MovieChat Forums > Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Discussion > Plot hole, sort of **SPOILERS**

Plot hole, sort of SPOILERS

posted 12 years ago by The_Man_in_the_Planet
6 replies | jump to latest

When Dad has the guys from the funeral home pick up Grandpa's body, he tells a tale about "we thought he was just napping" and so on. They drive off with Grandpa and we hear no more about this. Wouldn't the fact that he was in a hospital gown seem odd to the funeral home staff? As well, he would have punctures from needles, and possibly lines still in place, since the ER tried to rescusitate him? And continuing in that direction, in any county that I know of, his death would have been a coroner's case, since his demise was unexpected and he had no attending physician (that we know of anyway). The ER would have wanted to keep the body, not try to dump it as soon as possible.

Next time you see me, it won't be me

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] artistathome 10 years ago

When they took him to the ER, he was obviously dead and they did not undress him or anything. Just left him as is. The only thing they had was the sheets which prob was strange to the funeral home guys in Redondo Beach but whatever.

I too wondered how someone can die on a trip and you just hand him off to the locals? I guess they prob would have been trying to get him home across state lines or leave him there in CA.

I know that it is expensive to transport a body across state lines.
and paperwork involved.

So Richard just said put him in Potter's Field? Geez what a glaring plot hole.

[–] ericjstacey 10 years ago

I know it's just a movie, so they have to stretch things a bit, but I found it strange that 2 minutes after a doctor informs a family about a death, a case worker walks in so quickly wanting to make arrangements about the remains. If I were Richard, I would have told her "we are not dealing with this right now. We will be back later". I mean, would they have arrested him for walking out of the hospital?

[–] DanaShelbyChancey 10 years ago

That is what a funeral home is for. They deal with things like people dying away from home, unexpectedly. They know their stuff.

The local funeral directors who Richard was with when they took the body, readied it for transport and arranged the shipping the body back to AZ or NM or where they lived.

I remember Richard saying that pre-arrangements had been made with a funeral home.

[–] hppg 10 years ago

I think
1) They assumed he had already been to hospital to have him declared dead...so that would explain any medical evidence/hospital sheets. You're allowed to take body out of hospital if it's not state lines AFAIK (or that's what the grief woman implied, as did the father) so for all the funeral home knew, they thought he was sleeping, he wasn't, he was declared dead in a CA hospital, they took him away and called the funeral home
2) We don't know about the death, it's possible they would have done autopsy/called in coroner had they left him in the original hospital. Also, we don't know cause (heart attack/drug overdose/general old age - they mentioned his sleep) so it may have been something that did not warrant further investigation, given his age.

[–] nutsberryfarm 9 years ago

that should have been investigated.

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