Nerdsplaining Movie Plot Holes

[Guest Lobo]

8 minutes ago, mdmost said:

There was a cutscene where Imam tells Indy and Sallah they cannot touch or look inside the Ark, lest they face the wrath of God. 

They also were supposed to film a scene with Indy riding on the top of sub as it stays at periscope depth.

 

The Nazis took a huge risk running at submarine depth all that way, what with the vaunted and feared Turkish Navy operating nearby.  

[Hank Scorpio 17,729]

In the Bond film the world is not enough how do you explain that Denise Richards plays a nuclear physicist named Christmas Jones when she’s clearly a woman? 

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3,861]

21 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

and how did indy know that they would be safe if they didn't look?

it's a little more direct two films later:

 

the penitent man is humble before the lord. a humble man kneels.  KNEEL!

 

his humility (averting his eyes) saved him.

[Biff Tannen 45,665]

5 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

it's a little more direct two films later:

 

the penitent man is humble before the lord. a humble man kneels.  KNEEL!

 

his humility (averting his eyes) saved him.

Also, presumably both Indy and his dad were immortal after drinking from the cup, so why did they have Connery dead in the 4th film?

[mdmost 43,000]

You were only immortal if the Grail was kept in the temple. That's why the knight was still alive. Once you passed the seal with the Grail the immortality goes away. When Elsa took the Grail past the seal, the entire area started to crumble. I mean the knight even says this. As I said way upthread, people don't tend to listen to what the movies tell them and then think something is a plot hole. 

Quote

But the grail cannot pass beyond the great seal. For that is the boundary, and the price, of immortality

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by mdmost

[Biff Tannen 45,665]

Ah, I never connected the "price of immortality" part.  I obviously knew the grail couldn't pass the seal.  That's how the movie ends.

[Dutchrudder 11,135]

On 2/21/2020 at 4:30 PM, mdmost said:

You were only immortal if the Grail was kept in the temple. That's why the knight was still alive. Once you passed the seal with the Grail the immortality goes away. When Elsa took the Grail past the seal, the entire area started to crumble. I mean the knight even says this. As I said way upthread, people don't tend to listen to what the movies tell them and then think something is a plot hole. 

 

So he basically murdered that knight guy to save his dad?

[mdmost 43,000]

1 minute ago, Dutchrudder said:

So he basically murdered that knight guy to save his dad?

No, his dad wasn't beyond the seal. The fraulein was why the knight died. She took the Grail beyond the seal.

[Dutchrudder 11,135]

On 2/24/2020 at 4:43 PM, mdmost said:

No, his dad wasn't beyond the seal. The fraulein was why the knight died. She took the Grail beyond the seal.

yeah but Indy had to go retrieve it, take it to his dad, give him water for his wound, and made the grail available to the Nazis in the process. They couldn't or didn't figure out how to get past the trials before, so Indy did it for them and gave them access to the grail. Indy was somewhat complicit in the process, and while not wholly responsible for the death of the knight, he did contribute. I'm sure the Knight's family could sue all of them in Civil court and win some % of the damages from Indy, but the majority of the responsibility would be on the Nazis. I think this would be a good premise for a 4th movie, since they never made a sequel. 

Edited February 26, 2020 by Dutchrudder

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3,861]

18 minutes ago, Dutchrudder said:

yeah but Indy had to go retrieve it, take it to his dad, give him water for his wound, and made the grail available to the Nazis in the process. They couldn't or didn't figure out how to get past the trials before, so Indy did it for them and gave them access to the grail. Indy was somewhat complicit in the process, and while not wholly responsible for the death of the knight, he did contribute. I'm sure the Knight's family could sue all of them in Civil court and win some % of the damages from Indy, but the majority of the responsibility would be on the Nazis. I think this would be a good premise for a 4th movie, since they never made a sequel. 

they would never made a sequel because everyone knows that no one wants to see indy as a geriatric trying to be an action hero.  and what are they going to do? CGI everything to make up for indy's inability to do anything exciting?  bring back marion as some chesire cat grinning moron who hasn't landed an acting gig in decades?  or make some hollywood flavor of the month his kid and have the movie turn into bonding time with the boomer?

[Guest Lobo]

Yes, little known fact...there was second set of Nuremberg trials that revolves mostly around civil damages from the Nazis for dead knights, damaged UNESCO sites, maritime violations, fraud, and a small arson incident resulting in the melting of a free French citizen.  

[Biff Tannen 45,665]

This is one of the better threads right now.  Bravo.

[Eskimohorn 5,630]

they would never made a sequel because everyone knows that no one wants to see indy as a geriatric trying to be an action hero.  and what are they going to do? CGI everything to make up for indy's inability to do anything exciting?  bring back marion as some chesire cat grinning moron who hasn't landed an acting gig in decades?  or make some hollywood flavor of the month his kid and have the movie turn into bonding time with the boomer?

What if old ass Indy turns up in Vietnam and gets fragged by his hippie son? And they even bring back Beloq.

[Parliament 14,246]

I assumed the Grail didn't make the knight immortal, just age real slow. And thought the immortality of Indiana and Henry was left to interpretation. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't.

[TexasMan 10,891]

So I rewatched Twins tonight because I was reminded of how hot Kelly Preston was in it after her untimely passing this week.

Anyway, so the thing I was wondering about: the thing Vincent takes to Houston, he got paid $5 mil in the briefcase to deliver, but after dispatching the bad guy, Julius says no, they were going to give the money back. Time passes, and as they are in their newly renovated office at their business, the movie reveals they did give it back, but when Vincent recalls “ah yes, the 4 million dollars we gave back”. 
 

So did Vincent somehow steal a million dollars from the briefcase while Julius wasn’t looking (and invest it in their business)? Or are we to believe the Houston businessman shortchanged him? 

[High Plains Drifter 11,033]

 

I just saw Raiders with my family at a make shift drive in. As we were driving home after the movie, my 9 yr old daughter said "Dad I have a question about that movie."

I immediately thought of this thread and was prepared to answer the submarine question, but she asked instead "Why was he named Indiana?"

 

Anybody?

[henrygandorf 29,189]

On 7/16/2020 at 8:36 PM, TexasMan said:

So did Vincent somehow steal a million dollars from the briefcase while Julius wasn’t looking (and invest it in their business)? Or are we to believe the Houston businessman shortchanged him? 

jules and vincent?

[WBT 20,561]

On 2/26/2020 at 10:22 AM, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

they would never made a sequel because everyone knows that no one wants to see indy as a geriatric trying to be an action hero.  and what are they going to do? CGI everything to make up for indy's inability to do anything exciting?  bring back marion as some chesire cat grinning moron who hasn't landed an acting gig in decades?  or make some hollywood flavor of the month his kid and have the movie turn into bonding time with the boomer?

But what if....ants?  Terrible cgi ants.

 

4 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

I immediately thought of this thread and was prepared to answer the submarine question, but she asked instead "Why was he named Indiana?"

 

Anybody?

He was named after the family dog.

Edited July 18, 2020 by WBT

[Parliament 14,246]

 
I just saw Raiders with my family at a make shift drive in. As we were driving home after the movie, my 9 yr old daughter said "Dad I have a question about that movie."
I immediately thought of this thread and was prepared to answer the submarine question, but she asked instead "Why was he named Indiana?"
 
Anybody?

"Indiana?" That was the dog's name!

[chikin23 384]

 
I just saw Raiders with my family at a make shift drive in. As we were driving home after the movie, my 9 yr old daughter said "Dad I have a question about that movie."
I immediately thought of this thread and was prepared to answer the submarine question, but she asked instead "Why was he named Indiana?"
 
Anybody?

[GhostOfTomJoad 9,323]

Raiders is on TV right now & I just noticed a massive plot hole I'd never seen before.

When Indy and Sallah are getting the translation of the writings on the headpiece from the old guy he tells them that the staff is to be 6 kadahm (or something like that) high, which Sallah then says "that's about 72 inches." Then the old guy flips it over and says "but wait...and take back one kadahm to honor the Hebrew god whose ark this is." Then Indy and Sallah celebrate that the Nazis are digging in the wrong place.

So according to that, a kadahm is roughly a foot and therefore the staff should be about five feet tall. Yet, when Indy gets to the map room--unless he's the size of a dwarf--the staff he's using is at least 6 1/2 feet tall.

 

But wait...there's a second fuck up in this scene! It's obvious that Spielberg realized that they couldn't show that the Nazis had used a staff that was too tall (we've seen enough of Lucas's stupidity in the SW films to know he isn't smart enough to figure this out). I mean, what would they do...show Indy finding the staff the Nazis used & then hold it up next to his? Boring and pointless. So Spielberg covers for this by having Indy find the slot on the map floor that the Nazis used and then move backwards two spots to insert his staff. Spielberg even has Indy refer to his notebook, as if the instructions on the medallion were about the placement of the staff in the floor, not the height of the staff itself. 

 

It was a good catch by Spielberg & his solution to the problem was so much better than the original challenge it just blends seamlessly. Other than the fact there's never any reference as to which one of the thousand or so holes on the floor the staff is supposed to be inserted into.

[Surly Bevo 24,908]

I've never looked at that scene as Indy caring about the hole that Beloq and the Nazi's used.  To me his notebook contained the directions to finding the right hole (ie what hieroglyphics etc to look for).  

I guess you could assume that if the markings for finding the hole were also on both sides of the medallion the Nazi's could have fucked that up as well but I'm not sure what point you make about the staff being too tall having anything to do with them sticking it in the wrong hole.  If a Kadam is basically a foot the distance he moved back wouldn't seem to have been that far.

Edited July 18, 2020 by Surly Bevo

[Not a cat 5,652]

On 7/16/2020 at 10:36 PM, TexasMan said:

So I rewatched Twins tonight because I was reminded of how hot Kelly Preston was in it after her untimely passing this week.

Anyway, so the thing I was wondering about: the thing Vincent takes to Houston, he got paid $5 mil in the briefcase to deliver, but after dispatching the bad guy, Julius says no, they were going to give the money back. Time passes, and as they are in their newly renovated office at their business, the movie reveals they did give it back, but when Vincent recalls “ah yes, the 4 million dollars we gave back”. 
 

So did Vincent somehow steal a million dollars from the briefcase while Julius wasn’t looking (and invest it in their business)? Or are we to believe the Houston businessman shortchanged him? 

It's been decades since I saw this, but I recall that the obvious implication was devito pocketed 1 million of it.

[After irth 1,243]

5 hours ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

Raiders is on TV right now & I just noticed a massive plot hole I'd never seen before.

When Indy and Sallah are getting the translation of the writings on the headpiece from the old guy he tells them that the staff is to be 6 kadahm (or something like that) high, which Sallah then says "that's about 72 inches." Then the old guy flips it over and says "but wait...and take back one kadahm to honor the Hebrew god whose ark this is." Then Indy and Sallah celebrate that the Nazis are digging in the wrong place.

So according to that, a kadahm is roughly a foot and therefore the staff should be about five feet tall. Yet, when Indy gets to the map room--unless he's the size of a dwarf--the staff he's using is at least 6 1/2 feet tall.

 

But wait...there's a second fuck up in this scene! It's obvious that Spielberg realized that they couldn't show that the Nazis had used a staff that was too tall (we've seen enough of Lucas's stupidity in the SW films to know he isn't smart enough to figure this out). I mean, what would they do...show Indy finding the staff the Nazis used & then hold it up next to his? Boring and pointless. So Spielberg covers for this by having Indy find the slot on the map floor that the Nazis used and then move backwards two spots to insert his staff. Spielberg even has Indy refer to his notebook, as if the instructions on the medallion were about the placement of the staff in the floor, not the height of the staff itself. 

 

It was a good catch by Spielberg & his solution to the problem was so much better than the original challenge it just blends seamlessly. Other than the fact there's never any reference as to which one of the thousand or so holes on the floor the staff is supposed to be inserted into.

I always assumed the notebook contained notes on the map room based on Abner’s research for the day/time of year one is using it. 
 

Never noticed how tall the staff was he was using, though. That’s funny. 

[GhostOfTomJoad 9,323]

I've never looked at that scene as Indy caring about the hole that Beloq and the Nazi's used.  To me his notebook contained the directions to finding the right hole (ie what hieroglyphics etc to look for).  
I guess you could assume that if the markings for finding the hole were also on both sides of the medallion the Nazi's could have fucked that up as well but I'm not sure what point you make about the staff being too tall having anything to do with them sticking it in the wrong hole.  If a Kadam is basically a foot the distance he moved back wouldn't seem to have been that far.

Well, the entire point of obtaining the headpiece was because it was the only artifact that could point to the exact location of the ark of the covenant. If there were two unknown variables then it all falls apart

If it was a matter of the nazis not putting a staff in the right hole, then finding the headpiece would have been irrelevant. I think Spielberg realized he needed a dramatic, visual way to show the audience that the nazis had the wrong info. He replaced the staff height with the staff's hole location and the audience bought it.

[Surly Bevo 24,908]

Well, the entire point of obtaining the headpiece was because it was the only artifact that could point to the exact location of the ark of the covenant. If there were two unknown variables then it all falls apart

 

If it was a matter of the nazis not putting a staff in the right hole, then finding the headpiece would have been irrelevant. I think Spielberg realized he needed a dramatic, visual way to show the audience that the nazis had the wrong info. He replaced the staff height with the staff's hole location and the audience bought it.

Wait. You think that that little moment when he traces his finger through the sand was more dramatic than Indy and Sallah standing up the wind blowing through the room they are in with the old man. Indy asking Salah “you’re sure the headpiece you saw only had markings on one side” Salah confirms Indy saying “their staff is too long” and then both of them looking at each other and at the same time saying “they’re digging in the wrong place”. Hell then Salah busts into a big Salah laugh and starts singing some shit about being the Monarch of the Seas.

 

There is that whole scene that pays off on the Nazis having the wrong data so again not really sure what your point is about that tiny moment in the map room.

 

Oh and also in the aforementioned scene the monkey gets it and as previously discussed while the ending could be the same without Indiana Jones that poor monkeys life could have been different.

 

Bad dates.

[Augustus 3,061]

On 2/21/2020 at 7:18 AM, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

Someone pointed out to me that Raiders of the lost Ark would have turned out the exact same without Indiana Jones at all. It bugged the hell out of me. It occurred to me this morning with the same is true about Inglourious Basterds. Shoshana had the Nazis taken care of. 

Cracked.com did a hilarious article about Indiana Jones was the worst archaeologist of all time.  

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark's opening sequence is a cinematic classic and a documentary on how to suck at archaeology. Indy dashes into priceless ruins with no data-recording equipment, and proceeds to destroy archaeological records of an entire civilization. Most archaeologists are after information about ancient cultures and Indy's daring raid destroys an entire temple full of thousand year old machines that are still-functioning. He destroys them so that he can grab a bit of gold that weighs as much as a small rhinoceros's ball sack. That's like a scientist happening upon a working model of the Starship Enterprise, and smashing it up to get a good calculator.

 

We have lots of gold, Indy! We have people and machines whose entire job is to make holes in mountains until gold comes out, and you're collapsing a priceless trove of ancient machinery to recover something we could dig up in 10 minutes. Most archaeologists consider themselves lucky to find all the shards of the same destroyed vase, because they'll be able to put it back together in only a few months. That pressure-plate-triggered arrow-launcher? That was worth more than the gold. That shouldn't be that difficult for Indy, an archaeologist, to comprehend. Yet he destroys ruins so intact they're actively trying to protect themselves from him. In other words, they weren't ruins until he arrived.

[Biff Tannen 45,665]

Lots of talk about the wrong hole and yet zero pics. 

[Surly Bevo 24,908]

Cracked.com did a hilarious article about Indiana Jones was the worst archaeologist of all time.  
 
Raiders of the Lost Ark's opening sequence is a cinematic classic and a documentary on how to suck at archaeology. Indy dashes into priceless ruins with no data-recording equipment, and proceeds to destroy archaeological records of an entire civilization. Most archaeologists are after information about ancient cultures and Indy's daring raid destroys an entire temple full of thousand year old machines that are still-functioning. He destroys them so that he can grab a bit of gold that weighs as much as a small rhinoceros's ball sack. That's like a scientist happening upon a working model of the Starship Enterprise, and smashing it up to get a good calculator.
 
We have lots of gold, Indy! We have people and machines whose entire job is to make holes in mountains until gold comes out, and you're collapsing a priceless trove of ancient machinery to recover something we could dig up in 10 minutes. Most archaeologists consider themselves lucky to find all the shards of the same destroyed vase, because they'll be able to put it back together in only a few months. That pressure-plate-triggered arrow-launcher? That was worth more than the gold. That shouldn't be that difficult for Indy, an archaeologist, to comprehend. Yet he destroys ruins so intact they're actively trying to protect themselves from him. In other words, they weren't ruins until he arrived.

[Nivek 16,923]

Cracked.com did a hilarious article about Indiana Jones was the worst archaeologist of all time.  
 
Raiders of the Lost Ark's opening sequence is a cinematic classic and a documentary on how to suck at archaeology. Indy dashes into priceless ruins with no data-recording equipment, and proceeds to destroy archaeological records of an entire civilization. Most archaeologists are after information about ancient cultures and Indy's daring raid destroys an entire temple full of thousand year old machines that are still-functioning. He destroys them so that he can grab a bit of gold that weighs as much as a small rhinoceros's ball sack. That's like a scientist happening upon a working model of the Starship Enterprise, and smashing it up to get a good calculator.
 
We have lots of gold, Indy! We have people and machines whose entire job is to make holes in mountains until gold comes out, and you're collapsing a priceless trove of ancient machinery to recover something we could dig up in 10 minutes. Most archaeologists consider themselves lucky to find all the shards of the same destroyed vase, because they'll be able to put it back together in only a few months. That pressure-plate-triggered arrow-launcher? That was worth more than the gold. That shouldn't be that difficult for Indy, an archaeologist, to comprehend. Yet he destroys ruins so intact they're actively trying to protect themselves from him. In other words, they weren't ruins until he arrived.

Stupid take. He could have been commissioned to retrieve the artifact and then go back for additional data collection, but the traps forced him to leave prematurely. The hostile natives didn’t help.

He also had to teach “love you” girl.

[sheeeit 129]

On 8/9/2018 at 2:11 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Rounders did a bad job explaining how Mike went from starting with 10K in the final game to winning over 60K.    KGB obviously must have kept buying back in to stay in the game because Mike had zero additional money.  Mike stated that he finished at >60K  so KGB was responsible for >50K.  Would KGB wouldn't be quite so cocky.    KGB was being destroyed.  

How much did Mike have before the final hand?  It had to have been a minimum of 30K since he looked to fully covered KGB's all-in and Mike says he ended up with over 60K.   going into that hand, he owed KGB 15K, the law professor 10K and 5K to the Chesterfield.  he was a fool to play it.  Pay off the debts, and get a job/money from Knish to start building up the bankroll again.    Otherwise Mike could have easily run into bad luck and had Grama kick his ass or worse.    Mike didn't really learn a thing from the first scene.  Worm was right in that Mike was delusional in thinking his [Mike] moves were noble and smart.

And of course, the most inexplicable part of Rounders is when Mike turns down Petra (Famke Janssen) when she was at the top of her game.  Kicks her out of his apt after his girlfriend had dumped him.  

Watched this again a few nights ago.  Thought about this old thread.  The only explanation I can find for the $60K total is that at one point Mike tells KGB to feel free to reload at anytime.  Presumably KGB took out another $20K.  In the last hand, Mike had KGB covered but not by that much.  I'm guessing the stacks were around $33K to $27K or so.  If Mike loses the hand he is not out obviously but down to $6K and he owes $15K to KGB and KGB would have a huge stack advantage.  Great flick.  And Petra looked just as good.

['stache 21,797]

In Beerfest, why does Barry charge more for an hj than a bj? 

[Cheeseweasel 26,438]

6 minutes ago, 'stache said:

In Beerfest, why does Barry charge more for an hj than a bj? 

[WhatTheBuck 28,775]

On July 22, 2020 at 4:48 PM, Nivek said:

Stupid take. He could have been commissioned to retrieve the artifact and then go back for additional data collection, but the traps forced him to leave prematurely. The hostile natives didn’t help.

Or it's just a shallow movie made to entertain children. 

[High Plains Drifter 11,033]

On 7/18/2020 at 12:45 PM, Surly Bevo said:

I've never looked at that scene as Indy caring about the hole that Beloq and the Nazi's used.  To me his notebook contained the directions to finding the right hole (ie what hieroglyphics etc to look for).  

I guess you could assume that if the markings for finding the hole were also on both sides of the medallion the Nazi's could have fucked that up as well but I'm not sure what point you make about the staff being too tall having anything to do with them sticking it in the wrong hole.  If a Kadam is basically a foot the distance he moved back wouldn't seem to have been that far.

 

Putting it in the wrong hole always makes my staff bigger

 

 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

In Noelle, they take off because they say “on dasher” near the reindeer and it triggers them to go. But in Phoenix they say “someone has to keep their eyes ‘on dasher’” yet nothing happens. 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

It adds to the air of mystery and sets the tone of uncovering something mind boggling well, but once you find out Jason Bourne‘s real life, it doesn’t make a ton of sense that he would keep his banking information — at a bank that he’s out frequently enough that people there recognize and greet him —stitched underneath his skin in some laser thing. 

[Buzzrock 14,903]

Good thread. I haven’t read the whole thing: have you guys covered entropy in The Matrix yet? You can’t feed enough dead people back to babies to grow more people. Eventually you would run out of soylent green. 

[OneOfTheOutOfFocusGuys 2,061]

If 16 pigs can go through a body weighing 200 pounds in 8 minutes, that means every minute the 16 are going through 25 pounds, so like a pound and half each minute for each pig.  Not two pounds. 

[XYZ 2,154]

I have a question. In Infinity War Thor is able to drive his axe into Thanos’ chest even with Thanos having all six infinity stones. Fast forward to Endgame, and it’s Thanos with ZERO infinity stones versus Thor (with the axe AND the hammer) plus Captain America and Ironman, and he thoroughly kicks their asses. Shouldn’t Thor alone with those two mighty weapons be able to easily kill Thanos?

[ChickenSandwich 9,829]

On 10/22/2020 at 1:28 PM, 'stache said:

In Beerfest, why does Barry charge more for an hj than a bj? 

If you got to ask big fella, you can’t afford it. 
 

Now move along, I’ve got a mouth to feed. 

[Moby Ric 2,058]

1 hour ago, XYZ said:

I have a question. In Infinity War Thor is able to drive his axe into Thanos’ chest even with Thanos having all six infinity stones. Fast forward to Endgame, and it’s Thanos with ZERO infinity stones versus Thor (with the axe AND the hammer) plus Captain America and Ironman, and he thoroughly kicks their asses. Shouldn’t Thor alone with those two mighty weapons be able to easily kill Thanos?

I was thinking this as well.  The only reason I can think of is Thor was fat Thor in Endgame and he was badass Thor in infinity.  But yes, Thor should have been able to kill stoneless Thanos easily.

[Longhornfan1024 1,707]

3 hours ago, XYZ said:

I have a question. In Infinity War Thor is able to drive his axe into Thanos’ chest even with Thanos having all six infinity stones. Fast forward to Endgame, and it’s Thanos with ZERO infinity stones versus Thor (with the axe AND the hammer) plus Captain America and Ironman, and he thoroughly kicks their asses. Shouldn’t Thor alone with those two mighty weapons be able to easily kill Thanos?

Thor had been doing nothing for 5 years but drinking beer and playing COD with Korg.  He wasn't exactly in fighting shape.   

[Lhorn 4,911]

Why is it that in the most recent Fast and Furious installment a powerful electromagnet in a car is capable not only of pulling metal to it, but is also capable of repelling metal by reversing the polarity?  

Why is it the speeding car with electromagnet can pull heavy objects up to it, but is never slowed down by its attraction to metal objects behind it?

 

Answer - because the director failed high school physics. 

[Guest Lobo]

Depends on which hemisphere the car is driving in?  

[dcbc 14,465]

On 10/22/2020 at 1:35 PM, Cheeseweasel said:

Because he has a mouth to feed.