The Next Three Days

Plot hole: Modern diabetes management will tell a patient immediately if their glucose levels are out of the ordinary. Results are not monitored and delivered to a county jail by an outside lab. If a diabetic is sick enough, they would have obvious physical indications. The entire escape plan hinges upon these fallacies.

Plot hole: During the scene where John (Russell) decides he needs to break into the medical van, he watches an infamous YouTube video about using a tennis ball to open "car door locks." Unfortunately for John, the YouTube video was faked, and in reality was proven to be fake on the TV show MythBusters. (00:55:40 - 00:56:30)

phiberoptik

Plot hole: John's plan to help Laura escape would not have worked, because he would not have been able to plan ahead like he does in the movie. He would have to know where Laura would be transported, and when, and if she would be transported there. He would not have known any of that as the information is kept secret from prisoners, and the public.

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Suggested correction: Watch closer. He had a reasonable expectation of where they would take her because she was hospitalized in her earlier suicide attempt.

John would not have had an expectation of where they would since prisons keep inmates' medical updates, and whether they've been hospitalized a closely guarded secret.

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Plot hole: Modern diabetes management will tell a patient immediately if their glucose levels are out of the ordinary. Results are not monitored and delivered to a county jail by an outside lab. If a diabetic is sick enough, they would have obvious physical indications. The entire escape plan hinges upon these fallacies.

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Answer: John planted fake blood work for Laura indicating that she had hyperkalemia (increased potassium levels), a condition that is potentially fatal. She would need to be transferred to a hospital to be treated.

raywest ★

If Laura was was suffering from hyperkalemia, wouldn't the jail doctor have reported it before John planted the fake blood work?

She wasn't actually suffering from it. John had planted the fake medical report that the doctor presumably then read and acted upon by arranging for her to be transferred to the hospital.

raywest ★

I doubt the jail's doctor would be fooled by the fake medical report since Laura wasn't showing any obvious physical symptoms.

Many medical conditions do not show physical symptoms early on, but are detectable with tests. For example, people live with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, brain tumors, etc. for some years before experiencing any physical effects. The doctor read the results of Laura's blood test, and, as was standard procedure, had her admitted to the hospital, presumably for additional testing that could not be performed within a prison setting. Also, after some additional reading on the subject: hyperkalemia often has no early symptoms. Later symptoms are flu-like-such as muscle aches, physical weakness, nausea, fatigue, etc. That may be why John chose that particular condition, and it is something Laura could easily have faked.

raywest ★

I still think the jail's doctor would get suspicious since blood test results are not monitored and delivered to a county jail by an outside lab.

Suspicious or not, he would act in the patient's best interests. If the hospital blood tests come back negative, then he doesn't have a problem. If Laura dies in his care from an easily treatable condition which he knew about, it's goodbye career and hello huge malpractice suit. He would be fully conversant with the procedures used while transferring prisoners to local hospitals, including the very close security put in place, and he has no reason to think that someone is putting this incredibly elaborate escape plan into effect.

Speaking of a prisoner being transferred to a hospital, does that happen very often?

But don't jails, and prisons tend to keep a prisoners hospitalization a secret?

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