The plot hole in Roger's floor
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KSzir — 13 years ago(August 09, 2012 12:30 PM)
Let's also remember that if there would have been an "official" investigation in the attempted shooting of the police by Roger, one of the investigators would have been Stan (from the D.A.'s shooting team) who was already paid off along with an LAPD Captain for Alonzo to carry out his plan. So Alonzo didn't care if anything went wrong, even if what happened changed the original story and an investigation been launched, the movie is pretty clear that Alonzo paid off top officials and I'm sure they would have protected Alonzo so they'd continue to get future payments.
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subase — 13 years ago(August 14, 2012 07:13 AM)
Seriously are you guys kidding.
A simple cover story for that would have been they cuffed Roger but were unaware he had a key hidden. (not that farfetched for an experienced drug dealer like Roger) When they began to escavate the money, Roger uncuffed himself, got a weapon and fired on the cop.
Alfonso plants an extra cuff key and problem solved. -
brett-39-479061 — 13 years ago(August 14, 2012 08:26 AM)
Except that's not the story they went with. They could've come up with a million different cover stories to fit with how they managed to dig up the floor, even the one you just drew from thin air. But they didn't, they went with "kick in door, Roger shoots one of them, Hoyt kills Roger, backup arrives in minutes".
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subase — 13 years ago(August 14, 2012 09:11 AM)
Yeah my mistake. But what's so wrong about looking for drugs in a house? Is that illegal? The department heads might have viewed them continuing to dig and look for drugs after one of their guys got shot up as rather cold and callous, but not illegal and nothing to be reprimanded for. Hell, judging from the crew they probably got a pat on the back.
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transmentalist — 13 years ago(August 18, 2012 09:32 AM)
Who says they excavated the floor?
Maybe they'll claim that they got there too late - the hole was dug and whatever was in it was gone. They'll claim someone must've tipped Roger off. That's how Roger knew to start shooting when they came through the door. They got Roger, but his money's "long gone."
Truly, though, this is my own ex post facto rationale - it clearly wasn't explained in-movie or even considered by Alonzo, maybe not even by the screenwriters.
It does seem to me like a workable rationalization, as long as no one examines the police shovels for fresh dirt. And with the wise men paid off, who's going to do that examination? -
thomas196x2000 — 10 years ago(November 18, 2015 07:27 PM)
You guys are missing an important point here.
A lot of time went buy to dig up that hole. The floor beams were cut, and then the hole under the house dug up.
And, most importantly, Alonzo had left a PILE of cigarettes that he had smoked, denoting time. With his DNA on them. So basic forensics would have indicated a good hour went by. Unexplainable in any cover story. -
Redux006 — 13 years ago(September 14, 2012 04:27 PM)
I didn't even think of that, you are absolutely right. An officer is shot and down on the ground bleeding to death, meanwhile a suspect is shot in the chest sitting on the couch, and they continue with the search? Pretty lame.
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apstaddon — 13 years ago(September 25, 2012 03:02 AM)
I hadn't thought of this before, but yes, this definitely does present a huge plot hole. If the officers go through the door, one is shot, and they end up killing the suspect, there is no way they start digging through the floor. THe floor ain't going anywhere, they've got to attend to both wounded parties. The hidden key scenario is ridiculous too as there were a large team of cops which would leave Roger no possible chance of performing any actions unnoticed.
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christophe92300 — 13 years ago(October 19, 2012 06:57 PM)
I didn't think of this plot hole but when you reconsider everything, this is pretty bad and I don't see investigators believing this version of the shooting.
The first hole you mentioned actually striked me immediately, Jake was only needed because of his "virgin shooter" credibility, but since Alonzo associated with the wise men, involving the rookie on the raid didn't make sense at all, and therefore the whole movie lost its point. -
bishop0474 — 13 years ago(December 27, 2012 07:23 AM)
You've done a good analysis, but you left something out..
The Three Wise Men that Alonzo paid in the first place.
These guys were high ranking police officials. He had to pay them to get the right to take out Roger. Ostensibly because Roger was probably paying them off periodically so he'd be left alone.
The fee Alonzo paid to them probably included all the "administrative" stuff being covered up about his murder. Alonzo was corrupt, the three wise men were corrupt.
Most likely they would have or could have made up an anonymous informant who gave them the tip about what was in Roger's floor. That covers them going to raid his house in the first place, and the reason for them signing out the tools.
the only hole left is why did they raid him, then take time to dig a hole, which i expect the three wise men to cover up. On the dvd, an alternative ending has one of the three wise men asking Hoyt about the money at the very end when he arrives home. So they expected to get paid too from that heist.
I think the Wise Men's influence is what would have covered it up.
Good discussion though. -
law607 — 13 years ago(February 13, 2013 06:54 PM)
I'm not going to comment on the possibility of plot holes, I will comment on the procedures as it pertains to tatical officers making an entry to serve a warrant.
- 90% of the time, a tatical unit (especially one as large as LAPD) would never perform the search for narcotics. They would breach the door, clear the house and be out of the area in less than 2 minutes.
An evidence recovery team would come right behind them and perform a methodical search for the evidence. This is a movie, they are a corrupt team sooo, I get it. - In the event there is an officer involved shooting where two people have been hit, the residence would be cleared of any suspects and that's as far as it would go.
An investigation, possible criminal investigation, started as soon as the first bullet was fired and the possible crime scene would never be disturbed including digging up a floor waiting for the brass.
Police officers would never search a residence for eveidence while I a man lay dead or dying on the floor and a fellow police officer is laying on the floor bleeding from a gunshot wound.
Sometimes when you want the devil, you have to go to hell and get him!
- 90% of the time, a tatical unit (especially one as large as LAPD) would never perform the search for narcotics. They would breach the door, clear the house and be out of the area in less than 2 minutes.
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The_Blue_Spirit — 12 years ago(April 17, 2013 06:19 PM)
Remember when Alonso says "Taxation without representation, they're ain't nothing free in this world." Yeah, well, Alonso took his million, split some up between the rest of his crew, and left the REST of the money to look as if that was all they found. He didn't take all 4 million dollars; besides the fact it would ruin their story, they would have had nowhere to put it before the cops got there.
Happy Birthday, my son. If only I could have helped you
-Uncle Iroh -
brett-39-479061 — 12 years ago(April 17, 2013 07:19 PM)
That's not my issue. The problem is that their story isn't that they went to Roger's house and found whatever amount of money. Their story is that they intended to go to Roger's house with a warrant, but when they arrived they were promptly shot by Roger, and called back-up immediately. Their version of the story means they called in "officer down", left that officer and went and dug up an entire kitchen floor in the time between "officer down" and the back-up arriving. One, why would you leave a shot police officer to go to something that isn't of absolute urgency? Two, how did you dig up the whole kitchen floor in a few minutes? (yes, in reality they had plenty of time to dig up the floor, but their story isn't reality). The only thing they could say is that the kitchen floor was torn up already when they arrived, but that would be a huge coincidence since they legitimately went there to tear up the floor, and made a show of signing out shovels, saws and whatnot from the police department to do so.
In a nutshell, Alonso and his men's version of what happened at Roger's house isn't remotely possible or believable. There are steps they could've done to fix that (i.e. bring their own tools and dispose of them before calling for back-up so they could claim the hole was there when they arrived) but they don't. -
Mike716 — 12 years ago(April 17, 2013 08:59 PM)
You're absolutely right, there's no legitimate explanation for this. After the suspect/officer gets shot, the entire investigation would have stopped. Hell, when an officer gets shot, the whole world pretty much stops. But after all it is just a movie, and it's bound to have a plothole or two.
What I also don't understand is how they question Alonzo and Jake after the shooting (I assume, since it isn't even shown on camera) and just let them go on their merry little way. I assume it would've immediately turned into a full-fledged investigation. I think at the very least, they would've been required to take the rest of the day off, after being questioned extensively, Jake especially. You don't just shoot someone on duty and continue with your day, killing someone in the line of duty isn't a common everyday occurrence, on your first day no less.