Stupid Contrived Survival Stories

[u/MammothPenguin69]

1. 12 Feet Deep - Two idiots decide they absolutely positively MUST go swimming in a pool after it's closed. An incredibly contrived sequence of events happens so they get stuck in a pool. So the movie can happen.

2. Frozen (not that one) - Three idiots decide they absolutely positively MUST get on a ski-lift after it's closed. To the point of bribing the operator who for some stupid reason doesn't say anything. Do the movie can happen. Also, Wolves are not that aggressive. They are typically shy and avoid humans.

3. 47 Meters Down- Arguably the most believable scenario on this list. It's still really stupid.

4. Fall- Two idiots decide to climb an abandoned radio tower without proper equipment that would make escaping their predicament trivially easy. Stop me if you've heard this one before

so the movie can happen.

[u/imadragonyouguys]

The amount of things that had to happen not just once, but twice!

https://giphy.com/gifs/d2ZjBlsQa5dWO45a

[u/EnderBookwyrm → u/imadragonyouguys]

I'm still just in awe at the level of logistics-tracking the writers pulled off in able to make the situation happen without feeling contrived. Everything lined up just right to leave Kevin home alone.

[u/grendus → u/EnderBookwyrm]

It's one of the things that really strikes me when I watch the movie (the other is "wow, Kevin's family are all complete assholes").

They legitimately cover all the obvious plot holes:

• Kevin was sleeping in the attic on the hide-a-bed

• When Kevin shoves Buzz he spills milk on their tickets and one gets swept into the trash, so they don't realize they have an extra.

• Kevin's mom, as the only kind thing she does for him in the entire fucking movie, moves Fuller to a different bed.

• The power outage turns off their alarms, causing them to oversleep and leave in a panic.

• The neighbor kid was browsing through their bags and gets "counted" as Kevin.

• The kids are flying coach while the parents fly first class, so they didn't notice Kevin was missing.

Then you have the other plot holes covered pretty well:

• All their friends are on vacation. The entire street is. A little contrived, but they are pretty wealthy and live in a wealthy neighborhood.

• The cops suck, drive by once, and decide that she's being hysterical. "Tell 'er to count 'er kids again."

• Kevin accidentally shoplifts from the corner store (when he's terrified of his neighbor), and with 8-year-old logic decides that he's now a wanted criminal so the cops won't help him. Which, to be fair, with the previous point they probably wouldn't have.

• A blizzard shuts down all the flights back home so she has to take a van with John Candy (fun fact - almost all of his lines in that movie were ad-libbed, he was supposed to be a throw away cameo).

There are definitely some contrivances to the story to make everything line up, but all of them are things that could reasonably happen.

[u/whynaut4 → u/grendus]

Also, "why doesn't Kevin call the cops?" Because Harry disguised himself as a cop and freaked Kevin out. Also the power outage not only knocked out the power, but all the phone lines too, so they couldn't call Kevin either

[u/chris10023 → u/whynaut4]

Kevin was freaked out because he saw Harry's gold tooth, and also saw him driving a plumbers van, like a day or two later after Harry almost runs him over while not paying attention.