Why was noone else on Viktor's flight held up?
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marbleann — 13 years ago(February 21, 2013 08:31 AM)
That was the biggest plot hole in the whole movie. They could of flew a 747 right through it. Their is no way a big International Airport would only have one person flying out or in of there anyway. There would be a feeder flights and they would all converge in a big airport. There are people working in these airports that take care of specific things like this. I use to work in the IAB in JFK. He would of been taken to a area with not only people leaving from his country but going to his country, along with anybody else who had to fly through the airport there. He would taken by the Red Cross or some other entity that is assigned to handle people in middle of a international crisis. They would never leave him in the middle of a big airport to fend for himself.
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dg-benz — 13 years ago(February 26, 2013 11:20 PM)
It is possible that he was the only one at that time, on that flight. The country was on the brink of a civil war, and even though Viktor left before it actually broke out, I doubt that people from Krakozhia were lining up to go to NYC in the midst of oncoming war. Having said that, Viktor most likely transferred in a major airpirt hub somewhere in Europe (Frankfurt, Paris, London, etc) because most likely a small country like Krakozhia wouldn't offer direct flights to America and was probably the only one from his country to board the flight to NYC once he had transferred.
It seems strange when you first think about it, but it is possible and I wouldn't necessarily call it a plot hole. -
marbleann — 13 years ago(February 27, 2013 07:14 AM)
If it was on the brink of Civil War all the more reason for people to be leaving. No matter what country they would have representation waiting for them at a major airport. Not only that the Red Cross is there too. And I had mentioned they probably came in from feeder airports to NY. Working in IAB at JFK years ago I just do not think Victor situation would happen. He is considered a refugee, no way would he be left hanging at a airport.
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TVholic — 10 years ago(November 26, 2015 09:57 PM)
It wasn't a civil war. It was a coup d'etat, a sudden overthrow of the government that comes without warning. Go read up on the term in Wikipedia and you'll see coups and attempted coups in quite a few countries you think are stable democracies, countries people aren't fleeing. There can't be representation if the old government is out of power and the new government isn't recognized by the US. You don't think something like that can happen? Look up the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri.
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joestl — 10 years ago(January 02, 2016 04:22 PM)
Chance are you couldn't get a direct flight from Krakohzia all the way to NYC. So he probably flew from Krakohzia to a connecting flight in some place like London, Paris or wherever which would've then flown to New York. He's the only Krakohzian citizen who continued on to America while the others either only went to the first city or their subsequent connecting flights weren't to NY.
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itstoohardtoreadmyname — 13 years ago(March 28, 2013 12:41 AM)
Why do you find it so impossible for Viktor to be the only Krakozhian guy in his flight? Maybe he took a connecting flight to the USA from let's say Germany? So maybe all of the other Krakozhians stayed in Germany, while Viktor wanted to go to the US. It's a possible scenario, because Krakozhia was a small country and there shouldn't have necessarily been other pasangers.
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aussiemiguel — 12 years ago(April 17, 2013 07:00 AM)
The movie CLEARLY shows that there is a direct United Airlines flight to/from Krakhozia. He didn't transfer from Germany/Netherlands or any other country!
Also, Krakhozia seems to be like Singapore, a city/nation, as the flight information only says 'Krakhozia' and not the name of its fictional capital. -
gerdd — 12 years ago(April 28, 2013 11:53 AM)
Well, before we call this a bizarre plot hole, let's just gather a few facts - one being that apparently this yarn is spun on the basis of a real situation. Granted, it may not have happened this way in the US and probably not in the US after the introduction of Homeland Security.
The first thing is "where were all the other Krakozians? Or were there none?" Well, under the first speculation in this discussion Viktor could have just left in spite of what the officer said. If that were the case we could just assume that is exactly what all the others did and only he was enough of a good guy to follow the officer's orders.
It is, however, unlikely that that would be the case, considering to what lengths airport authorities go to keep he various flows of passengers separate in international terminals, of which New York International (JFK) would have a few. The flows I am referring to are specifically the ones of just arrived passengers that haven't cleared Immigration yet and the ones on their way out that have already passed the exit check. They can normally not just "walk out and mingle with the masses already fully inside the US of A."
So my assumption is that Viktor is indeed trapped in the international part of the terminal, from where he can't reach the domestic side of things and with that the rest of the country. And from this situation a plot can develop.
This now leaves us with the question of what exactly the nature of his status was that made him and him alone the victim of this quandary. And the truth is that the movie doesn't tell us that. Whether this is a big plot hole or just an unexplained detail - we don't really know. In fact, it may have been perfectly logical in the country where this originally happened and the plot hole may simply be that US Immigration Law does not allow for such situations.
Okay, I looked it up now. This was an Iranian man who spent 17 years in a departure terminal of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, after having been refused entry to the UK due to an unverifiable refugee status caused by his papers having been stolen from him. (Try to look up this movie in en.wikipedia.org and follow some of the obvious links from there.)
So, if you want to talk about plot holes, I suppose you can with reference to the movie that skips over some vital if boring details and transfers the story to a place where different rules make it highly unlikely that it would happen exactly as told.
There is a device that is successfully applied in such circumstances. It is called "Suspension of Disbelief" and it works wonders with such classics as "Mary Poppins", "The Wizard of Oz", "Alice in Wonderland" and all the Star Wars and Star Trek movies ever made. Why not employ that here in order to be able to enjoy a very nice human interest story? -
aussiemiguel — 12 years ago(June 24, 2013 09:13 PM)
There is a device that is successfully applied in such circumstances. It is called "Suspension of Disbelief" and it works wonders with such classics as "Mary Poppins", "The Wizard of Oz", "Alice in Wonderland" and all the Star Wars and Star Trek movies ever made. Why not employ that here in order to be able to enjoy a very nice human interest story?
Because all of those films you mentioned are fantasy/science fiction, and The Terminal is not. Suspension of disbelief is harder in this case, particularly when so many people around the world are exposed to international travel and immigration clearances every day.
The reality in this film is that they had a flight arriving directly from Krakhozia, and it would be realistic to expect at least 50% of all passengers to be Krakhozian and not just Americans. -
bloodshot_sky — 12 years ago(May 01, 2013 09:36 PM)
Another lil thinf that i questioned is if he were getting paid under the table then why didnt he get immigrations after him? Hes a takin our jobs!
The end of the world doesn't seem so bad now that you're here. -
zomgitserynn — 11 years ago(May 05, 2014 10:51 PM)
Here's my theory, if ever there were others of his kind, they must've went under the same process as Viktor, but maybe they all left the airport, that's why Dixon was shocked to see Viktor still there since he'd forgotten about him