Plot Holes
Have you ever watched a movie or a TV show and said to yourself, “… why didn’t they just…”? A lot of the time in media, the producers and writers will create an interesting story that has some inconsistencies or errors. For instance, if a character in a show can’t open a locked door in one episode but later opens that same door with ease with no explanation given, there is a plot hole in the show. Recently, I was watching the 8th episode of Marvel’s “What If…?” and I noticed a glaring plot hole, so I wanted to talk about some interesting inconsistencies in movies and TV.
I am going to start with the plot holes I noticed this week which inspired this post in the first place. In “Avengers: Infinity War,” the antagonist of the film, Thanos, destroys the planet Xandar and kills his own daughter in order to retrieve 2 of the 6 infinity stones he needs to fulfill his plans of destroying half of all life. In this week’s episode of “What if…” , Thanos arrives on Earth with 5 of the 6 infinity stones he needs for his plan, two of those being the ones he destroyed the planet and killed his daughter to get. This should mean that in this universe that both his daughter should be dead and the planet should be destroyed right? Wrong. Later in the episode we not only see his daughter, but we see her on the planet which was supposed to be destroyed! This is not a major issue as these episodes are just for fun, but Marvel has always been very consistent in their writing, so it is very surprising to see.
Another fun plot hole to think about is the one from the original Toy Story movie (plot in link). For those of you that don’t remember, in this movie, Buzz Lightyear, one of the main characters, does not believe he is a toy, and this causes a lot issues and drives the plot forward in the film. Whenever the toys owner, Andy, enters the room they are in, all of the toys stop moving and pretend they do not have lives. So here is the question… Why is it that when Andy enters the room, Buzz freezes? If Buzz truly believes that he is not a toy, he should continue moving when Andy enters the room, right? Plot holes like these are interesting little things to inspect, but its also important not to get mad over them, as it is only fiction.
I’ve never noticed that major plot hole with Buzz Lightyear but its glaring now. I’ve always seen plot holes as sloppy writing, and they often frustrate me, especially if I paid money to see the movie or if I’ve gotten emotionally invested and the plot hole brings about a tragic end (ex. Jack’s illogical death in Titanic… there was definitely room for him on that door).
These plot holes are actually interesting, thank you for pointing them out to us! Honestly, most movies I choose to watch ultimately entertain me enough such that I look over any plot holes. I still acknowledge their existence, but even then, unless a story is extremely complicated or so profound that I cannot stop thinking about it, I may not even notice any of the plot holes. Although I do not often watch movies or read books, I do know that many plot holes do universally exist within stories that involve time travel or multiple universes. I also hear that the “new” Star Wars (sequel) trilogy has some abysmal plot holds, but regardless, I still like Star Wars, probably because of my low standards for movies. Either way, people who let their days be ruined because of a plot hole in a movie are clowns.
I agree with the other comments. Plot holes are annoying, but if the movie is entertaining enough, I usually look over them. I feel like a lot of times plot holes are caused by writers and directors wanting a certain outcome and not really thinking about what it means within a story to get to that outcome. Other times, it’s probably lazy writing. But this was a really intriguing post, keep it up!