MovieChat Forums > Dolan's Cadillac (2010) Discussion > PLOT HOLES **SPOILERS SPOILERS***

PLOT HOLES SPOILERS SPOILERS*

posted 16 years ago by tonya7609
15 replies | jump to latest

1. So when Robinson turns off the cell phone jammer, to call Dolan? How come Dolan doesn't simply call 911 or make any other kind of call when Robinson hangs up? We know the jammer is still off because he (Robinson) gets a phone call from the lame FBI guy.

2. If Dolan and Robinson can hear each other, why the need for the cell phone in the first place?

3. Robinson has Dolan enter a web address to the camera; how come he (Dolan) doesn't simply send an email or IM or something? Obviously the internet connection is working. There was an error page at first, but if it wasn't working, how would he be able to surf to the camera's address?

Lastly, the King story was terrific -- but the movie lacks something. They should have stuck to the original story. I didn't FEEL it. The story is about obsession and decent into madness, but.. but.. there's something missing in the movie that I can't quite put my finger on. In the story he waited YEARS to take his revenge, all the while going more and more crazy in a way. In the movie, it's just a matter of a few months.

Eh, I think the glossed over some of the more interesting things they could have done with his character in favor of lingering shots of trafficked women in lingerie. Stay classy, Jeff Beesley!

[–] PAViridian 16 years ago

At least point 3 can be explained pretty easily. It was a wireless LAN. The IP Robinson had Dolan enter is non-existent (because no IP ends in a number higher than 255) but it was recognizable to the LAN and networked-computer savvy (and semi-savvy) as very very similar to real IPs assigned by a LAN network to two computers so they can speak to each other. The network didn't need to have Internet connectivity to be used that way. Virtually every computer on a network anywhere has a similar internal IP so the computers can talk to each other. So Robinson had Dolan enter the IP to Robinson's computer, not to an external Internet address. He was able to surf to the camera's address because it was Robinson's computer, not anything outside the network.

If Robinson went to the trouble of setting that up, I have no doubt he made certain the network didn't have an ISP or any way to connect anything other than Dolan's computer to Robinson's.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] lars-wadefalk 16 years ago

Almost correct, but having an IPv4 address where any of the dotted decimals exceeds the value 255 in any network, local or wide is just plain stupid. That limitation is pretty hard routed in the IP layer of the network topology.

He was a teacher alright, but I seriously doubt his secret hobby was to create his own version of the RFC standards and then somehow hack dolan's cadillac and replace the full protocol stack in the car's computer.

I think that scene really qualifies for the goofs section.

Why does Hollywood filmmakers keep doing such stupid and obvious mistakes over and over? Is it deliberately just to irritate the audience?
They could have left it with a regular plain class C network address instead.

[–] PAViridian 16 years ago

Since it ended in 666, I think they used the number on purpose. I don't know if there is any rule or standard about using fictitious IPs in Hollywood (example, 555-#### for phone numbers), but if they do, they may have used a fictitious IP because of that.

Or they just wanted to use .666. Either way, it was intentional, so I don't know if that qualifies as a goof or using an obvious fictitious IP that otherwise would be recognizable to people who know these things well or have torn their hair out trying to set up a home network.

[–] NoahBody 15 years ago

PAViridian
Since it ended in 666, I think they used the number on purpose. I don't know if there is any rule or standard about using fictitious IPs in Hollywood (example, 555-#### for phone numbers)

There's no 'law', but hollywierd normally uses NAT ip addresses whenever mentioned
192.168._ _ _._ _ _ ( _ _ _ = less than 255 as the OP stated)

172.16._ _ _._ _ _. to 172.16.31.255

10_ _ _._ _ _._ _ _

All of these are 'internal' or non-routeable, so just like the 555- phone numbers, any jokester who tries to dial/access them won't annoy real people

[–] PAViridian 15 years ago

That's good to hear.

I'll take it that the .666 at the end was for effect, being a highly symbolic number--basically, IP to hell, I guess Robinson meant it to be.

[–] Zac67 15 years ago

> Almost correct, but having an IPv4 address where any of the dotted decimals
> exceeds the value 255 in any network, local or wide is just plain stupid. That
> limitation is pretty hard routed in the IP layer of the network topology.

> He was a teacher alright, but I seriously doubt his secret hobby was to create
> his own version of the RFC standards and then somehow hack dolan's cadillac and
> replace the full protocol stack in the car's computer.

The 192.168.0. part definitely points to a private network, but the .666 is strictly impossible to use in an IP address, regardless of what you do. The IP address is a 32 bit number and the usual octet dotted notation is just a human-readable presentation of it.

While it is completely impossible to use 192.168.0.666 as an IP ADDRESS, it is totally possible to use it as a DNS NAME. Just add the line
127.0.0.1 192.168.0.666
to C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts and ping the 'address'. See?

(Don't imagine they meant it that way, but does that qualify as a goof?)

[–] lars-wadefalk 14 years ago

Yes, you are right even if I haven't tried something as moronic, it would be probably be possible to achieve with a DNS name.
But Iseriously doubt though that the movie makers had such an intricate idea about that address. I think it was just that clichéd tech fuzz constantly pouring out from hollywood...with bad research.

[–] AxelVanHorn 16 years ago

I wrote the exact same things in other words,
they all attack me because I said I am an author,
anyway,

glad to see I am not the only crazy Stephen King fan around.

Take care

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] NoahBody 15 years ago

- Boni_Neto
Dolan doesn't hear him talking to the FBI guy,

But in your next excuse, you admit Robinson and Dolan could hear each other even w/o the cell phone. That being the case, D. would have heard R on the cell and checked for 'service bars'

He should have buried him deep as the book states, and it should have been a car, not the suv.

//should have also used quality actors but we don't have that either.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MosHr 15 years ago

There are very simple explanations to all of this.

1. Robisonson worked on the cellphone tower before working construction. He wrote a program that would jam Dolan's cell phone when he wanted to except when Robinson called in. Then, Robinson ran it in the tower's system. Thus, the tower would only allow Robinson and Dolan to converse.

2. Try talking to someone inside a car which is closed. As Robinson shoveled dirt into the hole, it sealed the car and conversation became difficult. However, it was possible first because the doors could be partially opened. He then filled it up with a carefully chosen combination of rock and dirt such that none of the rocks or dirt would enter the car but would seal it.

3. Robinson bought a wireless router with him. He jammed Dolan's 3G connection and so Dolan's computer searched for a WLAN host. It found Robinson's router, connected to it. Notice that the IP address was 192.168.0.666 which is a popular set of numbers assigned by routers as internal IP addresses. This explains why Dolan's computer only had one working address.

[–] lars-wadefalk 13 years ago

@MosHr, About:

3. Yes, 192.168.0.X is a class c network, very typically used by routers with NAT. However, I don't know if you missed that part but that last network byte (X) cannot be outside the range 0 through 255, and 666 definitely is.
That's what we're talking about.