Best action movie plot holes of 2009

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2012 picture

Plot hole: During the later parts of this movie there is much talk about 'continental displacement' and this appears to be happening in the film. The Earth's crust is falling apart because of the heating of the inner core, and all the cities seems to be falling apart since the ground can no longer hold them. When our cast finds themselves surprised to be already over China when they figured to be over the ocean, it is explained that Asia has actually moved from where it was. If this phenomenon is taking place globally, how come the monks in China don't seem to have been disturbed at all? In fact the bell the monk rings as the ocean approaches hasn't even been shaken. The arks are built in between the mountains, but the mountains are apparently fine. Shouldn't they be falling like the rest of the crust?

polaris

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen picture

Plot hole: Simmons stands outside the 'The Monastery' at Petra (not to be confused with 'The Al Kazneh' at Petra where Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed) and looks at the horizon, and he is able to see the Air Force landing with Optimus by the pyramids. It then appears to take them mere minutes to drive over there. This is outright laughable, even accepting that they make the trip in an alien robot car. Petra and Cairo are separated by hundreds of miles of desert, not to mention Israel being between Egypt and Jordan.

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Star Trek picture

Plot hole: Despite their awareness of the red matter and the power of the singularity, no one on the bridge had the common sense to suggest pulling back to a safe distance. Nero had already refused their assistance so there was no need to stay so close to the singularity. And when a black hole was created inside Vulcan, an officer mentioned they had to reach minimum safe distance, so they know what they need to do, but no-one does it. (01:00:30)

Teru_Kage

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G-Force picture

Plot hole: Ben demonstrates for the FBI that he has not only invented gear that allows animals to speak English, but trained ordinary rodents to a level on par with Navy Seals. The FBI laughs at him and cuts his funding, a plot hammer so G-Force can escape and save the day. Are they kidding!?! Even if the info G-force brought back is wrong, Ben has created agents that can repeatedly infiltrate almost literally any place on Earth. No government agency would pass up such a huge intelligence gathering tool.

Grumpy Scot

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Sherlock Holmes picture

Plot hole: After the scene at the Houses of Parliament where Irene Adler escapes through the sewer from the clutches of Lord Blackwood, she suddenly appears at Tower Bridge, about 3 miles away. Even assuming she ran there and the journey was skipped, going there makes zero sense. It slows her down, leaves her exposed and limits her exit points - she's got all of London to escape into! (01:48:00)

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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra picture

Plot hole: The super warriors that are given the venom are supposed to be fearless and without self preservation. However, during the scene in the Sahara base when they are helping to get the warheads back from the Joes, one of those men screams out in fear as he falls down the shaft, which makes no sense as the one guy did not scream in frustration when he was bitten earlier by the deadly snake and knew he would die. (00:40:20)

jerimiah

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Zombieland picture

Plot hole: With people around the world turned into zombies, there is no way to maintain power plants, thus no lights should be lit, not to mention the functionality of an amusement park.

Enso

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Suggested correction: The sequel film gives this a (very flimsy) justification, saying that everything runs on power from dams. Stupid, but at least trying to explain things.

Anson Gordon-Creed

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The Tournament picture

Plot hole: Although it is true that CCTV-camera's are "everywhere", it is highly unlikely they are placed in churches under low angles (MacAvoy's Church) or that two separate ones are pointed at a dumpster in the middle of nowhere (Slade's first kill).

Hex

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Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian picture

Plot hole: Property is destroyed, museum windows are crashed through, a giant octopus splashes about in the National Mall's reflecting pool, and even the statue of Honest Abe at the Lincoln Memorial comes alive. With all this occurring, not a single D.C. resident seems to notice and nary a single police officer turns up to investigate the goings-on.

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Suggested correction: This mistake is not wrong however wouldn't you think they would have night guards in each of the museums, but no guard is ever seen anywhere.

Creating a silly, Deus Ex Machina solutions for obvious plotholes never resolves them. There is absolutely no way that these things would remain unnoticed by anyone. This entry is correct. This is indeed a plothole because it's much too confusing to be explained.

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Fast & Furious picture

Plot hole: Throughout the first half of the movie the focus is to locate and find David Park. It is believed this will lead them to Bragga and they can arrest him. However, later in the movie it is revealed that Letty was working with the FBI and was killed running drugs for Bragga. This means that the whole storyline to find Park was useless because they already knew how to get people inside. (00:18:55)

kevbru15

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Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs picture

Plot hole: After the dinosaur kids wrecked the playground, Manny tells Sid, "Whatever they are, take them back" and someone says "What are they?" as well. Later, when Mummy Dinosaur appears, Ellie says, "I thought those guys were extinct!" and one minute later Manny says, "She's a dinosaur!" How could they possibly not see that the kids were dinosaurs if they already knew about dinosaurs in the first place?

Khrinx

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Suggested correction: They weren't sure about the baby dinosaurs' species because dinosaurs were thought to be extinct. The mother dinosaur eventually showing up, with her more convincing dinosaur properties of being much larger and menacing-looking, convinces them otherwise.

Rassdyt

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Whiteout picture

Plot hole: The UN agent boards a 50-year old Russian cargo plane, has to ask the pilot, Delphy, where the hatch is, and yet immediately accesses the triggering mechanism, down to knowing which of the connectors is for the explosive bolts. How likely is that?

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Surrogates picture

Plot hole: The character Strickland (played by Jack Noseworthy) is born in 1969 (according to his file in the FBI computers that Peters accesses), like Noseworthy himself. Since the character is presumably also approximately 40 years old, this would imply that the film takes place in 2009, which is totally inconsistent with the level of technology needed for surrogacy.

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12 Rounds picture

Plot hole: Miles arranged the chase with the streetcar, so that Danny would have to take out the transformer and shut down the power in the area, in a way that it would remain shut down. How could he know that the dumb operator would leave the FBI guy on hold for as long as (s)he did? Someone said after the streetcar finally stopped, "they turned off the power."

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Transmorphers: Fall of Man picture

Plot hole: The Sherrif and the two occupants of the police car get away from the black SUV, and the female says "I think we lost it", as that was the intention. Bizarrely, in an attempt to 'lose' the SUV, they park the police car in the centre of the road with the lights on the roof still lit, which then means the SUV finds them easily, making no sense whatsoever.

GalahadFairlight

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Dragonball Evolution picture

Plot hole: There is no reason why Roshi would free himself from Yamcha's pit only after wasting hours there, but even less reasons why Bulma's dragon radar would come alive again only at that particular time. (00:41:00)

Sammo

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Lesbian Vampire Killers picture

Plot hole: Jimmy's girlfriend manages to find where Jimmy and Fletch have gone to, even though during the phone conversation Jimmy had with her, he never discussed where they were going.

GalahadFairlight

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Daybreakers picture

Plot hole: During Ed's transformation back to humanity, he burst into flames several times. His heartbeat was monitored using wires attached to his chest. They did not stop working despite being in the flames.

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Watchmen picture

Plot hole: Although this film is a virtual jigsaw puzzle of flashbacks, the dynamic between Dan, Laurie and Rorschach pretty much defines the movie's continuity in the present. However, when Rorschach is framed for murder and arrested, he goes directly to a maximum-security prison, apparently without trial, conviction or sentencing (all of which would require months of due-process, at least). Even if this lapse of time is some sort of artistic device to rapidly advance Rorschach's story, there is no corresponding lapse of months in the relationship between Dan and Laurie, which runs parallel with Rorschach's story. Either there is no due process for Rorschach in this story, or there is a glaring plot hole.

Charles Austin Miller

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Suggested correction: Rorschach was a famous and dangerous outlaw. We are talking about an alternate 80's here with Nixon as president and a nation-wide ban on masks (the Keene Act). Rorschach probably faced the death penalty for his long list of crimes, besides the murder he was finally captured for (not to mention to handful of cops he seriously injured whilst trying to evade capture). I don't think it's strange that his trial was quick or not fully by the book. They made sure he was locked away fast and quietly. The justice system probably works a lot faster in a world of masked vigilantes.

lionhead

Yes, Rorschach was a vigilante; but, before masked superheroes were outlawed, Rorschach was also responsible for sending dozens (if not scores) of far worse criminals to prison, thus benefitting society. This much is stated in the film. His contributions to justice would certainly carry weight, and testimony in his favor would have to be considered in any legal proceedings against him. Also, after his capture, authorities were still trying to assess his mental state, which implies that some sort of due-process was still in place. Rorschach should have received a months-long trial, at the very least.

Charles Austin Miller

To be fair, the original, Hugo Award-winning "Watchmen" graphic novel makes the same continuity leap when it comes to Rorschach's fate. Rorschach keeps a secret diary that dates everything, but it egregiously skips over his trial and sentencing, even though the relationship between Dan and Laurie remains consistent. So, we can say that the movie is faithful to the novel, but the novel itself is flawed with a gaping plot hole.

Charles Austin Miller

The cops of that city don't care about his past deeds, which includes dropping the body of a criminal in front of the police station with the message "Never." They don't like him. Not even his colleagues liked him. That was a long time ago too, he's been the sole masked vigilante for a long time and I bet the cops just started disliking him more and more for his antics. Thus, a quick trial.

lionhead

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