Plot Hole (spoilers)


If 'Hilbert' had a way to escape how was he going to ensure that the others would be dead? Doesn't make sense that he could assume they would all die from being squished before he did and would still be able to make his escape through the blackboard.

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After Hilbert founded the way out through the blackboard "accidentally", he would manage to convince them to leave first the room...afterwards, he would never send the service lift back up to them.

From my point of view that's the only option he could get his own way...

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Yes, but if they break the board, why don't they break the door when they assume they're trapped....
Kind of moroned...

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The door may have been stronger than we assume. We do not know.

can't talk. eating brains

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"moroned" - What an appropriate Freudian slip of a typo! LOL!

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Wasn't it him who wrote "FREEDOM" on the blackboard..? Maybe he was offering them a way out, if they could work it out.

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[deleted]

He could "discover" the exit and be quicker to mont the lift. He was the only one to knew what to expect, so he could have enter there before. Perhaps he could say "I will prove if this can sustain the weight or it is another trap before you, Oliva, enter there".

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[deleted]

Yes, you are right. Then I guess he would jump on the elevator without any excuse :-)

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Not improbable at all. Firstly, (and lastly :) ) he didn't plan to be knocked down so he could've "found" the exit at earlier time, before panick. So he would have had time to persuade them to go first.
And also, there were no children. "Women and children first" is very much different than "Women first", isn't it?

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The explanation that he would somehow convince the others to allow him to exit first doesn't work. The others had figured out that he was the one trying to kill them, and in fact, he had planned on them figuring this out (He urges the girl to reveal their connection and then later explains his whole plan precisely as if he had been waiting for his opportunity to do so). With this knowledge, there is no logic he could have used to persuade the others to let him out first. So the question of his escape is indeed dubious.

An entertaining movie, but doesn't really hold up on closer inspection.

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"Not so (and thus adds a further hole to an already heavily perforated script). In such a dangerous situation, it would be natural for women and children to be allowed to escape first"

- Actually, it's women, children and elderly. Being old as he is, it would be quite easy to fake a heart related panic attack thing, making the others insist he goes first.

"I want a frisbee made of Mexico."

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[deleted]

Nor is an elderly person's life as valuable.



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If I had to chose between saving the life of a beautiful woman or an old geezer I would chose the woman and hope she "rewards" me for saving her life. But then some would call me a sexist pig. lol :)

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After the final light is crushed he'd break his way through the blackboard, nobody would be able to see what he's doing.

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[deleted]

Maybe he didn't want her to die, didn't they have a relationship? Maybe he didn't intent to tell them his plan but he just got so frustrated it got the best of him...
Who knows!
And the door thing, it seemed quite strong, so once it got to a certain point I find it difficult to believe that they could break it...

(Y la única razón por la que defiendo esta película es porque hace años no veía una española que me interesara... decadas de hecho )

"Surrender to the void."

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Good point. But the film is still riddled with holes. As sure as Michael Bay likes to blow *beep* up, this film could've been awesome.

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I had the same question, but I like the idea that he will be the first to use the lift and then just never send it back up. Even if the other characters had protested, he could have easily used the argument that he found it, and therefore was entitled to go first.



"Red car ... good point!"

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This part of the story bugged me as well.

When the escape was found and they were leaving I was 100% convinced we were in for a double twist ending, the three characters to leave through the blackboard only to find themselves trapped in another room and still set to die while the main room would stop crushing and Hilbert would make his genuine escape.

This is the only way I could see his plan for surviving working, by choosing to take the blackboard exit the other three sealed their fate while Hilbert escaped from the main room and completed his game.

But they just walked out, Hilbert got squished and they rowed off with that Olena clearing eying up the beardy bloke, gets about don't she lol

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That would've been awesome.

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That's twist already happened in Saw V (spoilers below).

The two detectives were fighting (Hoffman being Jigsaw's new disciple, and Strahm a real detective). Hoffman tried to push Strahm into the coffin, but Strahm fought back and pushed Hoffman in. At which point, the coffin lid closes and Hoffman smiles and waves - the rest of the room starts closing in and squishes Strahm. Blood splatters everywhere. End scene.

Then again, this movie came out one year before Saw V, so it would have been first.

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And another thing - Did Pascal "just happen" to have a spare set of keys in his underwear? Otherwise, how did he start his van at the end of the movie and drive away after abandoning his pants to escape the shrinking room?

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I;m going to have to agree that he tries to bolt when all the lights go out, Or convinces them to let him go first or second, after the girl. (he is the weakest physically). Both seem plausible.
or he convinces the younger men to engage in a threesome with the young lady THEN gets out.

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I think that he didn't want to escape, he wanted to die just to be discovered that he is the first to solve that mathematical problem, before Galois could have chance to write it again.

that was before he discovered that he was indeed the 1st one that solved that problem, because Galois lied about solving to get Olive, and things got complicated...

...so the exit was there only in case he changes his mind.

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I quite liked the movie, but there were a lot of holes. Here's one more. There were 4 hydraulic presses, but only three walls would have moved. The chalkboard wall could not move because it had a lift shaft behind it. That would be a static wall. Given that one of the walls was static the wall to its left would not have been able to move. The whole structure of the room depends on each of the walls moving inwards as well as moving sideways otherwise the room would not compress.

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If it was me I would have tried to go through the ceiling, unless it was concrete I suppose but didn't seem like it'd be a concrete house. I thought that was going to be the solution to their problem. That and trying to break the main door. It's a pretty crazy story. The people he bought the presses from would just install them with no questions asked?

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I was surprised it didn't turn out he drugged the food. Seems like it would have been more reliable for dispatching Fermat as well rather than assume you will have a chance to plant whatever the other drug was in the seatbelt mechanism and not have something go awry(as it almost did but for the insistance of the police officer). But would have also made him subduing the others in order to escape a plausible scenario.

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