Movies are an excellent source of escapism. There's nothing like grabbing a bowl of popcorn and a blanket and cozying up to distract yourself with silly little fictional characters for two hours.
But have you ever found yourself watching a movie and thinking, "Hey, wait a minute — that makes no sense"? Maybe it's just an annoying detail you can overlook, or maybe it totally ruins the entire premise for you. Either way, it takes you out of the story.
This week, Reddit user u/yaykarin asked, "What plot hole irritates you the most?" As always, people had a LOT of examples to offer! Here are some of the movie plot holes that irritate people the most:
Warning: Spoilers ahead, including for A Quiet Place, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker!!!
1. Hocus Pocus (1993): "The witches are so amazed by the present day — they see a paved road and a bus, and they're like, 'WTF?! WHAT IS THIS?!' Half an hour later, Bette Midler flies alongside the good guys and says, 'Show me your license and registration!' HOW WOULD SHE KNOW ABOUT THAT?!"
2. Snowpiercer (2013): "Edgar was born on the train. Where did he get an Irish accent from?! No one else on the train has one, and even if his mother did, he would have a train accent from talking to the others his whole life."
3. The Little Mermaid (1989): "Why didn’t Ariel just communicate to Eric via writing? She signed her name on the contract, so she could obviously read and write."
4. The Dark Knight Rises (2012): "Some guy sneaks into the Gotham Stock Exchange and performs a bunch of illegal trades, so now Bruce Wayne is 'broke.' So, of course, that means they should turn off his power the same day."
5. Also in The Dark Knight Rises (2012): "The police force spends months underground, yet when they emerge, they are all cleanly shaven, their uniforms are neatly pressed, and their shirts are pristine."
6. A Quiet Place (2018): "The movie was full of plot holes. Why didn't they just live by the waterfall? Why did these idiots f*ck and have a baby when there were MONSTERS roaming about? And you mean to tell me that no one ever thought to use sound against monsters who have incredibly sensitive hearing? If these monsters run at anything that makes a sound, they would literally be frantically running around the forest all hours of the day chasing after random sounds. They'd wear themselves out after a few hours. Why did the dad yell to have the monster kill him to save his kids instead of just throwing a rock at the metal pole 20 feet away from him? He had a million options to make a distracting noise, but he chose to pointlessly sacrifice himself. And the biggest plot hole of all: If this apocalypse actually happened, this would be one of the first families to go, because they're clearly dumb."
7. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019): "'Somehow, Palpatine returned.' The beauty of Return of the Jedi was that Anakin returned from the dark side and fulfilled his prophecy to destroy the Sith and restore balance to the force. Then, Disney comes along and is like, 'No, he didn’t! Watch Rey do it instead. Wasn’t that cool? Buy her merchandise now.'"
8. Die Hard 2 (1990): "The premise of the movie is that terrorists took over one of the DC airports and wouldn't clear planes to land. They are going to run out of fuel and crash. So, when the pilots can't raise the tower, obviously, they are going to try a different airport channel. And even if for some reason they couldn't contact anyone, I feel like they would just land at some other airport without permission rather than CRASH."
9. Clue (1985): "When Mr. Boddy instructs the guests to murder Wadsworth in the study, he turns off the lights, and the room is plunged into complete darkness. The sound of a gunshot is heard, and when the lights are switched back on, Mr. Boddy is apparently dead, resulting in confusion over how he was killed, and who tried to shoot him. But none of this would have been possible because the fire burning in the fireplace would have sufficiently illuminated the entire room."
10. Back to the Future Part II (1989): "Why does Doc travel back to when Marty and Jennifer were teenagers and bring them into the future to keep their kid out of trouble? He could have just travelled a few days back and warned adult Marty what was going on."
11. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004): "One Harry Potter plot hole that has bothered me since I was a kid: How did Fred and George get the passphrase to the Marauder's Map? 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good' is VERY specific."
12. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007): "Harry not opening Sirius' gift, the mirror. There is no way that a boy who idolized his godfather's very existence, and wanted nothing more than to just live with him and be around him all the time, would forget about a birthday present that Sirius gave him, especially when you can count the amount of gifts he's ever gotten on two hands. Absolutely infuriating!"
13. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018): "How was Ant-Man able to go into the Quantum Realm and have only a short amount of time pass compared to everyone else? But when Hank Pym's wife went in, the exact same amount of time passed for her as it did for Pym."
14. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992): "The McCallister family lives in a mansion in Chicago, treats extended family to holiday vacations, and has two parents who are attentive enough to regularly attend school functions and fairly discipline their children when they misbehave. They experienced the worst-case scenario from waking up late one year earlier. And you’re telling me this family STILL only has one alarm clock in the entire house?!"
15. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003): "I used to kinda get annoyed by people who complained, 'Frodo and Sam didn't actually go to Osgiliath! This ruins the movie!' But when you actually delve into understanding the characters and motivations of the major players in Lord of the Rings, Sauron being deceived about where the ring is is actually a MAJOR plot point. In Return of the King, Sauron focuses all of his attention on Aragorn because he thinks Aragorn has the ring. So, Frodo showing the ring to a wraith in Osgiliath makes a lot of Sauron's actions after that make less sense. Why is he not turning over every stone looking for the hobbit he last saw holding the ring? Why is he falling for what are now much more obvious diversions?"
16. Toy Story (1995): "If Buzz Lightyear believes he is a space ranger, then why does he pretend to be non-sentient along with the other toys whenever Andy or his mom comes in to the room?"
17. Man of Steel (2013): "In the beginning of the movie, Superman’s home planet is being destroyed. The villain is exiled WHILE THE PLANET IS EXPLODING, and all of the citizens are dying on the planet. His 'punishment' was literally being the only survivor besides Superman."
18. The Karate Kid (1984): "The referee overseeing the climactic battle had repeatedly told competitors that kicks to the face are not allowed. Later, however, we see Daniel pull off the crane kick move and win by...kicking Johnny in the face."
19. Aladdin (1992): "Aladdin's first wish was 'Make me a prince,' not 'Make me look like a prince.' The rest of the movie is his friends telling him not to act like a prince, and the bad guy is threatening to reveal that Aladdin is not a prince. I mean, the most powerful being on Earth made him a prince, so...he's a prince."
20. The Butterfly Effect (2004): "Evan is sent to prison, and he's trying to prove he has time traveling powers. He goes back to his childhood and makes the scars on his hands, then goes back to the same moment he left prison with the scars forming when he gets back. In reality, he would have walked into prison with the scars."
21. Jurassic Park (1993): "The scientists not foreseeing that using the DNA from a species of frog that changes its sex would also make the female dinosaurs change sex due to a lack of males. And Alan Grant, an archaeologist, knew of this trait in this specific species of frogs, but not the BIOLOGISTS who picked that specific frog to fill the DNA holes?"
22. Cars (2006): "How are new cars made? Do cars have living babies like mammals? Or car eggs? Are they built? If they are built, then by whom? Why do car bugs exist? How does Sally have a tramp stamp? Is Mater missing his nose skin essentially? Would a detail/paint shop be essentially a plastic surgery center? How do trailers work? Does Lightning McQueen essentially peg Mack every time he goes into him? Is that how baby cars are delivered? Why am I so curious about the world of cars/planes?!"
23. And finally, The Emperor's New Groove (2000): "There's a scene in which Kuzco and Pacha are shown on a map clearly winning a footrace to Yzma's secret lab. In fact, Yzma and Kronk have been struck by lightning over a gorge, and are shown to have fallen into it. Yet somehow, she and Kronk have arrived to the lab first, in time to hide the potion that Kuzco needs. By all accounts, it doesn't make sense!"
