Johnny Fanboy writes:

It’s been a slow couple of months down here in the Nit-pick basement of Sci-Fi Online Towers, aside from helping Richard McGinlay with some problematic stardates in his recent Star Trek feature. So I have decided to look into some plot holes that Darren Rea uncovered earlier this year in his review of the Fantastic Four: Extended Edition DVD. In doing so, I am motivated purely by my desire to answer people’s queries and to keep this nit-pick section up-to-date. My decision has nothing to do with watching Jessica Alba in her skimpy underthings, goodness me no, nothing at all...

Darren Rea wrote:

1. The first scene that has me scratching my head is the one in which Reed Richards and Johnny and Sue Storm are eager to get through a roadblock to Ben Grimm, but can’t. Richards soon realises that Sue could sneak past everyone by becoming invisible, so she makes herself disappear. Her clothes can still be seen, however, so she starts to take them off. Oops! Her invisibility isn’t working quite as well as she’d hoped, and she reappears in her bra and panties. Cue much audience merriment and cold showers for the male teenage viewers. Eventually she becomes fully invisible and makes her way through the roadblock. The next time we see the Fantastic Four, they have all managed to make it past the obstruction without being spotted. Er... how? Were they just having Sue on? Did Richards just want to see Sue strip off? Obviously something important was left on the cutting room floor.

2. When the Fantastic Four are holed up at Richards’s apartment-cum-lab, how does Victor Von Doom manage to let himself in? Sue and Richards look very surprised when he appears, but after that no one really seems to care.

3. Then there’s the question of where Johnny gets his car with the personalised number plate “Torch’d”. Did he already have this before the accident? If so, why? And if not, when did he buy it, as he has been restricted to Richards’s lab with no outside contact?

Johnny Fanboy replies:

1. Actually, shortly after Sue has made herself invisible, we see Richards noticing a way through the roadblock, to the left of a parked ambulance. He and Johnny then make their way past the vehicle while Sue shoves her way through the people in her invisible state.

This still begs the question of why Richards asked Sue to make herself invisible in the first place. Quite apart from the fact that this would only get Sue, not the other two, through the crowd unnoticed, her turning transparent and her impromptu striptease is bound to attract attention (which it does). Maybe Richards really did want to see her strip off! Or perhaps he realised that it would create a good diversion for him and Johnny to take advantage of, though I doubt he is that conniving. More likely, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

As for how the gap in the crowd opens up, perhaps some of the people were scared away by the sight of what might appear to be a ghost (the semi-transparent Sue). More likely, the distraction caused by Sue’s striptease and her invisible shoving through the crowd diverts the cops’ attention, allowing Richards and Johnny to slip through unnoticed.

2. Maybe they left the door unlocked. It could be that although Sue and Richards are surprised to see Victor, they aren’t surprised that he didn’t bother to knock. Alternatively, perhaps Von Doom’s burgeoning electrical powers or super-strength overcame Richards’s security measures.

3. I can see a number of possibilities behind Johnny’s personalised plates:
i. Perhaps he did have them before he acquired his powers. After all, the Fantastic Four’s abilities are all based upon existing character traits, in Johnny’s case hotheadedness.
ii. Alternatively, he could have bought the car or plates in between acquiring his powers and the Brooklyn Bridge scene.
iii. Or he could have bought them over the internet. You write for a website and you’ve never heard of online shopping?
iv. Or he could have quickly bought them in between leaving Richards’s apartment and when we see the car for the first time. Take your pick of these four fantastic choices!

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