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Is this a plot hole?

I was writing my 1st draft if my script, and I think I may have discovered a plot hole, that I did not spot before while writing the treatment.

In the script, a member of a gang cannot commit crimes with them anymore cause he has a conscience. He wants out. The boss of the gang can sense that he cannot go through with further crimes, after screwing up the last one. The boss treats it like a lot of gangs do an that in order to get out, you have to kill another person, or you are left in.

The boss finds out that someone has evidence on him and the boss wants to go silence the person, before that person can bring the evidence to the police, or do any harm with it.

The boss and his gang only have a short time to move on the evidence man, and knows where he is, temporarily. The boss calls the gang member, who wants out. He tells him the situation and that killing the evidence man will be his chance to get out, and tells him to meet him at the location to do it.

However, I think this might be a plot hole, now that I actually started to write out the dialogue and fleshing out the action scene, after the treatment. Why would the gang boss get this guy to commit the murder? If the guy wants out of the gang, wouldn't it occur to the boss, that he may use the opportunity to ambush the gang and try to take the evidence for himself, so you can use it for his own collateral? Does the scenario make sense, or would the boss not naturally do that, if he was logical and smart?
 
I'm not a writer, but...

It becomes a "complication" that the gang leader - and the protagonist - need to address.

Yeah, a good chance to introduce more character tension and drama (tm). I'd have the boss make the guy that wants out (hereafter the 'gtwo') do it in front of him. Kind of like a reverse situation of the 'kill this guy to prove your allegience'. Maybe he does it, maybe he can't. Maybe it triggers a crazy double escape shootout that turns into a martial arts fight on top of a crane?

To me, the plot hole isnt the specifics of the way out, its the fact that he's being offered/allowed a way out in the first place in that fashion. It just doesnt make sense that he HAS to kill this guy. What will be proved or gained by the boss, to force this action from the gtwo? I would write in a conflict here, making the victims relationship in some way significant to the gtwo. If it really is just a 'Sure boss, just one last hit before I go home. Oh by the way, can I have my last payslip and P45 please?' type of situation, then there is no tension.

But then again I don't know your story and characters as intimately as you should do, and so cannot comment on motive and plausability etc.
 
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To me, the plot hole isnt the specifics of the way out, its the fact that he's being offered/allowed a way out in the first place in that fashion. It just doesnt make sense that he HAS to kill this guy. What will be proved or gained by the boss, to force this action from the gtwo?

If the protagonist has to kill someone in front of the gang leader, then the gang leader always has a hold on the protagonist. That makes some plot sense, but not logical sense; the protagonist will ALWAYS be on the hook, so he'll HAVE to eliminate the gang leader. But he wants out because he can't kill anymore. Hmmmmmm.....

Maybe it triggers a crazy double escape shootout that turns into a martial arts fight on top of a crane?

Maybe the protagonist turns grass and informs the cops - who want the gang leader, the victim and the protagonist - so you end up with a three way free-for-all shootout.
 
Okay thanks, but the reason why the gang boss wants the gang member to kill someone in order to get out, is because I read that that's how gangs commonly act. I was reading the book Police Procedure and Investigation by Lee Lofland, which is specifically geared towards research for fiction writers.

The book says that if a gang member wants out of the gang, that he/she typically has to kill someone in order to get out, and it's usually called a 'blood out', which is an actual term. So I got the idea based on the book saying that that's what gang bosses commonly do.

What happens in my script is after the gang member refuses to do it, he tries to shoot his way out and gets killed. Him being killed leads to the other plot turns. However, I need the gang boss's reason to make sense, if it does?
 
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If it is a key plot point you'll have to think it through carefully; but it only has to be consistent within the script itself. You've got your reality base - good for you on doing your research (but check the original date of publication) - but approach it from a different direction; there doesn't have to be a reason. All you need is "You kill him, we're square, and you're out." The gang leader doesn't need to have a reason, at least not one that he needs to explain to his subordinate who wants out. Now as to whether or not it's important later on in the script/story/plot only you would know.


BTW, you should check this out:

http://www.gangsorus.com/initiations.html
 
Okay thanks. The book was published in 2007. But this part of the plot does not happen till the end of the second act, so the gang boss, and his member, have already had quite a few scenes and their characters already developed from what they were in so far.

Even if I don't include a method, I think it will still come off as rather obvious to the audience, especially the scene where the gang member tries to shoot his way out, and escape with the evidence, getting himself killed. If I do not reveal his motive, his outburst and attempted escape may not make enough sense.
 
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