Plot hole: The only reason the terrorists' plot can work is that the airports around Dulles are all closed to landings because of the violent snowstorm. If there were no storm, the pilots of the airliners in the holding pattern would simply divert to nearby airports when they started running low on fuel. If they were able to do that, the whole plot would simply fall apart. How were the terrorists able to count on the storm happening on the very day General Esperanza's flight was due to land? They didn't have any influence over the date of his flight. How did they know the storm would be so bad that all airports would be closed - except Dulles? I don't think they had any way of predicting the weather quite that accurately, and If the storm hadn't hit or had been even slightly less severe the pilots of the stranded airliners could easily have diverted to any one of half a dozen alternate landing sites, including a nearby Air Force base. They could do this without consulting or even contacting air traffic control. The whole plot falls apart from there - no hostages, no leverage, and who cares what happens to the people on Esperanza's plane? They'd have it shot down as soon as they knew Esperanza had killed the pilot and taken over the flight.
Plot hole: At the end of the film, we see Edward carving ice sculptures in his mansion. How did he get the ice up there? First of all, it takes place in a warm climate and I didn't see a freezer up there in the castle. He couldn't have gotten ice from town because firstly he had scissors for hands and couldn't have gripped the ice. And, even if by some miracle he could, he wouldn't be able to buy any from town because everyone in town but Kim was convinced that Edward was dead, she told everyone that they killed each other. And Kim didn't bring it to him because she told her granddaughter in the end that she never saw him again after that night. So where did he get that ice?
Plot hole: In the scene when the robbers first enter the house, Kevin goes to hide in the shower. It looks like there is only one way out of the shower. How can Kevin possibly get out of the shower, let alone the bathroom, without getting wet after he turns it on?
Plot hole: When The Penguin is controlling the Batmobile, Batman punches through the floor to take off the transmitter. We still see a video feed of The Penguin. Why? Batman pulled off the transmitter, so there is no reason for there to still be a video feed.
Suggested correction: We see the Red Triangle gang spends a while fiddling with the Batmobile's workings before installing the transmitter. It's likely they made multiple 'modifications', thus the transmitter was for controlling the car's engine and steering, and the video feed was made possible by another, separate means.
Suggested correction: I concur with the other correction. There are multiple shots showing the gang working on the car and doing other things to it beyond just putting on the transmitter. (You see them playing with wires, moving parts around, etc.) Hacking into the computer/video-feed so Oswald could taunt Batman is likely among the other things they are doing. There's nothing into the movie that suggests taking off the transmitter should (or even could) interrupt the video-feed. The fact that Batman has to punch the screen to get rid of the Penguin's image is another point to the fact that the transmitter itself had nothing to do with the video feed.
Plot hole: After they shoot the glass and McClane escapes, the terrorists all just leave. There are limited ways out of the room, there must be a blood trail over the glass, he's moving slowly...and they let him go.
Plot hole: How would Arnold know about the cop hitting the bus when he was running away from him during the parade? He was far past him at that point.
Plot hole: One of the children is a witness that saw the man that planted the bomb in Dixie's house. He is said by a policeman to have been playing 'under the porch' and was close enough to make-out the Special Forces tatoo on the bomber's arm. Problem is, Dixie's house had no porch of any kind, and any other home's porch would've placed him too far to see such a small tatoo so confidently. (00:57:40)
Suggested correction: The rear of Dixie's house is never shown. The house could conceivably have a back porch the kid could have been playing under and the killer could have used the back door.
Plot hole: The sheer distances Kevin covers on foot in one night are outrageous. Between 9pm and midnight he walks from Carnegie Hall to the children's hospital, to 95th street, back to the toy store carrying a large paint can and a large 2x4 (street signs here put it around 59th and 5th), back up to 95th, then all the way back to midtown, to Rockefeller Plaza. One way from W 95th street to around E 59th and 5th Ave. is at least an hour on foot for an adult, he does this 4 times between 9pm and midnight, once while carrying a 2x4 and paint can, once while being chased by 2 adults, and he still has time to set up a house full of traps.
Plot hole: Buddy discovers a website, myearth.sat. The site, like Google Earth, contains satellite images of every square inch of the planet. Buddy can see his neighbor's house but not his own house. He decides to cover his house with lights so it can be "seen from space." There is absolutely no reason why the site would show every house in the world except Buddy's, except that the oversight is required in order to advance the plot.
Plot hole: In the scene with the brothers group, the guys don't believe that Fred is Santa Claus's brother (because they don't believe in Santa). But why don't they believe in Santa? Santa leaves gifts for kids on Christmas. If they don't believe in Santa then where do they think the presents came from?
Plot hole: The whole film is basically told as a flashback from Rand Peltzer's point of view. Now he might be able to talk about things that Billy, his mom, or Kate might have told him, but he wouldn't have known about all the other the gremlins did to the rest of the town like killing Mrs. Deagle, the cops, or the gremlin in the mailbox.
Plot hole: Throughout the film we see several characters talk about how there's no Christmas spirit and how nobody believes in Santa anymore. If, in this universe at least, Santa does exist, it's almost impossible for people to think this. If the parents deliver the presents then how do they explain the excess gifts that Santa brings? We know that Michael is on the nice list because Santa shows him towards the end, so Michael must get presents from Santa. There is no way that Walter can't believe in Santa then because Michael gets gifts from him every year.
Suggested correction: Emily and Walter probably just thought each present Michael got from Santa was from the other parent. I'm not sure if Walter got him presents or not but you can see that Emily did as she's seen walking home with presents when she's on the phone with Walter.
That is highly unlikely. When my daughter was "believing in Santa" age, my wife and I always talked about what we were getting her, so we didn't duplicate. Plus that theory wouldn't work for single parents.
It is very likely because it's obvious Walter is not in the Christmas spirit like his wife and Michael are. Plus it's obvious Walter is not focused on his family at the beginning of the movie so it's safe to assume the original submission is correct.
Plot hole: It's never explained how Ms. Pearly the landlord knew Craig and Day Day since they were kids, and it also doesn't make much sense how Craig and Day Day are so scared of Damon and can correctly recall him being this super buff grown adult, when he was locked up for 12 years and their characters are all in their early 20s.
Plot hole: In the yearbook scene Tim barges into Jamie's room and asks her to sign his yearbook, pushes Chris off the bed, and they somehow get their yearbooks mixed up. Tim's yearbook is left in the room with Jamie and Chris, while Tim takes Jamie's yearbook that Chris wrote in with him. When Chris asks Jamie to read the message he wrote in her yearbook, she instead reads the message that Tim wrote to her in his own yearbook. If Tim was asking Jamie to sign his yearbook, why would sign the yearbook with as if he was signing Jamie's. If he was intending to sign Jamie's yearbook, he would have written in the same yearbook that Chris wrote in and not his own.
Plot hole: Jim leaves to attend his family Christmas as evident by his dialogue in the opening scene, and evidently Carl is supposed to be at home to his family in the morning as well, but both are killed by Thomas. When the movie ends with Angela entering the city, it is early morning just before sunrise. Jim and Carl's families would have noted that they were not home on time, and therefore would have had someone searching for them. This makes it implausible that Angela's situation would not have been discovered.
Plot hole: When cousin Eddie kidnaps Mr. Shirley, Shirley's wife immediately calls the police. She describes Eddie as 'brutish and huge' or something similar, and wearing a 'blue leisure suit'. She also mentions that she got the license plate number of the vehicle. But how did the SWAT Team know to go to the Griswold's house to find Mr. Shirley? Eddie's RV is not registered in the Griswold's name so the plate numbers would not be much help in finding the culprit.
Suggested correction: The terrorists in the film planned extensively for this operation, but the storm occurring may have just been a coincidence for them. They may also have had the plan waiting for a perfect opportunity, like a snowstorm. In the beginning of the movie, there's a news story on while the Colonel is exercising nude. The story says Esperanza's extradition has been long and drawn out, until a phone call from..." and he cuts the TV off. Given his connections, Colonel Stewart may well have been able to arrange a State Department call the week of a predicted snow storm. Esperanza's adherents may also have been able. Another scenario they may have had is to take the Air Traffic Controllers hostage (as they did) and have the other aircraft diverted for a supposed emergency, but the snowstorm worked out. Whatever the case, that element of the plot is an interesting discussion, not a mistake.
If the storm hadn't hit the pilots of the stranded airliners could easily have diverted to any one of half a dozen alternates, including a nearby Air Force base. They could do this without consulting or even contacting air traffic control. The whole plot falls apart from there - no hostages, no leverage, and who cares what happens to the people on the Esperanza's plane? They'd have it shot down.
That bothered me too when I first saw this in theatres. The chances of it snowing in D.C. on any particular day are pretty low, and the plan falls apart without it. The only way to 'fix' this is to assume that when the film was originally written, it was set in New York City. This makes more sense thematically...with the original set in Los Angeles. But at some point, probably late in the production, they changed it to D.C. for some reason, and made it fit as best they could.
The snowstorm was not part of the plan. Early on when the group of terrorists is sitting around the table about to exchange the package, Cochran is listening to a weather report and states that a huge storm is approaching, which makes the other men smile and one of them responds "God loves the infantry." The terrorists could still crash planes without the snow storm because they could impersonate the tower. The planes that are circling overhead are the planes that didn't have enough fuel to be diverted to another airport and that has nothing to do with a snow storm. The blizzard was simply fortuitous for the terrorists.
BaconIsMyBFF
The airliners we see could easily glide to any one of seven nearby airports from the airspace over Dulles, let alone fly there when fuel began running low.
That is a separate issue (and is indeed a mistake in the film) that doesn't really have anything to do with the blizzard. This film acts as if Baltimore Washington International or Richmond International Airport don't exist.
BaconIsMyBFF
And since they do, it is both a plot hole and a factual error. If they had called their fictional airport Springfield International, fine, but they didn't. They identified it as Dulles International which is within easy flying - or gliding - time to half a dozen other airports.
This is possible that other airports were closed due to bad weather.
Which necessitates the terrorists knowing that! They had to know the storm was coming for their plan to work. The stranded airlines could easily have diverted to an alternative even if that meant gliding, and they could do so without consulting air traffic control.
The terrorist obviously knew that. They are very arrogant and planned everything very accurately. They knew that other airports are closed because of the bad weather.
The airports were closed AFTER Esperanza's flight took off. The storm is an essential part of the terrorist's plans. Storms like the one we see can can diminish very rapidly or veer away from their original course (I have seen both happen) and cannot, ever, be counted on to the meticulous extent the terrorists do.