Jon Sandys

10th Jul 2021

Black Widow (2021)

Question: At the end, General Ross' convoy is nearly to Natasha, intent on arresting her...then we cut to two weeks later, and she's about to embark on a prison breakout. Are we just meant to assume she escaped...somehow? Fought off everyone who was in those about 20 SUVs? Ran for it and somehow got away?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: It was done intentionally that way by the director to be left up to the viewer's imagination. Cate Shortland said "that was intentional, because we wanted to leave the question of how she would get away, rather than allow the audience to get exhausted by another fight." Of course, it's also possible that future films or TV shows will discuss/show her escape. Perhaps she negotiated her way out with information on the Red Dust.

Bishop73

I don't see why she didn't just leave with everyone else. There was no reason for her to stand there and wait. She could have flown off, as well. The convoy was cars, not planes.

Natasha activated her tracker which led Ross to her. The plan was to have Ross and his men arrest Dreykov, but basically things went sideways. Natasha stayed behind to hold Ross and his men off from pursuing the Widows. Presumably, had she left with them, Ross would still be able to track her and everyone would be in danger of being captured.

Bishop73

Until it is explained by one of those future shows, it really can be thought of as a plot hole. The interview, after the quoted bit, goes like this; "We wanted to leave you guys on a high with the question of how did she use her ingenuity? Because she did. And it was probably, I would say, she bargained her way out of that situation. But I don't know." So...the director says she does not know how the hell did she -really - escape that situation, just that she must have done something clever. Hilarious.

Sammo

Leaving the how unanswered isn't a plot hole, even if writers or directors don't know the how. At best, it's an unexplained Deus ex machina. A plot hole is something that contradicts what's been established for the sake of the plot, but here, nothing was established.

Bishop73

I wouldn't say it's a DEM. Wikipedia; "Deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence."There is no occurrence here. Nothing that we (nor the director.) know of intervened between the two scenes.On the other hand,"Plot hole is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot." Natasha's situation is established and then ignored.

Sammo

Which is why I said it was "unknown." An unknown occurrence happened that resolved the situation that wasn't illogical. However, I wouldn't correct you if you submitted a plot hole mistake, but others might since something not being explained isn't a plot hole.

Bishop73

Yes, sorry, I was splitting hairs as usual; I don't think a DEM can be "unexplained" in the sense of "unknown" because its whole point is that it is the narrative device that gives the story its twist; as absurd as it is (like a literal God appearing out of nowhere fixing things), it must be "something." Here there's nothing; we only have a statement of the director, movie-wise it's not even particularly implied that the resolution was peaceful, since Nat simply says she'll hold them off.

Sammo

10th Jul 2021

Black Widow (2021)

Stupidity: Natasha is in Norway on the run - Norwegian radio mentions her by name, Yelena talks about her being on magazines, she's very recognisable, and yet she goes into a gas station with her sister without changing her appearance in any way, and loudly talks about being an Avenger and killing people, right in front of the gas station attendant who for all she knows would be on the phone to the authorities the second she's out the door.

Jon Sandys

4th Jul 2021

Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Stupidity: Hobbs and Shaw drive towards the helicopter and throw a chain around one of the side pylons, driving away to try and bring it down. Daft considering if they'd just thrown a chain loose into the rotors that would have brought it down immediately without any cars needed.

Jon Sandys

4th Jul 2021

Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Trivia: The mysterious processed voice of The Director is actually that of Ryan Reynolds, under his pseudonym of Champ Nightingale. Which doesn't necessarily mean his character is the primary antagonist. But might.

Jon Sandys

19th Jun 2021

Loki (2021)

The Variant - S1-E2

Trivia: Mobius says to Loki in 2050 "why is it always the people you can't trust telling you to trust them?" He himself said to Ravonna Renslayer earlier "I can handle him, trust me." Which might simply allude to him not being as confident as he sounds, or might imply Mobius isn't as trustworthy as we're being led to believe. Will leave this up if it ends up being foreshadowing, or delete it if it's entirely irrelevant.

Jon Sandys

13th Jun 2021

War (2007)

Plot hole: Spoiler! We find out that "Rogue" is actually Tom Lone, who killed the real Rogue and destroyed his face to prevent identification, then had plastic surgery and went underground to get revenge. But how is the body never identified? Lone was a cop, they'd have blood type, DNA etc. on file, which would have proved the body wasn't his.

Jon Sandys

24th May 2021

The Marine (2006)

Other mistake: In the standoff in the bar, Robert Patrick fires about 22 rounds from his handgun, then runs outside without reloading and fires even more into the propane tank under the bar. No way his gun holds that many bullets.

Jon Sandys

24th May 2021

Highlander (1986)

Factual error: The marine unloads his Uzi at Kurgen, about 10 seconds of full-auto fire. The Uzi fires at 600 rounds a minute, so can only fire for about 3 seconds (with a magazine the size he's using) before running out of ammo.

Jon Sandys

Stupidity: The train which takes M from New York to London arrives looking like an old tube train, then when she's on board converts into a high-tech train, to her amazement, and whisks her across the Atlantic. Except...why did it ever look like a regular train? She's in a MIB station, it's only used by agents and aliens, it goes to another MIB station, and when it arrives and people get off / on before it continues its journey, it stays in its high-tech form anyway.

Jon Sandys

8th May 2021

Rick and Morty (2013)

Big Trouble in Little Sanchez - S2-E7

Rick: Will you fix your marriage or get a divorce already?!
Jerry: Well, we tried a couples therapist.
Rick: That's earth therapy. You might as well ask a horse to fix a merry-go-round. I mean he'll try his best, but mostly he's just gonna get horrified.

Jon Sandys

8th May 2021

Cougar Town (2009)

Bobby Cobb: I'm bad at sex. There's a lot of thrashing and thumping, but nothing really gets done. I'm like a broken dishwasher.

Jon Sandys

Continuity mistake: On the rooftop while shooting at the Russians, John dives through a skylight. In a side shot he's falling back first, then he lands on his front.

Jon Sandys

27th Apr 2021

Cougar Town (2009)

Lover's Touch - S3-E3

Trivia: Travis has an accident and has to wear a helmet for a few episodes. There's actually a real-world reason for that - the producers hated Dan Byrd's hair, but he didn't want to cut it, so they covered it up with a helmet.

Jon Sandys

Truth - S1-E5

Stupidity: Bucky makes a great show of being about to shoot Zemo...then pulls the trigger with just a click, and drops all the unloaded bullets on the ground before the Wakandans take Zemo into custody. Granted he might have wanted the satisfaction of scaring Zemo, but dropping the bullets a) serves no purpose, because the gun's already been demonstrated to be empty, and b) just makes a mess that he's got to clear up, unless he wants to leave a dozen bullets lying around in a public square.

Jon Sandys

11th Apr 2021

Palm Springs (2020)

9th Apr 2021

Justified (2010)

The Promise - S6-E13

Stupidity: Markham lets Ava call her uncle's phone, and she doesn't let on that Boyd answers instead. He later says "I don't trust anyone", but he didn't demand she put the call on speaker for transparency, he's quite happy (at the time) to just hear one side of the call.

Jon Sandys

8th Apr 2021

Justified (2010)

Dark as a Dungeon - S6-E8

Mortician: Do you wish to exhume all the plots?
Raylan: Just the two, my parents.
Mortician: How about the manner in which they were buried?
Raylan: I wasn't around, but I guarantee he put her in the cheapest piece of shit available.
Mortician: And him?
Raylan: I put him in the cheapest piece of shit available.

Jon Sandys

7th Apr 2021

Justified (2010)

Alive Day - S6-E6

Question: Considering Zachariah cut the boards in order to set a trap for Boyd, why does he then rescue him? Would have been easy enough to let him go and make out like he just couldn't haul him out of the hole.

Jon Sandys

5th Apr 2021

Justified (2010)

Whistle Past the Graveyard - S5-E8

Question: Boyd and crew nearly ruin their relationship with Yoon by killing the Memphis crew in Mexico, as they were warned not to kill anyone south of the border. They redeem themselves by saying they'll take care of the bodies themselves and get them into the US. All well and good until the Mexico police stop them, and the crew let them take the truck with the bodies, congratulating themselves on the deception...but how does that solve anything? Corrupt or not, the cops now have the bodies, in Mexico.

Jon Sandys

5th Apr 2021

Justified (2010)

Raw Deal - S5-E7

Other mistake: Ava previously borrowed a razor from another inmate to tidy up her unevenly-hacked hair. All well and good, except especially when seen from behind her hair has been perfectly bobbed and tapered, hardly possible doing it herself in a prison bathroom with a razor.

Jon Sandys

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.