MovieChat Forums > 3% (2016) Discussion > Plot holes

Plot holes

posted 8 years ago by shaylahc
14 replies | jump to latest

Great series, btw, but I did notice 2 plot holes.

1)When they were locked inside the dorm area, I kept seeing stairs. Yet no one ever walked up the stairs! They should have excluded the stairs from the shots, because all I could think is...someone take the damned stairs! Also, scaling the chute seemed pretty obvious. I guess the 3% are not that bright LOL

2)How did Augusto get inside the compound? He shows up wandering around where Ezequiel finds him. If a little kid can break into the compound, it must not be very secure. Why make a big deal about the metal door being the only way in and out?

Otherwise, very enjoyable :) Can't wait to see season 2!

[–] Movie_Guy79 8 years ago

3) Why not sterilize everyone who comes to the process whether they pass or not. Like that's the first thing they do when they get new clothes. The mainland is obviously overcrowded and poor, with no one growing food or running the city (apparently). Then if you pass, you get unsterilized(thanks to future tech!)

[–] bucetwigs 8 years ago

The point on the show is that you just can't have children on the Offshore because they would born privileged, and everyone should go through the Process to earn their own merit, and then move to the Offshore to have a nice life. That's why they are sterilized. And I'm pretty sure they don't give a *beep* about the Inland population...

[–] shaylahc 8 years ago

I wonder if the sterilization story is a lie...these candidates have been lied to a lot! At first I wondered if they were reaping the top 3% so they could kill them all and lower the chances of being overthrown. Then I wondered if the point of selecting the best was so they could have a "better" genepool for breeding. But if they sterilize everyone, well what's the point in that? Reproduction is such a basic way of continuing your society, why reap poor strangers every year when you can genetically breed and educate your own to become exactly what you want? Something just doesn't add up here.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think Michele's brother is alive...just a hunch I have.

[–] Camikka 8 years ago

I disagree. Júlia surely acts as if she's sterile and regrets it. Ezequiel seems genuinely shocked to learn she has a son and wants anything to do with him. I don't think it's a lie.
but, yes, Michele's brother is probably not alive and well.

[–] somethingclever1 8 years ago

The point on the show is that you just can't have children on the Offshore because they would born privileged, and everyone should go through the Process to earn their own merit, and then move to the Offshore to have a nice life. That's why they are sterilized. And I'm pretty sure they don't give a *beep* about the Inland population...

Exactly, and overpopulation is a big reason why some countries remain in relative poverty. They have just enough resources to survive and procreate but not enough to do much more than that. And even when they don't have enough to survive the developed world sends just enough aid to keep the cycle going.

The offshore needs the inland to be overpopulated and poor b/c they need people desperate enough to leave everything behind. Their society would crumble without a fresh supply of young people.

[–] E_nineteen 8 years ago

I got that vibe too. They desperately wanted the people of the inland to procreate, they kept saying one of the best ways to overcome the trauma of elimination was to have children. But I figured it might just be because they want more to choose from when it comes to picking people for the Offshore.

[–] hugh-g-rctin 8 years ago

3) Why not sterilize everyone who comes to the process whether they pass or not. Like that's the first thing they do when they get new clothes. The mainland is obviously overcrowded and poor, with no one growing food or running the city (apparently). Then if you pass, you get unsterilized(thanks to future tech!)

I think maybe you missed the whole point of the show you just watched, which was to explore what might happen in a meritocracy (a society where the rulers are selected based on their abilities). The people living on the offshore need the mainlanders to keep having children and are against the idea of having their own children because it would destroy the society they've tried so hard to become a part of. The idea behind the meritocracy they live in is that no one on the offshore has any advantage because of who their parents were/are as everyone is judged solely on their abilities and their lineage does not come into play at all. If they started having children, all of that would fall apart. Dunno how on earth you think sterilising the mainlanders and letting people from the offshore reproduce lines up with the ideology which was clearly described in the show, but it doesn't, so there's no plot hole lol.

[–] FourViolets 8 years ago

I'm glad someone else pointed out the stairs! That really bugged me. But I really enjoyed the show.

[–] casak36 8 years ago

I've read in an article that there was a minor part cut explaining the stairs were not exits and locked.

And to sterilize the mainlanders and allow the offshorelanders to have children would destroy their entire purpose within 1 or 2 generations. It would be as detrimental to a meritocracy a democratic society abolishing voting. They need the merit- not the DNA. The potential means nothing and the verified is paramount. there is no science that can create the kind of person they want. Only living as a mainlander can achieve the goals.

[–] Movie_Guy79 8 years ago

I understand why they were being sterilized, but don't understand the "merit part". It seemed you could cheat the system and even kill, and no one really cared.

If I were going to choose people to be my "neighbors" for the restcof my life, those are exactly the kind of people I'd work really hard to screen out.

[–] russellhantz 8 years ago

exactly. the system was made up, it was unfair and totally arbitrary in selecting what type of people made it to the end. But the people on the offshore had so much faith in the process because they wanted to think of themselves as special and better than everyone else, that they didn't question the fact that the process was completely made up and not at all helpful in making sure the strongest, or most moral, or most intelligent people joined the new society.

[–] yiapap 8 years ago

1) You can see a locked metal door in a shot, the stairs were not exits
2) As soon as Augusto got inside the outer perimeter the alarm went off. Ezequiel disabled it

3) hugh-g-rctin's post on meritocracy explains it perfectly.

[–] abraxas1122 8 years ago

2) Sure, Ezequiel disabled it. But the fact that infiltration was so simple is still there. It implies the kid, or someone else, used the entry point before; or that it was easy to find. Breech attempts by the desperate population, or from the Cause, would be much more frequent... which makes the kid infiltration quite implausible.
Not quite a plot hole, but definitely unrealistic.

[–] francisco-vinicius 8 years ago

Probably Ezequiel just taught the kid the right way to enter the place, because when he was informed about the alarm he immediately know who was it.

(It really sucks that imdb is shutting down the boards.)