MovieChat Forums > A Quiet Place (2018) Discussion > Too many glaring plotholes

Too many glaring plotholes

posted 6 years ago by PeteyandJia (300)
33 replies | jump to latest

I don't go into movies looking for problems, I want to lose myself and enjoy the ride, but this was just too lazily thought-out. The plotholes were just too glaring from the jump, the very beginning scene. Like, okay, sound is bad; and that's why we're letting our kids run - RUN - around an empty grocery store. And hey, let's go visit the river, to talk about the point that the constant loud sound there is a great cover... and then go back to our quiet house in the woods, instead of living in a goddamn place near something loud like a river or waterfall. And hey, we have an elaborate lighting rig around the house to change colors to warn each other - but not speakers set up all over the place outside, set to easily be able to provide distraction noises to actually draw them away from the house, should they ever get close, much less come inside. Which would be easy as fuck to set up. And yeah, while we're at it, let's pretend like the very best sound-proofing we can do, is to put a mattress over a hole. Wow, what the fuck. I know broke-ass musicians who do a way better job sound-proofing a room than this family, whose lives I'm supposed to believe absolutely depend on this simple concept.

^^
And that's without even getting into anything I consider nitpicking, which I could make a laundry list of. That's just some of the basic, lazy shit that jumped off the screen at me as I was watching it.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

somebody always says this

[–] PeteyandJia (300) 6 years ago

cool

[–] Calledforblackup (92) 6 years ago

He's not wrong though. I know, someone always has to pick away the logic of a movie (YourMovieSucks review of Looper pissed me off because all he wanted to do is discuss plotholes) but that doesn't mean that the plotholes don't exist, lol.

[–] TTech (67) 6 years ago

It was horribly thought out. Im certain any scifi/horror lover couldve put together a more coherent script that this millions of dollars worth project.
And I have NO problem with using a bit of imagination or accepting certain possible inconsistencies as part of the story behind that I might no be privy to as excuse. Also I have no problem with Bruce Willis destroying a heli with a car or WIll Smith an alien army. Movies are for entertainment.
But this film is not that,this is not nitpicking even a little bit.As stated, these a glaring plotholes that defy most basic commonsense. Its insultingly stupid. Which is sad because the premise was really good.

[–] replicant4 (219) 6 years ago

I'm guessing the vast majority of people who have seen this movie will simply have....enjoyed it. As is.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

agreed

[–] db20db (16208) 6 years ago

Exactly ! It worked as an entertaining movie.

[–] Kurt (189) 6 years ago

I'm not defending this movie, and your observation may be valid, but stupid decisions by characters in movies are not in any way plot holes.

[–] crc32 (2584) 6 years ago

sure it does. Stupid people llike this family should hve been dead a long time ago but instead seem to be more r less the only survivers in a word fullof smarter people.

[–] db20db (16208) 6 years ago

You mean "smarter people " like you that can't even construct a grammatically correct sentence ?

[–] crc32 (2584) 6 years ago

ad hominem not worthy of a logical response. To bad you wated your time by responding though. I have nothing else to say to you so enjoy your last word in this discussion.

[–] Kurt (189) 6 years ago

Your reply has nothing to do with my comment.

[–] crc32 (2584) 6 years ago

The only way to enjoy this film is to turn your brain off and not expect much from the protagonists in the film. We all know the plot will deus ex a scenario that allows the family to survive. I think your being to kind in your narrow interpretation of plot holes. I just don't understand why the film went out of its way to show ambient sound will cover the sounds of victims while totally ignoring the fact that most people would have search for such environments to increase their odds of survival. Sure its a nit pick that borders on a plot hole but the filmed does suffer because of it.

[–] Kurt (189) 6 years ago

I already said that his critique may in fact be valid. Even the worst, dullest most amateurish movie can be made without plot holes and still be a dreadful movie. I didn't say all of his point were not plot holes, btw, only the point about their alleged stupid actions.

[–] crc32 (2584) 6 years ago

Ok it seems we agree then. At least the giant ear drums were cool.

[–] DeckardCain (20) 6 years ago

As Kurt, already mentioned many of your points are seem to be character decision making, and not "plot holes"; but I get your overall point that you think the characters are a bit unbelievable because their decisions are not congruent with the character personality/intelligence/culture/etc.

But lets go over your points, I have a different perspective on a few.

1) *family grocery store trip*: the kids were very quite: they were moving around on their tippy toes. If you ever try to move on your tippy toes, you will see that moving slower is actually more dangerous, its easier to lose your balance... like riding a 2-wheel bike to slowly you just tip over. Furthermore, the parents were teaching the kids to survive, while many scenes might be classified as the parents being reckless, the parents had to teach their kids to survive in the world without them because they could die at any moment.

2) *Living near the river* : or the waterfalls. I think the main issue here is that all of their belongings, tools, food are at the farm. Perhaps they considered transferring all these things too dangerous.

3) *setting up speakers* : well they did have the fireworks set up. And they did have some sounds traps (like the alarm clock). But sure, they could have done more in this department. Keep in mind this was what they had only after 1 year. And in a world where sounds kills you its hard to get a lot of stuff done

3B) *Draw them away from the house* : we do not know exactly how smart these creatures are, but these are predators and looked like they have some degree of intelligence. If they blasted sounds to get them "away" from their home its possible that the creatures would only figure out that they are being distracted... its a trick that can probably only be used a few times. This would explain why at the end of the movie the creature would not leave the farm and continously was hunting for them.... the jig was up.

[–] delac147 (116) 6 years ago

Precisely, people tend to say plotholes, but those are just character decisions you can blame they are stupid, but I don't think this movie can be described as having stupid characters that make stupid decisions.

I agree with all your explanations, furthermore, regarding living in the river, the river does produce noise, which makes hunting on for fish easier, but not living there especially outdoors with a baby coming. Having a roof over their heads was a far better place to be.

Regarding the soundproofing, they do not only set up the mattress, but you can see across different scenes prior the birth of the baby that they are soundproofing the room with newspapers over the room and other measures.

I think this movie was really good and build a tense environment across the movie that worked. I won't say it was perfect but surely not a dumb movie nor full of plotholes.

[–] crc32 (2584) 6 years ago

on point number2 the OP wasnt suggesting living near a rive but merly a place with relativly loud ambiance. And the family moved a lot of their equipment to the farm at some point. Lots of functioning TVs and cameras. Apon going into the movies we all wondered if the script would have a provision that the creatures would still be able to localize sounds even under ambient noise that would explain away the utilitiy of living near an ambient sound well but this film did the oposite it diliberatly showed that loud ambience makes the environment safe yet every one seems to make an effor to live in silent ambiance which makes them need to be even more silent. Who wrote this script? I initally just wanted to believe though distration speakers were already present and that they would be revealed later on when neededbut instead just fireworks. Im of the impression speakers were not used as a plot point as the audience would expect them to be playing ambiant noise but then the film makes it a point to show the river is safe so I'm like wtf.

3) Like I said they already have a billion monitors set up and have plenty of power (Not sure where that came from) Why not stratigicly places speakers that are always gving off ambient noise. This seems like a must for a family with children.

3B) Constant abmbience is for cover. The creatures would eventually leave as their apparently not huddled around the rivers aimlessly trying to localize sounds below the ambient level. Loudsounds are a deliberate attempt to get the creatures to localize and target the remote source of the sound. I uestion the intellegence of the creatures and the humans yet the script enables both to survive in the film. Theres clearly 2 ways to hide amoung the creatures.At the minimum you would need a minimum ambiance to mask at the minimum coughing. I question the intelligence of the creatures as well as the humans yet the script insists that both survive n this world.

[–] DeckardCain (20) 6 years ago

When you say the "family moved a lot of their equipment to the farm at some point". How do you know it wasn't there at the beginning, at day 0?
But overall yes I do agree that it does seem strange that they didn't want to move near the waterfall. MAYBE it took them sometime to realize that their sounds could be muffled by such sources. If we recall the scene with the father and son, it was the first time they he showed this to him... maybe he recently figured it out?

3 + 3B) The problem with "strategically placing speakers that are always giving off ambient noise" is that they must be turned on. The moment those speakers are turned on the creatures will investigate and attack the source of the sound.
PERHAPS, there is a way to spread the sound or make it difficult to localize, like with very low BASS... however anything like this would take some experimentation with noise... which is dangerous.

[–] crc32 (2584) 6 years ago

When you say the "family moved a lot of their equipment to the farm at some point". How do you know it wasn't there at the beginning, at day 0?

I wondered how long untill some one would give this retort which is why I should have pre refuted it. The point is there was a ton of video equipment which is very unlikely for a farm to accumulate all this video equipment. A ham radio sure why not but gabs of monitoring equipment and old ass CRT monitors looking were set up next to the stratigic planning boards the father had built. I don't really by for that he just stumbled upon all this equipment. Whats a farmer need an oscilloscope for. It appears way more likely that the father was accumulating TVs and cameras over time as they were all different brands and suprisingly no flat screens I coulden't see the dates on the news papers so I don't know if this was an alternate realty. Point is stuff was moved around and was well organized yet no camps were set up near the river. They don't have to live on the river but it would have been nice to have camps set up near the river. To prempt the push back of you saying "well if they did that their camps would have just been raided by other humans" which is a weak argument as staying by ambient noise is still a much safer option. Lets not forget the poor narration the film used in neglecting to identify where the family was getting power from on day 400 of what seems to be pretty much every one dead. A few tweeks and this film would have been better. But I'll take this discussion to reddits /r/fixingmovies/. You folks arn't even really trying hard to defend this movie.

[–] DeckardCain (20) 6 years ago

4) *sound-proofing* : wasn't just a mattress, they had to put stuff all over the walls/roof. I'm not sure its that common knowledge on how to sound proof a room properly... I certainly don't know much on this topic but I am not a musician... neither were any of the family members apparently.

[–] duckofprey (1535) 6 years ago

Gee. What a shock!
Yet another “Too many plot holes” post on a discussion forum that lists things that ARE NOT *PLOT HOLES.*

Freakin’ amazing.

[–] Renovatio (2990) 6 years ago

Exactly... It's incredible...

[–] maximmm (3041) 6 years ago

You know how in some horror films you have stupid characters that go into the dark room when they hear a suspicious sound - and they don't turn on the lights?

Well, in this film you have a family of these morons - opting to MOVE IN to the dark room after hearing suspicious sounds - without turning on the lights.

[–] crc32 (2584) 6 years ago

Ok call them nit picks then. The film still sucked because of them.

[–] tommy11 (52) 6 years ago

everything you mentioned is not a plothole. its just people doing things you dont agree with.

[–] mbirth (29) 6 years ago

Thing is, the family in the movie was portrayed as intelligent. Yet they didn't exactly act up on that. I mean, the father already figured out the creatures are very sensitive to sound/noise. It doesn't need a rocket scientist to come up with the idea of experimenting with different frequencies… similar to how people rather quickly learned to defend against sharks by punching them onto their most sensitive part.

[–] Maximus256 (62) 6 years ago

Name a thriller, any thriller, that wasn't accused of having potholes. Or a thriller that solved problems the way you would have.

[–] crc32 (2584) 6 years ago

[quote[Name a thriller, any thriller, that wasn't accused of having potholes. Or a thriller that solved problems the way you would have.[/quote]

We arn't expecting them to use the solutions we came up with. Rather we just want to see thrillers that still attempt to be plausible. Example The Thing 1982, Alien (With the exception of sticking your head in a pulsing egg), The original Predator and many more.