MovieChat Forums > The One (2001) Discussion > Watching many years later and I may have...

Watching many years later and I may have discovered a plothole

posted 8 years ago by sduck
1 reply | jump to latest

Not sure how popular this movie is anymore, but I ended up watching it again because someone had brought it up in a conversation...

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Okay, let's get to the chase, there's probably some movie mistakes here and there (virtually every movie has them), but I think I may have discovered a plothole that completely destroys the concept of this movie.

The opening narrator says, and I quote, "There is not one universe. There are many: A multiverse. We have the technology to travel between universes, but travel is highly restricted and policed. There is not one you. There are many. Each of us exists in present time, in parallel universes. There was balance in the system, but now a force exists who seeks to destroy the balance so he can become The One."

You would think, "So?"
But the key line that destroys this concept is, "Each of us exist in present time, in parallel universes..."

And the movie further follows this, how everyone are following different paths in different universes but at the PRESENT. May not be the exact same time, but they are at same time frames.

And as you see from the two universes that Yulaw travels to, the age and technology is similar because they exist parallel at the present time, as stated in the opening monologue. Now if this were true, then why is Yulaw's universe futuristic? Same with the universe they sent him to to be imprisoned.
Either that statement is exaggerated (but then is further confirmed by Funsch as he educates Gabe Law), or it's as I said, it's a plothole and the multiverse technology (and further advanced technology) shouldn't exist in their universe.

Even when Funsch sends Gabe Law to a different universe than his own, the technology remains present. And I further assumed Funsch sent him to the/a universe where none of the Laws [Jet Li] existed, as he mentioned earlier there was one where he didn't exist.

You can argue that maybe in Yulaw's universe they have advanced civilization beyond those parallel to it. Maybe aliens, or the turn of events ceased war and advanced us. If that were the case, then why would criminal behavior exist? Why would they be concerned with criminal behavior in other universes? Funsch stated that Yulaw was once an MVA Agent like him, assigned to a multiverse mission and forced to kill himself, making himself stronger which turned him into a power hungry criminal.
Funsch also said before that, that traveling between universes is restricted, and that was the purpose of MVA Agents to police and chase down wormhole travelers. So why was Yulaw assigned to a different universe? I mean nothing more can really be said at this point that can't be theorized.

Either they left out massive detail or it's a major plothole.

[–] HAL 9010 (906) 6 years ago

Neither.

Go to a poor country and compare it to New York City. Both countries exist in the same present time, yet are vastly different. They are worlds apart, so to speak. We even still have primitive cultures almost completely cut from the rest of us. Their most impressive technology today is a scratching stick.... and yet, we exist in the same present time and on the same damn planet.

Imagine if our timeline had been without the dark ages, without religious suppression of science and technology. How far would we be today? 100 years ahead? 200 hundred? Or possibly 500 years? Hard to say, but certainly not unthinkable.