It’s rather intriguing that even within some of the most esteemed cinematic creations, discernible voids emerge within their narratives, often evading the scrutiny of viewers.
A word of caution: What follows is a compilation of 25 motion pictures riddled with narrative inconsistencies that could potentially leave an indelible mark on your perception of these films.
1. The Dark Knight Rises
Despite its popularity in the Batman franchise, the film isn’t flawless. The villain Bane remarkably detains Gotham’s police force in an underground bunker for months.
When Batman rescues them, they appear unscathed. The mystery lies in how Bane sustained and fed hundreds of officers underground, keeping their uniforms pristine. These inconsistencies left us puzzled too.
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
In this superhero film, a significant plot inconsistency arises in the way the Guardians ultimately defeat the primary antagonist. During their battle aboard the villain’s spaceship, they assign a character to disable the ship’s power to gain access to the antagonist’s location.
Ironically, the same character later smashes through the floor to confront the foe. This prompts the question: If they had the ability to break through walls, why did they initially attempt to cut off the ship’s electricity?
3. Wonder Woman
In the recent Wonder Woman blockbuster, Diana, also known as Wonder Woman, is portrayed as a multilingual character who frequently quotes Socrates. However, there’s a curious moment when she displays a lack of understanding when the word ‘marriage’ is mentioned.
This raises questions about how someone with her depth of knowledge, well-versed in Socratic discourse on marriage and familiar with diverse human traditions due to her linguistic skills, could suddenly be unaware of the concept. It’s a bit hard to believe!
4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
In the beloved Harry Potter film series that captivated audiences for years, Hermione’s use of a ‘time turner’ in the third installment raised questions. While she employed it to manage her class schedule, one can’t help but wonder why they didn’t utilize it in their ongoing battle against Voldemort, given Harry’s constant peril.
Curiously, the time turner is eventually returned to the Ministry of Magic, and it seemingly fades from memory, leaving fans to ponder its untapped potential.
5. Toy Story
Toy Story, a beloved animated classic, features toys that come to life when humans are absent. However, the enigma of Buzz Lightyear’s character raises questions.
Upon joining the toy group, Buzz believes he’s a genuine space ranger, oblivious to his toy status. Yet, whenever Andy enters the room, Buzz freezes like the other toys, creating an intriguing identity dilemma.
6. Karate Kid
This ’80s classic follows the story of Daniel, a newcomer to Los Angeles who faces bullying from Joshua, the top karate student at a local dojo.
To stand up to his bully, Daniel seeks karate training from Mister Miyagi, an elderly Japanese mentor, and enters a karate competition. Strangely, the sole rule of the tournament is ‘no kicks to the face,’ yet Daniel wins by kicking Joshua in the face.
7. Gremlins
In this eerie and nostalgic movie, there’s a perplexing question left unanswered. A man receives a cute, furry pet called a Gremlin for Christmas.
The catch is, if you feed a Gremlin after midnight, it transforms into a crazed and evil monster – which inevitably happens. But the question remains: when exactly is ‘after midnight’? Technically, every moment is after midnight, implying you can’t feed a Gremlin at any time of day. Premise: shattered!
8. Bruce Almighty
The movie’s foundation set the stage for a glaring plot inconsistency. Bruce, the central character, gains divine powers but is explicitly cautioned against impinging on human free will.
This foundational principle undermines one of the film’s most iconic sequences, wherein Bruce manipulates his arch-nemesis Evan’s speech during a live news broadcast, compelling him to utter absurdities. This action appears to encroach upon human free will, presenting an apparent plot hole in the narrative.
9. The Mummy
The Mummy,” a 1999 blockbuster, revolves around an archaeologist who inadvertently resurrects ancient Egyptian malevolence. Despite its popularity, the film is riddled with historical inaccuracies.
It opens with an ancient Egypt flashback, portraying the Pharaoh in Thebes, with the Great Pyramid and Sphinx in the background. The issue? Thebes is now Luxor, while the Pyramid and Sphinx lie near Cairo, over 300 miles away.
10. Back to the Future
Time-travel movies often lead to plot holes, and “Back to the Future” is no exception. The antagonist, Biff, attempts to pursue Marty McFly’s mother before Marty’s birth. George, Marty’s future father, intervenes and eventually marries Lorraine.
The plot hole? Given their history, why would the McFlys allow Biff to stick around and wash their car?
11. Frozen
“Frozen” is a children’s animated movie, and it can sometimes slide by with plot holes when its target audience is young. However, the central premise of the film, where Elsa’s father, upon discovering her magical powers, isolates her and leaves her to cope on her own, lacks logic.
Instead of seeking assistance from knowledgeable individuals to help Elsa control her abilities, he chose to abandon her. This parenting choice ranges from questionable at best to potentially abusive at worst.
12. Lord of the Rings
“Lord of the Rings” is an epic fantasy adventure that follows a group of main characters on their journey to Mt. Doom to destroy a dangerous ring. However, a plot hole arises when, on their return from Mt. Doom, the mountain suddenly erupts, and a group of giant eagles appears out of nowhere to rescue them.
The question is, why didn’t these eagles assist them in reaching the mountain initially? It could have spared them a lengthy journey and saved the audience over nine hours in the cinema.
13. Batman Begins
In “Batman Begins,” the villains attempt a mass terrorism plot by contaminating Gotham City’s water supply with a toxin that activates when water turns into vapor.
To achieve this, they employ a microwave machine to vaporize all the city’s water, resulting in mass casualties. However, a significant flaw arises: water naturally vaporizes regularly. People taking hot showers or using steam rooms would have perished instantly since the toxin had been planted weeks prior.
14. Independence Day
In “Independence Day,” the storyline features aliens arriving to destroy Earth’s iconic landmarks, which is a somewhat peculiar premise to begin with. However, one of the most puzzling aspects is the aliens’ initial attack.
When they spray plasma at buildings, it triggers massive fireballs that instantly claim thousands of lives. Strangely, a small dog miraculously outruns a fireball moving at hundreds of miles per hour. Quite a head-scratcher!
15. Planet of the Apes
In the 2001 remake of “Planet of the Apes,” the story unfolds on a planet where humans are enslaved by apes, who are the ruling species. As the protagonist discovers the crashed spaceship that brought both humans and apes to the planet, he learns that it was previously uninhabited.
However, a perplexing detail arises: How did the horses featured in the movie end up on the planet if it was uninhabited before the spacecraft’s arrival? This crucial detail appears to have been overlooked.
16. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
In an iconic scene from Indiana Jones, the protagonist must navigate a treacherous path by spelling out “Jehovah” in Latin letters to reach the Holy Grail. However, when he missteps, the stones beneath the incorrect letter crumble, and he narrowly avoids a deadly fall.
The issue arises when he grabs onto other stones marked with “L” and “Y.” In consistency with the previous logic, these stones should also have crumbled since they are not part of the word “Jehovah.”
17. Minority Report
In the futuristic Tom Cruise blockbuster, law enforcement in Washington, D.C., extracts psychic memories from three individuals to prevent future crimes. However, when the protagonist, portrayed by Cruise, is seemingly involved in a future crime, he becomes the target of suspicion.
It’s later revealed that a false memory was implanted to frame him. Yet, the question remains: How did the supposed victim end up dead in the future? Did the individual orchestrating the plot simply rely on favorable outcomes?
18. The Matrix
Undoubtedly, The Matrix was a groundbreaking piece of storytelling and filmmaking upon its 1999 release (yes, it’s been that long! We feel old too).
The central premise, that life is a computer simulation controlled by robots necessitating human “plugging” into it, raises a puzzling question. When Cypher arrives in the Matrix to betray everyone, one might wonder how he managed to plug himself into it?
19. Star Wars
The Jedi decided to conceal Luke Skywalker and his sister on different planets. However, it’s a curious choice that they opted to hide Luke on the very planet from which Darth Vader originally came, and where his step-brother resides.
Wasn’t there any concern about the possibility of Vader returning home at some point, given the familial connection?
20. Titanic
The movie “Titanic” left an indelible mark on cinema history, with one particular scene etched into the memories of viewers. In this scene, Jack and Rose find themselves stranded in the middle of the freezing ocean, fighting for survival. Rose safely floats on a door, while Jack succumbs to hypothermia while holding her hand.
However, many have pointed out that there was ample room on the door for both of them, making Jack’s tragic death feel unnecessary.
21. Signs
In the film “Signs,” an aggressive alien race known for creating crop circles arrives on Earth to attack humans. The movie raises several plot-related questions, such as the aliens’ motives and why they want to harm us. However, the most significant plot hole arises when a character discovers that water is lethal to the aliens.
This leads to the question of how these aliens managed to survive while traversing fields, which would naturally be covered in morning dew.
22. The Shawshank Redemption
“The Shawshank Redemption” is often hailed as one of the greatest films in cinematic history. However, even in this exceptional movie, a plot hole emerges, and it’s related to a physical hole.
Andy’s escape from prison involves a tunnel he had been secretly digging for years, concealed by a poster. But have you ever wondered how he could tape the poster back up from inside the tunnel once he finally escapes?
23. Air Force One
In the movie “Air Force One,” the US presidential airplane is hijacked by militants from Kazakhstan. The film begins with US special forces parachuting into Kazakhstan’s presidential palace to rescue the president, who had been funding terrorist attacks against the US.
These special forces are dressed in all-black attire to blend in and reduce visibility during their mission. However, they arrive using white parachutes, which would be highly visible for miles, contradicting the covert nature of the operation.
24. Armageddon
In “Armageddon,” miners are trained for a space mission to drill into a massive meteorite and insert seven nuclear bombs to prevent an Earth impact.
The glaring question arises: wouldn’t it be simpler to train astronauts in drilling instead of turning miners into astronauts? This plot hole was evident, with even lead actor Ben Affleck questioning director Michael Bay, who responded angrily, silencing Affleck.
25. E.T.
Who hasn’t been charmed by the tale of E.T., the endearingly peculiar alien who captured our affections? In the movie, E.T. is stranded on Earth by his fellow extraterrestrials.
One of the film’s unforgettable moments occurs when E.T. makes his human friend Elliott and his bicycle soar into the sky. But here’s the puzzling part: if E.T. possessed the power to levitate objects, why didn’t he simply float back to his spaceship from the beginning?
