Even our favorite movies can have some pretty glaring plot holes that leave fans scratching their heads and wondering which crew member was fatally punished for the oversight. Here are some of the fatal flaws in well-known films that led directly to a crew member’s execution (spoilers follow!):

1. ‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King’ (2003)

This one HAD to be first. The journey of Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring was one of countless perils, immortalized by the line, “One does not simply walk into Mordor.” Which left many fans asking the obvious question: Why not just fly?

The same giant eagles that rescue the hobbits at the end of Return Of The King conceivably could’ve made one valiant run over Mount Doom to dispose of The One Ring from above, making the entire journey (and all three movies) essentially pointless. Needless to say, script supervisor Annabelle Guthrie had her throat slit in front of the entire cast to make sure this kind of mistake didn’t happen again.

2. ‘The Avengers’ (2012)

Sometimes you have to let a few minor plot contrivances go for the sake of enjoying a great movie. But we just can’t help asking—why didn’t Loki just brainwash Nick Fury? If you’ll remember, Fury was the sole force uniting the Avengers. If Loki had just hypnotized Fury immediately, the same way he did with Hawkeye, there’d be no one to assemble the super team that eventually saves the day.

In the end, second unit director Dave Larque paid the price for this mistake, and his head was mounted on a pike throughout production to ensure a climate of fear.

3. ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)

Forgiving the near-clairvoyant machinations of the Joker’s plan, there’s a lot of little stuff in The Dark Knight that doesn’t make sense. When the Joker takes the swanky cocktail party hostage, Bruce Wayne dons the Batsuit to save his high society friends, even diving out the window to capture childhood sweetheart Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

One problem—when Rachel and Bruce are catching their breath on the hood of a car, the Joker is still up there doing who knows what to the hostages—the same hostages Batman ostensibly showed up to rescue. In response to this screwup, assistant editor Michelle Kowalczyk notably chose to take her own life with dignity rather than force producers to shoot her in the brain.

4. The ‘Harry Potter’ Series (2001-2011)

Two words: Time Turner. This dangerously powerful device is introduced first to allow the overachieving Hermione to attend multiple wizardry classes simultaneously before Harry and Hermione use it to rescue Sirius Black and Buckbeak. But wouldn’t a tool like this come in handy in the battles to come—saving the lives of their fallen friends, like Dumbledore and Fred Weasley?

Despite this inconsistency being just as prevalent in the books that the movies so faithfully adapted, producers made sure to quell potential criticisms with the ritualistic public stoning of first assistant director Phil McCullough.

5. ‘Man Of Steel’ (2013)

Despite being a box-office smash, 2013’s Superman relaunch Man Of Steel left a lot to be desired—especially in the logic department. When Lois Lane discovers the existence of aliens, why does her boss—the editor of a major newspaper—decide to squash such an important story? Later, when Superman’s mom is under attack at their old farmhouse, why does he fly away with Zod and leave her at the mercy of the other two Kryptonian villains?

A lot about this movie doesn’t add up, but one thing that did add up was the bodies of writers’ assistants Karen Rifkin, Danny Kazan, and Aaron Grady, while screenwriter David Goyer got off relatively easy, paying penance for the major blunders with the loss of only one of his hands.