History BondVillainStupidity / Film

* Had Bane chosen to end Batman's life in their first confrontation in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', he and [[spoiler:Talia al Ghul]] would have succeeded in their plan to destroy Gotham City. Batman even asks Bane in prison when he first woke up: "Why don't you just kill me?" to which Bane replies, "You don't fear death. You welcome it. Your punishment must be more ''severe''." Later, [[spoiler:Talia]] monologues at length to Bruce about how much better revenge is when it's done slowly, giving the heroes enough time to [[spoiler:block her remote triggering of a nuclear bomb]]. Bruce lampshades this shortly after, responding, "maybe the slow knife was ''too slow''." Once [[spoiler:Talia]] leaves Bane, having [[TaughtByExperience learned his lesson]], he ignores her order to let him live and tries to kill him then and there; only Comicbook/{{Catwoman}}'s BigDamnHeroes arrival saves him. The villains do have a justification of sorts, since [[spoiler:torturing Batman for revenge was actually their main objective -- they do want to destroy the city as well, but it's secondary to that]].

** Ultron himself is guilty of this at several points, most notably when he keeps Comicbook/BlackWidow alive just so he can monologue to her. Although at one point Ultron lures Tony into thinking he's going to spiel about his grand plans before just ending the conversation and initiating the fight instead.
** In ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'', [[Comicbook/{{Killmonger}} Erik Killmonger]] overpowers T'Challa during their duel for the throne of Wakanda, but simply tosses him over the waterfall instead of killing him directly. This allows T'Challa to return later in the film and defeat Killmonger.

* In ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', Comicbook/LexLuthor has Superman incapacitated by Kryptonite and unable to get out of his swimming pool. Then he leaves him, expecting him to die -- even though he just learned that his girlfriend's mother lives in the town that one of his bombs is about to destroy. Somehow, he does not see her betrayal coming. He does this ''again'' in ''Film/SupermanReturns''. He seems to think he's done a better job by actually shanking Superman with a Kryptonite shard and throwing him into the sea believing this time he would be as good as dead, but it just gives Comicbook/{{Lois|Lane}} a chance to find and rescue him.

** In the second movie, Dr. Evil has Austin and Felicity Shagwell over a pit of molten lava. Austin concocts a crazy scheme to try and escape, but Felicity just flashes her boobs at the guard, and they escape. Notably, soon after this, Dr. Evil does order his guards to just shoot Austin, but Austin kills them all first.

* {{Deconstructed}} in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' as when Megamind kills Metro Man (or so he believes), he soon grows bored with his unchallenged villainy, which soon causes him to decide to create a hero.

* ''Film/{{Warlock}}''. When the Warlock retrieves the grand grimoire and learns the word that can undo all of creation instead of saying it straight away the starts ranting "I know the word that can undo all you have wrought!" giving Kassandra time to sneak up on him and inject him with salt water which is fatal to witches.

** ''Film/MissionImpossible1996'': When the mole has Ethan at gunpoint he has a conversation with him and shoots his accomplice instead for looking like she cares for Ethan, after her role in the whole thing was to flirt with Ethan and try to get him romantically involved with her. Since the gun only has two shots Ethan manages to survive, ruin the mole's plans and kill the mole in the ensuing confrontation.

* In ''Film/TheExpendables2'', Vilain captures the entire team of Expendables and lets almost all of them go for no apparent reason. The only one he kills is the youngest and most inexperienced member.
* Justified in the same fashion in ''Film/TrueLies'', where Arnold Schwarzenegger's character Harry Tasker is captured alive so that he can document for the authorities that the terrorists are capable of carrying out their threat, and afterward when they intend to torture him since he's an American spy who most likely has some valuable information in his head.

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmesAndTheSecretWeapon'', Professor Moriarty originally intends to kill Holmes off quickly, but Holmes goads him into coming up with something "more creative," giving an example himself of the sort of death trap he would use if he had Moriarty at his mercy. Moriarty decides to prove his superior intelligence and creativity by... using the exact idea that Holmes just came up with! He does at least stick around to watch the death trap in action, and prepares to shoot Holmes when he decides it's taking too long; but he waits a bit longer than he should have, and Watson rescues Holmes JustInTime.
* In Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/{{Sleepy Hollow|1999}}'', [[spoiler:Katrina's stepmother]] has Katrina unconscious, isolated, and is armed with a pistol. Also, everyone believes [[spoiler:the stepmother is dead]], so no one would come looking for her later. Rather than just shooting Katrina, she decides to spend a lot of time [[spoiler:summoning the Headless Horseman]] to do the job, giving Katrina plenty of time to wake up and run away (though granted [[spoiler:the stepmother]] is hardly concerned when Katrina escapes, probably as she figures she's dead soon anyway).
* Annoyingly present in ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'', when after luring John Connor into the heart of its main base, Skynet sends a single unarmed T-800 to dispatch our hero. Yeah. In a base probably full of hundreds of killer robots with guns, Skynet decides to send ONE unarmed unit to kill the hero. And it doesn't bother to send more armed killer robots after the fight drags out, with Connor getting backed up by Cyborg Marcus. Somewhat justified that the T-800 ''DID'' manage to critically wound John and if Marcus hadn't volunteered for a heart transplant, John probably would have died. Skynet doesn't even seem concerned when the fight spills into the T-800 assembly line, where countless Terminator power cores (I.E. easily set off miniature nuclear devices) lay for the humans to jury rig into a bomb that will destroy the entire base if they manage to defeat that lone T-800 you sent to kill them.
* In ''Film/TheLastDragon'', media-obsessed villain Eddie Arkadian first plays this trope straight, stopping a minion from plugging the hero during a big staged fight because it would ruin "the show". But then at the end of the movie when the show is "over", he whips out his own gun, gives a short sneering speech about "all this kung-fu crap", and fires. [[spoiler: The hero catches the bullet in his teeth.]]
* In ''Film/QuigleyDownUnder'', Quigley has rejected Marston's offer to hire him to kill the local aborigines. Marston has his goons beat him into unconsciousness. It would be easy to simply shoot Quigley in the head, bury him in a shallow grave, and tell the British soldiers that he went back to port. But that would mean the movie would only be a half-hour long, so Marston decides to have his men take him into the middle of the Australian desert and leave him to die of exposure. Inevitably, this backfires spectacularly. As if that wasn't enough, he captures Quigley AGAIN, decides he's going to beat him in an Old West style quickdraw, and gives the man a fully-loaded pistol. Fortunately, Quigley never much cared for pistols...
* In ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', Comicbook/LexLuthor has Superman incapacitated by Kryptonite and unable to get out of his swimming pool. Then he leaves him, expecting him to die -- even though he just learned that his girlfriend's mother lives in the town that one of his bombs is about to destroy. Somehow, he does not see her betrayal coming. He does this ''again'' in ''Film/SupermanReturns''. He seems to think he's done a better job by actually shanking Superman with a Kryptonite shard and throwing him into the sea believing this time he would be as good as dead, but it just gives Comicbook/{{Lois|Lane}} a chance to find and rescue him.
* In a non-lethal example, in the final face-off in ''Film/EightMile'', Papa Doc makes the grave, and [[IdiotBall just plain stupid]] mistake of letting B. Rabbit go first. Big mistake, as it lets Rabbit take away every single possible verbal weapon Doc might have used against his opponent, thus losing him the battle.
%%* Leroy and [[spoiler: Roger]] in ''Film/MysteryTeam.'' Justified in that the heroes are kids.
* In ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'', Belfort invites Agent Denham to see him on his yacht, complete with ALadyOnEachArm, and he even boasts of putting on an act as a "bond villain". He then behaves just like one, by offering to bribe Denham and boasting of his PaidHarem while BeingGoodSucks. As Belfort's lawyer notes his invitation to Denham to see him in yacht is a really stupid thing to do, since it increased the FBI's focus on him and on the operations that he's trying to hide.
* Simon in ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'' handcuffs [[TheHero John McClane]] and [[SideKick Zeus]] to a bomb on a ship and leaves them to die, instead of shooting them and blowing up the ship after.
* After John's cover is blown in ''Stone Cold'', the bad guys put him into a chopper (which is vital part of their EvilPlan) where they plan to strap him with explosives and then drop him on unsuspecting cops below. He gets loose, some other guy gets blown to bits mid-air instead and the chopper crashes.

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** At the start of ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', ComicBook/ScarletWitch gets the drop on Tony, but instead of just using her powers to kill him (or hell, even just bashing him over the head with a heavy object), she lets him go so that he can create ComicBook/{{Ultron}}, reasoning that the Avengers will eventually tear themselves apart over this. A deleted scene even has ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}} angrily chastise her for letting Tony go after the two of them had spent ''years'' trying to find a way to kill him for what he did to their family.
** Ultron himself is guilty of this at several points, most notably when he keeps Comicbook/BlackWidow alive just so he can monologue to her. Although at one point Ultron lures Tony into thinking he's going to spiel about his grand plans before just ending the conversation and initiating the fight instead.
** In ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'', [[Comicbook/{{Killmonger}} Erik Killmonger]] overpowers T'Challa during their duel for the throne of Wakanda, but simply tosses him over the waterfall instead of killing him directly. This allows T'Challa to return later in the film and defeat Killmonger.
* In ''Film/WildWildWest'', after Loveless captures West and Gordon, he fits their necks with the blade-attracting magnets that the professor in the opening was also killed with. Then he leaves before ensuring their demise.
* The villains twice have our heroine helpless in their power in ''Film/TheLongKissGoodnight'', and fail to just shoot her. The first time is justified by their need to interrogate her in order to learn what she knows of their plans, but despite them knowing how dangerous she is, they leave only one guy to handle her and she easily kills him and escapes. The second time, full on Bond Villain Stupidity kicks in as the bad guys fully describe their evil scheme to her then leave her LockedInAFreezer while they take her partner out and debate whether to shoot or stab him. They don't have time as she manages to blow up the building, [[CrazyPrepared having filled her daughter's dolly with gasoline]] just in case she needed to set stuff on fire.
%% * In ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', the humans exhibit this brand of stupidity. The whole point of the plot is how the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything White Man]]... oops, [[HumansAreWhite human race as such]]... is willing to kill women and children purely for greed ([[SarcasmMode completely unlike]] [[NobleSavage typical hunter-gatherer societies]]). But... {{Unobtainium}} is a rock. Rocks survive saturation bombing. If the humans are so evil, they would just bomb everything around the tree, then scoop up the slightly blackened ''rocks''. The Na'vi would never have a chance to try RockBeatsLaser, they'd be too busy burning and suffocating. A modern military only puts boots on the ground when it's trying to ''minimize'' civilian casualties (or at the very least, subdue a population it prefers ''not'' to simply kill wholesale). Except that Plan A was in fact to minimize civilian casualties to avoid bad PR, hence the eponymous Avatar program and its [[GoingNative unforeseen consequences]]. When that failed, the RDA just decides to destroy the Na'vi settlement on a thin justification and call it a day.
* In ''Film/FlashGordon1980'', Ming the Merciless(!) disembarks onto the Hawkmen's floating city (evacuated except for Flash) and has a conversation with Flash, offering him a kingdom of Mongo to rule for himself. After Flash refuses, instead of simply ordering his bodyguards to dispatch the hero, Ming leaves and has his ship's guns blast the city into oblivion. While the city is reeling from the blasts, Flash conveniently falls into a hole where he discovers a rocket cycle.
* ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'':
** Played with. Valentine knows when to be practical. He simply shoots [[spoiler:Harry]] in the head after a minimal exchange, lampshading his lack of this trait. That said, he does describe enough of his plan before [[spoiler:killing Harry]], which was broadcast via his glasses to the Kingsman, to allow them to figure out the rest of it.
** [[spoiler:Unlike Valentine, who refuses to abide by the cliches of classic TuxedoAndMartini villains, Arthur does not appear to have paid much attention to them, as he [[JustBetweenYouAndMe explains]] the EvilPlan shortly before his death and falls for a PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo. The victory of the heroes largely relied upon Arthur's lack of foresight.]]

* ''Film/DrMabuseTheGambler'': Mabuse never tries to kill von Wenk by simple, efficient methods. This leads to his downfall.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'': Jabba the Hutt meets his downfall thanks to a hefty dose of this. After Luke Skywalker makes it clear that he intends to spring Han Solo from his clutches, and successfully manages to kill Jabba's prized Rancor ''while completely unarmed'', for some reason Jabba thinks it's a good idea to fly Luke and his whole posse of allies out into the middle of the desert to stage an elaborate execution at the pit of the great Sarlacc. Mind you, this is ''after'' he catches Leia trying to free Han while in disguise as the bounty hunter Boussh, and after he probably should have guessed that Chewbacca ([[ISurrenderSuckers who got in under the guise of being Leia's prisoner]]) was part of some kind of rescue plan. He doesn't even think to cuff Luke's hands before trying to feed him to the Sarlacc. Surprise, surprise: Luke and co. manage to stage an uprising and escape together.
** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'': Because he's freaked out, Kylo decides that leaving Rey in a room with one stormtrooper is a great idea, despite the fact that he just learned she can use the Force, her powers are rapidly growing, and she has a knack for imitating Force powers. Like Ren's own mind powers.
** ''Film/TheLastJedi'': Despite clearly being able to kill Rey himself, Supreme Leader Snoke [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten orders Kylo Ren to do it to demonstrate his conviction and loyalty]]. [[spoiler:Kylo, who has forged a bond with Rey ([[NiceJobFixingItVillain thanks to Snoke's manipulations]]), [[TheStarscream instead chooses to kill Snoke]].]]
** In ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', Palpatine sends a broadcast that announces his return to the galaxy with an armada of planet-killing Star Destroyers, which serves no real purpose other than removing the element of surprise. This subsequently leads to the entire chain of events that cause the Resistance, and later tens of thousands of volunteer soldiers, to destroy his fleet before it has the chance to leave Exegol.

* In ''Film/XMenApocalypse,'' the title villain controls Professor X to telepathically broadcast his EvilGloating to the world, allowing the heroes plenty of time to know what's up and work out how to find and stop him. If he'd just ''carried out'' his plan (fully possess Xavier's body and boost his powers, allowing him to TakeOverTheWorld) instead of bragging about it, he'd have won. Of course, every fan who points this out also notes that it is ''very'' much like Apocalypse to lose because he put theatrics before pragmatism.
* ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'': Robin survives ComicBook/PoisonIvy's kiss and reveals to her he was wearing rubber lips. Robin is still sitting right next to Ivy as he says this with their faces still only a few inches apart, but instead of grabbing Robin and giving him another more forceful and less romantic kiss to kill him for sure she just glares at him for tricking her and shoves him off her throne and into the pond to drown him instead. Then instead of staying to make sure Robin drowns so her plans remain a secret she attempts to leave, just saying a mocking "see ya!" to Robin. It's like she was treating the whole thing like she was breaking up with Robin instead of trying to kill him.

* ''Film/JohnWick'': About halfway through the film, BigBad Viggo Tarasov manages to hit the title character -- whom he knows better than anyone is the world's deadliest and ''[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge most thoroughly pissed-off]]'' assassin -- with a car, knocking him unconscious. Had he simply [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim put a bullet in John's brain then and there]], it would have been the end of it. Instead, he has him dragged away for execution by plastic bag. No prizes for guessing how this turns out.
* ''Film/TheAssignment2016'': Dr. Rachel Jane, instead of killing Frank (possibly after extended surgical torture) subjects him to an involuntary sex reassignment and leaves him alive that way, with ample ability to track her down. Later, when her {{mooks}} catch him, they also didn't search him at all it seems since they miss his hidden gun which he uses to shoot them after waking up.
* ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' has an instance at the end of the second act which could possibly be intentional. [[spoiler:Vilos Cohaagen has just gotten everything he wanted: Kuato has been assassinated, and he has Dennis Quaid (actually Carl Hauser) and Melina under his thumb again, and he plans to reinsert Hauser's memories and personality in Quaid (with the bonus of Melina being brainwashed into his personal plaything). However, neither Quaid nor Melina are drugged for the memory overwrite, which allows them to fight back against a group of unprepared scientists with nary a guard set up to make sure something like this didn't happen, leading to their escape. What could make this intentional is that the entire situation, just like the entirety of the movie's second and third acts, may be part of Quaid's initial Ego Trip he purchased from Rekall, meaning Cohaagen's complacency here was "scripted" in-universe.]]
* In ''Film/Revenge2017'', Dimi has Jen dead to rights when her attempt to sneak up on him fails, but instead of just killing her then and there, he can't resist toying with her first, complete with lengthy EvilGloating. It gives Jen enough time to grab his hunting knife and perform some [[EyeScream impromptu eye surgery]] on him.
* ''Film/TheMummy1999'': After regaining his full power, Imhotep has the heroes completely surrounded by his mooks. He orders the mooks to kill the heroes and then... turns around and leaves. There was absolutely no reason why he wouldn't kill them himself or at least stayed for a few more minutes and made sure they were dead. Obviously the heroes immediately escape through a convenient manhole.
* Averted by Hoffman in ''Film/Saw3D''. Once he gets Jill into the Reverse Bear Trap, he stands there and watches until she dies, which she notably didn't do when she put him in the same situation in [[Film/SawVI the previous movie]].