History Main / ThirdActStupidity

Compare MonsterThreatExpiration, PrideBeforeAFall, ThirdActMisunderstanding, WhyDontYouJustShootHim, and YouCantThwartStageOne.

* Early in ''Film/SawI'', Adam tries to get a tape recorder that's far out of reach, to which Lawrence suggests using his shirt to snag it, with successful results. When the climax begins, Lawrence is trying to reach a phone just inches away; he takes off his shirt and uses it as a torniquet [[spoiler:while he saws off his shackled foot to free himself]]. Apparently, both characters completely forgot Lawrence's earlier suggestion by this point.

* In ''{{WesternAnimation/Hercules}}'', Hades has managed to get Hercules to agree to give up his super-strength in exchange for Megara's survival and safety. So, what does Hades then do? While he's taking over Mount Olympus, he sends a giant Cyclops to attack Hercules, who will likely be with [[LoveInterest Megara]], thus making it highly likely that she will be harmed in the crossfire. Granted, he did reveal some awful truths about her which likely broke them up, but it is still a risk not worth taking. And since the deal is immediately nullified if she's harmed, he has effectively ensured that his plan will fail.

* Early in ''Film/SawI'', Adam tries to get a tape recorder that's far out of reach. Doctor Lawrence Gordon suggests using his shirt to snag it. Later in the film, Lawrence is trying to reach a phone just inches away. He takes off his shirt and [[spoiler:uses it as a torniquet while he saws off his own foot to free himself]]. Both characters completely forget his earlier suggestion.

* In the novel ''Some Kind of Hero'', the main character spends the entire book telling everyone how dangerous her supervillain ex-boyfriend is and how under ''no'' circumstances should they touch him, even for a moment, since his superpower is to manipulate the powers of anyone he's touching, including in ways that are lethal, like removing RequiredSecondaryPowers. At the end of the book, he's finally arrested and being sent to prison for his crimes when he asks if she'll give him a goodbye kiss. She inexplicably obliges, and he [[BroughtDownToNormal steals all her powers]].

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Light starts out being CrazyPrepared and doing everything possible to preserve his secret, but as he starts buying into his own [[AGodAmI hype]], he starts viewing himself as invincible and stops being so careful. After the TimeSkip, he's gone from [[MemoryGambit erasing his own memory, trusting in the brilliance of his planning to ensure]] [[spoiler:L's death]] [[MemoryGambit while cementing his own complete innocence]]... to ''[[WhatAnIdiot hiding the Death Note in storage and really hoping no one finds it while he's not looking]].''

* This happens in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheWitchsGhost''. The gang go to help a man named Ben Ravencroft clear his ancestor's name because she was accused of being a witch. Once they find her book, he reveals that she was one. As he tells them that he's going to release her from the book, get magic powers, and basically destroy all, they only give him the "You won't get away with this" speech and [[WhatAnIdiot WAIT FOR HIM TO SUMMON HIS POWERS!!]] Of course, they're not going to tackle him before he reads the book aloud, otherwise the movie would be over.

* ''Film/{{Poltergeist|1982}}''. Steven and Diane Freeling acted with reasonable intelligence throughout most of the movie - not perfectly, but then they had no experience with this type of terror. However, after managing to rescue Carol Anne from a demonic ghost, they decide that Diane, Robbie and Carol Anne will stay in the house overnight. Not only that, but they let Robbie and Carol Anne stay alone in the same room that Carol Anne was originally stolen from. Would you take that kind of risk with ''your'' kids?

* Sakharine of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin'' is a very smart villain, preparing for many different disasters, keeping enemies alive only when their information is needed, being careful to not commit open robberies of the {{MacGuffin}}s, and pulling a ISurrenderSuckers on the good guys. Then when threatening to destroy the treasure map, he chooses to monologue at length about how the heroes have failed to beat him, buying enough time for Tintin to sneak around and steal it from him.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E12TheEmpath The Empath]]". Once Kirk, Spock and Gem reach the Vians' lab and McCoy is released from his restraints, Kirk and Spock stand around for quite a while talking about McCoy's imminent death and other things. Either Kirk should have ordered Spock to use the Vians' device to transport all four of them to the Enterprise so McCoy could get emergency medical attention in sickbay, or (since Spock is more intelligent than Kirk), Spock should either have done so on his own or at least suggested to Kirk that they do so. If Spock had tried and failed, that would have been acceptable since he had already suggested it could happen. Of course, if they had tried to do so, either the device would have failed or the Vians would have shown up to stop the attempt, but for them both to not even try to do so was extremely foolish and thoughtless.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E12TheEmpath The Empath]]". Once Kirk, Spock and Gem reach the Vians' lab and McCoy is released from his restraints, Kirk and Spock stand around for quite a while talking about McCoy's imminent death and other things. Why didn't Kirk order Spock to use the Vians' device to transport all four of them to the Enterprise so McCoy could get emergency medical attention in the ship's sickbay? Or (since Spock is more intelligent than Kirk), why didn't Spock either do so or at least suggest to Kirk that they do so? If Spock had tried and failed, that would have been acceptable since he had already suggested it could happen. Of course, if they had tried to do so, either the device would have failed or the Vians would have shown up to stop the attempt, but for them both to not even try to do so was extremely foolish.

* Harmon Rab and Sarah Mackenzie of ''Series/{{JAG}}'' are often guilty of this. When it came time for the episode climax, they often confronted the bad guy alone. They are partners yet seem to forget that when it comes to ''one of the very reasons law enforcement has a partner system''.
** Especially since they are lawyers and not Series/{{NCIS}} agents. Mac was a Marine, and a badass one at that, but still.

* The movie ''Film/{{Underworld}}'' when the BigBad has rendered the hero completely helpless and has him on the floor at his feet... but then walks away to deal with another problem. The hero of course recovers and saves the day.

* This ends up getting PlayedForDrama in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' courtesy of Thor. Thanos, having spent the entire movie searching for the Infinity Stones, finally gets his hands on all of them. He's prepared to cull half the universe until Thor drives Stormbreaker right into his chest, wounding him pretty badly. It's at that moment that he decides to drive the ax through the Mad Titan's chest, driven fully by vengeance over the slaughter of his people...and it's with those few moments that [[spoiler: Thanos snaps his fingers.]]

* Hans Landa in ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'' is made out to be a smart mind, but in the final chapter he decides to trust his opponents' words and delivers himself to them without a backup plan.

** Throughout the Cell Saga, Cell is TheChessmaster and a NoNonsenseNemesis who runs circles around the Z-Fighters and repeatedly outsmarts them since, as he's created from their DNA, he knows how they operate and think; he even manages to achieve his goal of attaining his Perfect form by exploiting Vegeta's ego and [[BloodKnight desire for a challenging fight]] to get Vegeta to help him do so. But after defeating both Vegeta and Trunks in his Perfect form, he lets his ego and pride overcome his common sense, setting up a fighting tournament just to test his skills and giving the Z-Fighters ten days to prepare and grow stronger just so he can have more fun fighting them. However, this is somewhat understandable given the nature of the character. What ''really'' cements him as this is when he discovers Gohan's [[PsychoactivePowers hidden power]] and does everything he can to piss Gohan off so he can unleash said hidden power and receive a real challenge, just as [[BatmanGambit Goku intended]]; keep in mind that this is the ''exact same trick'' Cell used on Vegeta to get him to help Cell absorb Android 18, and then mocked him to his face for being so stupid as to go for it. Later, in his frustration, he does the exact same thing he mocked ''Trunks'' for earlier: [[HulkingOut buffing up his muscles to crush his opponent with raw power]], [[MightyGlacier at the expense of his speed]].

* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', [[CardCarryingVillain Hazama]]/[[AxCrazy Yuuki]][[{{Troll}} Terumi]] fell hard on this trope. He spent ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger'' standing on the sidelines of the GroundhogDayLoop, memorizing everyone's patterns, carefully manipulating events, setting up [[CrazyPrepared lots and lots of preparations]] and playing XanatosSpeedChess with [[LittleMissBadass Rachel]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Alucard]], one of the few besides himself with RippleEffectProofMemory, for the chance of breaking the time loop with a head start, all without letting slip he's a bad guy. And at the end of the first act/game, the loop ''is'' finally broken, all of his plans play out smoothly and everything ends in his advantage... In ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'', he has a spell come into effect that allows him to observe all timelines of the [[TitleDrop Continuum Shift]], effectively allowing him to ''choose'' the exact timeline in which the protagonists hold the IdiotBall, he successfully forges [[Myth/JapaneseMythology Kusanagi:]] [[RageAgainstTheHeavens Sword of the Godslayer]], outmaneuvers [[TheOmniscient Takamagahara]], and finally [[TheBadGuysWin gets to declare himself the winner of the second act/game]]. Hey, I told you he was CrazyPrepared... However, come ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma'', he makes several stupid, amateurish mistakes that ultimately end up getting him killed by the heroes midway through the third act/game... [[spoiler:In ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCentralFiction'', the final act/game of the series, it turns out that he [[LivingOnBorrowedTime narrowly survived]], and while he does wise up, he's ultimately forced to wait in the shadows for a perfect opportunity to rear its face before he can act...once he does, however, he achieves a harrowing NearVillainVictory and is only narrowly defeated and killed after a long, hard-fought battle]].

* In ''{{WesternAnimation/Hercules}}'', Hades has managed to get Hercules to agree to give up his super-strength in exchange for Megara's survival and safety. So, what does Hades then do? While he's taking over Mount Olympus, he sends a giant Cyclops to attack Hercules, who will likely be with [[LoveInterest Megara]], thus making it highly likely that she will be harmed in the crossfire. Granted he did reveal some awful truths about her which likely broke them up, but it is still a risk not worth taking. And since the deal is immediately nullified if she's harmed, he has effectively ensured that his plan will fail.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film — Animated]]

* ''Film/TheBirds'' features a scene where the protagonists are safely boarded inside the house. The birds attack but can't get in. Melanie inexplicably decides to wander upstairs. In doing so she finds a room that the birds have gotten into and attack her. Her actress Tippi Hedren even asked the director what her motivation would be to walk up the stairs, and he simply replied [[MoneyDearBoy "your salary"]].

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': In "The Long Night", the Night King feels the need to personally assassinate Bran Stark, despite the fact that [[KeystoneArmy his death will destroy all other undead]] and there being no stated reason as to why he specifically needs to kill Bran. It's even acknowledged by the heroes that there's no way they can defeat the army of the dead in a straight-up battle and their only chance is to kill the Night King before they are overrun. Had he just stayed off the field and let his minions deal with Bran, or at least waited until the battle was over to do it himself, he would have won. And it's not like he even needs to worry about Bran escaping, since Bran is paralyzed from the waist down and can barely move, and the Night King had previously put a mark on him that lets him always know where Bran is. But despite all that, for no clearly explained reason, he still insists on showing up in the middle of the battle, giving the heroes their InstantWinCondition.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Syracuse_(213%E2%80%93212_BC)]] The Siege of Syracuse during the Second Punic War. To defend his city, Archimedes had designed defensive weapons such as ship-sinking cranes, ballistae, onagers, and possibly even a ''heat ray'' made of focused mirrors. They were so successful that eventually the defenders became overconfident and got drunk on duty, during a festival of Artemis, allowing a group of Romans to breach their defenses and take control of the outer walls.

* ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}''. Steven and Diane Freeling acted with reasonable intelligence throughout most of the movie - not perfectly, but then they had no experience with this type of terror. However, after managing to rescue Carol Anne from a demonic ghost, they decide that Diane, Robbie and Carol Anne will stay in the house overnight. Not only that, but they let Robbie and Carol Anne stay alone in the same room that Carol Anne was originally stolen from. Would you take that kind of risk with ''your'' kids?

** Luckily he survives, and because there are standard sportsmanship rules in an Agni Kai, Zuko still won the moment she attacked a spectator. However, you've still got a paranoid lunatic shooting lightning everywhere and, Agni Kai or not, she has to be stopped, so on with the show!

** Throughout the Cell Saga, Cell is TheChessmaster and a NoNonsenseNemesis who runs circles around the Z-Fighters and repeatedly outsmarts them since, as he's created from their DNA, he knows how they operate and think; he even manages to achieve his goal of attaining his Perfect form by exploiting Vegeta's ego and [[BloodKnight desire for a challenging fight]] to get Vegeta to help him do so. But after defeating both Vegeta and Trunks in his Perfect form, he lets his ego and pride overcome his common sense, setting up a fighting tournament just to test his skills and giving the Z-Fighters ten days to prepare and grow stronger just so he can have more fun fighting them. However, this is somewhat understandable given the nature of the character. What ''really'' cements him as this is when he discovers Gohan's [[PsychoactivePowers hidden power]] and goes everything he can to piss Gohan off so he can unleash said hidden power and receive a real challenge, just as [[BatmanGambit Goku intended]]; keep in mind that this is the ''exact same trick'' Cell used on Vegeta to get him to help Cell absorb Android 18, and then mocked him to his face for being so stupid as to go for it. Later, in his frustration, he does the exact same thing he mocked ''Trunks'' for earlier: [[HulkingOut buffing up his muscles to crush his opponent with raw power]], [[MightyGlacier at the expense of his speed]].