MovieChat Forums > Don't Breathe (2016) Discussion > Great movie, but A LOT of issues with th...

Great movie, but A LOT of issues with the writing...


1. So the guy's dad works for a security company. I'm sure every security company keeps track of who logs in, looks at profiles, etc. So it's incredibly implausible for the son to keep doing this, as they would eventually figure out that every time one of their homes is broken into, his father checked the security code.

2. The stolen girl is also a little implausible, because I'm sure once a rich family girl goes missing, the first place they would check is this guy's home since he would have a motive. It's not like he hid her that well or anything.

3. The man's hearing seemed a little inconsistent, where at first he wouldn't hear clear footsteps unless he was very close, and have no effect from the gun sounds, but then the alarm system makes him lose control of himself. Meh...

4. So at the end, the blind man is beaten up nearly to death, with 2 others dead and in the news it says he said that nothing was taken from him. How the hell would a blind man know what was taken from him in the hospital?

5. Rocky carrying the bag filled with possibly a million dollars at the diner..

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How are these issues?

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What do you mean? It breaks the plausibility and hurts my enjoyment. I still liked this movie a lot, and will own it when it comes out on Blu-ray, but I wish the writing was a little better.

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To be fair, 99 percent of movies are implausible. Watch a documentary

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#1,2, and 3 are nit picky.
#4 Nothing was taken since he killed them before they left!
#5 So what?

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#4 fair enough... but I mean what about the long line of blood on the road?

And what about the fact that all of this was going on, gun shots and everything, and not ONE person is outside or calls the police? I know it's supposed to be in Detroit but DAMN lol

And wouldn't they ask how he was unconscious in the basement while the two robbers were upstairs? That wouldn't make much sense, and the police came seconds after the alarm went off.

And my point was that he wouldn't be asked if anything was stolen either way, so it doesn't make sense still! Why would they ask him that question if the robbers were dead? Obviously there was nothing taken...

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Last seen: Don't Breathe [7/10]

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It was a tv report, have you noticed the media sucks these days?

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Uh no actually, I do not. Media can be biased but in this case they have no reason to give out false information. So I'm not sure what you're saying, but that's a pretty drastic explanation.

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That wasn't blood on the road. It was dry black paint that covers the cracks in the road

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Wrong.

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Wrong? NO.. It was either tire tracks or tar votering cracks in the road. Look again

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Sorry, you are the one who is wrong.
It wasn't blood.....Hence why it wasn't red lol.

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And what about the fact that all of this was going on, gun shots and everything, and not ONE person is outside or calls the police? I know it's supposed to be in Detroit but DAMN lol


They actually mentioned SEVERAL TIMES how the neighborhood was deserted, he was the last one there, there was no one there to hear the gunshots, and they also mentioned that since the neighborhood was deserted, there would be no police patrolling it.

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Never forget what you are, the rest of the world will not.

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Good catch. Then how did the police show up in 15 seconds?

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Because the alarm went off in panic mode! Of course a police car would be dispatched immediately! There was probably one in a nearby neighborhood, I agree it maybe should've taken him a bit more to arrive.

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Never forget what you are, the rest of the world will not.

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It's not a "good catch" when the movie stated it multiple times. Everything was abandoned for four blocks around. You didn't pay attention.

Also, movies do this thing where they don't often work in real time. Sometimes when the camera cuts, time passes between shots. It cuts from her in the house, to her leaving. We don't know how long it took her to leave the house.

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Because the alarm went off.....I'm not sure you really understood this film.

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Unrealistic when there are no police around yet they're able to show up in 15 seconds just because an alarm went off... especially in Detroit LOL

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and I know he put the body in the oil tank - but are telling me the cops didn't find the restraining area with the harness, sperm refrigerator, etc.?? I don't think so.

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May I add:

#6. The characters are almost immortals. Seriously? After being thrown by a window twice, being shot, having a tube stoke in his stomach... ALEX IS STILL ALIVE???

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1) Alex was killed.

2) Maybe I'm not thinking of another scene, but Alex never got jabbed.

** Rest in peace, Timothy Volkert (1988 - 2003) **

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He was killed, but he should've died from the first time he was attacked. Instead he kept surviving...

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How should he have died from being punched in the face a couple of times and taking a bullet to the side of his ear? lol
He didn't get stabbed.
The old man accidentally stabbed his friends body that was next to him.

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Tim from our baseball team? I had English class with him

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I love how the girl just barely crawls after she fell escaping from the dog, it seems she just broken her neck, then after getting beat up by the man, she was like a new girl and makes an Usain Bolt twice. Fkn BS

Also what about the girl shoes? The 3 people shoes
The plot is weak, very very weak.

KUTABARE!!!

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What I didn't understand is what was the old guy doing with an advanced security system that calls the police in 30 seconds when he has a kidnap victim in his basement.

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The plot twist sucks.

KUTABARE!!!

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lol didn't think about that. yeah kind of unnecessary when his money was well hidden and had a passcode also.

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1. Nitpicky. How would they figure the father checked the security codes? Like you're just making assumptions here without thinking about the steps in between. They could be on a private computer, the son may just simply log in, look at them once and then leave. They could be written down with the keys.

2. Again, nitpicky and lacking in logic. You say they would check his home. That requires a search warrant. I don't think being a potential suspect is enough to warrant one, plus he's blind. People underestimate him, such as our main characters. It makes sense the cops would write him off.

3. In those early scenes he believed there was only one robber. It's plausible that after he shot the one, he stopped paying full attention to his surroundings. He's also a soldier and could be used to gunshots, which are loud but brief, where as the alarm is a constant noise.

4. This was likely his story "I woke up and found two robbers in my living room. They attacked me and left. I don't think they had time to steal anything."

Was that too complicated to figure out?

5. This is just dumb. The bag isn't translucent. She's not flaunting the money around.

The reason so many details like this aren't explained is because filmmakers assume audiences are smart enough to fill in the blanks. Thanks to crap like CinemaSins we've now got this whole generation of movie goers constantly looking for plot holes that don't exist. You need to learn how criticism actually works before you start criticizing!

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kind of sad to be such a blind fan of something that you can't see the flaws. i guess this whole thread is "nitpicky" because you liked the movie lmao pathetic.

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How did rocky and her boys know that the blind man had the money hidden in his house? I would have put the money in the bank

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they didn't. but it's a blind mans house and no one lives anywhere near. They are thinking "what could possibly go wrong". Completely underestimating him.

Also just to reply to the OP.
#4 my take on the guy saying "nothing was taken" was directly aimed at the girl that got away with his money, kinda taunting(if that's the right word) her because he still killed her friends AND lived.

#5 umm.. If no one see's the money in the bag then no one will think there's a million dollars in the bag. Unless she goes on a plane she is just going to be fine

#3 the hearing thing didn't make sense really but it was consistent. loud constant noises made him unable to hear what was around him. short noises he could almost pinpoint the exact source, and when convenient to the plot he missed gun shots and when someone needed to die for the plot to move on he made the shot.

#2 guess they are trying to imply that the police didn't search the BLIND guy's house because they would have just been like "no way he did it".

#1 the security guys son explained this, they were relatively small burglaries so no one really would have investigated the Security company but with this big Heist he was like no straight away because it would spark full police investigation.
MORE IMPORTANTLY THOUGH there is a SPECIFIC thing they do at the end of the opening burglary which is they THROW A ROCK THROUGH THE WINDOW DOOR and set the alarm off so it just looks like it was a hit and run Burglarly, son returns the key without anyone knowing anything and they would never look at the Security company.
Eventually yes I think they would have been caught with the small burglaries even and it kinda implied they had been doing it long enough to want to get out of the business(move to Cali) but not too long since they hadn't been caught yet.

These are all things that the movie doesn't specifically say but things you just have to assume for the movie to make sense. The directors and producers put all these little details to the movie so they don't have to waste time explaining every little detail and they can just focus on the more important things which is what they did but it's not like they ignored the little details or possible plot holes. Shots are done in certain ways and every scene has a purpose so that someone watching can fill in all the gaps for everything that isn't explicitly said/shown. I thought this movie did that well.

There is only one nagging detail which plays a big part in the movie but doesn't create plot holes. The dog. It does everything according to the script to make it work but doesn't quite act like a dog would(obviously the shots were created separately and just cut together to make the story). And of course the dog wasn't actually trying to hunt down the girl in real life but it kinda showed in the movie.

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[deleted]

Why do folk on IMDB always think a character's failings, means poor writing?

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It literally is a characters failing when the writer provides plot holes and implausibility galour for a character.

I am Nobody. That's the easiest name to remember.

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