One great thing about sequels is that they provide a way to fix the mistakes of the first film. If a movie has some major plot hole in it that can’t be fixed using its own internal logic,the sequelcan come in with a scene that explains away a logical inconsistency, a direct contradiction, or in some cases, a series of plot holes that stretchesacross an entire franchise. This kind of thing is essentially the movie franchise equivalent of using whiteout and then inking over it to fix a mistake.
There is an art tofixing plot holesin movie sequels and some do it better than others. Some do so with finesse that makes the first film even better while others just laugh off the mistake with a joke. Here are ten examples of a sequel fixing a previous film’s plot hole.
10Hela Calls Out Odin’s Fakes in Thor: Ragnarok
The Marvel Cinematic Universe holds up better than most extended franchises do, but they’ve definitely made mistakes over the years. The firstThorfeatures Odin’s vault with features a ton of famous Marvel artifacts that would be used in different movies without referencing Odin later on. The biggest contradiction comes when Thanos shows he has his own Infinity Gauntlet that isn’t the one in Odin’s vault.
Thor: Ragnarokfixes this problem when Hela takes a private tour of Odin’s vault. She explains that most of the objects in the vault are actually fakes. Seeing how Odin used to be a Thanos-style intergalactic conqueror, it’s very possible that he was toying around with the idea of collecting all the stones himself before his inevitable redemption.
Related:Cate Blanchett’s Hela is Rising from the Dead in What If…? Season 2
9We Find Out Shaw Didn’t Really Kill Han in Fast & Furious 6
Fast & Furious 6threw a huge twist at their audiences by showing that Han was actually murdered by Deckard Shaw inTokyo Drift.This set Shaw up to be a major villain in the series. What fans didn’t care for was how Shaw was then turned into a hero who even ate with the Fast family. Not only that but he was given his own spin-off right next to Hobbs. This was partially rectified whenF9revealed that Han was still alive. So part of the blame is already taken off of Shaw. The rest will be rectified whenF9’steased showdown between Shaw and Han finally goes down. Shaw may be a hero now, but he still has a beating coming to him.
8We Find Out What Happened to the Rest of the League of Shadows in The Dark Knight Rises
Back whenBatman Beginsfirst came out, it was considered to be the gritty, realistic take on Batman. AfterThe Dark KnightandThe Batman, however, the movie’s ninja cult and scifi device that turns water into vapor really stand out. The movie’s sequel pretty much ignores all of these elements for a more grounded film about real-life, non-ninja terrorism. SoThe Dark Knight Risescomes full circle to show how the League of Shadows fared after Batman stopped their plot to take down Gotham City. It turns out that a new leader had risen in Ra’s Al Ghul’s place and was plotting round two with Gotham and Batman.
In retrospect, it probably would’ve been prudent for Bruce Wayne to ensure that he’d gotten all the ninjas from Ra’s Al Ghul’s ninja cult before he retired from Batman life.
7Fredo’s Revenge in The Godfather Part II
The Godfatherfocuses on Sonny and Michael Corleone’s attempts to take over their father Vito’s criminal organization. Sonny’s headstrong, violent attitude leads to his demise, while Michael’s cold, calculating style leads the family out of New York and to Las Vegas, seeking legitimacy outside the Mafia. What no one really noticed inThe Godfatherwas that Michael skipped over his incompetent older brother Fredo. The elder Corleone may have helped set up the Vegas operation, but it was completely taken over by Michael as soon as the family got there.
Related:Ewan McGregor Sparks Renewed Hope for Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2This insult to Fredo is seemingly forgotten inThe Godfatherbut becomes a major plot point forThe Godfather Part IIas Fredo is revealed to be the traitor in the family who helped orchestrate the hit on Michael and his family. Michael may have gotten his vengeance on Fredo by the film’s end, but Fredo may have gotten the last laugh considering how pained Michael was over how things went down with his older brother inThe Godfather Part III.
6We Find Out Why Fiona’s Parents Locked Her In a Tower In Shrek 2
Animated kid’s movies tend to feature some truly awful parents, but Fiona’s parents from theShrekfranchise really set the bar pretty low. When it’s revealed to them that their daughter has been cursed to turn into an Ogre every single night, the family does the worst thing possible to their child. They lock her in a giant tower that is guarded by a fire breathing dragon. Seeing as the only thing that could potentially cure their daughter was love’s true kiss, why would this be the way they’d go about solving Fiona’s problem?
Well, turns out inShrek 2that literally none of this was their idea. The entire thing from top to bottom was the scheme of the Fairy Godmother who had blackmailed Fiona’s father into the entire deal. She turned him from a Frog Prince into the king of Far Far Away, and in return, he was to set up his daughter to marry her son, Prince Charming. The giant tower and dragon combination was simply her flair for dramatics. This didn’t seem to work out for her in the end…
5The Black Clover Organization Hides Super Powered People in Glass
M. Night Shyamalan set up his own superhero universe with is trilogyUnbreakable, Split,andGlass.In this universe, superheroes are people who have exceptional abilities, though not quite as supernatural as other universes. Still, in a world where we’ve seen this sort of thing happen multiple times, it’s strange that Mr. Glass is the only person who discovers this phenomenon is going on. It seems like someone would’ve noticed other humans with unbreakable skin or super strength.
InGlassit’s revealed that the secret Black Clover Organization is responsible for keeping all of this from the world. They act as a darker version of the MCU’s SHIELD that prevents these super powered individuals from reaching their full potential. The organization uses disinformation, psychiatric abuse, and even violence to keep this a secret. Of course, it is destroyed by every secret organization’s greatest weakness in the 21st century, a cell phone.
4The Diary From Chamber of Secrets Is a Horcrux
TheHarry Potterseries features a ton of artifacts throughout the series, but few were as mysterious as the diary fromThe Chamber of Secretswhich somehow held Voldemort’s past self, Tom Riddle. It was almost like a part of him was haunting the diary like some sort of ghost, waiting to possess anyone like Ginny Weasley who might pick it up. In the film itself, this is not really explained. Later in the series, we find out that this was one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes that he used to split his soul so that he could live forever.
Now the series just needs to explain why no one at the Ministry of Magic could come up with a better secret entrance than its employees flushing themselves down a public toilet…
3Pepper Leaves Tony in Captain America: Civil War
Iron Man 3ends with a pretty big surprise. Tony Stark blows up all of his Iron Man suits as a gesture to Pepper. In a way, it seems like Robert Downey Jr.’s time as Iron Man comes to an end.Avengers: Age of Ultroncompletely ignores this by showing that not only is Tony still flying around as Iron Man, but he has built a ton of new drones that Ultron would later take over to try and end the world. One would think that Pepper would be upset about this betrayal. It turns out that she was.
InCaptain America: Civil War,Tony explains that Pepper actually has left him for this very reason. They break up off camera which explains why she wasn’t there to talk him out of the Sokovia accords…
2Leia Was Already Saved by Obi-Wan Kenobi
AfterStar Wars: Episode III - The Revenge of the Sith,Obi Wan Kenobi goes into hiding and is presumed to be deceased by most people in the galaxy. So it’s kind of surprising that Leia puts the entire galaxy’s hopes on him by calling him her “only hope” inStar Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.Sure, her adopted father Bail Organa could have told her, but this still wouldn’t have explained how passionate she was about getting the Death Star plans to Kenobi. In theObi Wan Kenobiseries, this is explained for good. It turns out that Kenobi saves Leia from a dastardly plot, showing the young girl just how heroic he was. The two inspire each other towards greater paths of heroism, further explaining the people the end up becoming inA New Hope.
If the show gets a second season, maybe they can explain how Leia remembers her mother despite the fact that Padmé perished in childbirth…
1Deadpool Is Why the X-Men Timeline Makes No Sense
Few movie timelines are as erratic, nonsensical, and contradictory as theX-Menmovie franchise. Even when the franchise gave itself a fresh start by rebooting its continuity inDays of Future Past,it still continued to contradict itself. All of this is fixed in the silliest way possible inDeadpool 2.It turns out that Deadpool got Cable’s time travel tech and used it to wreak havoc upon theX-Mentimeline. Now any continuity issue, contradiction, or unused sequel tease can just be explained by Deadpool treating the timeline like his own personal jump rope.
Funnily enough, he’s also the reason why Ryan Reynolds never madeGreen Lanternin that universe. It would be funny if the nextDeadpoolfilm references how Reynolds mysteriously lost his life around 2010…
