MovieChat Forums > Elsewhere (2009) Discussion > Unanswered questions, plot holes, **SPOI...

Unanswered questions, plot holes, **SPOILER WARNING**


Sarah was reading Jillian's diary and that's the last we see or hear of it. I thought it had to be important since Sarah took such a risk to get it.

Sarah's car not starting at the Tod farm, then it started fine the next day and Jasper said there was nothing wrong with it. I wondered if Tod had tampered with it, perhaps thinking that Sarah would be forced to stay overnight? Darla seemed really freaked that the car wouldn't start, calling to her father even though Sarah said she could call Jasper.

What kind of mother would leave a 17 year old girl on her own for days at a time? Sarah could have been put into foster care if anyone had reported it. She was alone in a house with no security system. The mother didn't call to check on her. She didn't realize something was really wrong when Sarah ran sobbing into her arms after the cop grabbed her.

What did Tod whisper into Sarah's ear at the end? The way he had killed Jillian? He did add that Sarah's name was the last thing Jillian had said. He also said the bodies would never be found. Sarah and Jasper had a lot of explaining to do to the cops. Since Jillian had never been reported missing, I wondered if anyone would believe them. Where were all these cops when Sarah tried to get a search for Jillian started? When the crooked cop brushed her off, why didn't she go to his superior? Why didn't she report all this to Jillian's mother so she could file a missing persons report?

The ending was way too abrupt. There should have been some kind of closure. What happened to Darla?

The store where the three girls worked never seemed to have many customers. How could the owner afford to hire all three of them?






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That and they never did explain why that bastard cop attacked Sarah like that in her back yard. Or why bald creepy dad had all that strength and was able to run the way he was. Someone with his figure certainly wouldn't be able to accomplish those feats.

Sad thing is, people actually paid money to see this in the theatre. It's safe to assume that since neither (v) or (tv) is in the title.

--
R.I.P. America, 1776 - 2008.
Cause of death: Suicide.

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ahem, well

The diary was just to get the password to her online account. They were like "How are we gonna find the password?" and Sarah went to go steal the diary. She found the password in it and that was that.

I think the car thing was mostly a suspense mechanism, lol. I thought maybe she was just flooding the engine because she was so nervous? I don't know much about cars though.

Dude my mom (single mom and no siblings) was totally like that because she worked so much. I didn't think that part was unreasonable. They explained it in the beginning too with this awkward exchange. darla: "sarah your mom called she's going to be late-" sara: "AGAIN?!"

I'm thinking yes, the way he killed Jillian. I think it will be okay with the police because they have darla as a witness and the bus from the scary phone video.

I guess the explanation behind the police and Jillian's mother is they all thought she was a runaway. A promiscuous girl constantly talking about running away starts packing her bags then disappears? And the mom did think she had ran away. Idk, all these things were explained really obviously (not in a good way, in an awkward way) in my opinion. I remember thinking while watching it, how purposeful the set up was, and how easy it was to tell what they were doing. But I let myself enjoy it anyway. No hate.

Oh and I prefer abrupt endings. I think it's a personal preference thing, a lot of really successful (commercially and critically) films have abrupt endings.

just sayin.

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The cop attacked her because he thought she would turn him in for tying to have sex with underage girls....If you looked closly each suitcase had a bad in it...This was the bad he had used to suffocate the girls and would have their DNA on it...That would be the proof that she needed along with their suitcases to show why she was at the farm in the first place. People throw around the word "Plot hole to much just because they don't understand things...Not a hard movie to understand

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I don't see any of these things as plotholes, only a list of things you didn't like/understand.

As someone said, the diary was to get the password.

Either the engine not starting was a fluke, or the father tampered with it so Sarah would spend the night, or he'd be given the opportunity to spend time with her alone driving her home. Darla wasn't freaked, she immediately called for her dad because that's what she does. She relies on him for everything. There's a problem, call dad, he'll help.

Leaving a 17-year-old alone for 3 or 4 days? Not that big of deal. Depends on the 17-year-old. Sarah was quite responsible and capable of taking care of herself. If the mom left her with no food or money, then I could see calling CPS. Otherwise... that is a huge overreaction.
The mom could have called to check on her.. We don't know. It's not important to the story. And Sarah probably lied about why she was so scared because that cop just threatened her to keep quiet.

He whispered what he did to Jillian, and it was awful. He may have told her where to find the body, we don't know. We're supposed to use our imagination. They do have a lot of explaining to do to the cops, it will just happen offscreen. Viewers already know what happened, it's better to end it on a somewhat triumphant note than to review a bunch of things we already know. I know some resolution is sometimes nice, but I like what they did here. She solved the case, and then had to walk away from it, unable to be near that man for another second.

Darla... she'd probably be pretty messed up, but her father messed her up already. Nothing Sarah could have said or done would have changed anything for Darla. Her father was a monster.

Budget wasn't big enough for extras? It was a small town. It wasn't important to the story to see a ton of customers. This isn't a plot hole. And honestly, I see shops all the time that I do not understand how they stay in business.

The only thing you mentioned that could be problematic storywise would be that Sarah never tried to go to the cop's superior when he dismissed her claims. But it was a small town, it would be her word against his. Plus she was scared of him. And was of the mindset, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. She knew Jillian better than any cop, and she was the best person to solve her disappearance. So it was convenient to the plot that she never went to a superior, not really a plot hole.

Tomorrow's just your future yesterday!

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Darla did something to Sarah's car. When she is in the kitchen with Darla's dad, she glances out the window and sees Darla standing by her car, then when she goes to start it Darla immediately appears at the side of the car.

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The only problem I saw with the police was that Sarah didn't call them herself.

She finds the bus from the video she was sent and showed to that one cop, a bus that had Jillian's suitcase, as well as a suitcase with Janet's stuff in it.

So she calls Janet's mom and tells her to call the police... because the cops are really going to listen to the crazy homeless woman who has been putting up fliers and looking for her daughter with no help from the authorities for quite some time. How many calls do you think they've got from her over the years as she's rambled on crazily about her missing daughter?

Then she decides to call Jasper, who is about 20 feet away from the bus, instead of just quietly walking off the bus and whispering to him, while she calls the cops. She had plenty of operational cell phones to call the police with, if she was really dead-set on calling Jasper, she could have picked up one of the other phones and called the police while she called him on her phone.

But apparently the police believed the crazy woman they never believed before, and sent the town's whole police force out to investigate. They could have easily had Sarah call the police herself which she could back up with descriptions of evidence and some level of credibility while Mr. Tod still comes out to investigate the strange light coming from the barn.

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No shock that she didn't go to the cop who assaulted her for help. That she calls them at the end is more of a surprise, and evidently the town has more than one.

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