When a movie proves to be as big a box office smash as Incredibles 2, it’s inevitable that the film will attract the scrutiny of the fans, many of whom will leave no stone unturned in the search for potential plot holes. Sure enough, one user on Twitter identified an apparent inconsistency in Pixar’s superhero hit, which drew the attention of the film’s director Brad Bird.
The ‘plot hole’ in question occurs at the climax of the sequel, when a ship is headed for a collision with a nearby city. In the early minutes of this sequence, Evelyn has most of the superheroes under mind control, as she makes them deliver a message of destruction that’s broadcast to the public.
Though the Incredibles eventually manage to prevent the collision, Twitter user Wyatt Wu argues that the people of the city had previously been led to believe that they were the ones who attempted the attack in the first place. And yet, to this fan’s confusion, the family are then celebrated as heroes for stopping the accident they supposedly started.
The complaint made it as far Bird, who offered the following rebuttal:
“I don’t agree that it’s a ‘plot hole’. I assumed the audience would figure out that, once the boat was stopped, normal exchanges of information would happen between that crash and the villain being taken away. I didn’t need to SHOW it. Nothing worse than explaining the obvious.”
In other words, just because the movie didn’t show the public getting an explanation for why the superheroes were previously acting so evil, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
Indeed, no movie should have to spoon-feed its audience every piece of information, and Wyatt Wu himself has since posted a reply admitting that Bird’s explanation holds up. Either way, given the strong reviews and record-breaking box office success that Incredibles 2 was met with upon release, it’s hard to imagine many of us are too broken up about a nitpick or two.