"The Shawshank Redemption. 'How did Andy reattach the poster after he crawled into the tunnel?' He didn't. The poster was securely attached at the top but freely moving at the bottom, thus allowing Andy to lift it/let it fall back down whenever he needed."
You know that feeling when you love a movie, but there's a BIG plot hole that you just can't get over? Well, Reddit user u/Animeking1108 recently posed the question, "What infamous movie plot hole has an explanation that you're tired of explaining?"
And there were so many interesting answers! Here are some of the top-voted responses:
Note: Some of these are canon, and some are probably just opinions from the internet. It's all in good fun!
1. "Lord of The Rings. The eagles are not a taxi service. They would be subject to the ring's influence, too. There are flying Nazgûl that could intercept them, and there is a big fucking spotlight eye that could shine on them the moment they approach the border of Mordor. Failing all that, an entire army of Orcs could wait at Mount Doom, making any approach impossible. 'They could be carried part of the way.' Oh? With Saruman the White and his raven spies everywhere, and the ability to target blizzards and force the eagles to land in a army of Uruk-hai?"
2. "In Jurassic World, Claire didn’t 'outrun' the T-Rex in heels... because it wasn’t CHASING her. The dinosaur was conditioned to equate the flare with feeding time, so it was patiently following her to an anticipated meal. The situation is similar to how zookeepers can have (limited) interactions with lions and bears."
3. "For the people who spend all the Star Wars movies asking, 'Why don't they just Jedi mind trick everyone into doing this or that?,' Obi-Wan is very clear the first time he uses it. It works on the 'weak-minded.' I think the way Stormtroopers function throughout the first three films shows they aren't the sharpest tools in the shed and are probably bred/trained/selected to do whatever without question and just be cannon fodder."
4. "Legally Blonde. 'OMG, a dumb blonde sorority girl studies for the LSAT for a summer and aces it? Bullshit!' No, the point is that Elle Woods was never a 'dumb blonde.' She was always brilliant. Elle was pigeonholed by the circumstances of her looks and her privileged upbringing to pursue a vapid life. While inspired by the wrong reasons, it results in her breaking the mold she was confined in so that she is able to reach her full potential."
5. "The Shawshank Redemption. 'How did Andy reattach the poster after he crawled into the tunnel?' He didn't. The poster was only attached at the top, as evidenced by the scene where he is seen digging into the wall under the poster, then looking out when he hears someone coughing, then ducking back under it. The poster is CLEARLY securely attached at the top but freely moving at the bottom, thus allowing Andy to lift it/let it fall back down whenever he needed."
6. "I’ll defend Home Alone with my life. Kevin got left behind because his family was mad at him and obviously didn’t like him that much. He was in his room, and there was so much chaos. Also, other factors: we see his passport/ticket being accidentally thrown away, and a neighbor kid snooping through the van accidentally gets counted. Why didn’t Kevin call the police? The phone lines were down."
7. "The Dark Knight Rises. 'How did Bruce Wayne magically get to Gotham after he escaped the hole?' 1) In an adjacent scene, it's mentioned the bomb will go off in a month, so we can assume that's how long he has to get back to Gotham. 2) Wayne Enterprises has offices around the world. All he needs to do is get to an office, log in, and wire himself money or supplies to get home. He's Batman; he can easily do this without being noticed. 3) Batman Begins has a whole sequence of him traveling around the world penniless and nameless. This is a specific skill it's already established he has."
8. "Encanto, regarding Bruno in the walls and Dolores knowing. Not only does she state during the song that she can hear him, but at the end of the movie, she says she knew. This whole family broke into song about 'We don’t talk about Bruno' at the mention of the man, so she was probably told the same when she tried to tell the family."
9. "Is there some kind of Mandela effect going on with the Titanic movie? 'Why doesn't Rose let Jack get on? They can both fit!' Jack does try to get on. It starts to sink with both of their weight on it."
10. "Armageddon. People always ask, 'Wouldn’t it be easier to train astronauts to drill, rather than teach drillers to be astronauts?' First of all, only part of the team are drillers. There are still astronauts actually flying the shuttles. All the drillers were trained to do was spacewalk and survive while drilling in space. Secondly, the film shows that they did try training astronauts how to drill, but they were failing at it."
11. "The flaw in the Death Star's construction. We didn't need Rogue One to explain it was a deliberate sabotage. So an exhaust port has a flaw. It is not unreasonable to believe that the flaw was necessitated for efficiency. Knowing that the flaw was inevitable, the trench leading up to the port was protected with gun towers. Tarkin, along with other officers, fully believed that the Death Star was superior in its construction that small fighters would pose no threat to them."
12. "The first rule of Fight Club and their growing number of members is because it is meant to teach the members to break rules."
13. "The Matrix Reloaded. In the scene where Neo is talking to the Architect, the screens behind them are not showing other Ones. They are the predictions the machines are making on Neo’s responses. Most of the scenes are incorrect in those predictions, except for when Neo must choose between Trinity and all of humanity — the machines nailed that response on all screens."
14. "Independence Day. 'How could a virus programmed on Earth computers destroy the computer system of an alien civilization?' In a deleted scene, it’s revealed that technology from the spaceship at Area 51 was harvested and used as the basis for most of Earth’s post WW2 computer technology. Once you know that, the whole thing becomes a lot more believable."
15. "Black Panther. Why does the technologically-advanced Wakanda still choose their king by combat? They don't. The whole challenge is clearly just for ceremony, and no one is actually supposed to challenge the king — which is why the only people who do so are M'Baku, who's from a tribe that lives in the mountains and is isolated from the rest of Wakanda, and Killmonger, who's an outsider that doesn't care about their traditions and rules."
16. "How does Sarah Connor know which button to press to crush the Terminator in the first movie? Because she accidentally pressed it a few minutes earlier, and it set the crusher off. It was what lead the Terminator to find them."
17. "Toy Story. Buzz stops moving in front of humans but doesn't think he's a toy. His delusion is the whole point. It's what drives Woody crazy. He tries explaining it to him. 'YOU ARE A TOY.'"
18. "People sometimes wonder how Indiana Jones initially remains skeptical of the mystical events happening in the second film, when he just witnessed a magical ark killing a bunch of Nazis in the first film. But that's because the second film is a prequel."
19. "While watching The Sixth Sense, it may seem completely improbable that Bruce Willis' character didn't realize that he was dead. Yet it's explained right there in the movie: ghosts see only what they want to see."
20. And finally, "Katniss, who nearly died in the Hunger Games twice, yet still had sympathy for the children of the Capitol, wasn't acting out of character when she agreed to Coin's idea of one last symbolic Hunger Games with the Capitol children. When Coin suggested the symbolic Hunger Games, that was the moment Katniss made up her mind to assassinate her (but I think she had been considering it long before then). She only agreed so Coin wouldn't suspect anything."
Now that we've heard about movie plot holes that have perfectly good explanations, can you think of any from TV shows? LMK in the comments below!
Note: Some resposes have been edited for length and/or clarity.