Mistakes/Inconsistencies & Plotholes in Action

[xrayvision]

Talk about plotholes and other mistakes you saw in Action here.

[Honey45]

Movies use real guns instead of props now?

I understand the guy was trying to kill Rachel, but he wouldn't even have a gun with blanks. He either should have had a prop gun that the movie was using, or a real gun that HE brought.


Also, Clark wants to stay out of the spotlight because he wants to hide his powers right? Well what better way to hide from the puiblic than to let Hollywood producers shoot a big budget movie at your house, then have the star of the movie stay in your living room.
:rolleyes:

[Dodge006]

No, and the funny thing is, most people don't know how blanks really work. You can't just put in a live round into a prop gun, and movies always do that in situations like this. It pisses me off.

[strmbldr317]

Originally posted by Dodge006
No, and the funny thing is, most people don't know how blanks really work. You can't just put in a live round into a prop gun, and movies always do that in situations like this. It pisses me off.

Relax, dude.....it's part of the whole fun of the episode lampooning itself.

[KU Superdude]

Originally posted by Dodge006
No, and the funny thing is, most people don't know how blanks really work. You can't just put in a live round into a prop gun, and movies always do that in situations like this. It pisses me off.

It was a prop, but it was also a functional gun. I started a thread about this flub, but I'll state it again. Did anyone notice how when Clark caught the bullet, the casing was still attached to the bullet? Obvious oversight.

[redeem147]

It is how Brandon Lee died, the use of a real gun instead of a prop. I would assume security has been tighter and more caution has been shown on sets since.

But, it's a TV show. And one could argue that the PA had produced the gun that could fire bullets that just looked like a prop gun, because he had planned to kill the actress since he'd started working on the shoot (even longer, since he'd worked to get on the shoot in the first place).

[KU Superdude]

What does security have to do with whether a prop gun is real or not? If anything is tighter, it's the hiring process of equipment testers to make sure there are no accidents on set.

[Crispin Glover]

Wow, if this thread is concerned with this fake gun/real gun thing then I don't know how all of you watch "Smallville." This is minor compared to the many problems writing wise the show has had in the past, things that actually affect the show in the long run.

[fbvn6377]

know where his father was kept prisoner ? : we see him popping into the cabin with a gun at hand !Could you explain that to me ?
Nice epi by the way!

[dh1031]

we see him popping into the cabin with a gun at hand !Could you explain that to me ? From when Lois broke into Lex's office, she left the documentation showing where Luthorcorp acquired the land/cabin where Lionel was being held near Reeve's dam. Considering what has been happening, Lex went out there to see what was going on - he saw Lana's initials on the paperwork, but did not directly know Lionel was there.

[SuperVille =) CK]

Originally posted by dh1031
From when Lois broke into Lex's office, she left the documentation showing where Luthorcorp acquired the land/cabin where Lionel was being held near Reeve's dam. Considering what has been happening, Lex went out there to see what was going on - he saw Lana's initials on the paperwork, but did not directly know Lionel was there.

So Lex knows the truth behind his father's imprisonment? as Lionel knows ..

[moviefan2k4]

Anyone besides me think the initials on that paper looked nothing like anyone's handwriting? C'mon, who actually signs regularly in calligraphy?!

[DarkChilde]

Originally posted by dh1031
Lex went out there to see what was going on - he saw Lana's initials on the paperwork, but did not directly know Lionel was there.

LL is the intials of Lex, Lionel, Lois and Lana

[clarkbunny]

My plot holes

what happened to Rachel while Clark was saving Lana?

What was the point of the fan pushing Lana off the building, I thought he was forcing Clark to make a choice between Lana and his destiny SO what was the other option the fan set up to represent Clark's destiny - I thought it was meant to be Rachel?

I thought Clark would save Lana then get back upstairs and find the fan had killed Rachel or something - that just made no sense.

What was the point of the fan trying to kill the actress that played the Avenging Angel's (or whatever the hero's name was) girlfriend? That wouldn't change the plot of the film, they'd just get someone else to play the girlfriend - pointless storyline :rolleyes:

what happened to the fan after Clark saved Lana? We saw nothing and then suddenly Rachel is fine and bringing a present to Clark and the fan is in Belle Reve.

How comes Clark had a comic where the hero saves his girlfriend and is holding the bullet in his hand - I thought the hero's gf died in the comet? Did the fan draw a new comic to show what Clark had done?

Why would Clark ring Lana's mobile at aunt Nell's house instead of dialling aunt Nell's landline?

[xrayvision]

What did Lionel do with Marilyn? Did he bury her, or did he call the cops? Lionel style usually means taking care of the body himself. Or did Lana do it (which brings a new dimension of darkness to her character)? If Lionel took care of the body, why doesn't Lana trust him? He obviously was justified in killing her after what he went through.

[marka58091]

What are the odds that Lana's henchwoman found Lionel lying in the river and then brought him to the cabin and held him hostage.

[Mello Penelo]

Why were there so many unresolved plots? Like Chloe's interview? Or what happened to the guy who threw Lana off the building? Did the movie wrap?

[xrayvision]

Another question:

Why was Lana lurking in the fields when she shoveled Lionel? How did she know there was distress at the cabin that Lionel was being held in?

[guittarjedi]

When Clark saved the actress in the beginning he displayed his powers in front of a film crew of over 20 people and nobody noticed!! Oh well, it looked so cool I can let it slide.

[Kalerado]

Originally posted by guittarjedi
When Clark saved the actress in the beginning he displayed his powers in front of a film crew of over 20 people and nobody noticed!! Oh well, it looked so cool I can let it slide.

The film crew was nowhere in view of the accident. Rachel had already been over a hill, out of view, and was travelling at a high rate of speed.

[chantal]

I guess most of you guys are too young to remember Jon-Erik Hexum, an actor who was killed by a blank fired from a prop gun.

From Wiki:

"On October 12, 1984, after finishing a scene in which he fired several blank rounds from a .44 Magnum revolver, Hexum's character was supposed to unload the gun and reload it with inert dummy rounds, which was required for the next scene in the script—a procedure that Jon-Erik was not familiar with, and which was usually done by the prop masters. The shooting of the next scene was delayed several times. While waiting for the prop masters to unload the blanks from the gun, Hexum jokingly put the gun up to his temple and allegedly said,

"Let's see if I get myself with this one."

Hexum apparently did not realize that blanks use paper or plastic wadding to seal gun powder into the shell, and that this wadding is propelled out of the barrel of the gun with enough force to cause severe injury or death if the weapon is fired at point-blank range, especially if pointed at a particularly vulnerable spot, such as the temple or the eye. Although the paper wadding in the blank that Hexum discharged did not penetrate his skull, the wad struck him in the temple with enough blunt force trauma to shatter a quarter-sized piece of his skull and propel the pieces into his brain."

Having known about this, I was PO'd about the scene in Prodigal when Lionel was forced (by Lucas) to hold a blank filled gun at Lex's head. In theory, Lex was supposed to be safe if Lionel had shot him, but in reality it could have killed him anyway. Not very bright of Lex.

This was Wiki's write up on how Brandon Lee died.

"Because the movie's second unit team were running behind schedule, it was decided that dummy cartridges (cartridges that outwardly appear to be functional, but contain no gunpowder) would be made from real cartridges. A cartridge with only a primer and a bullet was fired in the pistol prior to the scene. It caused a squib load, in which the primer provided enough force to push the bullet out of the cartridge and into the barrel of the revolver, where it became stuck.

The malfunction went unnoticed by the crew, and the same gun was used again later to shoot the death scene, having been re-loaded with blanks. However, the squib load was still lodged in the barrel, and was propelled by the blank cartridge's explosion out of the barrel and into Lee's body. Although the bullet was traveling much more slowly than a normally fired bullet would be, the bullet's large size and the nearly point-blank firing distance made it powerful enough to mortally wound Lee."

This was also in Wiki:

"The safety and proper handling of real weapons used as movie props is the premiere responsibility of the prop master, who is often monitored by off-duty police, fireman, and/or ATF agents."

[Kalerado]

Originally posted by Mello Penelo
Or what happened to the guy who threw Lana off the building? Did the movie wrap?

Obviously, Clark ran back upstairs at super-speed and kicked his keyster after he caught Lana.
Yeah, the movie wrapped because of Clark's farewell scene with Rachel. She was leaving town because the filming they were doing on-location was completed.

[chantal]

Originally posted by xrayvision
Another question:

Why was Lana lurking in the fields when she shoveled Lionel? How did she know there was distress at the cabin that Lionel was being held in?

Marilyn must have called her to let her know that Lionel had escaped. Or else she was on her way to the cabin because Lionel was "finally" awake and she had things to discuss with him. But I don't know why she was carrying a shovel, unless she planned to murder and bury him. Or transplant some pot!

[AngelaV]

Originally posted by moviefan2k4
Anyone besides me think the initials on that paper looked nothing like anyone's handwriting? C'mon, who actually signs regularly in calligraphy?!

that wasn't calligraphy, that was girl loopyes :) I'm surprised there wasn't a flower or heart drawn near the Ls.

[TampaVille]

Originally posted by DarkChilde
LL is the intials of Lex, Lionel, Lois and Lana

True. Lex knows it wasn't his handwriting though, and it would have made no sense for it to have been Lois. That leaves Lionel and Lana. Either one would certainly warrant armed investigation. :)

Originally posted by clarkbunny
My plot holes

1. what happened to Rachel while Clark was saving Lana?

2. What was the point of the fan pushing Lana off the building, I thought he was forcing Clark to make a choice between Lana and his destiny SO what was the other option the fan set up to represent Clark's destiny - I thought it was meant to be Rachel?

3. I thought Clark would save Lana then get back upstairs and find the fan had killed Rachel or something - that just made no sense.

4. What was the point of the fan trying to kill the actress that played the Avenging Angel's (or whatever the hero's name was) girlfriend? That wouldn't change the plot of the film, they'd just get someone else to play the girlfriend - pointless storyline :rolleyes:

5. what happened to the fan after Clark saved Lana? We saw nothing and then suddenly Rachel is fine and bringing a present to Clark and the fan is in Belle Reve.

6. How comes Clark had a comic where the hero saves his girlfriend and is holding the bullet in his hand - I thought the hero's gf died in the comet? Did the fan draw a new comic to show what Clark had done?

7. Why would Clark ring Lana's mobile at aunt Nell's house instead of dialling aunt Nell's landline?

I hope you don't mind, but I added numbers to your list to make it easier to respond to each individual point.

1. Rachel and Lana had both been tasered at least once by the crazy set manager baddie. It's safe to assume that if he wanted her unconscious, he just tasered her again.

2. I don't think anybody every said the fan was trying to give Clark a choice. That's a pretty common theme in super hero universes. I've seen a lot of people referencing the Spiderman movie where the bad guy gave Spidey such a choice. That's not what this fan was doing. I think he felt that Clark was being tethered to his non-superhero ways by Lana. There are whole threads discussing whether that's the case, so I won't voice an opinion here. As long as the fan believed it, though, then his actions make sense, from a crazy baddie point of view.

3. Again, Rachel wasn't actually part of the plan. Originally he'd wanted to kill her because she was playing Warrior Angel's gf, and in the comics, the gf dies. Crazy baddie says at one point, "Warrior Angel was all I had. Now I have you" (to Clark, paraphrased). Once he realizes Clark has actual superpowers, he gets over his Warrior Angel obsession, and turns to a Clark Kent obsession. Rachel just happens to be in the way; crazy tech guy's new victim is Lana.

4. It was metaphoric. His goal wasn't to change the plot of the movie. His goal was to make a point, a point which will be familiar to almost any fan of these types of shows. He wanted to show the producers that the fans care, and don't appreciate having important parts of their series trampled. He certainly took it to an extreme, by attempting to kill a person. Sometimes fans of a series will boycott a movie if they don't think it's doing the book/tv show/comic book/etc on which it was based justice. They don't expect to get the movie changed (since in many cases the movie is already out by the time such a boycott is organized). It's just a symbol to send a message. Crazy bad guy trying to kill Rachel is an insane version of that.

5. SV is pretty bad about following up on what happens after the action, but to be fair they only have an hour to tell a whole story and juggle several often times confusing plotlines. I think it's pretty safe to assume that Clark supersped back up to the top and called the police. When Lex visits the crazy tech guy in Belle Reve, he mentions that the crazy kid had been raving about a man with superpowers who caught a bullet. Again, it's not too difficult to put two and two together, and figure that the guy was raving about what he had really seen, nobody had believed him, and he got locked up in the asylum. It's all the easier to figure out as the same thing has happened before on the show many times. You'd think that by now, somebody that works at Belle Reve would have realized that all the crazies have the SAME crazy story, lol. THAT is a plot hole. ;)

6. Clark was mailed that comic book by the crazy bad guy. I'm not sure I understand your question. Warrior Angel appears in more than a single comic book. We know his comic series consists of at least six or seven books, since Lex attempts to give about that many to crazy fan tech guy as a bribe. We can assume there are many more, since crazy tech guy gets very excited and refers to those being the most expensive ones. I can go on about why we can assume pretty easily that there are many comic books if you're not convinced.

If your question is how could Warrior Angel's girlfriend have died and been saved when shot at, the answer is pretty obvious. At one point, somebody shot at her and Warrior Angel caught the bullet. Later, somebody shot at her, and Warrior Angel did not catch the bullet. For example, with arbitrary numbers:

In Warrior Angel no. 7, evil bad guy could have shot at the gf, and Warrior Angel swooped in and caught the bullet. In Warrior Angel no. 52, Devilicus could have shot at the gf, but this time Warrior Angel didn't get there in time. In this case, the movie would be based on plot items in no. 52, while it was no. 7 that the fan guy mailed to Clark.

If I'm not understanding your question, which I might not be since the answer seems pretty obvious, please tell me. I'd like to understand it.

7. I'm not sure what time it was, but it could have been past appropriate phone call time. If it's past 9:00 or so, I won't call most of my adult-age friends. I'm up at all hours of the night, but most adults are not. It's considered proper protocol not to call past a certain time. Also, I use most of my friends' cell phones as their primary phones. I don't even own a land line. I have many friends who do have land lines, but I don't ever use them, because I use their cells instead. It's not really a plot hole that he tried Lana's cell phone first. If she hadn't answered, he might have tried her on Nell's land line.


Anyway, I hope I was helpful. Though SV is pretty riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies, it seems to me that the items you listed were basically misunderstandings. If you disagree with me on any of the explanations I gave, please share.

Originally posted by Mello Penelo
Why were there so many unresolved plots? Like Chloe's interview? Or what happened to the guy who threw Lana off the building? Did the movie wrap?

Chloe's interview can safely be assumed to have taken place off camara. Rachel was living at Clark's house, for goodness sake! Chloe could pretty easily reach her there. :)

What happened to the guy who threw Lana off the building was explained relatively well. I tackled that issue in this response, higher up.

Regarding whether the movie wrapped, we know that the filming at the Kent Farm was completed, since Rachel gave Clark a going away gift at the end of the episode. Whether or not filming for the movie in its entirety is complete is left unexplained, but frankly I don't call that a plot hole.

Originally posted by guittarjedi
When Clark saved the actress in the beginning he displayed his powers in front of a film crew of over 20 people and nobody noticed!! Oh well, it looked so cool I can let it slide.

As somebody else pointed out, the car crash was not within line of sight of the film crew. If what you meant was that he displayed his powers by disappearing, he could very easily have just run at normal speed out of line of sight of the crew. Everybody was looking in the direction of the car anyway, so he just had to get behind them. Keep in mind that when he superspeeds, it doesn't really look like a flash of blue color. He just disappeared. They used the disappear effect with great results in the Season 6 episode, toward the end of the season, when Lana sees Clark use his strength to rip the big heavy door off the Luthor wine cellar, then sees him use his heat vision to weld it back on.

Like you said, the scene did look very cool! I loved how they had the stray car door slam into Clark after the crash was mostly over. It was synced up with the action music and was just a generally great Clark save.

[limi]

Originally posted by TampaVille
You'd think that by now, somebody that works at Belle Reve would have realized that all the crazies have the SAME crazy story, lol. THAT is a plot hole. ;)
:lol: You're absolutely right! I can only assume that Belle Reve's employees, seeing as the patients are all insane, simply don't believe them.

When Clark realizes Rachel's location has been compromised and asks Lana to take her away, isn't that Oliver's place they're at? Lana and Rachel aren't supposed to know they're connected, so what are they doing there?

[TampaVille]

Originally posted by limi
:lol: You're absolutely right! I can only assume that Belle Reve's employees, seeing as the patients are all insane, simply don't believe them.

When Clark realizes Rachel's location has been compromised and asks Lana to take her away, isn't that Oliver's place they're at? Lana and Rachel aren't supposed to know they're connected, so what are they doing there?

Was that really Oliver's place? I don't know how I missed that. I'm going a little out on a limb here, since I don't remember early Season 6 TOO well, but I do believe that Clark and Oliver were openly friends. I recall him saying things about Oliver to Chloe before she knew Oliver was Green Arrow. Being friends with billionaires isn't totally unprecedented for Clark, though if I revealed I was close friends with Bill Gates and Donald Trump, I would think my friends might start asking questions. At any rate, if they were openly friends, and he's out of town, and it really was his place, no problem in using his apartment. I have a lot of if's in there though, so I'm not crossing this one off the list of potential plot holes! :)

[xrayvision]

I meant to mention that. I noticed they were at the clock tower and was thinking what the hell are they doing there?

[kentfamily]

Quote:
When Clark realizes Rachel's location has been compromised and asks Lana to take her away, isn't that Oliver's place they're at? Lana and Rachel aren't supposed to know they're connected, so what are they doing there?

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Maybe it is asumed that Oliver probably told Clark that he could use his penthouse at anytime when he wasn't there or to keep an eye on his place while he wasnt around.

I think Lana does know that Clark are connected with Oliver. Lana also knows all of the other Justice League members all except the flash, the one that runs faster than Clark.

Lana met Oliver when dating Lex.
Lana met Aquaman when dating Clark.
Lana crashed into Cyborg with her car.

I think the inconsistencies are; when Clark calls Lana and asks her to pick Rachel up. When Clark was already at the farm and said "this place is not safe anymore", Why Didnt He Take Her To OLIVER's Place himself?
I think Clark was checking up on Lana. LOL! She is always at Aunt Nell's. Doesn't Clark wonder why she is always there all day and comes home late?