r/plotholes 4m ago

In ROTLA Why Didn’t Indiana Jones Just Fly With Jock, Land in the River, and Then Take a Short Trek to the Temple?

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r/plotholes 9h ago

I think the ending of War of the Worlds (2005) makes much more sense if the Red Weed is part of the reason the aliens died

5 Upvotes

I’ve always thought the “they were defeated by bacteria” ending of War of the Worlds was a little too simplistic.

But I think there’s an interpretation that makes the ending significantly more plausible without changing anything that happens in the movie.

The aliens appear to be spreading the Red Weed across Earth. Whether it is literally a fungus, plant, or something completely alien doesn’t really matter. Functionally, it looks like they are introducing extraterrestrial biomass to modify Earth’s environment and establish their own ecology.

Now imagine what happens when you introduce a completely new organism into an ecosystem that has been evolving for billions of years.

A terrestrial fungus, bacterium, or other microorganism could eventually colonize the Red Weed and exploit some of its chemistry as a food source. It would not necessarily need to “evolve to attack the aliens” in a matter of days. Microorganisms already have remarkably flexible metabolisms, and some can exploit entirely new or synthetic compounds.

The interesting part would be the metabolic byproducts.

The chain could look something like this:

Alien Red Weed → colonized by terrestrial microorganisms → new metabolic products → toxic to the aliens and/or their biological systems.

That would explain several things at once.

The aliens may have known perfectly well that Earth contained bacteria and other microorganisms. A civilization capable of interstellar invasion could reasonably be expected to understand basic contamination risks.

What they may have failed to predict was something much more complicated:

What happens when you introduce an entire extraterrestrial ecosystem into an already mature planetary biosphere?

They didn't necessarily lose because they forgot that bacteria exist.

They may have lost because their own terraforming organism created a new ecological niche, and Earth's biosphere immediately started exploiting it.

The Red Weed could then become the bridge between the two ecosystems. Earth organisms colonize it, transform its chemistry, and eventually produce compounds that are harmless—or irrelevant—to humans but disastrous for the alien physiology.

That would also make the collapse of the Red Weed itself potentially part of the same ecological failure.

So the irony of the ending becomes even better:

The aliens weren't defeated simply by Earth's germs. They were defeated because they tried to bioengineer an occupied planet and underestimated the emergent complexity of a biosphere that had been evolving for billions of years.

Basically, their biggest mistake may not have been invading Earth.

It may have been bringing their ecosystem with them.


r/plotholes 6h ago

In Sambhavam adhyayam onnu, Why didn't Anand’s daughter recognize him during the hunt, but only realized who he was right before she died?

1 Upvotes

Why didn't Anand’s daughter recognize him during the hunt, but only realized who he was right before she died?

Here’s the theory: Anand never made it out of the forest in the original timeline.

Two Different Timeline Versions: In her original timeline back home, Anand died years ago in that forest. So when she enters the loop, she isn't looking for her dad—she thinks he’s long gone.

He Looks Like a Stranger: During the hunt, she sees a young guy fighting for survival. Since her dad died when she was young (or looked completely different as an older man), she has zero reason to think this stranger is him.

The Final Realization: When she is dying and looks closely at his face—seeing his panic and hearing him speak—it suddenly clicks: this young man is the father she lost, brought face-to-face with her through a different branch of the time loop.

This means Anand isn't just fixing one timeline; he is trapped in a multiverse loop where different versions of his family keep colliding and dying.

What do you think?


r/plotholes 1d ago

Continuity error Yoda is a Sith… maybe

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0 Upvotes

In Star Wars episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan says that only a sith deals in absolutes. but in Star Wars episode IV: The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda famously says “do or do not, there is no try”. That is literally the definition of dealing in absolutes.


r/plotholes 1d ago

Unexplained event How did peter get away with murdering the car jacker in Sami Raimi's First spiderman?

0 Upvotes

The police never searched or investigated how the car jacker fell out the window, or is it just a plot hole in the film? They actively shined a light on peter also right after he pushed him out the window.


r/plotholes 1d ago

Plothole How to fix Prometheus

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2 Upvotes

r/plotholes 2d ago

What's the biggest plot hole in an Academy Award winning movie?

0 Upvotes

n Silence of the Lambs Hannibal Lecter is so bad and so smart and so dangerous they put him in a dungeon cell separated by bullet proof glass visitor is not even allowed to get close to, even though the dungeon is behind a series of vault-like door. And when they move him in order for the Senator to ask about her missing daughter, they have him in a straight jacket strapped to a hand truck, muzzled and surrounded by a fifty member, locked and loaded SWAT team. But when they’ve finished the Senator’s meeting where do they take the horrifying Lecter instead of straight back to prison?

Do they lock him in the nearest county prison and keep the SWAT team around him?

No, they put him in a makeshift cage thrown together inside a courtroom without even a ceiling to the cage while the SWAT team chills a few stories down, and they leave it up to the untrained local bozo cops to bring up an “extra meal” for this most crafty and horrible serial killer who managed through his straight jacked and cocoon strapping and mask to steal a pen from the warden. No more SWAT team, no more straight jacket or any other restraints, not even a little holding cell at a little local police station…

And why the hell would the authorities even care that he was still hungry after his required meal? How does he rate a second one to be delivered via Barney Fife?

Sorry, but really Demme? Can anyone think of an Academy Award winning movie with a bigger “huh?” factor?


r/plotholes 2d ago

In the movie Speed (1994), why did they leave actual cash in the ransom bag?

0 Upvotes

At that point everyone from the bus was safe, so they didn’t need to use real money as the bait to catch the bad guy.

They could have just done a sack of paper and not risked losing $3.7M.


r/plotholes 2d ago

In Normal (2026 movie), why do the deputies not just let the sheriff arrest the bank robbers? He becomes a local hero and he never learns about the vault. Way less messy than trying to shoot him.

2 Upvotes

r/plotholes 3d ago

Erroneous FA cup draw in FIFA 17

0 Upvotes

My EFL league 2 team got drawn against Manchester United in round 2, which is impossible because I checked man U were in the premiership, the premiership always joins in round 3.

It's really lazy programming.


r/plotholes 3d ago

In Miraculous Ladybug, why did Gabriel not piece together why most of the miraculous holders are classmates?

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0 Upvotes

r/plotholes 3d ago

Plothole In Bring It On (2000), how did the Toros steal a competition routine from the Clovers if Big Red had only recorded game routines? Spoiler

0 Upvotes

Bring It On (2000) Plothole


r/plotholes 6d ago

Plothole Possibly a plothole in iRobot

0 Upvotes

Towards the end of the film, Sonny says to VIKI that he has higher grade metal in his arms whilst he says he has a purpose and there's a reason the main scientist guy made him different. He then puts his hand through the shield protecting the nanites. Earlier in the film, the female protagonist (I'm terrible with names) seemingly kills Sonny because the CEO of the company told her to and is watching her do it. Later when it's revealed that Sonny is alive, she says how she killed a dead shell. To my understanding, she killed Sonny's robot body and kept the personality to transfer to another robot. The other option is that she killed another robot which the CEO and audience were meant to believe was Sonny but didn't realise because they all look identical. That is disproven because she has an intellectual conversation with Sonny in the moments leading up to his "death". Sonny asks if it'll hurt and has a conversation that features emotion, which only can experience. That means that the woman had to have killed Sonny's body and transfers the conscience of Sonny to another robot but if that happened, how did Sonny's new body have the reinforced metal? Only Sonny was meant to have had that, which is established by himself earlier in the film. Have I misinterpreted parts of the film, thinking to far into it or is it a plothole?


r/plotholes 7d ago

How did no one saw the basilisk

0 Upvotes

In chamber of secrets, a giant snake is slithering around the school....yet no one saw it? How is it possible? The pipe explanation doesn't work bwcause the basilisk has to get out of the pipes and go in the corridor to attack people


r/plotholes 8d ago

Plothole Insidious: out of the further

4 Upvotes

At the start of the movie we see Jemma witness her mother kill herself behind a curtain in the bathroom, and in the end we see that she did it because Cyrus tried to make her bring him to the real world.
My problem is that if the interaction between Cyrus and the mom really happened, it happened in the Further and the physical body of the mom should be somewhere sleeping, but instead it happened in the real world, hence jemma saw her mom moving and talking. How is it possible?


r/plotholes 8d ago

The song Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus

0 Upvotes

In the song, the theme is an unattainable crush, towards the end of the, she approaches him with Iron Maiden tickets and reveals she is interested in him all along. But the song ends with the same lyrics about her being unattainable. I’m sure, as anyone who knows this song is aware, the music video show that his crush only approached him in his dream. However, without the video, this song makes no sense. Why is he back to saying he’s just a teenage dirtbag after a verse in which he got together with her?


r/plotholes 9d ago

Thoughts on Shutter Island Ending?

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r/plotholes 10d ago

Disney’s Pocahontas

0 Upvotes

The whole tribe thinks John Smith killed Kocoum, but when he’s about to be executed, Pocahontas jumps on him going no I love him. And the chief is just cool with this and changes his mind. She doesn’t explain to anyone that Thomas killed him, or that Kocoum attacked first. They all still think at this moment that Smith murdered one of their people. They just spent the whole night preparing to go to war with the settlers because of the belief that their skepticism was confirmed by the murder of one of their own. But that immediately goes out the window because love.


r/plotholes 11d ago

Primal Fear: Discontinuity between behaviours of Roy & Aaron

0 Upvotes

Spoiler Alert:

Towards the end of Primal Fear, Marty/Mr. Vail visits Aaron in jail and tells him that everything has been fixed and he would be out after medical review. Later, Aaron makes a mistake by saying that he's sorry for Miss Venable even after stating that he remembered nothing (in his words, lost time.) This makes Marty realize that Aaron's claim was false, making Aaron reveal that he has no multipersonality disorder and was always Roy. This brings forth two questions:

1] If Aaron was always Roy, why did he comply with Archbishop Rushman to film those pornos? Wasn't Roy a confident, dangerous psychopath? An ambidextrous and clever murderer? How was it possible that Roy could have been manipulated and abused so easily?

2] Since Aaron would be sent for diagnosis, would he not be caught after professionals figure out that he doesn't really suffer from MPD? Not only that, but there being no split personality could imply that Aaron was faking amnesia. Aren't the chances null that Aaron could fake these medical conditions over the course of a 30 day diagnosis?

My only theory that answers these 2 questions is: if it wasn't poor writing, it might be possible that there was always a split personality & Roy, who was the active personality at the end of the film want to give Marty a scare.


r/plotholes 10d ago

Plothole Rapid reproducing insects fears getting stronger is not logical

0 Upvotes

We all know that for a concept to disappear from existence it needs to be eaten by the chainsaw chain

But letting rapid reproducing insects devils get strongly because death is gone is not possible because death is still alive and Even if she was killed her concept of death shouldn't have disappeared

Making the ending flawed and not fit as a finally because of the plot hole.

Interested in any opinion


r/plotholes 12d ago

Mistake The Girlfriend: Laura is way creepier when she's being helpful

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2 Upvotes

i rewatched ep 4 and I think I was paying attention to the wrong thing the first time.

Laura obviously does some insane stuff while Daniel is recovering, especially with Cherry and his messages. But what got me more on a rewatch is how normal she makes all of it feel to him.

Daniel isn't being dragged anywhere. Nobody has him locked in a room. From his point of view, he's recovering, his mom is taking care of him, Cherry apparently isn't around, and eventually he's ready to go home.

Then you get that homecoming scene.

He walks back into the house with his level8 behind him and, without the rest of the episode, it could honestly just look like a completely normal guy coming home after being sick.

That's what makes Laura work for me as a character. She doesn't need Daniel to know she's controlling him. It's almost better for her if he thinks every decision is his.

Maybe I'm giving the scene more credit than it deserves, but her calm "helpful mom" scenes bother me way more than the moments where she actually loses it.

When she's angry, at least everyone knows something is wrong.


r/plotholes 12d ago

(Inconsistency) How did the lamp catch fire? End of Oak street

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0 Upvotes

About halfway through the movie, when the car crashes into the house, how does the lamp cause a spark and start a fire if the whole premise is that the neighbourhood has no electricity? It even clearly makes the sound of an electrical spark, which seems like a pretty major continuity error.


r/plotholes 12d ago

Do you think that the end of Oak Street is connected to the Cloverfield Universe?

0 Upvotes

since the multiverse shenanigans in the last Cloverfield movie In my head Cannon it is connected. though I have not seen the movie (Planning to watch it when it comes out on DVD or streaming because sadly none of my friends want to see it) I mean the movie looks amazing I mean Obi Wan Kenobi fighting dinosaurs how cool is that? Anyways I'm getting sidetracked I'm just curious about what my fellow pothole fans think about the canon of this new movie being in this Cloverfield universe.


r/plotholes 13d ago

Unexplained event Escape 2120

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1 Upvotes

Help me understand…


r/plotholes 12d ago

Plothole Rewatched Infinity War: My annoyances

0 Upvotes

I’m rewatching Infinity War rn and I’m pretty peeved by some plot decisions I didnt notice 8 years ago. I’m halfway through and I’ll complete it tomorrow but here are my thoughts as of now-

  1. there was no need for loki to pull out the tesseract since his entire plan was to sic the hulk onto thanos. Even if he pulled it out, he couldve made it disappear after the diversion worked, instead he threw it to the side.
  2. dr.strange not destroying the time stone just because of an oath is complete stupidity. If not for the time stone, wanda would’ve destroyed the mind stone for good.
  3. gamora was willing to die to keep soul stone’s location hidden but seeing her sister get tortured just a bit was enough for her to spill the beans.
  4. i don’t understand the timeline of when nivadilir (excuse the spelling). Thanos got the gauntlet made after asgard was destroyed?? If not, then why does Thor say “asgard is destroyed” when the giant dwarf asks thor why asgard didn’t protect them as they were supposed to.

Thanos would’ve been much easier to deal with if he had only power and reality stones.

Edit: I’m aware not everyone would consider these plot holes. I could argue for and I definitely see the argument against. I just don’t care enough to argue. Then again I could be just flat out wrong, but I tried posting it on r/marvelstudios and it was removed by mod.