MovieChat Forums > Seven Days (1998) Discussion > Big plot holes...

Big plot holes...

posted 15 years ago by nmsa
19 replies | jump to latest

I'm very dissapointed about never seen an explanation about...

1.- What happens with Frank when his future version goes back from 7 days in the future to the present?
It would be logical to see TWO FRANKS performing the missions.

2.- Why Frank never comes back with EVIDENCE (video tapes/disks [magnetic or optical], encoded files, authentication documents, etc.) about any disaster occured in the future?
In that case his credibility would be never disputed.

3.- It would be more easy to send back the sphere with some kind of transmitter to tell US Gov. what ""will be"/"was" wrong 7 dasys in the future. It would be like have a satellite sending the news of next week ;)

Really are scriptwriters so bad? or people are so fool?
Maybe the both.

The Singularity is coming!

[–] Gary198617 15 years ago

All of these were explained in the first episode iirc

1. Whatever matter that gets sent back can't exist in two places, its why the sphere also disappears

2. Early on they couldn't get digital devices to work because of the strong energy emitted by the field. Which is why they gave him a barcode tattoo, so they would view his word as gospel

3. Same as 2

[–] nmsa 15 years ago

So...

1. If frank is drinking a cup of coffee while his future version is jumping back, then the cup would fall. Funny.

2. Alternatives: Optical (non-magnetic) media, composite material capsules, etc.. (you can see that space suits survive the travel).

3. Send messages like spy satellites of early generations like Corona (they sent the film container thru atmosphere reentering, then an airplane catch it while falling with parachute).

The Singularity is coming!

[–] Gary198617 15 years ago

1. Pretty much

2. Maybe that didn't work as well

3. Once again that includes electronics which they couldn't get to work

Not to mention that sending a person allowed them to put a person in a location which gave them a longer back step window.

Instead of 5 days because it would take 2 days to get somebody outfitted and sent to the middle of the jungle. They could have 6 1/2 days and try and get frank on location

[–] f-ascaso 15 years ago

"1. Whatever matter that gets sent back can't exist in two places, its why the sphere also disappears "

If that's true, shouldn't Frank arrive naked whenever he goes back?

I liked the series, never really bothered to give the details much thought, since they don't really matter that much in the context of telling the story. It's a TV series, not a documentary.

"if it was any good they'd have made an American version by now." Hank Hill

[–] infinity8 15 years ago

"If that's true, shouldn't Frank arrive naked whenever he goes back?"

What a tragic oversight on the part of the wardrobe department! ;-)

[–] Crossingthegulf 15 years ago

If that's true, shouldn't Frank arrive naked whenever he goes back? >>>

No but say if Donovan was for some reason wearing the clothes that frank was wearing when he comes back, Donovan would suddenly be naked.

[–] nebka23 15 years ago

Your number 1 is kind of wrong what that means is that where you are standing or sitting no other matter can be there.

But if the object or person is moved a foot either way it can be there this is now there could be two of the same objects or persons in the same place at the same time.

[–] f-ascaso 15 years ago

Not really, because it's the SAME object, just at a different time. There's no law of physics which says the same object can't occupy the same space as itself. The same object existing at the same place FROM a different time (if even possible) would act like a photon, and it could indeed occupy the same space as itself. It gets weird, fast. ;-)

"if it was any good they'd have made an American version by now." Hank Hill

[–] Apathetic13 15 years ago

I haven't seen this show in a while (except right now with a marathon, just caught the last episode), but didn't one episode explain your number 1 or maybe it was a movie I saw...anyway

Once they got confirmation that "conundrum" was actually back he was sent back for a reason and they just incinerated the current/old conundrum. That left them with only the conundrum that went back in time, next time they had to do it it would still be the original conundrum to travel so that the original is the only one left alive.

[–] Crossingthegulf 15 years ago

No they would never incinerate the previous copy. The previous Parker would just disappear.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] redkeno 15 years ago

1. Past Frank ceases to excist. How? We don't know.

2. Frank comes back with a code word and usually a crystal disk encoded with the mission details.

3. They didn't have that technology in 1999?? LOL

"Goodbye, you big, beautiful, blue bitch."

[–] IndyNC 15 years ago

1.- As stated by others, anything from the past that is in the sphere dissapears from where it is when it gets there including Frank.

2.- In a few of the early episodes and sporadically he does, they encode a bunch of data on a chip for him, etc. They do say early on about the fields destroying the chips.

3.- The sphere needs a pilot as they mentioned early on, without a pilot manually correcting the flight with the needles the sphere kept getting off it's flight path.

[–] Wingman8 9 years ago

I don't remember the explanation that the past Parker disappears but I always assumed something like that must happen. But what really bothered me is every time Parker did a back step he had to somehow contact the team, get them up to speed, etc. It seems given the critical nature of the whole mission, that Parker would basically be under 24 hour surveillance. The instant past-Parker disappears the team immediately knows a back step has occurred and can go into action, looking for him or whatever.

Heck, Parker could just take a fuse with him when he goes back. When the lights go out the team would be alerted.

[–] IndyNC 9 years ago

In later episodes that was covered more in that once the sphere vanished an alarm would go off and everyone knew a backstep had happened. They still had to wait for Parker to call in to get the info though.

You would think both the sphere and Parker would have homing beacons on them though in addition to the always breaking satellite phone, but that's TV for you :)

[–] VariablePenguin 14 years ago

Follow up to 3.

Frank has to go back because the sphere requires a pilot. If he wasn't in it, it would be detroyed.

[–] Fozzy_Fozzbourne 9 years ago

When Ramsey and Donovan meet Frank after his first backstep didn't Ramsey say something like 'We would never have chose this man, he's reported escaped from Hansen Island'

There was no second Frank, he backstepped into Alternate Realities

[–] stargazer_1682 9 years ago

There was no second Frank, he backstepped into Alternate Realities

No, it was distinctly the past; they even had an episode where a glitch basically caused the space time continuum to invert and "Hooter" even says, at least within the context of the series, there were no such thing as parallel universes/alternate realities.
Ramsey wasn't saying that in the "reality" Frank backstepped to, that Frank Parker had escaped Hansen Island - he was missing; because he disappeared upon going back in time.

I would say the effect is probably like Frank becoming a magnet for his past self; only instead of similar charges repelling, he's drawing them in. This would apply to his clothes too; and in most cases that he went back, he was wearing a special suit and helmet, which presumably disappeared from the locker it was otherwise hanging in seven days prior. We kind of see this effect as he jerks around in the sphere; and the physical stresses take their toll - they killed most of the previous attempted chrononaughts, and Frank was the only one with the pain threshold and ability to survive it.
Without someone driving the stick, there's no telling where the sphere would end up. There was no telling where it would end up even with a pilot. In the very first episode they show one of the failed attempts, with the sphere floating in space. It seems they occasionally had to build new spheres following some of these trials. There was one of the one guy who actually did survive and ended up stranded in the rainforest, his sphere never retrieved and he was presumed dead; and he had lost his mind in the process.

There was an episode where something happened that caused the sphere to launch before he could get in it. When the alert goes out of a backstep, Frank appears in the hall wondering what's going on, as he'd never been present for that side of the procedure. The team had a hell of a time trying to figure out why they had initiated a backstep, and what was needed to be prevented.

Frank also had a photographic memory, but he also had human perspective that might not always translate in a written file. He also sometimes picked up on nuances for his experiences in the original histories, that a mere file could not offer the benefit of.

"I'm here to kill you, not to judge you."

[–] author004 9 years ago

1. The sphere went back in time and Frank with it. They showed it a couple of times where Frank went back and the hanger bay was empty.

2. Refer to the pilot when the doctor put the programmable chip under his arm. This could have taken a while to understand.

3. I get your idea, but how would they automate the fine-tuning nob to make the Sphere arrive where it should?

"My friends are in the statehouse. My enemies are gonna be a lot harder to find." - JR Ewing