Common Flaws in Movie, TV & Story Plots

[Ivan Seeking]

What are some obvious flaws found in plots for movies, TV shows, novels, short stories, etc?

I just noticed this in the movie The Hunt For Red October.

The basis of the movie is the imminent threat posed by a Soviet built and operated first strike weapon that can't be detected: The nuclear submarine, Red October. However, the first SONAR operator to encounter this threat to humanity finds that he is able to detect and track the sub after about, oh, a day. Soooooo, why the rest of the movie?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Thinking...thinking...

 

[Danger]

I with to hell I didn't have to go to bed now, because I could fill a couple of dozen pages with this crap. I'll start on it tomorrow after work (or while getting ready for work, if I have time).

 

[zoobyshoe]

The ones I hate are all the inconsistancies between the different Star Trek series. In Deep Space Nine, Odo is a member of the only known race of shapeshifters. Yet, on Next Generation, there was an episode with a shapeshifter whose home planet was, apparently, well known, and in our quadrant (not the gamma quadrant where Odos people come from.)

 

[whozum]

In the movie Closer, Jude Law's character meets a photographer (Julia Roberts) during a photo shoot ofr his new published book. He falls in love with her while being in a relationship with another girl. Soon after, perhaps a few days, he goes online and begins a cybersex session with another man and pretends to be this woman. He tells the man (Clyve Owen's character) to meet Julia at a local aquarium where ofcourse Julia has no idea what's going on, but my grudge against is, why would he even do that in the first place? He shows no sign of repeating this pattern or doing it on a regular basis. there's no logic behind doing it, yet its a strong basis for the rest of the story.

 

[El Hombre Invisible]

What are some obvious flaws found in plots for movies, TV shows, novels, short stories, etc?

I just noticed this in the movie The Hunt For Red October.

The basis of the movie is the imminent threat posed by a Soviet built and operated first strike weapon that can't be detected: The nuclear submarine, Red October. However, the first SONAR operator to encounter this threat to humanity finds that he is able to detect and track the sub after about, oh, a day. Soooooo, why the rest of the movie?

Isn't the point that Connery wanted to be detected so he could defect, but Baldwin's superiors and peers just don't get it.

 

[El Hombre Invisible]

In the movie Closer, Jude Law's character meets a photographer (Julia Roberts) during a photo shoot ofr his new published book. He falls in love with her while being in a relationship with another girl. Soon after, perhaps a few days, he goes online and begins a cybersex session with another man and pretends to be this woman. He tells the man (Clyve Owen's character) to meet Julia at a local aquarium where ofcourse Julia has no idea what's going on, but my grudge against is, why would he even do that in the first place? He shows no sign of repeating this pattern or doing it on a regular basis. there's no logic behind doing it, yet its a strong basis for the rest of the story.

Surely a bigger flaw is: who the hell would crawl over Portman to get to Roberts?

 

[Echo 6 Sierra]

Surely a bigger flaw is: who the hell would crawl over Portman to get to Roberts?

I would. She was gorgeous in that dress and hat at the polo match in Pretty woman.

 

[El Hombre Invisible]

Yeah, Roberts 20 years ago maybe, but now? That gaunt, grey, sunken face... skulking and sulking around her studio... nah.

 

[Grogs]

What are some obvious flaws found in plots for movies, TV shows, novels, short stories, etc?

I just noticed this in the movie The Hunt For Red October.

The basis of the movie is the imminent threat posed by a Soviet built and operated first strike weapon that can't be detected: The nuclear submarine, Red October. However, the first SONAR operator to encounter this threat to humanity finds that he is able to detect and track the sub after about, oh, a day. Soooooo, why the rest of the movie?

Well, I think it was supposed to sound like a natural phenomenon, which it did (a magma displacement.) Even after the capatin and sonar operator decided it was a Russian sub, none of their higher ups (the fleet commander) did. What bugs me is that in all that time they were chasing the sub, no crewman ever dropped a wrench on his foot and started cursing? From what I gather watching old submarine movies (where the crew stands motionless and dead silent during depth charge attacks) a sonar operator would be able to hear that and say 'yup, that's a submarine captain, no doubt about it.'

 

[zoobyshoe]

If I recall, didn't Sean Connery have his crew start singing in order to be detected at some point?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The reason for Connery defecting was the first strike stealth capability of the sub.