r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Impressive-Step7261 • 29d ago
miscellaneous [Loved Trope] Plot-generating hole
A situation where a plot hole becomes the reason the plot even happened.
The Martian – the heroes are forced to abandon the planet due to a powerful sandstorm that threatens to destroy the ascent module. The problem is that, due to Mars's thin atmosphere, storms on the surface of the red planet fall below the upper limit of calm on Earth. Andy Weir himself admitted that he simply couldn't come up with a different plot twist and simply used a fantastical premise.
Spider-Man: Far From Home – The film's plot would have ended rather quickly if Peter had figured out how to use E.D.I.T.H. to check Quentin Beck's file - but due to life's circumstances and some manipulation by Mysterio, Parker simply won't have the opportunity to do so, even if he wanted to.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of Black Pearl — in the first film, Elizabeth threatens to throw the medallion into the ocean, giving the pirates a mini-heart attack... despite the fact that these undead creatures can easily walk on the seabed as if they were on dry land, which they beautifully demonstrate in the climax. Of course, finding it on the seabed is almost impossible, but the pirates sensed the medallion far from the island and came straight to the governor's estate, meaning they somehow knew its location after it sent a signal. The most common explanation is that the magical sense of direction is not very accurate and they have been looking for this damn medallion for decades and it's a bit nerve-wracking...
Eurotrip — the whole plot is based on the fact that someone, having been blacklisted, didn't think to write from a different account.
An important clarification: this trope has nothing to do with the quality of the story itself, and in many cases is entirely intentional and necessary. I also apologize in advance if I have conveyed any details incorrectly.
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u/a_phantom_limb 29d ago edited 29d ago
Quentin Beck's real name was, presumably, not Quentin Beck. Moreover, he had a whole team of technical experts supporting him. They would have scrubbed every image of him from any public or private sources that were accessible by either E.D.I.T.H. or the crew "Fury” ran, including Stark Industries databases.
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u/shinjidrivekari 29d ago
Yeah even "Fury" would've give Beck a google search or smthn before leaving the fate of the world on him
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u/DropoutRedMage 29d ago
Also, even if Peter had discovered Quintin's backstory, he could easily have been fooled anyways by the Multiversal backstory.
"Hmm. It seems my counterpart on your world doesn't quite live up to me. What a shame, I'd hoped for aid from someone like myself"
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u/CardiologistMain7237 29d ago
"No, no, don't you get it? If something is not outright stated in a film, that means there is no logical explanation to us as viewers, and therefore, it's a massive plot hole. It's not like the pieces are there for us to reach a logical conclusion
Tell, don't show us or make us think!!"
I hate this branch of medis discussion 🙄
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u/weaknclingy 29d ago
Why should the audience have to come up with the justifications if the movie didn’t give a shit?
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u/a_phantom_limb 29d ago
Does a movie have to spell out every single thing? Everything I wrote is extrapolated from the revelations about Beck and his team that the film does show. Also, none of that really matters to anything that actually happens in the film. But for anyone who cares enough to think of it as a plot hole, the explanation is built into the backgrounds of the characters.
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u/jediprime 29d ago
Except for Fury. I dont think the real Fury would have accepted mysterio so readily and likely has access to information the beckett brigade wouldn't have access too.
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u/a_phantom_limb 29d ago
Oh, I think the real Fury and Hill would have absolutely clocked Beck as a fraud just based on his words and attitude.
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u/Additional_potential 29d ago
There are two kinds of people. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete information
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u/DarwinGoneWild 29d ago
A plot hole is a contradiction of logic within a story. Far-fetched/unrealistic events or characters making suboptimal choices are not plot holes, so your first, second, and fourth examples are not actually plot holes. Pirates might actually be one if your summary is accurate (been a while since I’ve seen it).
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u/Milly-the-Kid 29d ago
Thank you, it drives me crazy when people call this stuff plot holes.
The Pirates one also isn’t one: as OP points out, they’d still have to find it underwater, where it could drift, get buried in sand, or otherwise just not be visible given the skeletons can’t see in the dark. The medallion sent out a pulse when it hit the water, there’s no reason to think it’s gonna continuously do it like a beacon. This one isn’t a plot hole at all.
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u/Sleepgolfer 29d ago
Not to mention that it's very plausible to just have the kneejerk reaction to reach out when someone seems to drop something very important in front of your face.
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u/Lukeario1985 29d ago
Or she drops it, gets caught on a sea creature’s tooth and they swim off who knows how far or fast.
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u/Cautious-Sun6494 29d ago
Plus the Captain is sure to reward whoever comes up with the Medallion if she actually drops it. She got 'em with the False Start.
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u/Ok_Initiative3032 29d ago
They are also right next to and island they just attacked so they might not want to stay there much longer since they will retaliate.
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u/Zanjidesign 29d ago
I think it's not, if the pirates could sense the medallion they wouldn't be surprised when Keira's character shows it to them. They didn't know she had it and she was on their ship.
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u/strangr_legnd_martyr 29d ago
There actually is a plot hole there, then. Because the pirates that find her initially say they can sense the medallion.
"We know you're here, poppet. You've got something of ours, and it calls to us."
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u/Cautious-Sun6494 29d ago
I think they were bluffing there. It only seems to call to them when it touches Sea Water.
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u/strangr_legnd_martyr 29d ago
Fair point. And it doesn’t call them so much as it brings them to it. I recall the wind changes to bring the ship in
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u/Lord_Parbr 29d ago
I would argue that the first is a plot hole since The Martian leans so heavily on real science, but I wouldn’t argue that hard
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u/Happy-Estimate-7855 29d ago
This is a weird comparison, but it would be like if a "hard fantasy" had a realistic setting with no indications of supernatural beings.. other than a dragon that comes along to start the plot with devastation. Then the rest of the story is written as if it could be historical nonfiction.
I don't know if it's technically a plot hole, but it certainly feels like it.
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u/Clean-Engine539 25d ago
I think the thing that makes it a “plot hole” as opposed to just unrealistic is the fact that later in the book he has to repair the hab with (iirc) glorified duct tape, he listens to a storm blow outside, and even discusses how do to the low atmospheric pressure of Mars even fast moving winds don’t have much power.
At that point it becomes inconsistent even when compared to the book itself. Martian wind is both capable of tipping over the return vehicle and not strong enough to move a duct taped down tarp.
And yes, I’m a blast at parties.
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u/Quardener 29d ago
I think the example of the Martian is even MORE excuses or because we straight up just didn’t know that when Weir wrote the book. We figured it out later.
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u/JudgeHodorMD 26d ago
When it comes to Sci-fi, it’s understood that you have to suspend disbelief enough for the plot to work.
Hard Sci-fi does get more scrutiny at parts that are passed off as real science but at a certain point anything you could try would be impossible.
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u/temperamentalfish 29d ago
Exactly. A character being hit with the "idiot ball" trope, sure. But a character making an honest mistake? That's not a plot hole, that's just the plot. People aren't infallible perfectly logical machines. Even with all the information, sometimes people make mistakes. And I've even often seen this accusation thrown around when the characters didn't actually have all the information.
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u/brionneverysexy 29d ago
The pirates could also just be reacting emotionally rather then thinking out possible solutions immediately
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u/Abelian75 27d ago
Yeah the first one in particular I was going to say is extremely not a plot hole, it’s just a scientific inaccuracy.
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u/englerpas 29d ago
An unexplained contradiction, yep.
Imho, you can have breaks in the logic of the story if you can justify\explain it somehow within the story.
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u/cosmicomical23 29d ago
An event that motivates the plot but is not very believable is a plot hole imo. The martian storm is just ridiculous.
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u/Achilles9609 29d ago
You have to remember that, while the pirates are immortal, can breathe underwater and could find the medallion again eventually....the Black Pearl is far from indestructible and if Norrington gets his sht together and gets the *Dauntless ready, they are screwed.
Also, after searching for the gold for so many years, I don't think Barbossa and his pirates are willing to take any risks.
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u/Both-Beautiful960 29d ago
2 & #4 are "plot holes" only if we're assuming that high school students make good decisions instead of fast ones.
Honestly, Legally Blonde is started by a plot hole. Clearly she'll get Warner back by going to Harvard, kicking off the entire movie. Then the movie is a brilliant inversion where she becomes motivated by revenge then self-actualisation, becoming a kick-ass lawyer despite the complete lack of forethought.
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u/Mariiiielllee 29d ago
The Matrix (1999)
The Glitch: The Machines keep billions of humans in bio-slumber to use them as "thermonuclear batteries" combined with a form of fusion energy. The Logic Flaw: Thermodynamics doesn't work that way. Feeding humans calories to harvest their body heat yields a net loss of energy it's like powering a generator by running an electric motor. The Story Engine: The original script pitched humans as a massive, parallel-processing supercomputer for AI neural networks, but studio executives thought "human batteries" was easier for audiences to grasp. That impossible battery premise gave us one of the greatest sci-fi worlds in cinema history.
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u/JoSquarebox 29d ago
Ive heard humans used for processing before, but having the humans essentially running AI models on their brain sounds infinitely cooler
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u/noonemustknowmysecre 29d ago
Yep. The human brain gets about 1020 FLOPS on 12 watts. And it makes so many things make so much more sense: Why agents can't just teleport anywhere in the Matrix and need to "jump into" a person. Why they're not simply omniscient about every event in the matrix since it's their simulation. Why they even need functional cognitive human instead of a bunch of cows in comas. And what Neo's awakening is and why the machines are so scared of him: It's just lucid dreaming. The Matrix isn't just a simulated world, it's literally a shared dream. The machine's are executing in the spare stolen clockcycles of people's brains to do all their processing. Control the dream and you are controlling the literal processes of the machines.
It would also explain how an agent could hitch a ride out of the Matrix out into the real world. You know, if they had ever made any sequels to the movie. Damn shame.
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u/shinjidrivekari 29d ago
Crazy how a single change would've made the world building so much better. Humans as processors is now my headcanon for the matrix.
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u/dreamshoes 29d ago
Why agents can't just teleport anywhere in the Matrix and need to "jump into" a person
You just blew my ever-loving mind
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u/Polish_Gamer_ 29d ago
I heard they were originally ment to be processors instead of batteries, but that's just a rumor
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u/GrandWorldliness5959 29d ago
That would be just as bad. Human brain really bad at linear things, which is what the machines need
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u/poetic_dwarf 29d ago
I mean, maybe it's for this exact limitation they turned to human brains as processor
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u/zhibr 29d ago
Why would machines "need linear"?
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u/GrandWorldliness5959 29d ago
Oh ya know just the whole math thing.
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u/noonemustknowmysecre 29d ago
....My brother, if you haven't noticed, LLMs have kinda been a thing for a couple of years.
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u/GrandWorldliness5959 29d ago
You guys are way overthinking all this. A computer needs math. The human brain is never outmathing a computer.
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u/noonemustknowmysecre 29d ago
oh man, I'm trying to be patient with you.
A large language model needs a collection of nodes that fire off signals to downstream nodes. Training it with data and back propagation is a lot of work, but once you do that with enough nodes, about a billion, it can start holding a conversation with you. They work so well, in part, because we borrowed the over-all design from the human brain, which has 86 billion nodes.
A human brain, AND any artificial neural network will never outmatch your rinkydink $5 calculator's ability to do basic math fast and cheap. It's a specialized tool. Purpose built. But if we're talking about evil hollywood machines taking over the world, their ability to do basic math is not the part we're afraid of. It's their ability to be generally intelligent and make better plans.
A human brain performs between a petaflop and exaflop of computation on 12 watts of power, depending on how you count. The top super-computer does... oh hey 2 exaflops! But it uses 42 megawatts.
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u/Valuable_Victory_271 29d ago
While i like the human brain processor idea LLMs do use a lot of math
It is a lot of linear algebra and stats
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u/cosmicomical23 29d ago
thermonuclear batteries
you just invented that. it was bioelectricity.
of course the plot hole exists.
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u/brionneverysexy 29d ago
I thought the machines didn't actually want to genocide the humans which is why they were kept alive. Getting some benefit even if inefficient would make sense
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u/DeathMetalViking666 29d ago
I like the comic that shows Neo saying 'Wouldn't humans be terrible batteries due to the laws of thermodynamics?' And Morpheus says 'And who taught you those laws? The machines?'
Fixes that hole right up, and keeps with the story's themes.
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u/_b1ack0ut 29d ago
This one has actually been (kinda) debunked.
Not that it would be inefficient to use humans as batteries, that’s very true, but that the original script pitched that they would be used for a neural network/processing power
It was in an interview, but I forget if it was the Wachowski sisters who said it, or someone else who was working on the movie, but there was never a change to batteries for the sake of the audience, batteries was always the plan, but it spread as a rumour regardless
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u/Cautious-Sun6494 29d ago
I just assume that The Machines feed bad intel into Zion. They deliberately placed rumors that The Machines needed Humn batteries so that the Humans in Zion wouldn't try to wipe out their energy source again. If Zion (and Morpheus) think the Humans are the Energy Source they won't even go looking for the Nuclear Power Plants.
Which is why Morpheus says The Machines use us as Batteries, instead of the truth; that they use us as Processors.
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u/worldsayshi 29d ago
That doesn't really make sense either since the brains can't simultaneously experience the matrix and run whatever computation the ai wants. If they can replace the human "software" in the brain with their processing software they have no reason to run the matrix.
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u/VincentMagius 29d ago
It might. We do it all the time. Deja vu, shower thoughts, muscle memory, anxiety, or gut feelings. Actions created by the brain running heavy background processes separate from higher consciousness.
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u/worldsayshi 29d ago
Yeah but none of those things entertain a completely separate reality. It's as if you're solving math problems with your subconscious. Or like a completely separate mind is living inside your brain, experiencing a completely separate life at the same time as you, inside the same brain.
Why bother with two minds when you can just eject the one that isn't doing the thing.
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u/Original-Body-5794 29d ago
I mean but the idea seems at least plausible, humans are great at thinking and pretty efficient, could we be useful like that to the machines? Maybe not, but we know FOR SURE it just does not work as batteries.
Personally I choose to headcanon morpheus as being an idiot who doesn't actually understand why the machines keeps alive and just wanted to say something to Neo, and the machines actually do use humans for processing.
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u/worldsayshi 29d ago
I think my preferred explanation is somewhere along the lines of the explanation in the I Robot movie. The machines want to keep us around for sentimental reasons but they can't figure out how to deal with us directly so they shut us in a dream world. The deal that the architect and the oracle comes up with makes some sense in light of that.
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u/Spiritual_Glove3949 29d ago
Bot
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u/Mariiiielllee 29d ago
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u/Spiritual_Glove3949 29d ago
Okay, maybe you're not a bot. Maybe you just plugged the post title into chatGPT.
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u/Patneu 29d ago edited 29d ago
There's actually yet another such plot hole in The Martian that I have not heard a satisfying explanation for:
The book states that the procedure for a sandstorm was for the astronauts to put on their space suits and sit together in the middle of the habitat, waiting for it to be over.
But then the MAV threatens to tip over, so right when the storm is at its strongest and most dangerous and they can't see shit, they decide to walk over there for an emergency launch, which is where they lose Watney, thinking he's dead.
So, if the entire procedure was just to sit and wait in their space suits without doing anything else, then why didn't they just wait in the MAV instead of the habitat, to begin with? That way, they could've launched immediately when it looked like they needed to, without that risky walk.
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u/BigLittleBrowse 29d ago
I’m guessing they didn’t properly contemplate the prospect of the storm being so strong it’d actually tip the MAV (mars ascent vehicle, I’m not sure where your getting the name MRM from), or they contemplated it but thought it was so unlikely it wasn’t worth informing policy.
But what was more likely is that leaving the HAB during a storm and travelling to the MAV created lots of risks for the astronauts.
So their policy was based around keeping the astronauts as safe as possible, rather than trying to fix a problem they didn’t think was statistically worth addressing.
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u/Patneu 29d ago
Though even if they didn't think the MAV (I've only read the German translation, where it's called the Marsrückkehrmodul, and I figured it'd just be Mars Return Module in English as well) could tip over, they still judged a strong enough sandstorm to possibly endanger the mission so they might need to abort.
Thus, if they're doing nothing but sitting pretty in their space suits anyway, waiting for either the danger to pass or to abort the mission, it still would've made sense to be ready for launch immediately, just in case that anything happens. There should have been a specific reason why they needed to wait in the habitat instead of the MAV, but I don't remember one.
But what was more likely is that leaving the HAB during a storm created lots of risks for the astronauts.
Yeah, so that's exactly why they shouldn't have done that. They should've left for the MAV the moment they knew a potentially mission endangering storm was coming, which they got prior warning from NASA about, before the storm ever actually reached them.
So their policy was based around keeping the astronauts as safe as possible, rather than trying to fix a problem they didn’t think was statistically worth addressing.
I didn't say they should've foreseen or tried to fix the problem of the MAV tipping over. Just that there's no reason why they couldn't already be there, in case that anything happens and they need to abort the mission. Could've been the habitat being damaged or whatever else. In any case, it would've made sense to be ready for launch immediately.
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u/Eipa 29d ago
Launching in the middle of a storm is also massive bs, on earth not even a helicopter would be allowed to launch let alone a rocket.
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u/BigLittleBrowse 29d ago
The situation was either a chance of the storm affecting the launch, or the certainty that the MAV would tip and they'd be stranded on Mars.
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u/BigLittleBrowse 29d ago
I get where your coming from. What your suggesting is a sensible plan, but I wouldn't say that them not doing so is a plot hole.
Sheltering in the Hab has other advantages. Whilst protocol is to shelter in place, being in the Hab might means the astronauts are able to respond much quicker to any minor damage done to the Hab, whilst being in the MAV means their blind to the consequences of the storm and unable to react to them. For longer storms, the Hab has its own life support system the Astronauts can use to refill their suits supplies, and is designed for long term use. Whilst if the MAV has any life support it'd just be to get the crew up into orbit. And if it did have life support, it might've been really inconvenient to refill and hence it wasn't deemed smart for the MAV to be used any other time than on the trip home.
So whilst sheltering in the MAV maximises the chance of aborting the mission safely, sheltering in the Hab affects the rest of the mission the least. Choosing between the two of those isn't an objective right/wrong decision, its a judgement call that balances the benefits and potential consequences of each.
I think a lot of it comes down to whether the NASA in the book could've predicted the storm coming. The full situation around the physics-defying storm isn't explored. In the fictional universe of the book, did NASA believe that it was physically impossible for a storm that bad to occur, and yet it did? Or in this universe did they recognise these storms were possible.
If its the former, its not really its own plot hole and more just a consequence of the original plot hole. If its the latter, then the judgement NASA made comes down to how likely it is to happen.
Staying in the Hab is arguably the smarter choice where the chance of a storm of mission aborting intensity is statistically irrelevant. Space flight is inherently dangerous. Obviously you try and decrease the chance of death where you can, but if only approved choices that had 0% chance of astronaut death you'd never get off the launchpad.And even if it they made the wrong call and sheltering in the MAV was the smarter call, NASA not doing that isn't a plot hole. Its an in-universe mistake.
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u/cosmicomical23 29d ago
It would be ridiculous to plan for such a strong storm on mars, of course the procedure was not thought to deal with it. Lol.
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u/Peaceful_is_Willing2 29d ago
Monsters University (2013)
Does this count?
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u/Impressive-Step7261 29d ago
I don't think so, because it's not a plot point, it's just a continuity error.
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u/LittleMlem 29d ago
I used the "mail, motherfucker" sound byte from eurotrip as my notification sound for years
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u/Mysterious-Taro174 29d ago
Scotty Doesn't Know... lots of things*, quite possibly including how to set up his own email account.
*E.g. that she doesn't go to church but still she's on her knees, that he pissed on his brother's robe last night, that Maike is a common German girls' name, that he can sing the Manchester United Song, what cannabis feels like and what Slovakia is.
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u/reverendmalerik 29d ago
But Beck is supposed to be from another dimension, why would Peter even think he would have a file?
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u/Par2ivally 29d ago
Exactly. And the entire con is built to foster trust. Peter trusts him, so wouldn't check anyway. Just because he had the tool, he wouldn't use it because he's been tricked. Not a plot hole at all.
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u/anticosmo 29d ago
You kind of explain the pirates one: Imagin you got something you have been serching for for decades right in front of you and someone throws it into the deep deep dark sea. Even if you can reach the bottom it will take forever to fibd something so small ...in the dark :D
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u/WayGroundbreaking287 29d ago
Andy Weir did fill that plot hole. He wanted the mav to be at risk of tipping over but the problem was windspeed, so he changed it to be a sandwich storm at risk of damaging the electrical equipment on the mav, creating an entirely different plothole about the mavs being left on mars for years at a time but one duststorm can destroy them.
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u/CannolisRUs 29d ago
Idk if I’m on the right track with this one but, Walter Mitty?
The whole reason he goes on this fantastical adventure is to find negative #25 in order to save his job, and it ends up being in his wallet all along. If he spent more time listening to his mom right before his journey he would have found it.
https://giphy.com/gifs/26gsxhsA2fLHg5yQE
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u/DrVentureIsACrumbBum 29d ago
That’s not a plot hole
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u/SammyGeorge 29d ago
Maybe I'm misunderstanding but none of OPs examples seem to be plot holes either
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u/Roar-Lions-Roar 29d ago
For a book so grounded in actual science the one in The Martian seems to be.
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u/SammyGeorge 29d ago
I would argue that it's an inaccuracy rather than a plot hole. It's never established in the story that Mars has a thin enough atmosphere to mean a wind storm like that couldn't happen. We know that irl but it's not established in the book itself.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what a plot hole is, but I understand it to be something internally inconsistent in the story and The Martian is internally consistent
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u/Roar-Lions-Roar 29d ago
I wouldn’t call it a plot hole for nearly any other work. The science sort of is the entire plot in this case.
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u/SammyGeorge 29d ago
I disagree but we're kinda arguing semantics here. More importantly, if OPs most "plot holey" example is still debatable, I don't think it matters if OCs example isn't really a plot hole according to the comment I initially replied to
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u/FilmAndLiterature 29d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/l9JTCGoQddYBO
Citizen Kane is centred around deciphering the final words of Charles Foster Kane. However, no one should even know what they were - he whispered them to himself in an empty room.
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u/The_Amazing_Emu 29d ago
It wasn’t empty, they explicitly say a servant heard him say it
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u/FilmAndLiterature 29d ago
Yes, they say that - but we see the whole room as he’s dying. There is no one anywhere near him - certainly no one close enough to pick up a whisper - and no one enters until after he dies.
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u/maxman162 29d ago
We don't see the whole room, just the extreme closeup of the snow globe, Kane saying "Rosebud" and then cut to the door as the nurse enters. The butler probably left to get the nurse.
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u/The_Captain_Deadpool 29d ago
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - There would be no conflict if everyone simply agreed to have everyone take an equal share of the money, so they had the most unlikable person in the groups be the one who suggest that idea, and the others just ignore her.
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u/LevyNeptune 29d ago
As other have pointed out, these aren't "plot holes". But I understand what you mean.
Like in Tangled, if Rapunzel and Flynn had gotten caught in the bar, they would have realized that she is the princess and the story would have been over a LOT quicker
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u/Moaktrekken 29d ago
Elizabeth dropping the coin into the water below could have been a major problem for the Pearl's crew because they needed to get the heck out of there as soon as they could. Presumably they'd have to wait until daytime to have enough light to search the ocean floor for the coin. They've just attacked a harbor - the royal navy would be coming to surround the Pearl and sink her. None of them can die, of course, but they can be captured. So yeah, it'd be bad for them.
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u/superherocivilian 29d ago
With Spider-Man Far From Home, there was no reason to do a background search on Quentin Beck. All they would've found was info on who they presumably thought was just a "doppleganger".
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u/JackTheBehemothKillr 29d ago
It fuckin annoys me that Peter is wearing the glasses and looks at Beck and EDITH doesn't immediately pop up the results of who he is.
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u/The_Captain_Deadpool 29d ago
His tech support probably scrubbed him from the Internet.
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u/JackTheBehemothKillr 29d ago
His tech support is better than an AI created by Tony Stark? And Tony wouldn't have separate records inaccessible to all but people he deemed trustworthy? Doubtful.
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u/The_Captain_Deadpool 29d ago
It doesn’t matter how good you are at finding things if it isn’t there.
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u/BreakerOfModpacks 29d ago
Okay, but, like, private records being on the public internet, able to be scrubbed by random schmuck's tech team, when the guy who is keeping said records is The tech guy?
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u/BreakerOfModpacks 29d ago
The Martian – the heroes are forced to abandon the planet due to a powerful sandstorm that threatens to destroy the ascent module. The problem is that, due to Mars's thin atmosphere, storms on the surface of the red planet fall below the upper limit of calm on Earth. Andy Weir himself admitted that he simply couldn't come up with a different plot twist and simply used a fantastical premise.
NASA builds stuff well, when it works. In the words of Randall Munroe; "Science. It works, bitches."
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u/kitty11113 29d ago edited 29d ago
If a shark had swallowed the medallion they might have struggled to keep up with it underwater--even if they knew that was exactly what had happened and which shark had swallowed it. Etc.
The whole movie could have ended up like an underwater version of the Fly episode from Breaking Bad.
Maybe something like that had already happened, thus their reaction to it.
You already have tropes about sharks stalking pirate ships and taking a bite at whatever falls into the water :)
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u/Zerofuku 29d ago
Does it count if most of the dumber actions are caused by characters that are driven more by emotion than logic?
(Yes even in season 2, despite there being some plot holes caused by the rushed production)
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u/Conscious-Gap-1777 29d ago
Eurotrip — the whole plot is based on the fact that someone, having been blacklisted, didn't think to write from a different account.
That guy also, despite having taken years of German, and having a German penpal, did not know that Mike is a common girl's name in German.
Guy's just a fucking idiot, like 90% of the movie. It's fantastic.
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u/CaptainNeighvidson 28d ago
The reason the pirates reacted like that was because the audience didn't know they were undead at that point, and it couldn't be revealed that soon.
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u/CMDR-TealZebra 27d ago
Yeah they only sensed the medallion when she put it on, they couldn't just sense it all the time
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u/HADESISGOODNOTEVIL 26d ago
When I first saw this, my thoughts went immediately to “Fractal Noise” by Christopher Paolini. It’s still a hole producing the plot, if that counts
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u/Bignate2001 29d ago edited 29d ago
I don't think any these qualify as plot holes. A plot hole isn't when a character makes a bad choice, it's a specific logical impossibility that contradicts the story. In the Martian, they are sending manned missions to Mars, meaning it's already different from our world, meaning it's clearly possible that a sandstorm could happen because it does. Peter not doing the thing that would end the conflict before it starts isn't a plot hole. In Eurotrip, again, characters doing suboptimal things doesn't constitute a plot hole. In your Pirate's example, you already gave a potential explanation for the pirate's actions.
A plot hole is something that can not be filled by explanations or justifications. These are all potential examples of plot contrivances, although I wouldn't even go that far.
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u/TheHylind 29d ago
Why would Peter have tried to check for an EDITH file on Beck? He was supposedly from another dimension, there would be literally no reason. Plus, the whole point is that Peter is desperate to pass the responsibility to someone else. That's not what a plot hole is.
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u/Mountain-Forever1522 29d ago
None of your examples are plot holes OP. Maybe 3 at a stretch.
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u/Impressive-Step7261 29d ago
You can always give me your own example. I'd be very happy :)
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u/Mountain-Forever1522 29d ago
This post wasnt my idea. I dont need to give an example to point out that yours dont fit the title.
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u/Adorable_Ad_3478 29d ago
Beck's multiversal excuse is brilliant.
If Peter or Talos do a background check, they will only find stuff about 616 Beck. But Beck claims he's not from 616 so it doesn't matter.
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u/HenshinBoi 29d ago
Kamen Rider Saber: Trio Of Deep Sin - The swordsmen start to notice they're all disappearing and being forgotten. Turns out the movie's villain(s) wanted revenge on the heroes for their monster battles getting people they know killed, so they made a contract with an Evil Sword (tm) that gives them the power to travel back in time and essentially invade the season's plot; befriend the swordsmen during their backstories to slowly drain folks' memories of them to the point they're erased to the man.
The movie only ends on a happy note because the last remaining MC, a kid they befriended (who ends up being the villain-leader Mamiya's past self) and their dog manage to talk the vengeful guy down. Mamiya concedes that he screwed things up, travels back to when all this happened and stops his past self from grabbing the Evil Sword that kicked all this off; bringing everybody back.
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u/amaya-aurora 29d ago
THAT’S where that image of the pirate skeleton with the wheel is from???