The plot hole is one of the most notoriously difficult things for movie writers to have to endure, but they can sometimes be patched up by sequels. A plot hole refers to any kind of illogical flaw in the events of a given film, with suspension of disbelief breaking when a narrative doesn’t cohere to the rules of reality or its own described structure. The most famous movie plot holes have sometimes been addressed in various sequels, making at attempt at patching such story inconsistencies.
For the most part, long-winded movie series such as the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and similar blockbuster franchises have the most opportunity to fix long-standing plot holes. Sometimes, it isn’t even a follow-up movie that addresses them, but a tie-in series that has even more time to expand upon the rules and logic of any given movie continuity. These solutions can be elegant or only serve to beg more questions, but either way, it’s a fair tactic to fixing plot holes.
10
The Death Star’s Fatal Flaw Was Intentional
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Perhaps no other series seemingly exists to patch-in fixes for long-standing plot holes more than the Star Wars films. Of the lot of them, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story seems practically designed from the ground-up to address an ancient plot hole regarding the Death Star in the original trilogy. It’s always been hard to believe that such a glaring design flaw, a small port that could blow up the entire station if sH๏τ by even a single blaster bolt, would have made it past the planning phases of the Death Star’s construction.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story explains how the Rebels got access to the valuable Death Star blueprints that laid out this weakness in the first place. More importantly, the film declares that the flaw was actually an intentional weakness built purposefully into the weapon as a form of industrial sabotage by designer Galen Erso. This explains how the Empire remained unaware of the weakness even after Rebels managed to procure the Death Star’s plans.
9
Solo Explains Why Han Measures The Kessel Run In Distance, Not Time
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Yet another entry in the A Star Wars Story lineage of films that explains an ancient Star Wars plot hole is Solo: A Star Wars Story. In his first appearance, Han Solo is introduced as a daring smuggler, with one of his many accomplishments listed as completing the so-called Kessel Run in “less than 12 parsecs” using the Millennium Falcon. In actual science, a parsec is a unit that measures distance, not time, making this throw-away quip seemingly not make sense for the longest time.
However, in Solo: A Star Wars Story, this famous Kessel Run is actually seen, and the unit of measurement the achievement is described in makes sense. The Kessel system is explained to be a whirling maw of dangerous black holes and mᴀssive hostile alien monsters that requires taking an elaborate, roundabout route of 20 parsecs to move through. Han Solo instead chooses to brave the dangers lurking outside this path of safety, punching straight through the system in a shorter distance of 12 parsecs.
8
The Holdo Maneuver Is Explained To Have Impossible Odds
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
Not every Star Wars plot hole comes from the older films, as the second-to-last installment in the mainline series, The Last Jedi, throws a monkey wrench into the plot that retroactively raises questions about the whole universe. Here, Resistance Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, in a desperate last stand against a superior First Order force, flings her ship into hyperdrive facing a mᴀssive star cruiser. This kamikaze attack turns her craft into a projectile traveling at the speed of light, laying waste to the enemy fleet.
The success of this plan begs the question as to why all naval warfare in the Star Wars universe isn’t just a series of pilot-less projectiles being flung back and forth at light speeds. In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it’s determined that the so-called Holdo Maneuver was a “one-in-a-million” sH๏τ, and not something that could be easily replicated on a large scale. It’s a pit of a flimsy explanation, but one that nevertheless addresses why more people don’t attempt the dangerous technique.
7
Elves Explain Why They Didn’t Seem So Upset About Santa’s Death
The Santa Clauses
One of the most beloved Christmas movie series of all time, Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause has a weirdly dark premise for how family-friendly and merry the franchise is. The first movie begins with Allen’s character accidentally murdering Santa Claus, magically becoming the next holiday figure to hold the тιтle due to the so-called “Santa Clause” that apparently transfers Santa’s characteristics and responsibilities onto whomever kills him. Moreover, the elves he meets at the North Pole don’t seem terribly distressed at the notion that someone just destroyed and replaced their boss.
The Christmas elves’ nonplussed reaction is eventually explained in the Disney+ companion series The Santa Clauses. It turns out that the Santa Clauses were never real, and that the previous Santa had actually chosen Tim Allen as his mentor before staging his own death. The Santa Clauses were totally fabricated to help Tim Allen’s character ease into the role, which also explains the lack of a previous Mrs. Claus, which was supposedly another requirement of any Santa.
6
Jigsaw Uses Advanced Methods To Play ᴅᴇᴀᴅ
Saw 3
The canon of the Saw film franchise is a very messy one, filled with resurrections, retcons, and surprise deaths. The franchise’s habit of huge plot twists begins in the very first film, where it’s revealed that the Jigsaw killer was actually the corpse lying on the ground in front of the two main characters the entire time. This begs the question as to how John Kramer was able to stay completely still for so long, never once giving away that he was alive and well.
Saw 3 offers a satisfying enough explanation. Here, a flashback shows Kramer and his protégé Amanda Young setting up the iconic bathroom trap, where it’s revealed that he actually was injected with a muscle relaxant that helped him keep still and slow his breathing down enough to appear ᴅᴇᴀᴅ even to a seasoned doctor. As ever, the Jigsaw killer is two steps ahead of his victims and the authorities.
5
Asgard’s Infinity Gauntlet Isn’t Real
Thor: Ragnarok
To this day, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still best known for the Infinity Saga, the first arc of the series, which saw the introduction of the various Infinity Stones before the powerful artifacts were wielded by the villain Thanos in the almighty Infinity Gauntlet. Yet before the Mad тιтan ever donned this golden glove, which is later explained to be custom-made by the best smiths in the universe, it can be seen as a background prop in the first Thor, quietly taking up space among Odin’s knick-knacks.
Thor: Ragnarok brilliantly handwaves away this plot discrepancy with a single throw-away line. After conquering Asgard and having a look around, the villain Hela prances about Odin’s armory of dangerous and powerful artifacts, deriding the Infinity Gauntlet as a “fake” before nonchalantly tipping it over. It turns out that Odin isn’t above paying top-dollar for a convincing-looking replica of such a strong weapon.
4
Someone Realizes Batman’s Equipment Belongs To Wayne Enterprises
The Dark Knight
The idea that Batman’s secret idenтιтy of Bruce Wayne isn’t obvious to outside observers is always a hard sell to audiences. While viewers always know who Batman is, it seems absurd that no one would suspect the wealthiest elite who lives in the same city as a superhero with seemingly limitless resources as being the man behind the mask. Considering Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is more grounded and realistic than other Batman stories, Batman Begins makes this plot hole seem particularly eyebrow-raising.
Luckily, The Dark Knight features a scene that elaborates on the idea of someone recognizing the Batmobile as Wayne Foundation tech. When a Wayne Enterprises employee approaches Batman’s chief engineer Lucas Fox about the realization, he hopes to blackmail him with the truth. Fox simply smiles and outlines the stupidity of blackmailing a man who dresses up like a bat and beats up criminals for a living, making it clear that the threat of Batman’s retaliation keeps anyone who might have a suspicion about his true idenтιтy in line.
3
Ash’s Poor Memory Explains Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ 1 And 2
Ash Vs. Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ
Sam Raimi’s Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ franchise is one of the most iconic horror-comedies ever made, but it’s far from consistent. From the very beginning, the series raised canon questions about the first two movies, as Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ 2 seems to follow the same events as Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, but slightly differently. To make matters even more confusing, in the show Ash vs. Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, both versions of events are recalled by Ash as being true, which is inherently conflicting.
Later, however, the series hilariously chalks up the difference between the first two movies as a result of Ash’s poor memory. The ᴅᴇᴀᴅite slayer eventually realizes this, wondering if he’s contracting a certain “bad memory disease” in his old age. This falls in line with Ash’s repeated forgetfulness across the franchise, including him forgetting an important magic incantation in Army of Darkness.
2
Jurᴀssic Park’s Inaccurate Dinosaurs Are By Design
Jurᴀssic World
To be fair to the film, the inaccurate depiction of dinosaurs in the original Jurᴀssic Park can’t really be blamed on the filmmakers. In the movie, dinosaurs like the mighty T-Rex and Velociraptors are shown to be killer reptiles covered in scales. However, as time went on, it’s now widely believed that theropods and raptors such as these two species would have actually been covered in feathers, more closely related to birds than modern-day lizards.
Jurᴀssic World offers an interesting excuse as to why the dinosaurs of the first film look the way they do. Since Ingen wasn’t working with a fully completed genome when it came to reᴀssembling the dinos, they had to fill in some gaps using DNA from modern creatures like tree frogs. This explains why the dinosaurs don’t look accurate, as they’re actually mutant abominations with a combination of prehistoric and modern animal genes. It’s even implied that Ingen purposefully does this even when they do have more DNA to work with to preserve the “popular image” of marketable scaled dinosaurs.
1
Skynet Sends Multiple Terminators After John Connor
Terminator: Dark Fate
None of the Terminator movies after Terminator 2: Judgment Day ever managed to capture the excellence of the originals. However, James Cameron’s return to the franchise with Terminator: Dark Fate at least addresses a long-standing plot hole. That is, why Skynet would never bother to send another Terminator after John Connor (or Sarah, for that matter) after the initial T-800s failed.
Terminator: Dark Fate fixes this by actually showing it happen. The movie begins with yet another T-800 being sent in to terminate John Connor once and for all, preventing the successful rebellion of humanity in the future. In turn, Sarah and John’s actions in the second movie actually do prevent the rise of Skynet, only for another hostile A.I. called “Legion” to step in instead. This leads to yet another cybernetic ᴀssᴀssin being sent in time to take out a different future leader, making for essentially the same movie.
