Heavy Rain's BIG plot-holes

15 reasons the supposedly brainy epic makes no more sense than Modern Warfare 2

Heavy Rain was supposed to change things. It was supposed to elevate video game story-telling above the badly-written, poorly-acted dirges we currently put up with, and give us a groundbreakingly mature, gritty, intelligent and cleverly constructed, branching storyline. It absolutely didn’t. In fact sweep aside the surface gloss of stunning looks and moving score and Heavy Rain’s plot is a shambles.

Not everyone has a problem with that. My arguments over it with certain colleagues often come up against the caveat that "all games have crap stories". But that's really not the point. A game whose sole purpose is serious storytelling is a very different fish to the likes of Gears of War, and crap storytelling here is like a CoD game with crap shooting mechanics. A CoD game which claimed to change shooting mechanics for the better.

Above: Ethan looks lost and confused, and there's a good reason for that

Heavy Rain looks and sounds like a classy movie alright, but if it was a real film, it would be one of those cheap, no-name crime thrillers you drunkenly catch on TV at 3AM. Enjoyable if you don’t think too much, but utterly nonsensical. And here’s why. But first, a brief warning:

Not just spoilers, you understand, but immense spoilers, covering a large number of the game’s major plot points, including the identity of the Origami Killer. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Plot hole 1

Above: No wonder she's an insomniac if she freaks out over literally nothing. 

If you make sure that Madison survives to the hospital scene near the end, she (but not you) is told the identity of the Origami Killer. Understandably, she is shocked and aghast at the name she hears being associated with such atrocities. Not understandably, she and said killer have never met in the game at this point, and in fact are completely unaware of each other’s existence. She’s reacting to nothing, which becomes even more face-palm-worthy when she scoots immediately round to his house.

Plot hole 2

While investigating the Origami Killer, private eye Shelby interviews several parents of murdered kids and collects key evidence and messages sent to them by said mysterious child-offer. Question: Why the hell have these parents still got hold of this stuff? Why didn’t give they these clues to the police during the investigations? Did they want their kids to be killed? And if they did hand them in, why haven’t the police still got them in the (still open) case file? Did they give them back as souvenirs when the bodies were found? No wonder they can't catch the killer if they keep giving evidence away.

Plot hole 3

If Ethan is captured and taken in for questioning by the police, a potential set-piece opens up that's so ludicrous that you'll scratch your head 'til your brain bleeds. For evidence of its stupidity, try the following in real life. Go into a police station of your choice. Find a really important, high-profile suspect in a holding cell. They’re bound to have one knocking around. Help him escape, but make sure you have a conversation with a third-party immediately beforehand, and make sure that the content of that conversation will tie you to the crime without question. Then see if you get away with it.

Above: "I never broke the law! I AM THE LAW!" Oh okay, off you go then... 

If you do, get a job at said police station, make yourself unpopular to the point that the corrupt powers-that-be are desperate for an excuse to get rid of you, then try it again. If you’re still working in your office, completely uninterrupted, a few days later and the police have started a second huge manhunt without once even questioning how said suspect escaped in the first place, congratulations. You are Norman Jayden.

Plot hole 4

Speaking of manhunts, the whole case against Ethan which takes up much of the second half is a farce. The evidence that makes him the definite, absolute, couldn’t-be-anyone-else, number-one suspect in a high-profile murder case? Nothing more than some highly circumstantial hearsay and tittle-tattle about black-outs and bad dreams, from his ex and his psychiatrist (tittle-tattle that in that latter case has to be beaten out of the unwilling source). We know that the cops are looking for a scapegoat, but making public claims of guilt and holding a press conference to celebrate the capture of a notorious serial killer without ever bothering to build any kind of a case against him is the simplistic  and lazy thinking of a nine-year old. Even bad movie cops wouldn’t do that.

Plot hole 5

Above: It's either bullshit writing or he's a replicant. Your call

Ethan’s blackouts can be explained as a sympton of the trauma he suffered when hit by the car, but what’s with all the false-lead origami models he keeps waking up with? Was the killer following him 24/7 the whole time with a copy of his medical history, just waiting to pop one in his hand whenever he dropped? Including that time he passed out in his own house?

Does he really have an undiagnosed case of ‘Making-paper-models-in-your-sleep-at-topically-suspicious-times’ syndrome? It’s as sensible an explanation as any.

Plot hole 6

Who needs clever, logical mystery-solving when you can just wheel out Mr. Completely-Implausible-But-Weirdly-Accurate-Jump-Of-Logic? Throughout the story, Norman Jayden repeatedly proves himself to be the convenient plot-mashing wonder that no lazy writer should be without. He’s so good an FBI profiler he can make links where there aren’t even any links, and is always right, despite having absolutely nothing tangible to go on. Just check out how he finally identifies the killer if you take him to the Blue Lagoon night club in the third act:

Above: Jayden's so good he makes Columbo look like a boiled turnip

The killer wears a watch that a local police station traditionally buys as a promotion gift, so to Jayden that means that the killer has to be a cop (as said commonly-available watch will explode if worn by a non-law-enforcement worker, presumably). And the police conveniently have the current address and full current real estate ownership details of the retired cop in question on record.

And because said retired cop owns a huge industrial warehouse complex (On a retired cop’s money? Seriously?) then the only possible place his next victim could be stashed is within said implausible-but-its-dramatic-so-never-mind-the-logic setting (anywhere any more obvious and Shelby might as well put up a neon sign). It’s all illogical nonsense, but it all turns out to be true, because it’s the easiest way to fudge a third act together without doing any of that pesky thinking. 

Plot hole 7

Above: Ultra-strength and no need for air. Why isn't she in an X-Men game?

Top tip. If you’re ever in a house fire, you can avoid suffocating on the smoke by suffocating in a closed fridge instead (you know, those big airtight boxes of cool that are notoriously impossible to open from the inside). How do you survive? Who cares? Just get out in between the cutscenes and no-one will ask how you managed it, you big Houdini you.

Plot hole 8

Whether the FBI run random staff drug tests or not, an addiction as debilitating as Jayden’s would not have gone unnoticed as long as it has. Unless of course the FBI is ignoring his chemical binging because of the magical clairvoyant detective skills the drugs seem to give him.

Plot hole 9

The guns used in Heavy Rain must be props, used simply to look intimidating. Whenever a single, easy shot would resolve things neatly, fingers stay well away from triggers and prey implausibly escapes in exactly the way the plot requires. We know this one happens in bad movies as well, but the frequency and choreography of it in Heavy Rain is stupid almost to the point of parody.

Above: Given how the story plays out, Hassan is the safest man in the world right now

Most notable examples? The way Ethan can escape a motel besieged by SWAT teams (‘Shit, he’s a whole eight feet below us on that pavement. Our bullets don’t even work down there’), and the numerous ladders Shelby can chase Madison up during the climax. Person slowly climbing very tall structure = sitting duck. An ex-cop should know that.

Plot hole 10

Heavy Rain’s world seems disproportionately populated with ludicrously enthusiastic but woefully unthinking killers. Take junkyard killer Mad Jack for instance. He thinks nothing of murderising police and FBI alike in his place of business, in broad daylight and during work hours, and then tops it off by dumping the bodies in a barely covered acid bath right at the front of his workshop forecourt. And despite having this big conspicuous murderer’s soup by way of a welcome matt, he doesn’t raise a bit of suspicion. It seems the police don’t bother to investigate the last-known whereabouts of missing officers. Probably too busy giving key evidence away.

Plot hole 11

Above: "Good job I had the flying murder-pixies to help. Otherwise this hand would really hurt"

The butterfly trial makes no sense. The contrived set-up of Shelby’s second Saw-style test for Ethan would be impossible for any one man to put together. There is no logical way anyone could fill a complex tunnel system (comprising miles upon miles of chokey-tight crawl-space) with broken glass without painting themselves into a corner and getting cut to ribbons trying to get back out. And if Ethan is cramped in there, a man of Shelby’s size would probably destroy himself just trying to get in, let alone escaping.

Plot hole 12

Why does Ethan still suspect himself of being the killer after the lizard trial? Obviously the man’s carrying a lot of guilt after misplacing two sons in a row, but after being forced to brutally mutilate himself while someone watches and verifies the act via a video camera, surely it’s pretty obvious someone else is involved?

Plot hole 13

Heavy Rain’s cops-of-convenience really are fantastic when you have a nonsensical plot you want to maintain. When they’re needed, they’re all over a suspect whether it makes sense or not, but when application of the law would be inconvenient they’re nowhere to be seen.The former we know about. The latter? How about when Shelby invades the Kramers' mansion, killing at least a dozen bodyguards in someone's private residence and then facing no consequences afterward?

Above: Given how good the cops are, Jack is the safest man in the world right now

Yeah, you can spare Kramer himself, but whether he lives or dies, there’s still a shit-ton of dead bodies lying around the (presumably security camera-filled) mansion of a respected businessman, stuffed with bullets fired from a never-reloaded handgun (that may or may not be registered to Shelby). The police and media reaction to this incredibly high-profile, noisy bloodbath? None. Ever.

Plot hole 14

How in the hell does Shelby fund all of this high-concept murdering? Not only does he own the aforementioned vast warehouse complex, but he apparently helped set Paco up in business as a nightclub owner following the sleazy fiend’s release from prison. But hell, trifling details like things costing money don’t matter when there’s a set-piece requiring a moody backdrop.

Plot hole 15

Above: The actual murder is probably in the deleted scenes. Oh no, no it's not...

While it’s just about justifiable as an editing trick rather than a plot hole, the scene in the typewriter shop is a seriously cheesy cheat that aims to throw you off the scent in the laziest, tackiest way possible. Shame, because the same effect could have been achieved with a much subtler, cleverer scene. And why the hell does Shelby call the cops on himself before he’s cleared up the evidence of his presence at the murder scene? Not that it matters. If he does get pulled into the police station, the cops maintain their ineffectuality flawlessly, with an interview so in-depth and probing that the script might as well have read simply “KTHXBAI”