Just a short sentence spoken by one of them would have sorted this out. EG “He’s died of a drugs overdose and we suspect that anyone with all this money might have some dodgy friends…”

Flightplan didn’t work for me, either. But I thought the issue was rather the audience’s doubt about the mother’s mental sanity after the accident.

Suspension of disbelief goes out of the window once we no longer 100% empathise with the Hero.

Hahahaha!! Love the IMDb comment!

Thank you Kurt.

Flightplan. I remember the evil guy’s plan hinged on an event that he was “lucky” even occurred—the daughter leaving her sleeping mother. It didn’t work for me, and I’ve only seen it once, but that’s what I remember.

Much worse is The Game with Michael Douglas. The world it set up just didn’t wash with what was happening.

There was a funny comment on IMDB too – “It’s a movie. It’s meant to suspend belief.” I think he meant “disbelief”.

As that scene unfolds it is pure suspense and insanely silly (why not just hide in the corn and shoot him??) but the audience buys it because of everything they’ve accepted up until that point and are not allowed a moment to think about its ludicrous nature during the attack. Afterwards, we are then focused on what he will do regarding Eve.

But… if the film had opened with a crop duster scene however, I’d be responding quite differently. It could be innapropriately comedic and I might not buy it.

So really you can have plot holes and inplausible scenes – as long as you are aware of what the audience will accept, reject and ignore – so you can sell it.

Typical writer’s excuse:
“no, you don’t understand; he had an epiphany; it DOES make sense..you just don’t get it…”

My favourite plot hole relates to the central premise of Danny Boyle’s first feature SHALLOW GRAVE. After the death of the guy with the money, the three friends have to choose between reporting the death and keeping the money. However, it’s a false choice, as it would have been quite possible for them to report the death AND say nothing about the money. The important thing, though, is that even if you do spot this flaw, it doesn’t detract from your enjoyment of the story.