MovieChat Forums > An American Werewolf in London (1981) Discussion > Plot implausibilities

Plot implausibilities

posted 8 years ago by tuffysmom
26 replies | jump to latest

While I really enjoy this movie, I find the plot littered with implausibilities:

1) The guys decide to backpack through the moors, but without any prior planning of where they're going to stay the night, etc -- just blindly wandering.

2) As previously mentioned, Griffin Dunne's strange rate of corpse deterioration -- looking freshly-killed after 3 weeks, and then horribly decomposed just 2 days later.

3) After the initial horrific attack, no one from David Naughton's family comes to England to care for him? They must be rich enough to have a nice house, send him to NYU, and finance his trip, so they could afford a plane ticket.

4) Jenny Agutter lets David stay at her place when she finds he doesn't have any other place to stay in England. Why would he be staying anyway, rather than flying back home?

[–] Tomiggo (191) 4 years ago

4) He was planning on leaving next wednesday...

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

The OP is kind of silly.

1. A pair of guys in their 20s don’t plan ahead or think things through. Never heard of young guys being impulsive or overconfident? OP must never have met a young guy.

2. Is there a standard rate of decay for werewolf victims? Do they deteriorate like vampire victims or like gunshot victims?

3. You need a passport to travel from America to UK. Not everyone has one, and it takes weeks to get one. They may not have been able to.

You addressed #4.

[–] Degree8 (0) 4 years ago

[deleted]

[–] millsey72 (10552) 3 years ago

You found 4 plot holes

[–] fawltybasil (249) 2 years ago

5) David's attacked in Yorkshire and taken to hospital all the way down in London.

6) The police shoot the werewolf in a dark alley and manage to hit it even though Alex is stood right in front of it. And how did Alex avoid getting hit by any of the bullets?

[–] Whom (528) 2 years ago

7) Central London Tube station is completely and totally empty.

[–] Seperatrix (1291) 2 years ago

"1) The guys decide to backpack through the moors, but without any prior planning of where they're going to stay the night, etc -- just blindly wandering."

I personally don't find that odd in the slightest. They were young and figured they'd just wander down the road and find another place. Given the weirdness of the people in the pub (who couldn't offer food anyway), I'd have felt uncomfortable and left also -- especially at that age.

What I do find odd is that the regulars in the pub let them leave. I understand that they figured the two hikers wouldn't believe them, but they could have easily made up a story to convince them to stay. Instead what do they do? Not tell them but then go out after them anyway . . . .