5 Biggest Plot Holes In Otherwise Perfect Movies

In a perfect world, a movie comes out and entertains the masses without any plot holes. Even if they do exist, they're typically minor, and this can happen in everything from big tentpole studio films to smaller independent ones. You often see plot holes in franchises because the narrative stretches across multiple movies, often contradicting points and allowing things to happen that shouldn't. Whatever the case, plot holes happen, and they're usually mild annoyances outside of the most nitpicky cinephiles.

When a great movie has some sort of awful plot hole, everyone usually ignores it. Still, the audience can't ignore everything, and when a film is picked apart online, and people point out every little issue with the story, it's hard to ignore when an otherwise perfect movie has a glaring issue that makes the overall plot make little sense.

Filmmakers often explain these issues away in interviews, and over time, even a major plot hole is accepted by the public when a movie is particularly good. If you think too hard on the logic of time travel in the "Back to the Future" franchise, for example, it won't make any sense, so it's usually best to let it go. Each of these five movies is excellent and has been enjoyed by millions of fans. Sadly, each of them has a pretty big plot hole that's hard to overlook.

"Sunshine" is a 2007 sci-fi thriller directed by Danny Boyle that asks the question, "Can humanity reignite the sun?" If you know anything about stellar physics, you already know that the answer is no, at least at our current level of technology. However, "Sunshine" takes place in 2057 when the sun is dying and requires reignition to get it going again.

Think of a stellar pilot light that's out. All humanity can do is send a last-ditch effort to the sun to try to save all life on Earth. The first attempt failed, as the Icarus I disappeared in 2050. Now, Icarus II is en route to the sun, where it has a stellar bomb payload the size of Manhattan in tow. All the crew needs to do is send it into the star and detonate it, reigniting the "pilot light" to save the world. That's the premise, and it's entirely nonsensical, which is something of a problem.

"Sunshine" is a sci-fi movie that doesn't make any sense, but it's also spectacular. If you can overlook the plot hole, it's a great thriller. What's interesting about "Sunshine" is that it begins as a standard "rescue the world" sci-fi romp, but the second act features a twist. The genre shifts from science fiction to psychological thriller, upping the stakes as the third act becomes a truly desperate struggle to complete the mission despite how illogical it is.

When "Toy Story" was released in 1995, it kicked off an animation revolution while also launching a massive franchise that's continued for decades. The film imagines what our toys do when we're not looking, and it turns out to be a lot. They have social lives and understand their importance in entertaining Andy, the boy who plays with them. Whenever a human comes near a toy, they all freeze in place, suggesting that they're forced to do so by some inherent drive.

That's proven untrue in the final act when Woody (Tom Hanks) and several other toys come to life to scare Sid (the neighbor kid who destroys toys for fun). This proves that toys can and do come to life when they want to, but therein lies the problem with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). When he first appears, he's under the delusion that he's not a toy and is instead the real Buzz Lightyear.

He acts this way around the toys, irritating Woody while impressing everyone else. The plot hole arises when Andy is around because, like every other toy, Buzz freezes — like a toy. This begs the question, why would Buzz freeze if he thinks he's real? There are plenty of theories online about this plot hole as folks on Reddit and elsewhere try to explain away Buzz's freezing. Regardless of which theories you read, the simple fact is that it's a huge plot hole.

Director M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" is a sci-fi thriller that explores the truth of crop circles, which inexplicably appear all over the world. Shyamalan spends the first two acts building up a great deal of tension, only showing brief glimpses of the aliens in grainy footage (pictured). This creates a palpable fear in the audience, as the threat is truly unknown, and it only gets more tense right up to the film's climax, where Merrill Hess (Joaquin Phoenix) injures an alien by getting it wet.

That's their weakness: water, which, as you likely already know, covers about 71% of the Earth's surface. Then, of course, there's the fact that water falls from the sky and is in the air we breathe. The plot hole involves an alien species invading a planet to capture humans for some nefarious purpose on a planet that's actively trying to kill them. The plot hole could be easily flipped if it were the other way around, and humans invaded their world, which was covered in something like fluoroantimonic acid.

"Signs" is a movie that purposefully creates an anxious atmosphere, instilling a primal fear as you watch it, and in that way, it works incredibly well. The pacing keeps it going slowly, but not too slowly, and every one of the actors gives it their all. That said, it's difficult to overlook the unmistakable plot hole in "Signs" that makes you think twice about its water-laden ending.

"Armageddon" is an action sci-fi that has no business being called scientifically accurate, and it doesn't pretend to be. The film is all about explosions and grandiose set pieces, which makes sense, seeing as Michael Bay directed it. While it's not scientifically accurate, with fire in space and gravity that doesn't make sense, that's okay because you don't expect accuracy in "Armageddon."

Still, that doesn't mean the plot doesn't need to hold up; it has one of the biggest plot holes in all of science fiction. The premise involves sending a bunch of oil drill workers into space in place of trained astronauts. They need to drill into an approaching asteroid and destroy it with a nuke, and only they can do it. As Harry (Bruce Willis) explains in the film, "I'm sure they'll make good astronauts, but they don't know jack about drilling."

From this conversation, NASA's finest is pushed to the side to let a bunch of unqualified drillers take on the mission. That's a massive plot hole in an otherwise fun sci-fi film. Ben Affleck revealed a conversation he had with Bay about this. According to Affleck, "I asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers, and he told me to shut the f*** up. So that was the end of that talk."

One of the best magical objects in the "Harry Potter" franchise isn't a wand or some book — it's the Marauder's Map. Fred (James Phelps) and George (Oliver Phelps) give Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) the map in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," which helps him sneak about the castle without being caught. It's fascinating because it tracks and labels everyone in the school, so it's essentially the magical version of an overhead map.

Harry uses it frequently, and when Snape (Alan Rickman) finds him with it, he fails to learn its secrets, so it's a powerful magical item. There's only one problem with the Marauder's Map, other than finding a way to fold it properly: Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall). He's introduced in the film as an old friend of Harry's parents, but in truth, he's one of the Dark Lord's most sycophantic minions.

His name appears on the map, and Harry tries to find him, but to no avail, and the reason is that he hides in the form of Scabbers, the Weasleys' pet rat. The plot hole comes into play when you realize that George and Fred used the map inside the school for years. They should have seen Pettigrew's name as the rat slept by their brother Ron (Rupert Grint). They clearly didn't, or never bothered to check in on their little brother, but whatever the reason, it opens up a massive plot hole.