MovieChat Forums > The Purge (2013) Discussion > The one unforgivable stupid plot hole th...

The one unforgivable stupid plot hole that taints the entire movie.

posted 10 years ago by goodhumordude
30 replies | jump to latest

When Ethan Hawke and family lock down for the purge... it's all good... then the black dude comes wandering down the street and Ethan Hawke's kid goes and opens the door for him to come in the house. So stupid.

Apparently, the special lock-down units don't have a child-protective cover on the switch TO OPEN THE DOOR! Give me a break. You pay millions of dollars for a top of the line security unit and you just push a button on the main panel to override your entire system??

Not to mention the kid no doubt knows how dangerous that night is... so what? Was he planning on rescuing everyone? I couldn't even pay attention after that because the entire family deserved to die after that point for raising one stupid idiot for a kid.

[–] dazfx2 10 years ago

Agree with you 100% My children are not going to know the disarm code, especially not on that night. My wife might not even get the code. As a father and husband you protect your family and sometimes need to protect your family from themselves.

On another note Henry really thought Zoey would want to be with him still if he successfully killed her dad?!? Makes no damn sense

[–] gino-lee 9 years ago

LOL that whole plotline of the murderous boyfriend. I'm just imagining the conversation afterwards.
"Baby I had to kill your dad so we could be together. Oh, I also had to kill your mom because she would never be ok with me killing your dad. So can we finally be together now?"

[–] frankzappayay 8 years ago

lol

[–] NellieKane555 10 years ago

It was one of the worst movies I've ever seen but I have to say, if the kid wasn't naive and dumb, the rest of the movie wouldn't have happened. Some idiot had to cause the domino effect.

[–] th-zero 9 years ago

The lamest excuse ever. If your story is based on a charater's irrationally, unexplainably stupid acts, then you wrote an idiot story, and you should go back to working on it. Or maybe throwing it in the garbage and giving up your writing carreer.

[–] Minocle 10 years ago

These comments are so idiotic. They don't make the movie about 1 of the 1000 homes that did lock up proper and didn't open the door for everyone.

But they made the movie about the home where it went wrong.

[–] mgulev 10 years ago

Exactly, Minocle. They could make a lot worse movies if they decided to follow the family that locked down properly and watched Family Guy intil bedtime and then fell asleep.

On another note: You have to have someone open the doors. SOMEone has to represent the empathic voice. In this case it was the youngest family member.

[–] GravityCakes 10 years ago

Yes -- why is there always the one poster who claims that the premise of a horror film is stupid because he/she (the poster) would never have done "x." We all know these gimmicks -- films like Scream parodied the dumb decisions teenagers make in horror films. This is by no means a great film but there was actually a decent amount of dialogue at the beginning in which we see that the son, who is young and naive and smart and questioning, doesn't quite accept his father and the gov position on the purge. That is called a set-up so that his decision to let the injured man into the house was rooted in his youthful idealism (and naïveté). Obviously the film has a lot of problems and is by no means some dystopian masterpiece but this aspect was addressed somewhat by the dialogue at the beginning of the film.

"Hearts and kidneys are tinker toys! I am talking about the central nervous system!"

[–] th-zero 9 years ago

Okay, so why do movies HAVE to rely on character stupidity? Why can't it be something more believable?

This movie would have worked without the homeless guy, and the psyco siege conducted by the neighbours. It would have been the same, without the stupidity.

[–] hobbes_smith 9 years ago

The movie wouldn't have quite been the same. I think having the kid let in the homeless guy was an important part because it brings in a moral dilemma. Now that the kid has let the guy in, do they send him out to be killed to save themselves or do what would be morally right and run the high risk of getting murdered? It adds an extra layer to the movie rather than just trying to hide from and fight people trying to kill you.

[–] Milkyway123 9 years ago

You're an idiot. And this film was made for the likes of you.

[–] captlupin 9 years ago

No it's not stupid kids can be really dumb and have no idea how the real world works.

[–] Milkyway123 9 years ago

That wasn't what I was objecting!

[–] hnt_dnl 9 years ago

I had much more of issue with the stunt the boyfriend pulled. I thought that was nuts!

[–] TheDarkKnightMatter 9 years ago

Both the kids were stupid. The one that drove me bananas was when Henry shot at the father and the stupid daughter ran to him screaming Henry and helping him get away after he shot at the father. It's utterly stupid. These kids are wealthy, you would figure they had a brain. The black guy also puts a gun to the daughter's head, hope the emo little kid is happy. Its purge night, if those are my kids, I would of beat them senseless.

[–] BaronVonSlouchyPants 9 years ago

The biggest fault I had with the movie was during the broadcast before the purge when they say "may God be with you all". Now you know someone would've protested the use of the word "God" and never allow that to be said
Hahaha

[–] DustnBones001 9 years ago

What's funny is that black guy the kid let in ended up saving their ass at the end against the neighbors. Looks like the kid had good judgement after all.

[–] gino-lee 9 years ago

lol its one of those things. If the dumbass kid didn't let the dude in, the family wouldn't need saving. But he was a dumbass and thus they needed saving.

[–] DustnBones001 9 years ago

Lol I doubt that you were an intelligent kid yourself. All that kid was doing was showing some compassion(god forbid I know). He had no idea the true danger of the Purge and neither did his parents apparently. More importantly his instincts were right and the homeless man was not a threat to the family and even saved them in the end after they had tortured him pretty much.

[–] gino-lee 9 years ago

damn, you come out with your fists swinging at me!

It was established early on in the movie that the dad is the top home security sales manager in the region. Also it was hinted that the purge had been going on for quite a number of years.

So here you have a kid growing up learning and know about the purge (either via live "purge feeds" or news reports) and has a father that works in the business. Yet he does not know the dangers of the purge? We know he is uncomfortable with the idea of purging, but damn...even kids in our non purge society have heard of "stranger danger". So yea, the kid was an idiot and his actions put his whole family in danger.

What if the black guy was just acting and wanted to get inside a rich house to kill everybody?

[–] DustnBones001 9 years ago

Well I can definitely understand the "Stranger Danger" but I guess what bugs me is the extreme criticism the kid gets. We all made stupid decisions as kids and so did this kid but what I was trying to point out is the kid actually ended up doing the right thing. As it was the homeless man who saved their asses against the neighbors.

And it's quite obvious from the film that despite the father working with the security equipment they never took and understood the danger of The Purge until it hit their doorstep. The kid especially didn't understand since he was so willing to let the stranger in. His parents obviously failed to really show the dangers of it as if I recall they were initially somewhat supportive of The Purge.

Pretty much what it boils down to I personally feel the crisitms for the kid is extremely overblown. It was a stupid decision yes but obviously the kid had some good instincts as once again the homeless man saved their asses.

[–] draftdubya 9 years ago

Even if the kid didn't let him in. The neighbors already seem like they had a plan to kill them.
/How did the wacko non neighbor purge kids even know what house the black man ran into.
//Why do people assume he's homeless?

[–] gino-lee 9 years ago

The neighbours wanted to purge them, but they had no way of defeating their security system. I guess it never occurred to them that they could bring in a truck and somehow attach hooks to a smooth steel plate and pull the plate off their doors. They only came over when they knew they saw an opening. sly bitches.

I think we all assume he was homeless because the movie suggests that they often purge the useless homeless people who don't add to the society. It seemed like the black dude was a random target they found.

[–] 9 years ago

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