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* In ''[[Terminator Salvation]]'', Skynet somehow knows Kyle Reese is John Connor's dad. It has no way of knowing this, unless John was somehow dumb enough to spread the information around while fully aware his sworn enemy has access to time travelling robots.
* In ''[[Flight Plan]]'', the crew finds out that Kyle Pratt's daughter supposedly died with her father. No one on the crew thought to point out the obvious: where is the other casket? If she was just acting out of grief and delusion, there should be two caskets in the plane, not just the one carrying her dead husband. Good thing Pratt's not an [[Idiot Ball]]. There is also a rare case of [[Lampshade Hanging]] making everything worse: Kyle does ask Carson where the other casket is and he claims that he doesn't care after the trouble she's caused everyone on board. While it's later revealed that he is the villain, this still only calls attention to the fact that Captain Rich and the other flight attendants don't care either. See: [[Voodoo Shark]].
** There's also the matter that for "The Twist" to work someone would have had to pick up the daughter and carry her to the hiding place. How did no one notice him doing this? For that matter, nobody in nearby seats, except for another child right at the end of the [[Film]], ever mentioned seeing the child.▼
▲There's also the matter that for "The Twist" to work someone would have had to pick up the daughter and carry her to the hiding place. How did no one notice him doing this? For that matter, nobody in nearby seats, except for another child right at the end of the [[Film]], ever mentioned seeing the child.
* ''[[The Butterfly Effect]]'' has several. [[Timey-Wimey Ball|Time-traveling inconsistencies]] throughout the story aside... When he's trying to convince someone he is altering the past, he use a trip back in time to give himself injuries sure to leave scars, and instead of the entire time between being rewritten so he always had those scars like every other time, they just magically appear in front of the person he's trying to convince. This also contradicts the idea present throughout (and in the title of) the film that minor changes would alter [[The Protagonist|the protagonist's]] life forever - in all other cases, changing a minor detail leads to a completely different future scenario, here, it's ''exactly'' the same (ending up in the same prison with the same people and in the exact same situation?).
* In ''[[Evil Dead|Army of Darkness]]'' has a few, given the loose and silly nature of the [[Film]].
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* In ''[[Monty Python]]'s'' Cycling Tour, the protagonist is hauled before a firing squad three times for execution. The first two times, the firing squad [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|misses the target]]. The third time the squad charges at the protagonist and tries to skewer him with their bayonets. A grey screen with the words "Scene Missing" then appears. The next scene shows the protagonist free outside the prison saying "What an amazing escape!"
* In one episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', a recruit spots a plot hole in a training exercise. A recruit is part of a bunch of recent Air Force graduates training for a role in the Stargate program. Part of a training exercise requires that they have no backup from SG-1 because SG-1 was caught in an ambush attack by a small number of Jaffa and called for backup; the recruit notes that SG-1 is too elite to be held down by a small number of Jaffa, and if it was an ambush attack, they wouldn't have had time to call in for backup. Later on, Sam remarks to Jack, "He's right, you know."
* In several episodes (all five seasons, actually) of ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', a recurrent plot hole is the inability to use systems on Atlantis because of the lack of sufficient power because of
* The last ''[[Star Trek]]'' television series (to date), ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'', has the crew of the eponymous ship encounter Borg drones 200 years before they were encountered by [[The Captain|Captain Picard]] and the [[Cool Starship|U.S.S.]] ''[[Cool Starship|Enterprise]]''[[Cool Starship|-D]]. This comes as a direct result of what happened in the [[Film]] ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]''. The pieces of a crashed Borg cube are discovered in Antarctica. The crew see and fight Borgified crewmen on an alien freighter. The ship's doctor, Phlox, is infected with nanoprobes (but manages to cure himself, something Beverly Crusher wasn't able to do with [[The Captain|Picard]]). They have sensor data on the Borg-augmented ship and their audio transmissions. Nevertheless, 200 years later, no one knows what the Borg look like, how they attack people, or what their technology does to starships and living beings. As the satirical website FirstTvDrama.com put it so eloquently:▼
{{quote|''"You can lay this side by side with Archer not bothering to ask the Ferengi for their name after they hijacked the ship. This time, they have tech, records, photos, scans, DNA samples, dead nano-bots, etc, and it only creates a bigger plot hole}}. There's an entire massive debris field site in the North Pole. How do you cover up something like that. They either nuked it (which would surely get the attention of the Vulcans), left it (which means it's still there), or they cleaned it all up, which means they further learned stuff from it. Remember kids, there was NO cover up that took place. So how do you explain this plot hole?"''}}▼
** Another ''Enterprise'' episode sent the ship to investigate the first human colony outside the solar system to find out why it had suddenly stopped communicating with Earth - ''roughly 80 years prior''. Nobody had been sent to check this out earlier, because humans didn't have sufficiently fast ships. When T'Pol points out that the Vulcans had such ships eighty years ago, and could have investigated immediately, Captain Archer says only that asking favors from the Vulcans tended to carry a high price. There is no further elaboration of this point, even though they later discover that prompt Vulcan disaster-recovery assistance would have been extremely helpful to the colonists.▼
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' plays [[How Unscientific|fast and loose with its own rules]] at the best of times, mostly because it's [[MST3K Mantra|more concerned]] with being a [[Rule of Funny|sitcom]]. One notable example of many is a double-whammy: In "Backwards", how are Rimmer and Kryten able to keep in contact with Holly on Backwards Earth when the ship (and thus Holly's mainframe) is in a completely different part of space ''and'' time? And if Holly ''is'' in contact with them, why doesn't she just tell Lister and the Cat what happened to them, instead of leaving Lister and the Cat to trawl through space for ''three weeks'' before finding the time hole?▼
* In the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?", the ''Enterprise'' encounters a [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]]. Kirk leads a landing party down to the nearby planet, where the alien reveals that [[Ancient Astronauts|he is the Greek god Apollo]]. Later in the episode, Spock, who had been on the ''Enterprise'' the whole time, makes reference to Apollo. There is no way Spock could have known who the alien was as Apollo immediately jammed the landing party's communicators.
** In a really weird example, Kirk suddenly knows at the end of "And The Children Shall Lead" that the [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] of the week is called "the Gorgon". This was not only never mentioned in front of Kirk, it was not mentioned previously in the episode at all.
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** He also mentions that Paige was killed by the Titans yet in a later episode he says he goes to her for money in the future.
** He could have, you know, ''LIED'' about the Titans thing as an excuse on ''why'' he came back, since the real reason would be complicated and likely scare the crap out of them. A real Plot hole in the Chris plot is the whole Valhala thing. Why did he send Leo to Valhala in the first place? It's what caused Leo and Piper's temporary breakup which {{spoiler|Nearly stops them from doing the dirty and concieving him}}. It's like he wanted to make his mission as dificult as possible.
▲* The last ''[[Star Trek]]'' television series (to date), ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'', has the crew of the eponymous ship encounter Borg drones 200 years before they were encountered by [[The Captain|Captain Picard]] and the [[Cool Starship|U.S.S.]] ''[[Cool Starship|Enterprise]]''[[Cool Starship|-D]]. This comes as a direct result of what happened in the [[Film]] ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]''. The pieces of a crashed Borg cube are discovered in Antarctica. The crew see and fight Borgified crewmen on an alien freighter. The ship's doctor, Phlox, is infected with nanoprobes (but manages to cure himself, something Beverly Crusher wasn't able to do with [[The Captain|Picard]]). They have sensor data on the Borg-augmented ship and their audio transmissions. Nevertheless, 200 years later, no one knows what the Borg look like, how they attack people, or what their technology does to starships and living beings. As the satirical website FirstTvDrama.com put it so eloquently:
* The Last season of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' introduces a new form of Super-Vampire called the Turokhan. Turokhans have the same weaknesses as regular vampires. They die by a wooden stake in the heart, or decapitation, or sunlight. But their strengths are massively amplified, to the point that the highly experienced and strong Buffy Summers is unable to drive a stake deep enough through the Turokahn's super tough and thick skin to pierce its heart. A vicious, brutal, lopsided beatdown of curbstomp proportions ensues. Later Buffy is only able to kill this one Turokhan by luring him to a battlefield of her choosing where, after a lengthy battle she finally manages to decapitate him using razor wire. So, clearly the Turokhan are insanely tough right? This was the point. Cue the inverse law of Ninjas. In the final episodes Buffy and her squad of newly activated rookie slayers proceed to casually and effortlessly dust Turokhans left and right. Upstairs, the purely human (but fairly badass by human standards) Robin Wood is also effortlessly killing every Turokhan that comes near him with a simple metal knife to the chest. Nerdy little Andrew and clueless Anya (also both human, and considerably less combat-capable than Robin) are also effortlessly killing Turokhans. Anya kills one with a glancing blow from her sword to the hip. [[Word of God]] acknowledges the inconsistency, but says that the story of empowerment is more important than continuity [http://slayageonline.com/EBS/btvs/DVD_Commentaries/chosen.htm here]▼
▲{{quote|
** [http://www.firsttvdrama.com/enterprise/e5.php3 Also] from FirstTvDrama.com - an [[Excuse Plot]] (for a mpreg fanfic from nowhere) not even bothering with remembering the excuse:
{{quote|''I spent three days on an alien ship and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.''
At least Reed made an effort to ask if Tucker got a look at their weapons. But nobody asked anything about the trip. Archer didn't ask if Tucker could get a picture of the aliens, or at least make an effort to draw one for Starfleet's records. Hoshi didn't ask for a copy of their language. They gave the aliens information on what Tucker eats, but Tucker didn't try to pocket an alien cheese stick or anything to bring back with him. For God's sakes, the aliens had food growing all over the walls and Tucker couldn't grab a couple of grapes as he made his way out the door?
Why is it that B&B have been going out of their way to hype up the "exploring and discovering new lifeforms" angle (going so far as to create an entire prequal series to do so) if all we're doing is watching the crew take these encounters casually? }}
▲** Another ''Enterprise'' episode sent the ship to investigate the first human colony outside the solar system to find out why it had suddenly stopped communicating with Earth - ''roughly 80 years prior''. Nobody had been sent to check this out earlier, because humans didn't have sufficiently fast ships. When T'Pol points out that the Vulcans had such ships eighty years ago, and could have investigated immediately, Captain Archer says only that asking favors from the Vulcans tended to carry a high price. There is no further elaboration of this point, even though they later discover that prompt Vulcan disaster-recovery assistance would have been extremely helpful to the colonists.
▲* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' plays [[How Unscientific|fast and loose with its own rules]] at the best of times, mostly because it's [[MST3K Mantra|more concerned]] with being a [[Rule of Funny|sitcom]]. One notable example of many is a double-whammy: In "Backwards", how are Rimmer and Kryten able to keep in contact with Holly on Backwards Earth when the ship (and thus Holly's mainframe) is in a completely different part of space ''and'' time? And if Holly ''is'' in contact with them, why doesn't she just tell Lister and the Cat what happened to them, instead of leaving Lister and the Cat to trawl through space for ''three weeks'' before finding the time hole?
▲* The Last season of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' introduces [[Serial Escalation|a new form of Super-Vampire]] called the Turokhan. Turokhans have the same weaknesses as regular vampires. They die by a wooden stake in the heart, or decapitation, or sunlight. But their strengths are massively amplified, to the point that the highly experienced and strong Buffy Summers is unable to drive a stake deep enough through the Turokahn's super tough and thick skin to pierce its heart. A vicious, brutal, lopsided beatdown of curbstomp proportions ensues. Later Buffy is only able to kill this one Turokhan by luring him to a battlefield of her choosing where, after a lengthy battle she finally manages to decapitate him using razor wire. So, clearly the Turokhan are insanely tough right? This was the point. Cue the inverse law of Ninjas. In the final episodes Buffy and her squad of newly activated rookie slayers proceed to casually and effortlessly dust Turokhans left and right. Upstairs, the purely human (but fairly badass by human standards) Robin Wood is also effortlessly killing every Turokhan that comes near him with a simple metal knife to the chest. Nerdy little Andrew and clueless Anya (also both human, and considerably less combat-capable than Robin) are also effortlessly killing Turokhans. Anya kills one with a glancing blow from her sword to the hip. [[Word of God]] acknowledges the inconsistency, but says that the story of empowerment is more important than continuity [http://slayageonline.com/EBS/btvs/DVD_Commentaries/chosen.htm here]
** One popular fan theory is that the first Turokhan Buffy fought, the one that gave her so much trouble, was the #1 champion fighter of the entire race and significantly more capable than his rank-and-file brethren. (And it would be logical, when sending a lone warrior to attack your enemy's strongest fighter, to send the strongest warrior ''you'' have instead of just randomly picking an average one.)
* Towards the end of Season 1 of ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'', the [[Cowboy Cop]] ATF Agent Stahl attempts to fracture the charter by setting up Opie to look like he's gone into witness protection. She then cuts Opie loose because she doesn't have enough to hold him, but bugs his phone and car on the chance that he says something incriminating. SAMCRO has every reason to believe that Opie's the snitch and of course they do believe this, which is confirmed in their minds when they find the bugs. Now at this point, the Cops and ATF know that A) either SAMCRO or Opie himself discovered the bugs and destroyed them- in either case they are not going to produce any evidence, B) SAMCRO is extremely likely to murder Opie as a result of their little trick, and C) in 24 hours, the US Attorney will reveal his case, charging Opie and proving that he is ''not'' the snitch. Hale, the [[Fair Cop]], is torn up about what to do - reasoning that if he tells SAMCRO that Opie is not the snitch, he is leaking classified information. But all he needs to do is keep him safe for one night, and the answer should be staring him in the face: ''arrest Opie'' on a trumped-up charge (which is hardly as bad as the crap they pulled to get to this point) and keep him off the streets for 24 hours. The truth comes out the very next day. But he dithers so long that Opie's wife is murdered in a botched hit because he was [[Acquitted Too Late]], setting off the events of Season 2.
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* ''[[Bob and George]]'' [http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/index.php?date=011019 gleefully] [[Lampshades]] its plot holes, at one point doing a ''[http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/index.php?date=010815 literal]'' [[Hand Wave]]. On at least one case it went back and [http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/index.php?date=060202 filled] a plot hole ''years'' after it was made. As an extension of the running joke "There are no plot holes", ''[[Bob and George]]'''s forums automatically replaced the words 'plot hole' with 'spoon', since [[The Matrix|There is no spoon.]]
* In the webcomic "[[Real Life]]", a Plot Hole appears as a sort of space-time anomaly which functions as a portal into a blank dimension in which the protagonist has to resolve the current hole in the plot of the [[Story Arc]] before they can escape back into "reality". Thus far, the mechanism has only been used once. Said plot hole was eventually tricked into manifesting in a different dimension entirely, with tragic consequences.
* [http://www.badlydrawnkitties.com/OldComics/20020617_gif_view.htm This strip] of ''[[Badly Drawn Kitties]]'' explains a plot hole rather succinctly. In fact, you could say it explains ''all'' plot holes rather succinctly.
* [http://lunarandkirk.comicgenesis.com/d/20051005.html This strip] of "The Wacky Adventures of Lunar and Kirk" is the first of a series involving a literal hole in the world caused by a plot hole, which will swallow and destroy anyone or anything that enters it.
* The ship in [[I Was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates from Outer Space]] veers dangerously near to a Plot Hole, before they are saved by a hasty (offpage) explanation.
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* Plot holes appear in the quite literal sense in [[The Way of the Metagamer]].
* ''[[Ansem Retort]]'' not only handwaved the "Yuffie got killed in Season 1" hole, but pointed out that recurring characters include [[Star Wars|Darth Maul]] and Jesus, so any minor plot hole pretty much means nothing.
* ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]'' [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=536 illustrates] a problem common with badly thought out [[prequel]]s.
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