Why was noone else on Viktor's flight held up?
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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