MovieChat Forums > Black Mirror (2011) Discussion > Glaring plot hole in Shut Up and Dance

Glaring plot hole in Shut Up and Dance

posted 3 years ago by mudsharkbytes (169)
11 replies | jump to latest

Okay, so it becomes obvious near the end that Kenny was masturbating to child porn and that's why he was so acquiescent to manipulation, but here's the problem:

How the hell can anybody hack both him masturbating AND what he was looking at on his screen at the same time, from a web camera?

The camera captures him, sure, but it can't capture the screen. The hackers can capture the screen, too, but what they can't capture is Kenny and the screen in the same frame unless they have a camera in his room somewhere. Both in one frame is the only kind of evidence that would work as blackmail, and that's not what happened here. It was obvious only the laptop was hacked, and so the only images they could capture are from the webcam.

Any image of Kenny and his screen at the same time would have to to be compiled from two different feeds, which means it can be faked and wouldn't be any kind of an effective blackmail tool.

Am I wrong?

[–] aavfreak (2979) 3 years ago

If he was looking at it online, they could have had a record of him accessing that content from his IP address. Showing the record of accessing the content by itself would be damaging enough, but coupled with the video of him masturbating to it would be effective enough.

[–] mudsharkbytes (169) 3 years ago

A record of an IP address can be easily falsified. They need an image of him whacking his weenie looking at a screen AND the images on the screen in the same shot to have an effective blackmail tool.

[–] EvilPinata (1186) 3 years ago

A lot of Black Mirror deals with nonsensical things or things that aren't real. How is it that this is what you're hung up on?

In this universe why is it so far fetched that one could hack a webcam as well as get a screen capture?

[–] mudsharkbytes (169) 3 years ago

Second question first. It’s totally possible to hack both at once but that proves nothing for obvious reasons.

Your first question is a classic straw man. Because I come here to point out a plot hole in an episode you postulate that I’m “hung up” on it. Nothing of the sort.

Black Mirror doesn’t deal with “nonsensical things,” it is dystopian science fiction, and if you’re going to go there then the science part has to be solid, science and logic. “Shut Up And Dance” is a great episode, but it is, unfortunately, flawed in this way.

There are similar problems with some other episodes too but I’m not going into those here because, like SUAD, they too are also still great episodes, plus, don’t want to be accused of “obsessing” over them.

[–] ArnoStrine (57) 3 years ago

probably the worst episode so no big

[–] phony (219) 2 years ago

thats why im not convinced its obvious that he is a pedophile. Its possible, but not obvious. When the guy asks "and how old where they", he gets more desperate because:
2) He realizes that they can probably make it look like thats what he was masturbating to
1) More importantly, since they have to fight to death, he knows the other guy has a lot more to lose than him

But, yeah, not a very well written episode (and the trollface thing is very cringe), but still pretty good. The best episode is White Christmas, IMO.

[–] mudsharkbytes (169) 2 years ago

The whole point is the ONLY way to show that he was masturbating to child porn is to have another camera over his shoulder showing both him beating his meat AND his computer screen at the same time. There is no other way to really blackmail him.

I agree White Christmas is an outstanding episode and very disturbing.
My other top favorites are White Bear, The National Anthem, and Metalhead - honorable mention going to USS Callister for being so over the top despite a glaring plot hole so big you can drive an entire DNA strand through it!

[–] exatera (3949) 2 years ago

The whole point is the ONLY way to show that he was masturbating to child porn is to have another camera over his shoulder showing both him beating his meat AND his computer screen at the same time.

Why?
I don't remember now whether it was a laptop or a desktop computer, but many monitors have webcams.
Sure there was a way to do it without any external cameras!
Besides, looking at child porn is pretty damning in and of itself.

[–] mudsharkbytes (169) 2 years ago

Pay attention here. The webcam resides on top of the screen - light will not bend around from the screen back into the webcam. There wasn’t a mirror behind him.

Please explain how, using a single webcam on a desktop OR a laptop, any hacker can capture both you and what’s on your screen at the same time.

They can’t. They could compile a split screen but that is not any kind of proof that you’re looking at illegal smut, certainly not anything that would serve as blackmail.

[–] exatera (3949) 2 years ago

They could capture both his face and what's on screen. [shrug]

[–] phony (219) 2 years ago

If they had another camera filming him and the screen they wouldn't need the webcam footage :/
Also, considering they are blackmailing multiple people at the same time, thats waaaaay out there, IMO.