Do these count as plot holes in my story?

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I was told by a couple of readers that these may count as plot holes, or illogical character actions, but I just wanted any other opinions to be sure, and be honest . Thanks for any input. I really appreciate it.

in the plot, a gang of villains want to recruit a new member, and in order to do that they give the new member a test. He has to kill someone to get in. They give him a bullet loaded with a dummy round, an round that will not fire, and have him pull the trigger in a kidnapped hostage.

So he doesn't have to kill the hostage, but show that he would. The hostage, however, is secretly one of them posing as a hostage. The reason why this is, is because if the new member is an undercover cop and there are other cops waiting to bust them, the police could not be able to use a kidnapped person as evidence, cause then there is no kidnapped person.

But I was told this is a plot hole, because a group of criminals do not think like that. They would just use a real hostage.

Another plot hole I was told about is that the leader of the gang has secretly recorded all of his members committing their crimes, cause he therefore has leverage on them. So if any members try to turn him in, he has a "if I go down, you go down" policy on them

But I was told that no leader of gang would keep evidence of crimes stashed away for a leverage measure. This leverage on everyone is the 'macguffin' that everyone wants that drives a lot of the plot, so is the macguffin itself a plot hole?

I try to think of other movies, that may have done this and one that comes to mind is Infernal Affairs, where the villain had recorded evidence of illegal activity and used it as insurance, but that's one example.

What do you think? Do those count?

I don’t think their plot holes: whoever you’ve talked to doesn’t think these are credible behaviours for organised criminals to engage in, but that a matter of how convincing they find the characterisation.
You could harvest some more views on your manuscript, read a few memoirs of former gangland folks and make up your own mind.

Oh well perhaps gang is the wrong word to use maybe, but the villains I asked about before when writing it on this other thread here, which would explain the villains more:

viewtopic.php?t=382366

So they are a group but I used gang in a more generic way.

^ Yes, I see where you’re going with it.
How much have you been aware of crimes in the UK over the last few years?
We’ve had at least two large groups of collaborating rapists brought to trial after years of systematic abuse.
Rotherham & Huddersfield being their respective bases of operation.
If you want to get a handle on details and procedures that can be woven in to enhance verisimilitude could be worth searching UK newspapers and court reports for these “sex rings” as the press term for them has been.
Sounds more suited to being a one-series drama than a film: time to pace it so that full sympathy for each victim as an individual can be evoked.

^ Not sure, with a rape gang the ringleader videoing the other members as insurance/blackmail doesn’t sound too far-fetched: I’m pretty sure video evidence was procured from the homes/devices of the perpetrators in at least one of those cases, but you’ll have to check for yourself.
The fake hostage shooting: yes, gangs can have initiation procedures, but I’m not sure if simulated murder fits with the sexual abuse theme. Maybe rethink that one to make it part of the main theme rather than mixing in another criminal act?
I think depicting a sex-ring, regardless of whether the protagonist is a member of the ring or of the police team tasked with investigating their activities, without giving a clear indication of aftermath for the victims is a risky career move.
Serial killers are different: they’re more like a horror movie with a police procedural wrapper for folks who don’t like horror

^ Initiation has to be a clearly criminal act to bind the new member into the criminal fraternity: so I think that would fail to meet the requirement, whilst also necessitating a gratuitous rape scene.
I think you need to build a group attitude towards women, a miniature subculture of abusive misogynistic hate first: then work out how they would escalate their initiate’s behaviour... investigating the “incel” phenomena might give you some pointers.

A plot hole is a gap or inconsistency in a story line that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot, or that constitutes a blatant omission of relevant information regarding the plot.

A list of potential plot holes could include:

• Illogical Events. (Examples: An all-powerful villain is easily defeated; an established law of physics is violated.)

• Contradictions. (Examples: A character's personality changes greatly between two scenes with no explanation; a character possesses a common skill that is later denied with no explanation given.)

• Unresolved Story lines. (Example: A secondary character is given their own subplot, which is later forgotten; a macguffin is introduced without any explanation or backstory.)

• Impossible Events. (Example: A character moves too quickly between far distances; a character survives a nuclear explosion by hiding in a refrigerator.)

• Continuity errors. (Example: A character seemingly forgets a vital piece of information they knew earlier in the story; a gadget that works one way for one vital moment never works that way again.)

Source: The "Well-Storied" webpage.

^ as far as I’m aware irl it has to be a real, prosecutable crime:
The binding into the group relies upon the authentic guilt of the new recruit.
I’d recommend doing your own research into criminal confraternities, for that matter revolutionary cliques as well, to build up a mental library of how this type of initiation has been done across multiple cultures and times: then you’ve got the background info on human criminality and relevant group dynamics there for your inspiration to work from to build up a convincing story-world.

Oh okay, but why does it have to be real, especially when other fictional stories, have simulated tests. So unlike other stories, why does mine have to be real? I thought other stories where it wasn't real proved, that it's not a rule that it has to be therefore.

Or maybe I should ask, why didn't they have to be real crimes in other fiction? Why were the audiences and readers okay, with simulated tests?

^ I think your second question is the right one to ask: for my money the crucial issue is how widespread is the criminal activity being portrayed: sexual abuse is, as far as I’m aware, the most widespread of serious crimes, therefore you have to be very careful in how you handle it because you’re more likely to have a audience members who’ve lived it as a reality.

Yes for sure. Well in my screenplay, the way I portray it so far, none of the sex crimes, are shown, but just talked about by the police in the investigation.

In the part where the new recruit has to do the test, he gets moral cold feet and cannot do it. However, later he finds out that the test was not real, and the hostage, was not real, and was just one of them, posing for his test. But can I make this plausible, and have a reason why it doesn't have to be real, for the initial first test to get in, as long as the recruit was willing to go through it?

^ Hmmm... I think if you got the exact details of the initiation process right, and the script lines fully convincing and true to life, that could work.
That’s why I’ve been thinking of research into real world gangs and extremist political factions would be worth your while.

Also, just a thought, how much have you seen of non-US crime dramas?
Waking the Dead was a fantastic British gritty police procedural, and The Bridge was also top notch Danish-Swedish killer hunt.
The Fall was also pretty good: set in Northern Ireland with Gillian Anderson in the lead role.
Just thinking the tone and pacing is very different from the US crime dramas & films I’ve seen, might be a jolt of additional inspiration for you.

Oh okay thanks! As far as crime dramas go, I have seen some from other countries. I mentioned how the initiation test was simulated in The Battle of Algiers and that is an Italian movie. It's not really a crime drama, but it deals with joining a terrorist organization, so I thought it was somewhat similar in the sense that my villains are going around creating crimes that terrorize people in that sense.