MovieChat Forums > Ratatouille (2007) Discussion > 3 gaping plot holes with the ending

3 gaping plot holes with the ending


1. With the amount of time Linguini spent in the kitchen with Remy controlling his movements, watching what Remy was having him make, you would think by the end of the movie that Linguini would have learned how to cook some of those things and he wouldn't have been hopelessly lost without Remy, unless he was a complete idiot.

2. The health inspector says to Skinner over the phone it would take him 3 months to go to Gusteau's to conduct his inspection, unless "somebody cancels their appointment." However, he shows up pretty much the next day, meaning, unless he was just speaking figuratively to Skinner, that every single person who he had an appointment with for the the course of those 3 months cancelled within a day, which has snowball's chance in Hell of happening. And since when do restaurants schedule appointments for the health inspector to conduct their inspections? Don't health inspectors usually show up unannounced, to catch those in violation with their pants down? That's pretty much what he does at Gusteau's, which leads me to...

3. The health inspector has Gusteau's shut down, upon discovering that rats have been in the kitchen. So, Linguini, Collette, Ego, and the rats start their own new restaurant, that has its kitchen run by rats. But if the health inspector comes in unannounced to catch them with their pants down, like he did with Gusteau's, the place will only stay open a year, if not a month, before it gets shut down, too. What a depressing ending.

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I agree with the objections that others have pointed out:

1. He is an idiot when it comes to cooking. He probably goes all blank when Remy takes over, being more concerned not to lose his balance/make a mess. Even if he has learned something, he crumbles under pressure and forgets everything when pushed to cook on his own.

2. They were first on the waiting list (presumably due to the urgency of the call), so it only took one cancellation.

3. My take was that they must have a very elaborate plan for such an occasion. Since they know very well what can happen if they get caught, they probably have planned for every possibility regarding the inspector, e.g. lock all back doors, have a number of humans who can pretend to be the only ones working in the kitchen, every rat working in the kitchen knows where to hide/escape within milliseconds if there is an inspector alert, they have a network of (rat) spies tracking every move of the inspector(s)...etc. Plus Ego's full backing, who must have some useful connections.

~*~

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1 - Linguine was an idiot.

2 - Its a movie device. Not likely but possible.. you can pick any movie ever made and have this nitpick.

3 - The restaurant was out in the open... with everyone going there knowing Remy was cooking their food. The restaurant was also clearly shown outside the city limits of Paris, outside the health inspectors reach. Remy is open in the kitchen and has a window that he can look out into the dining room... and the name of the restaurant has a cooking rat logo in it.

I would imagine Anton Ego has a lot of pull with the readers as the biggest food critic in the city and if he calls something nothing less than the finest chef in Paris... that is going to have some weight with the readers... hence the long line to get into the restaurant at the end. Remy was accepted as a chef by the biggest and hardest critic there was... end of story.

Beautiful movie - beautiful message.

OHHH GOOOD FOR YOU!!

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