite knowing he didn't open it. Logic would say, "Well someone else opened it."

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Octopussy picture

Plot hole: Bond would not have had (nor taken himself) time to lay a complete and careful clown make-up while changing clothes in the circus trailer.

Jacob La Cour

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Resident Evil: Extinction picture

Plot hole: When the survivors break into the Umbrella compound, Alice helps load survivors onto the helicopter. The helicopter portrayed has a max occupancy of 6, and somehow Alice manages to squeeze 20+ survivors onto the helicopter, with no problems whatsoever. (01:11:05)

Razvaluha

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The Lady Vanishes picture

Plot hole: When Iris Henderson and her two friends arrive at the hotel, Iris orders dinner and asks that it be sent up to "our" room. The waiter arrives when the three are changing. But later, when it's time for bed, Iris says good night to her friends, who leave her alone in the room (as she must be for the sake of subsequent developments).

CC

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A Nightmare on Elm Street picture

Plot hole: Following Glen's death, Nancy tells her father to come across the street in 20 minutes to catch Freddy. She then goes to her house, checks and sets her alarm clock, and proceeds to rig the entire house with booby traps, including filling a light bulb with the contents of several shotgun shells, and has a heart-to-heart talk with her inebriated mom. When she gets back to her room to go to sleep, she checks her clock again. The time on the clock has advanced only ten minutes, not nearly long enough for everything she did.

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Snake Eyes picture

Plot hole: The original ending planned was a massive tropical storm/water based chase scene. However, this was decided to be too expensive, and was switched for a cheaper, and some say weaker ending. Nonetheless, in Nicholas Cage's final speech, he says "I keep thinking about that tunnel, and what would have happened if I'd drowned." This makes no sense, given that in the new ending he came nowhere near a tunnel or drowning.

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Christine picture

Plot hole: George Lebay says that his brother died "6 weeks ago" inside Christine and that's why he's selling it. Later that evening after Arnie leaves his house and goes to Darnell's, Will Darnell says he "knew a guy who owned a car like that" and "the bastard killed himself in it." If it's only been 6 weeks since his death, shouldn't Darnell have recognized the car? It's not like there were lots of red Plymouth Furies (custom order color) running around the small town, let alone the USA, even in 1978. (Also considering how production even had a hard time finding them for the movie).

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Suggested correction: He says he knew a guy with a car like that. It doesn't have to be the same colour or even the same generation. Just a Plymouth Fury.

lionhead

Darnell basically said he knew THE brother of Lebay, not just some guy who owned a similar car. Darnell described Lebay's brother based on the story. Again, it was him, not just some other guy.

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In Time picture

Plot hole: In the last car-chasing scene, the timekeeper had switched his car to chase them, then how could Justin Timberlake get the timekeeper's salary (a day's time) from a car that the timekeeper picked up from the streets?

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Suggested correction: I think it is the car of another time keeper. Hence, it may have a time transfer system.

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The Man with the Golden Gun picture

Plot hole: When Bond and Scaramanga are duelling, Bond has no tie or jacket on. After Bond drops his gun and gives his hiding place away, he somehow has the time to not only crawl back onto the staging but to move the wax replica of himself and also to put on the dummy's jacket and necktie.

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Scream 3 picture

Plot hole: It has already been mentioned that a certain shot reveals that Sidney isn't wearing the bullet-proof vest when she should be. Further to this, most of the shots in the climax sequence make it impossible for her to be wearing one, as you can see the contours of her chest throughout. A bullet-proof vest would flatten the appearance of this.

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Total Recall picture

Plot hole: When Hauser/Quaid returns to Mars, some of the people that knew him before as Hauser call him Quaid. (00:45:40)

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Suggested correction: If you're talking about when he's disguised as the fat woman, only Richter calls him Quaid. But he knew him as Quaid.

Bishop73

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Vantage Point picture

Plot hole: During Howard's flashback the viewer sees from his point of view the two SS agents who had been following Enrique fire multiple shots at the now revealed Spanish police officer as he was talking to another police officer (Javier) who had just approached him. The scene ends leading the viewer to believe Enrique was killed by the SS agents. However, in the final scene when it's revealed that he was in fact killed by Javier the SS agents significant fire (9 shots I counted) and presence is completely forgotten. (00:40:00 - 01:12:00)

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Lakeview Terrace picture

Plot hole: At the end, when Chris finds the informant's phone, he sees that there are 2 voicemail messages. Instead of listening to them, he calls the last number, which reveals Abel is responsible for the break-in when he answers and in turn reveals to Abel that Chris knows about the break-in. It would make more sense to just listen to the voicemails, as Chris became immediately suspicious when he saw them. Considering Chris called the last number, he must have known that the last number was also the person who left the voicemails. Very deliberately done to bring realizations between Chris and Abel for a climax.

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Rollercoaster picture

Plot hole: When the bomber is surrounded at the end he gets shot in the leg but manages to get away from all of the police that were surrounding him. They were literally an arm's length from him.

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Byzantium picture

Plot hole: Ruthven is apparently bitter that he has been denied his chance of becoming an immortal vampire after Clara steals the map from him, which is why he attacks Eleanor. But why doesn't he just go to the island anyway? You don't need to be invited - Clara, Eleanor and Frank aren't. Having been there once, it seems highly unlikely he can't find it again - he's a naval captain, so navigation and observation are major professional skills for him. And it isn't hidden or magically protected - the local boatmen know where it is and are prepared to take people there, although they won't set foot on it themselves. He could quite easily have gone there without the map, entered the shrine and been turned into a vampire if that's what he wanted.

Necrothesp

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The Peacemaker picture

Plot hole: When the diesel train stops in the tunnel, one of the soldiers tells another one how far they are from the spot where the nuclear detonation will take place. Do the math: the distances don't work out. At least one of the trains would have to do over 100mph AVERAGE to put enough distance between them. Military precision, indeed.

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