MovieChat Forums > Doppelgänger (1969) Discussion > Biggest plot hole.

Biggest plot hole.

posted 12 years ago by Grymling
18 replies | jump to latest

It's failure to keep it logical, the movie should have ended with a collision with both space crafts colliding in the middle.
If the regular space craft choose to go to the other earth with sun on their left side, the mirrored space craft choose to go with the sun on their left (right). And thus end up meeting/colliding with eachother(imagine a giant mirror between the earths and the sun in the middle).
Or did they for just a moment make a different choice and then keep it strictly mirrored.
I can't follow the logic (all the other things are kept logicly in the movie).

[–] USS_Ranger_Vet 12 years ago

Probably the theory is that they would be going with the rotation of the sun. That was the same for both earths. No reason why that would do that other than to prevent exactly the scenario you present.

[–] Strazdamonas 12 years ago

since they are doing things from the mirrored sides if they would decide to go one woudl go via left side while other would go via right side, therefore not meeting. if its mirrored and both make a "left"side, then one of them is acutally in right side (from original perspective).

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] scurryman 11 years ago

By far the biggest plot hole is the 100% impossibility of history being duplicated on both worlds. The planets in the night sky would be in different positions for both Earths; for example, when Venus is a morning star on Earth A, it will be an evening star on Earth B. So many people let astrology rule their lives that two Earths could never be kept in sync. Hell, in ancient times commanders wouldn't go into battle if their horoscope wasn't favorable.

Even if you discount astrology entirely, our behavior can be influenced by the planets: I remember standing on a bridge a year or two ago to watch a (comparatively) rare occurrence of six planets being in a line across the sky at sunset. My behavior that evening had been changed by the position of the planets in the sky - and I wasn't the only one there.

I still enjoyed the film though.

[–] Strazdamonas 11 years ago

alternative actions can lead to same ending. has the watching of 6 planets changed your life significantly? would you be another person if you have stayed home and watched a movie?

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] scurryman 11 years ago

No, but my point was that if I can think of an occasion where my actions have been altered by the planets in the sky, then so can millions of other people. Someone somewhere will get hit by a car or kicked by a horse that they would otherwise have avoided.

[–] Strazdamonas 11 years ago

and the likelyhood of that significantly changing the worlds history is?

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] scurryman 11 years ago

Never heard of the butterfly effect? You know, the "for want of a nail a shoe was lost" thing.

Anyway, what about the comet/meteor that exploded over Siberia in 1908? Are comets duplicated as well? What about the rock that caused Meteor Crater in Arizona? Hell, what about the huge meteor that finished off the dinosaurs? These were big, significant events caused by singular objects. There is no evidence that anything in the sky has a duplicate.

The film's an entertaining piece of fluff, but the plot doesn't stand up to the slightest scrutiny.

[–] Strazdamonas 11 years ago

if we take that duplicate earth is able to exist, then we could take that duplicate meteors can also exist.
obviously there is no such thing in reality, but in this movies universe there can be.
and butterfly effect is bloated philosophy.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] KobiyashiMauru 11 years ago

If the "Butterfly Effect" is real, then no one can flatulate on Earth anymore. Or you will be the cause of Hurricanes and Typhoons.

[–] Danzence 11 years ago

Of course the butterfly effect is real.
Any action/change, however small, affects the future.

There is one way it could be argued to be realistic.. isn't quantum entanglement where one atom is affected by another without any direct link between the two?

[–] cambus741 11 years ago

The whole idea of a Counter-Earth is a physical impossibility anyway despite being a Science Fiction cliché, so its probably better not to think about that btto much when you watch this film.

[–] bobgio99 9 years ago

and to really f-ck with your mind...is everything we do really in a physical sense or is it our imagination and our mind has tricked into believing we are actually touching something by sending signals to the nerve endings. Or maybe we are just puppets in some crazy drama and each day we "wake" with our whole memory implanted before we wake. So why can't there be a positive earth and a negative earth...the same things happening but on opposite sides of a mirror....

[–] ewaf58 10 years ago

I think that Quantum Entanglement would explain why everything is the same

[–] michaelward15 10 years ago

Counter-earth could be "upside down". That is, it's north pole might be on the opposite side of the plane the two planets orbits are in than our earth's.

[–] madpogue 10 years ago

Which directon to take around the sun would be a point of perpetual controversy in a British film featuring American cast.....

[–] gridsleep 9 years ago

Arguments regarding astrology and quantum entanglement are only revealing the absurdity of the former and the complete misunderstanding of the latter.

The biggest fault of this film is that the other Earth's gravitational effect is not reflected in the motion of the other planets. All of the outer planets that were unseen before the invention of the telescope and improvements to it, were predicted mathematically by subtle variations in the orbits of the known planets. Once their path had been mathematically deduced by their influence, it was a matter of having a powerful enough telescope pointed in the right direction at the right time and there the planet was. Had there been a planet in retrograde to Earth in the same orbit, its mass would have caused discernible variations in all nearby bodies, including the Sun. Only by ignoring the undeniable rules of astronomy does this film work at all. But it's still fun to watch, if very sad at the end.

Also the electrical polarity problem would not have been a problem. The opposite Earth would not be made of antiparticles and be in the same universe as Earth. Electric charge and magnetic domains would be the same on both bodies. Therefore the astronaut could easily test to see if his negative was their negative by the right hand rule of magnetic flux around a conductor. Had the opposite Earth had a left hand rule, then he would have known that the polarity of the circuit would need to be reversed from their normal to be compatible with his orbiter. Again, science trumps fiction. This film is more a science fantasy in the way of Edmund Hamilton and Edgar Rice Burroughs adventures than science fiction of Robert Heinlein or Arthur Clarke.

[–] Raimar_Lunardi 8 years ago

two planets with the same mass can orbit in sync... BUT throw the moon and it's orbit and the other planets and you will more likely become unstable within a decade or so...
(I tested whis scenario on the Universe Sandbox...

[–] 8 years ago

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