Radiation Hazard: 5 Absurd Plot Holes In Elysium

Ah, the world of Elysium, complete with a giant hovering space station with swooping gardens and crystal clear structures. A world so advanced that robots easily handle any problems that us humans just don’t want to do. So why in the hell does a simple radiation chamber not have a fail-safe or even a lock of sorts to keep the door open? Or why didn’t Max find something to keep it open? Better yet, why the hell do robots need to be blasted by radiation? Okay, maybe there’s a scientific reason for that last one, but as an audience, we’re not expected to know the dictionary of uses for radiation.

I kept thinking the entire time, “There isn’t an easier, safer way to do this?” Granted, we all know what’s coming, which does create a little suspense, but it’s yet again a lousy way to move the story. I honestly would have been just fine without the whole five-days-to-live-go-all-out device as the entire beginning showed just how desperate Max wanted to go to Elysium.

Or you could say everyone is greedy and didn’t want to install a fail-safe for puny earthlings. But still, why radiation for robots?

Man it sure was easy to make a code that could override the entire freaking system of Elysium. So much for advancements.

I enjoyed where they were going with the story, but when Carlyle whipped up the code in what seemed like less than a day, it was just too bizarre and it completely broke my suspension of belief. While I had trouble believing such an advanced society couldn’t make fail-safes, here I had trouble believing that the society could be so advanced that they can override their code in a day.

While it is true that Carlyle is the one who made Elysium, I find it hilarious that there is no jumping over hurdles just to get this code intact. Also, why hasn’t anyone else done it? With how technically proficient Spider was, there had to have been more people who were power hungry enough to want to rule Elysium.

Thankfully, the film picked up quick enough that my brief break in focus subsided, but now that I think about it, it really shouldn’t have been that easy.

So, I thought the code was easy to make, but what seemed even easier was how unprotected Elysium really was. I remember hearing in the trailer that it’s supposed to be the most highly guarded place, but then you get these illegal shuttles flying there whenever they damn please? Sure, two out of three of them got shot down in the beginning, but one made it. Also, people wouldn’t be throwing their money at Spider if there wasn’t a proven method of reaching Elysium.

On top of it, Elysium doesn’t seem to have any defenses of its own installed into its own system. Instead, they rely on a guy from Earth to shoot shuttles down, which is fine I guess, but that’s pretty far even for homing missiles. With the amount of people trying to break in, there was a supreme lack of defenses. I think just one shuttle came to the scene when Elysium was invaded both times with the rest of the resistance being Kruger and his men. It is no wonder why people are willing to get caught, because it’s so easy.

Then, when someone finally gets to Elysium, there’s no one there! So much for trying to preserve the population when there’s nothing to preserve except for a few empty mansions. Who the hell is cleaning these mansions anyways? This is more of a criticism of the movie itself, but I would have loved to see Max actually explore Elysium apropos to him just crashing.

The whole concept of Elysium screams plot hole and more lousy writing.

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