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A plot hole is a gap in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic set-up by the plot or that undermines the basic premises of the story. Plot holes are usually seen as weaknesses and flaws in a story, and writers try to avoid them (except in certain deliberate circumstances, usually for humorous effect) to make their stories seem as realistic and lifelike as possible.
The viewing or reading audience notes a plot hole when something happens during the story that seems highly unlikely, or would be impossible to imitate in real life. It is usually seen as a mark of good writing or directing when a storyteller presents a story in such a way that the audience does not notice plot holes, or willingly chooses to overlook them in favor of enjoying the story.
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Examples
The 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives has a large plot hole occurrence when Walter destroys the Stepford Program implanted in the wives (and Roger)'s brains. This resets them, showing it was all just a chip controlling their brains. However, earlier in the film it shows that one of the wives can dispense money from her mouth, as an ATM, and other scenes suggest that the alterations include substantial physical alterations.
was accused of one in which the character of "Bootstrap Bill" Turner was said to be killed though he was under the undead curse. The hole was exploited for the sequel, where Stellan Skarsgard plays a surviving Bill.
The 2000 film Battlefield Earth is notorious for containing numerous plot holes, which are quite ludicrous even outside the framework of the story. For instance, primitive cave-dwellers with no working knowledge of electronics or science learn to operate AV-8B Harrier Jets, which are still active and fully-fueled after being in storage for over 1000 years (jet fuel has a shelf-life of four years), more effectively than most extensively-trained military pilots in less than a week's time without any explanation as to how or why.
However, plot holes have been known to occur even in established classics -
In Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, a group of reporters is trying to discover the meaning of Kane's dying words: "Rosebud." However, nobody was present to hear this. When Welles was informed of this, he reportedly stared for a long time before saying, "Don't you ever tell anyone of this."
Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep is a Film Noir classic that has been revered for its overly convoluted plot noted for a major plot hole that has baffled both audiences and the makers and even the writer of the source novel, Raymond Chandler. In the film, a chauffeur is found dead in his limousine which is fished out of the docks. In a later scene, a character admits to knocking the driver in the back of his head and escaping with a roll of film. However, this still doesn't explain how the driver and his car was mysteriously found in the bottom of the sea. This plot hole was present in the source novel as well and when he was asked who killed the driver, Chandler's reply was, 'Damn! I don't know either.'
Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes features a deliberate plot hole which was pointed out in the script stages by Emeric Pressburger but left for the overall effect. In the final scene, Vicky Page, the protagonist who stars in a ballet for the Red Shoes suddenly runs out of the theatre and on to the railway tracks near the theatre killing herself. However the ballet had not started yet and her character within the ballet only acquires her shoes during the beginning of the performance. There was no logical reason for Vicky to wear the red shoes before the performance begins.
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See also
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