History WhatAnIdiot / FIlm

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Some film characters' actions can get [[WhatAnIdiot so dumb]], one might wish for the directors to re-write the script in order for the character to get it "right".

Films with their own pages:

[[index]]
* ''Franchise/{{Alien}}''
** ''WhatAnIdiot/{{Alien}}''
** ''WhatAnIdiot/AlienCovenant''
** ''WhatAnIdiot/{{Prometheus}}''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/BattleRoyale''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/BackToTheFuture''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/TheDarkKnightTrilogy''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/HarryPotter''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/HomeAlone''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/JamesBond''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/JurassicPark''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/TheLordOfTheRings''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/MarvelCinematicUniverse''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/TheRoom''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/StarTrek''
* ''WhatAnIdiot/StarWars''
[[/index]]

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[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Films 0-F]]
* ''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater'':
** 6 months after the Rage outbreak has run its course, the rebuilding effort in London has begun. There is a strict quarantine and martial law in effect, and no civilians are allowed out of the safe zone. One of the snipers sees the children sneaking out and calls it in.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Given how insanely lethal and contagious the Rage plague is, and the fact that there are still corpses all over the quarantine zone, the guards would ''immediately'' pursue them while using a loudspeaker or megaphone to order them to stop.\\
'''Instead:''' Jeremy Renner's character seems rather nonchalant about calling in the security violation, and the children apparently are allowed to spend several hours in the quarantine zone, returning to their old house and finding their infected mother before the security team tracks them down.
** There is a contingency plan in place to deal with another outbreak.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' This plan would have people go into lockdown in their current location, locking doors, remaining silent and keeping a low profile, much like an active shooter situation.\\
'''Instead:''' The plan involves cramming everyone into a single crowded room and turning the lights out, causing a panic and ensuring as many victims as possible as soon as a single infected individual gets in.
* ''Film/AbsolutePower'':
** Creator/ClintEastwood's daughter is going for a jog. While she is parking her car, Dennis Haysbert, one of the Secret Service goons, is trying to kill her by pushing her car off the cliff.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That she wouldn't be out in a public place, thinking, "If they tried to kill my father, then they would try to kill me, too!" Also, after the first time Dennis hits her car with his truck, you would think that she would get out of the car and run in the opposite direction, screaming her head off. \\
'''Instead:''' She stays in the car and freaks out. Her car goes over the cliff and she is seriously injured.
** Later, Dennis finds out that she's not dead and he goes to the hospital to finish the job. He's in her room with a syringe full of poison. \\
'''You'd Expect:''' That Dennis is going to put the poison directly into her IV line, killing her fairly instantly and allowing him a quick getaway.\\
'''Instead:''' He's fooling around with her arm, trying to find a vein to inject the poison into. He is quickly caught by Creator/ClintEastwood and killed with the same poison.
* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'':
** Peter goes to the sewers as Spider Man to track down the Lizard and also to make some pictures of it for the Bugle.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That - not just for this particular endeavor but for his adventures as Spider-Man in general - he would remove any belongings that might identify him as Peter Parker.\\
'''Instead:''' The back of his cameras are covered in labels that proclaims them to be "property of Peter Parker".
** Uncle Ben shows us exactly why you shouldn't take the law into your own hands when a thief runs out of the drugstore and then drops his gun.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Ben would've steered clear of the situation (even if he did had any significant prior authority or military training he should been smarter about how he handled the situation. Yet and still, he was not an authority figure) and would have alerted the proper authorities seeing that the situation didn't concern him much in any way for him to be that much involved.\\
'''Instead:''' He runs over to struggle trying to grab the thief's gun and ends up getting seemingly inadvertently shot fatally. Which could be deemed as a StupidSacrifice by some, since the incident looked fairly avoidable and unnecessary.
* ''Film/AmericanHustle'':
** Irving is given a new microwave oven by his new friend Carmine. He tells his wife Rosalyn that Carmine said that you shouldn't put anything metallic in it, because that would be very dangerous. It's the 70s, so microwave ovens are unfamiliar technology and Rosalyn has never used one before.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Rosalyn would take care around this new and potentially dangerous piece of kitchen gear and, well, not put anything metallic in it.\\
'''Instead:''' Rosalyn says, in effect "Huh, nobody tells ''me'' what to do" and puts a metal tray of food into the microwave to heat up. The microwave promptly catches fire.\\
'''Moreover:''' When Irving tells her that he told her not to put anything metallic in the microwave, Rosalyn answers that it's just as well the oven caught on fire because she read an article that said that these "science ovens" take all the nutrition out of your food.
-->'''Rosalyn''': Bring something into this house that's gonna take all the nutrition out of our food and then light our house on fire? [[NeverMyFault Thank God for me]].
* In ''[[Film/TheArkOfTruth Stargate: The Ark Of Truth]]'', the IOA comes up with a plan to introduce Replicators into the Ori galaxy, hoping to distract them from their crusade against the Milky Way.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That they would realize how insanely stupid this plan is, especially as the only weapon capable of purging all Replicators from our galaxy was destroyed by the Ori.\\
'''Or:''' They would order the SGC to carry out the plan, allowing for better execution and plenty of safeguards.\\
'''Instead:''' They have their agent carry out this plan without informing the SGC, who at least know how to deal with Replicators.\\
'''Also:''' They program the Replicators to be immune to the anti-Replicator weapons the SGC has, forcing them to fall back on guns, just to ensure that the SGC couldn't stop their plan.\\
'''Worse:''' The IOA has the Replicators unleashed on the one ship that contains the database containing the sum total of Asgard knowledge that was gifted to humanity by them before they suicided, meaning once they assimilate the Asgard core they'll become vastly more powerful than anyone could hope to stop and simultaneously deny that information to Earth.
* ''The Art of War 3: Retribution'' is full of them, but here are a few examples from the opening scene alone:
** Agent Neil Shaw has been dispatched to kill an arms dealer by the name of Zimmer. While at Zimmer's hotel he finds a suicide bomber who is there as part of a seperate assassination attempt, and covertly disarms him by cutting the bomb's trigger wires. Shortly thereafter, Zimmer leaves the hotel in his car.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Shaw to tail Zimmer, wait until he reaches some location where he can be covertly disposed of, and then kill him.\\
'''Instead:''' He immediately throws a bomb through the window of Zimmer's car. The bomb does its job and kills Zimmer... in front of hundreds, if not thousands of witnesses.
** Shaw then has to deal with the matter of the suicide bomber from earlier, who is wandering around confused, apparently too dumb to try repairing his bomb.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Shaw to knock the bomber out, then drag him somewhere where the bomb can be safely neutralized, just in case it was also outfitted with a timer or remote trigger. Then the bomber can be turned over to the authorities and interrogated to gain information on who was behind the attempted bombing.\\
'''Instead:''' Shaw pulls out a knife and fatally stabs the bomber...who he then leaves to die...in front of the same hundreds or thousands of people who just witnessed Zimmer being blown to shreds. Fortunately for Shaw, [[WebVideo/BadMovieBeatdown ABSOLUTELY]] [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight NO-ONE SAW THIS!]]
** Eventually, a bystander happens to notice the mortally wounded terrorist laid on the ground. He then opens the terrorist's jacket in an attempt to help him, only to find the explosives strapped to his body.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The bystander to tell everyone to get away from the would-be bomber as quickly as possible, seeing how Shaw just left the scene without dealing with him, and there's no obvious indication that the bomb as been disarmed.\\
'''Instead:''' The guy pulls out a gun, points it at the bomber and threatens to shoot him if he tries to do anything. In other words, he threatens to kill a guy ''who fully expected to kill himself anyway''. The matter quickly becomes moot, as the terrorist expires soon afterwards, along with several of the viewers' brain cells.
* ''Asian Schoolgirls'', by Creator/TheAsylum:
** A man takes away one of the three girls, May, into a dungeon and tortures her, leaving the other two, Hannah and Vivian in a cage.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Hannah and Vivian to figure out how to escape the cage and save May.\\
'''Instead:''' Hannah and Vivian make out.
* ''Film/AsItIsInHeaven'': DomesticAbuser Conny has just threatened choir leader Daniel and then repeatedly rammed his 18-wheeler into Daniel's car. This was done in front of the entire choir of about two dozen people.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Someone to call the police. After all, the man just committed blatant destruction of property in front of literally dozens of witnesses.\\
'''Instead:''' Nobody does anything. Conny later attacks Daniel and beats him into a pulp, [[AmbiguousEnding possibly killing him]].
* ''[[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} Asterix and Obelix versus Cesar]]'': Having usurped power and obtained a whole cauldron of strength enhancing potion, TheStarscream leads an army of Romans against the reputed rebellious Gaul village.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' that he use the fricking potion! Maybe give some to his legioneers, maybe drink it himself, but use it. After all, obtaining it was a major plot point.\\
'''Instead:''' He just sits there in his command post, clutching the cauldron and ignoring his soldiers' requests for a gulp. Naturally the Romans manage against the Gauls just as well as they usually do, id est miserably, and the Gauls hold them back long enough for the main heroes to find the Phlebotinum and trash the Romans. Oh, and the cauldron of potion ends up spilled on the ground. What a waste.
* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'':
** The RDA corporation wishes to mine valuable mineral called {{Unobtanium}} on the moon Pandora. In order to get the Na'vi natives to move away and allow them to mine, they set up a program for creating Avatars, which they hope will allow them to infiltrate the Na'vi, earn their trust, and thereby make it easier to get them to move. The protagonist, Jake, ends up infiltrating the Na'vi, earning their trust and becoming one of them within three months; he even ''sleeps with the chief's daughter''. In other words, he's making an incredible amount of progress for what little time he spent.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The RDA corporation, which is run by stockholders, and which has already poured millions of dollars into the Avatar program, to hold off the bulldozers for a second and ''allow Jake more time to work his magic''. As far as they know, he's managed to earn the trust of the chief as well as of his wife and daughter. After all, it would be a heck of a lot more expensive to go using big scale bombs and artillery on the forest than to wait a bit longer and possibly have a spy get the village people to move. Especially considering that they already ''invested money'' into the Avatar program.\\
'''Instead:''' They decide, prematurely and without ''even telling their spy'', that they won't wait any longer, and start bulldozing the forest. Extra idiot points in that they start bulldozing the part of the forest where their spy's then-inert ''Avatar body'' was, a body that cost so much money it was cheaper to ship an identical twin pilot 4.3 light years than it was to clone a new one. They would've run over it and crushed it if his alien girlfriend didn't pull him away, buying him enough time to wake up in the Avatar. His reaction is, predictably, to jump onto the bulldozer and pound on their security camera to get them to stop. Their reaction? Tell him that he "went too far" and "betrayed their trust" by doing that, and [[YouHaveFailedMe promptly lock him up]]. Which causes him to decide to side with the Na'vi and lead a rebellion.
** Speaking of which...\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Jake not to be so so blatant in his logs and also to have a quiet private word with the Na'vi chief at some point before the deadline, so he could thoroughly and without haste explain the state of things and probably work out a solution.\\
'''Instead:''' He makes his announcement in the worst possible moment, when it's all but too late to do anything, and after he'd antagonized both the Na'vi by stealing a bride from one of the tribe's most influential members, and his own command by wrecking that logging machine.
** There's also the ridiculous case where Colonel Quaritch confronts Jake in the empty room, telling him the experiment is essentially over, and he's gotten Jake the money and guarantee for the surgery to fix his legs. Jake refuses to end the experiment, and gives every single sign, clear as the sun in the desert, that he's gone native and will be a thorn in their side when it comes to trying to remove the Na'vi from their tree-place.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The colonel to pick up on this, and forcibly eject Jake from the project, or put him under watch, or lock him up temporarily, or even refer to the above "you'd expect" example!\\
'''Instead:''' He ''completely ignores'' these signs, basically pulling the Yoda on Anakin from ''Episode III'', then acts shocked when Jake goes native. Or maybe he was just pretending not to notice, honestly wanted to give the poor kid in the wheelchair another shot, or was just happy to try and kill him. There's a moment when he gives Jake a long look; he almost certainly knew ''something'' was up.
** Also, when the scientists are trying to convince the corporate executives not to destroy the Tree of Voices, they talk about how the plantlife on Pandora forms a massive neural network.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' They'd drop the technobabble and put it into terms these guys can understand and respect like: "It's an organic computer the size of a planet, do you have any idea how much money that's potentially worth?"\\
'''Instead:''' They focus on how spiritually significant it is to the Na'vi, which prompts the executives to dismiss it as a bunch of hocus-pocus and hippy crap (which, considering the executives haven't seen firsthand that the mystic stuff is actually real, is exactly what it sounds like).
** During the assault on the Home Tree, one of the attacking pilots, Trudy, has a crisis of conscience and flies away, refusing to participate in genocide. Quaritch's own [[TheDragon Dragon]] Wainfleet is aboard her craft.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Wainfleet to report Trudy to his superior and have her arrested for wimping out on their mission, as well as being a potential security risk due to her sympathy for the Na'vi.\\
'''Instead:''' He does nothing, letting Trudy go free. The next day she breaks out Jake, Norm, and Dr. Grace from their cell, then flies them out of the base. Thanks to her stolen craft she also becomes a major source of firepower for the Na'vi side during the final battle.
** There are deposits of Unobtainium (which is magnetic) large enough to float mountains.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The RDA to mine these instead because these are easier to get to than the chunk under Home Tree, and possibly larger than that deposit too. Even if the Na'vi object, there's nothing they can do to stop a fleet of levitating RDA tugs from towing the floating mountains away. And if they're worried about the mountains falling out of the sky when mined, they have a massive quarry they can just drop all that sweet Unobtainium into.\\
'''Instead:''' No one pays any attention to the fact that these are the equivalent to entire mountains of gold.
* In ''[[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney's Great Adventure]]'', the Dream Maker egg ends up at a restaurant after B.J. accidentally tosses it.
** '''You'd expect:''' That the restaurant sends it to the lost and found, that way Barney and friends can reclaim it.
** '''Instead:''' It sends the egg to the circus.
* ''{{Film/Batman}}'' (1989):
** The Joker, enraged by Batman foiling his plans to gas the city of Gotham with Smilex, asks Bob to give him his gun.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Given the Joker is clearly ticked off, Bob would probably hesitate over the Joker's request, or at least ask him why. An angry person and a gun clearly don't mix well.\\
'''Instead:''' Bob gives the Joker his gun without hesitation, and the Joker [[KickTheDog promptly shoots him dead]].
** The Joker sends three of his goons to hold Batman off while he waits for the helicopter on the top of Gotham Cathedral. The first goon soon arrives to fight by doing a back flipping introduction.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The goon to stop back flipping then stand on his two feet to begin fighting.\\
'''Instead:''' The goon keeps back flipping then immediately lunges at him, intending to kill Batman with a knife attack from his feet. Batman [[GroinAttack finds his weakness]] and promptly defeats him. At least this goon is luckier than the next two goons...
** After the first goon is defeated, a second goon intends to attack Batman from behind, and stands right above him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The goon would try to come down quietly while Batman is focusing on the Joker. He should know that it wouldn't be a good idea to make a surprise jump attack on him on a wooden floor in an old, deteriorating cathedral.\\
'''Instead:''' He tries to lunge at Batman from behind, then ends up causing the floor to give in and fall to a well-deserved death. Batman is quite surprised that someone would make a risky move.
** The third goon, who manages to make a more worthy opponent to Batman than his predecessors, pushes Batman down a shaft below the bell tower after a vicious brawl.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The goon would assume Batman fell down the shaft and walk away, declaring victory.\\
'''Instead:''' He decides to look down the deep, ''deep'' shaft to make sure Batman's dead, and Batman, who holds onto a ledge, grabs the goon with his legs. The goon doesn't even try to resist, and Batman throws him down the shaft.\\
'''Ironically:''' Batman himself would fall for this exact same trick during his climatic brawl with the Joker, and all the Joker does is grab Batman's foot.
** The Joker takes Vicki Vale up the cathedral to escape and, after looking at the top of the Cathedral, calls a helicopter to arrive in 10 minutes.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The Joker to call his goons again and get the chopper to the top ASAP, since it actually took him 5 minutes.\\
'''Instead''': He dances with Vale waiting for the chopper and giving Batman time to beat the heck out of him.
** During the brawl between Batman and the Joker, the latter attempts to distract Batman by spitting out fake chatter teeth.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' During that brief moment of distraction, the Joker would quickly run and head to where the helicopter would land, or theoretically, knock Batman out with a blow to the face.\\
'''Instead:''' The Joker punches Batman in the abdomen, covered by his sturdy suit, and [[AmusingInjuries it does not go well]]. Anyone who watched earlier scenes in which Batman's suit deflects bullets intended to kill him would know how this would play out.
** This leads to the helicopter arriving and Joker taking off when Batman ties a gargoyle to his leg.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The Joker to make a signal to the pilot to move to the chapel where the fall wouldn't be dangerous, or simply let go and hang around on the wall for the police to get him.\\
'''Instead:''' He looks stupidly up at the ladder, tries to go along with escaping which causes the gargoyle to pull him down to his death.
* ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'': Robin has just survived Poison Ivy's Kiss of Death by wearing wax lips.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' He'd keep them on, in case she tried it again. And use the element of surprise to tackle Ivy and arrest her, or leave her lair before she realizes he's tricked her.\\
'''Instead:''' He pulls them off, remarking that wax lips are "immune to [her] charms" while sitting right next to her and leaving himself vulnerable to her, by either another kiss or something else.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Ivy would take advantage of Robin removing his only protection against her lips and give him another snog, this one terminal.\\
'''Instead:''' She just shoves him into a pond. And instead of staying to make sure he drowns she tries to leave while simply taunting him "see ya!" as if she were breaking up with him instead of trying to kill him.
* ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'':
** Thanks to Lex Luthor's threats and manipulations, Superman is forced to fight Batman to death in order to save his mother but Batman is none too willing to listen.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' At some point after Superman has the upper hand, he either quickly explain the current state he is in (That is, his mother is being held hostage) or just knock him unconcious and bring him to Lex hoping he could save Martha.\\
'''Instead:''' All Superman does is only vaguely asking for Bruce's cooperation and knock him away despite not needing to do so. The only reason he managed to survive is that he blurted out Martha, a name shared by Bruce's mother.
** Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman are fighting Doomsday. The monster's only weakness is Kryptonite, which also is fatal to Superman. Batman has a Kryptonite spear with him.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Superman lets Wonder Woman, who has similar strength and speed but lacks any weakness to Kryptonite, use the spear instead.\\
'''Instead''': He uses the spear himself, risking himself for no good reason. [[spoiler: This results in his death when Doomsday impales him.]]
* ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'', as you might expect, has tons of these, but here's the most obvious. After being captured by the Psychlos for slave labor, the hero, Jonnie Goodboy, manages to kill one of the guards with his own gun. He runs away, but quickly gets caught by the alien leader, Terl, and brought back to where the guard was shot. Incapable of believing that a "man-animal" would ever be capable of handling a gun, he forces a guard to hand Jonnie his sidearm to prove that he's harmless. Jonnie promptly shoots the guard dead.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' After seeing Jonnie shoot a guard before his very eyes, and having indirect evidence of him doing the same to another, Terl immediately have him killed. He's obviously dangerous and will only cause trouble for the Psychlos if he's kept as a slave.\\
'''Instead:''' He just ''tosses him back to the slave-line as if nothing happened'', still completely convinced that the humans are utterly harmless.
* In ''Film/BehindEnemyLines II: Axis of Evil'', the Navy SEALS are hiding on a mountain when a village boy looking for food stumbles across them. The boy runs away.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The SEALS to let the boy go and move to another hiding spot. After all, how likely is it for anyone to believe a 10-year old kid seeing 4 heavily armed Americans in the middle of North Korea?\\
'''Instead''': They chase the kid into the village and right into his family's house while dozens of villagers see them in plain view. Not surprisingly, the kid's sister starts screaming, and the local North Korean Army patrol comes to see what's going on, which triggers a huge shootout and ends with two SEALS dead and two captured.
* ''Film/{{Birdemic}}'': This movie has several stupid moments.
** In one scene, Ramsey attempts to rescue several people who are hiding in a bus for safety. He tries to evacuate them against their will out of the bus. Unfortunately, a bunch of birds are incoming.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Ramsey and the bus passengers to run back to the car immediately and not stop so that they could escape and not be killed by the birds.\\
'''Instead''': They don't rush back to the car and after briefly walking, they stop and stand there in the open like a bunch of idiots, and get killed by a bunch of acid-SPITTING birds who peck at them to death.
** In a later scene, At one point, a man tries to steal gas from Rod and the other survivors at gunpoint. After getting the gas, the man is killed by a bird.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Rod to take advantage of the man who held them at gun point being killed, and take the gas as well as the abandoned pistol. That way, they have spare gas in case they run out of gas on the road.\\
'''Instead (!!!)''': Rod ''completely'' forgets the unattended gas can and ''leaves it behind'', as well as the abandoned weapon on the side of the road, and later, what the heck do you know? They run out of gas! [[SarcasmMode Way to go, Rod]]!
* ''Film/TheBradyBunch'': Much of the humor of ''The Brady Bunch Movie'' and ''A Very Brady Sequel'' comes not only from the movie's main premise – a southern California family with the fashion and family sitcom morality of the 1970s, living in the mid-1990s – but the family's own cluelessness at how others react to them or attempt to manipulate them, and inability to recognize the disparity between them and others. Examples:
** In ''The Brady Bunch Movie'', Mike has imposed a "no tattling" rule on Cindy. When she tries to explain that the family's unscrupulous real estate developer neighbor, Larry Dettmeyer, has stolen their mail, Mike warns her, in essence, "NO TATTLING!" (Even though even an idiotic version of Mike should know that mail theft is a felony in most states, including California.) Even when the family's home is close to foreclosure for failure to pay taxes, Mike ignores the crisis as he tends to the family's more mundane situations (Jan being jealous of Marcia, Peter's voice cracking, Bobby becoming hall monitor at school, etc.). Only when Dettmeyer directly confronts Mike and in essence freely admit he stole his mail (in explaining the Bradys' delinquent property taxes is resulting in their immediate foreclosure) does Mike come close to understanding what's going on. (Dettmeyer had, in his mail theft activities, taken several "past due" notices sent to the Bradys' home and kept them hidden in his home.)
** In 'A Very Brady Sequel'', a con artist, Trevor Thomas, is able to easily maneuver his way into the Brady household, claiming he is Carol's "long-lost first husband," Roy Martin. Even though there are obvious red flags, the Bradys are such idiots that neither Mike, nor Marcia, Jan or Cindy, nor Carol ask him tough questions to expose "Roy" as a fraud. For instance, even Mike would be able to recognize the physical features of Carol's first husband, and Carol would remember what happened to her first husband and why he's had no contact with her or her daughters, or in the very least subtle personality/physical quirks that Thomas would not have picked up on. Only arguably the dumbest person in the original TV series – Alice – senses that "Roy" is not who he says he is. (Of course, much of the humor of this film comes from exactly that – a con man who otherwise would be stopped dead in his tracks taking advantage of a family so stupid to recognize their own stupidity.)
* ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop'': Axel Foley goes to the only lead he has on his best friend Mikey's murder, Mikey's boss, Victor Maitland. All Axel knows for sure is that his friend was a security guard in one of Maitland's warehouses and asks Maitland if he knows anything about Mikey that might help.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' [[BigBad Maitland]] to just lie about knowing anything about Mikey's murder, as at this point, Axel has no reason to suspect him of any wrongdoing.\\
'''Instead:''' He immediately has his goons [[DestinationDefenestration throw Axel through a window]], leading Axel to take a closer look at him.
* ''Film/BruceAlmighty'':
** After being annoyed by his arrogant behaviour, Bruce's girlfriend sees him cheating on her, and so leaves him.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Bruce would use his God powers to erase Grace's memory of the event in question, and all the other things she didn't like. This wouldn't be out of character for Bruce, since he was quite willing to try and command her to love him, which was against the rules.\\
'''Instead''': Bruce creates a series of signs to show how much he loves Grace, without in any way trying to make up for what he did. Ends up giving his powers up, and is only forgiven when he nearly dies.
* In the NoBudget Hong Kong flick ''Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave'', one of the BigBadEnsemble, a samurai breaks into the house where the protagonist, Wong Han and his girlfriend are sleeping. Wong Han has already taken out two of the samurai's fellow gang members, and is closing in on the truth of the mysterious death of his friend.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The samurai, who is carrying a huge, deadly katana, to just decapitate the sleeping Wong Han, and then take out his girlfriend to ensure that there were no witnesses.\\
'''Instead:''' He wakes up Wong Han, delivers a massive InfoDump -- including explicitly telling him that his deceased friend was a drug smuggler, the identity of another gang member, and that he can be found at a local racecourse -- and ''then'' tries to kill him. Wong Han manages to defeat him, and soon uses the information to take down the rest of the gang.
* ''Film/AnAlanSmitheeFilmBurnHollywoodBurn'':
** A director has seen his film recut by the studio behind his back. He's embarrassed about the finished product and wants to have his name taken off it. The studio heads agree to let him be credited under the standard Director's Guild pseudonym Alan Smithee. The only problem is, the director's ''real name'' is Alan Smithee.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Smithee would change his own name. You know, like Hollywood professionals do [[StageNames all the time]]. After all, what kind of reputation could you possibly enjoy when your name is already synonymous with failure?\\
'''Instead''': Smithee steals the only existing print of the film and holds it hostage. When the studio refuses to allow him to recut the film the way he wants it, he burns it. Smithee is committed to an insane asylum, and the studio ends up making a profit anyway when they produce a documentary about how Smithee went crazy.
** After Smithee burns the master print of the film, the studio panics, and is left wondering that to do, especially in view of the fact that the film cost $200m.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That the studio would try as best they can to reassemble the film from the various other takes and alternate camera angles that are inevitably created as part of the filming process.\\
'''Instead''': Apparently Smithee was ordered only to do one take of ''every single scene in the film'', because actors are jerks and don't like performing more than one take of any given scene. As a result, they end up planning to sell the trailer as the actual film, until they come up with the "documentary" idea.
* To put it simply, Evan Treborn from ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'' is just plain awful at not thinking things through, and much of the events after he can time travel really is his own fault.
** At one point in his childhood, Evan is tricked into underage porn by Kayleigh and Tommy's dad, George. After that, Tommy became more and more violent, no doubt due to George. When Evan gains the ability to travel through time, that porn incident is one of his first stops. During this retry, Evan calls George out on his rampant pedophilia towards his kids, actually giving George pause.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Evan would stop talking at that point. He's said all he needs to say.\\
'''Instead''': [[LooseLips Evan just keeps talking]], pointing out how unstable Tommy is and demanding George be more of a hardass towards him. This results in Tommy being broken in the future, something Evan doesn't really realize until he screams at newTommy, causing even Evan's friends to be wary of him.
** Then, shortly after Kayleigh caringly explains why newTommy is now the way he is, newTommy ambushes Evan and Kayleigh, forcing Evan to fight back. Eventually, Evan subdues newTommy.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Evan would stop at that point. He now knows at this point newTommy is definitely his fault, and doing anything else in front of Kayleigh would make this worse.\\
'''Instead''': [[RevengeBeforeReason Evan beats newTommy to death while the guy is on the ground]] as Kayleigh watches. This results in Evan being thrown in jail without access to his journals.
** Eventually, Evan gets another shot at an incident where Tommy burnt Evan's puppy alive in a bag, and their friend Lenny's knife wasn't sharp enough to cut the bag. In the original timeline, this incident and Tommy's threats during it haunted Lenny immensely. This time, Evan gives Lenny a rusty spiky thing.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Evan would simply tell Lenny to only cut the bag open, then stop.\\
'''Instead''': Evan goes on and on about random philosophical bull beforehand and also telling Lenny to [[ExactWords stop Tommy]] [[SkewedPriorities before the rope]]. [[PoorCommunicationKills Combined with Evan's suddenly eloquent speech beforehand, Lenny easily misinterprets Evan's speech as a go-ahead to kill Tommy]].\\
'''Making This Worse''': Evan is able to appeal to Tommy's better nature this time and convinces him to free the puppy. Not only does this mean the rusty spiky thing was pointless- shortly after, Lenny kills Tommy with the rusty spiky thing, leading to the worst possible timeline.
** Finally, Evan gets a third shot at the porn incident. Prior to this, every time he re-enters a new timeline, he gets a massive nosebleed, with more blood every further time. Therefore, he can't really afford to mess around anymore.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Evan would remember what he said the first time, then [[RunningGag stop just before]] the blaming Tommy part.\\
'''Instead''': Evan gets the [[SarcasmMode bright idea]] to use what could've and should've been his last trip to dispose of a dynamite stick. (an item that's caused him trouble in multiple timelines). Because of his rush and not thinking yet again, the younger Kayleigh is killed by the explosion, and Evan is sent to another jailhouse with almost no way to time travel again. Furthermore, the doctor within this jailhouse notices the amount of aging Evan's brain has gone through, essentially only giving Evan one more safe trip.
* In ''Film/CampNowhere'', [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Mud]] and the other protagonists are pulling off an elaborate [[TheCon Con]] on their parents by staging a phony Parents' Day at their phony summer camp. Using HomemadeInventions, they have full video surveillance of the grounds, including the front gate. These kids know that anything could go wrong during the con. They also know that a debt collector named Polk is searching for Dennis, the man who helped them with their con. Indeed, said debt collector finds his way to the camp at the very end of the con.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The kids would catch Polk on camera at the front gate and manage to sidetrack him. They would keep an eye on the last group of parents to make sure that they leave the camp. Polk would be sent on another wild goose chase, the con would be preserved, and the kids would make it to the end of the summer without their parents being any the wiser.\\
'''Instead:''' The kids don't pay ''any'' attention at the end. Polk gets into the camp and runs into Mud's dad right as he's leaving with the last group of parents. Both of them go looking for Dennis, and stumble into the kids right when they're toasting their victory. All the parents are notified, the kids are sent home, and Mud pays off Polk with the remainder of the camp money in order to save Dennis.
* ''Film/ChildsPlay2'': Chucky the killer doll has Andy, the boy he wanted to transfer his soul into, in his grasp. He has almost finished the voodoo chant when Andy's babysitter comes and stops his plan.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Chucky to kill her and continue on with the chant. After all, he is on a time limit and if he does it too late, his soul is trapped forever in the doll.\\
'''Instead''': He stops and spends the rest of the movie playing mind games on Andy and killing his foster parents. In the end, when he tries the chant again, it was already too late. Cue the BigNo.
* ''Film/AClockworkOrange'': Alex is welcomed into the house of the writer whom he left as a cripple and whose wife he sexually assaulted (and ''possibly'' caused her death). The writer doesn't recognize him due to he and his friends using masks by the time of the assault. Additionally, he is in a state in which he can't fight back to any kind of violence.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Alex would try to make sure the writer absolutely wouldn't recognize him.\\
'''Instead:''' While on a bath, Alex sings the exact same song he sang while raping the writer's wife, loudly enough for him to listen from the other side of the door.
* ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'': A giant monster attacks New York. The heroes make it to the military checkpoint and get on the last helicopter out of the city.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That the pilot would choose any of the 360 degrees of options leading in the AWAY direction.\\
'''Instead:''' The helicopter flies parallel to the monster's path, and is knocked out of the sky when the monster lunges at it.
* ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'': Sarah gets forced to run away from her husband who's become infected after being bitten by a zombie girl. She grabs the car keys and (barely) escapes through the bathroom window.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For Sarah to get into her car as soon as possible and drive somewhere safer.\\
'''Instead:''' She pauses to look at all the chaos going on around her, giving her zombified husband a head start to chase after her. She even repeats this mistake after stopping at a traffic collision on the road when a bus driver tried to steal her car.\\
'''Later:''' The mall refugees' attempt to send food to Andy in the gun store has gone awry, and Nicole has gotten herself trapped in his store. All of the men except Steve are going to rescue her and load up on ammunition, leaving Steve to wait and open the one-way fire door that is their only way back into the mall.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Even with Steve's demonstrated JerkAss, that he'd recognize that the door won't open from the outside and the men would be trapped and killed - taking the bulk of their group and all of their guns to the grave. Steve would then stay by the door and do what he is asked.\\
'''Instead:''' Steve wanders off ''for absolutely no reason'', meaning that the group is forced to bang on the door until Anna hears them. The resultant delay allows the zombies to reach the door and prevent the group from closing it, forcing them to evacuate the mall hastily and unprepared, losing nearly every member in the process.
* ''[[Film/DeadPool2016 Deadpool]]'' wants to find Francis in order to cure his disfigured face and hoped to approach his old girlfriend, because she supposedly wouldn't accept his ugly look. To do so, he interrogates several associates by saying "Where's Francis?" to them but it seems that they genuinely didn't know who this Francis guy is.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For Wade to realize that they sincerely don't know who this Francis guy is and only know him as Ajax. Perhaps he should swallow his pride for once and either say "Where's Ajax?" or "Where's Francis? The guy you know as Ajax." He could probably find the guy in a much shorter time than say, 1 year.\\
'''Instead:''' Out of spite for the man who disfigured him, Deadpool address the BigBad ''exclusively'' as [[EmbarrassingFirstName Francis]]. As a result, this caused Wade to waste a lot of time as he could't interrogate any info on someone like Francis. By the time he finally have Francis's location, he has already spent more than 1 year on finding him, enough that Vanessa would have potentially moved on and find a new boyfriend. He is very lucky that they latter case didn't happen or ''Deadpool'' would have ended on a bittersweet note.
** In the pre-''[[Film/{{Logan}} Logan]]'' short film Film/DeadpoolNoGoodDeed, Wade as he roams through an alley notices an elderly bystander being mugged by an armed man.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Wade to run to the scene and rescue "Uncle Ben".\\
'''Instead:''' He goes into a phone booth ([[RuleOfFunny in 2017?]]) and hurries to change into his uniform trying to imitate Superman. [[RealityEnsues It takes him 70 seconds. The old man gets shot and the bad guy runs away with the victim's money]]. Deadpool, not knowing what to do next, picks up the old man's ice cream and eats it.
* ''Film/DeathNote2017'':
** L sends twelve FBI agents to investigate the suspects. One of them ends up tailing Light. Not wanting to kill innocent people or upset law enforcement, Light decides to leave them alone. Mia and Ryuk then persuade him to kill them.\\
'''You'd expect:''' Light would get a little concerned that Mia might want to get rid of the FBI agents and keep the Death Note with him at all times until the FBI agents stop following him.\\
'''Instead:''' He leaves the Death Note in his backpack, which is up in his room. Mia then takes advantage of this when Light is downstairs watching the news, steals the Death Note, and kills the FBI agents herself.\\
'''You'd Then Expect:''' Light would realize that Mia must have taken the Death Note, since she went upstairs, and ask her what had happened. Besides, Light must have read the rules of the Death Note. Chances are, Light would know that shinigami are not allowed to help cause or prevent deaths that are written on the Death Note, except when a name is written down for the former situation.\\
'''Instead:''' He believes that Ryuk wrote the names of the FBI agents. This allows Mia to take advantage of his accusation and continue to write names behind his back.
** After being threatened by L, Light decides to kill him. To do so, he decides to use L's friend, Watari, to find the name and then spare him by burning the page that includes his name afterwards, which can only be done once.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Light would keep an eye on his Death Note at all times during the two-day period. That way, if Watari can't find the name in time, he can burn the page without a problem.\\
'''Instead:''' He leaves the Death Note in his room. While L is yelling at Light for controlling Watari, Mia quietly steals the Death Note, takes the page including Watari's name out of it, and writes Light's name on another page. This causes Watari to eventually die.
** At the same time, L realizes that Light is coming after him by trying to find his name.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' L would realize that Watari has some slight knowledge about his name and would make sure that Watari's face can't be found anywhere.\\
'''Instead:''' He doesn't think about this possibility. This allows Light to control Watari and (unintentionally) kill him.
** Eventually, Mia betrays Light and decides to kill him if he doesn't give the Death Note to her.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Mia would use the Death Note to control Light to do so.\\
'''Instead:''' She only writes that Light would die at midnight. Because Light can move freely, he was able to stop her.
** Afterwards, Light writes Mia's name on the Death Note that states that she will die if she takes the Death Note. Once the get on the ferris wheel, Light tells Mia that if she takes the Death Note, she would never see him again.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Mia would get suspicious about what Light told her and would ask him about what he means about that before taking the Death Note.\\
'''Instead:''' She takes the Death Note without hesitating. This allows Light's plan to stop her to unfold. Only then does she realize that Light wrote her name on the Death Note and that she was going to die because of what she had just done.
* ''Film/DeathRace'': Hennessey wants Frankenstein's car armed to explode remotely, in case the final race goes in a direction she doesn't like. Frankenstein's pit crew is run by a head mechanic with such a strong attachment to the vehicle he voluntarily remains in prison after his sentence finished to keep servicing it.\\
'''You'd expect:''' Prison technicians to sneak into the workshop during off hours and rig the car's munitions to cook off - there's a canister of napalm right there in the driver's compartment. If an external device had to be used, make it as unobtrusive as possible, and do anything to make the modification hard to notice.\\
'''Instead:''' TheDragon waltzes in during the final race's prep time and orders the pit crew out, before affixing simplistic bomb made of shiny aluminum that looks nothing like the rest of the car to the center of the undercarriage, ''while the car was still lifted for repairs''. One wonders how he thought it ''wouldn't'' be found.
* ''Film/DeepImpact'': President Tom Beck knows a killer chunk of space rock is going to hit Earth and secretly builds underground cave shelters for America's best and brightest. This leaves the matter of everyone else in the country...\\
'''You Would Think:''' He would talk with his top men and at least give everyone else a list of suggestions on how they might improve their odds of surviving the disaster. Even if it was just a lot of "Duck And Cover" bullcrap, it would be better than nothing. Plus, he knew the rock was going to hit the East coast, so he could just tell the Americans to head westward.\\
'''Instead:''' He pretty much tells the rest of America he's written them off as not worth saving and that he's just going to save his own ass and those of the elite. The meteor final falls, causing far less damage then anticipated. Beck, in all likelihood, will not be reelected considering how many people will be righteously pissed off at him.
* ''Film/DieHard'': Early on, following the advice someone he met while arriving in L.A., John [=McClane=] takes his shoes off and walks barefoot in the Nakatomi building to relieve some tension. During this, Hans Gruber and his men take over the building, and [=McClane=] is forced to sneak out but unable to get his shoes back on, forcing him to remain barefoot. When John kills the first of Gruber's men he attempts to take his shoes, but to his chagrin finds out that they are too small to fit him.\\
'''You Would Think:''' That John would continue doing this with any future members of Gruber's team that he'd manage to kill until he found a pair of shoes that he'd be able to wear.\\
'''Instead:''' [=McClane=] does not think to do this again at all. It's understandable if he's being fired at or being chased by Gruber's men since he'd be more focused on not dying, but he even forgets this during one good portion of the film where he isn't being hunted down and is in a room with 2 goons ''he's just killed'': while he throws the body of one out the window to alert Al, he takes whatever he can from the other including some explosives he was going to use for Hans and his cigarettes, but for some reason ''not'' his shoes. And later on one of Gruber's men proceeds to shoot out several pieces of glass, causing [=McClane=]'s unprotected feet to get completely cut up.
%% * In ''Film/TheDilemma'', things would have been ''a lot'' easier for Ronny had he let his own girlfriend in on what was going on between Nick and his wife, or in fact, tell Nick when he gave him the chance. Ronny's behavior would have made more sense.
* ''Film/{{District 9}}'': Aliens come to Earth, malnourished and unguided. They're taken from their ship, set up in a temporary camp which degenerates into a slum, and are constantly exploited by the private corporation responsible.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The governments of the world would take an interest in preventing the abuse of these aliens, considering that they're 1) sapient and at least as intelligent as us and 2) capable of building technology that makes us look like cavemen in comparison. They're also bigger and probably a fair bit stronger. Clearly, treating them badly will not end well for us, in the long run.\\
'''Instead''' The private corporation turns the aliens into slaves in everything but name. They're restricted in where they can eat, where they can work (and what work they can do), and forced to live in slums. Their unhatched eggs are confiscated and destroyed. They are subject to being evicted from their dwellings without notice. They are required to take on human names, speak English (or understand it, anyway), and abandon any trace of their own culture. ''These requirements are published on the company's website'', where anyone can go look them up. The world's governments apparently don't give a crap, and are instead placated by the nifty new gadgets that the company is turning out.
* In ''Film/DragMeToHell'', Christine has a cursed button in a blank envelope. Tomorrow, a demon will drag whoever owns this button to hell, so she needs to give it away to someone else. Unfortunately, she's accidentally switched it with an envelope containing a silver quarter.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' She would ''check'' the contents of the envelope to determine that it really does contain the button. Getting bodily dragged to hell is not something you want to be careless with. In the very least, she should at least notice that the item in the envelope she keeps fidgeting is too heavy and made of metal, and thus is not the button.\\
'''Instead:''' She digs up Mrs. Ganush's grave in the middle of a rainstorm, and shoves the wrong envelope into the corpse's mouth. By the time she finds out she left the button in her boyfriend's car, it's too late.\\
'''Result:''' She gets [[DraggedOffToHell dragged off]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin to Hell]], and cue DownerEnding.
* ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'': The king was an evil tyrant and a dragonslayer who met his end while slaughtering peasants and burning their village. His son, Einon, was mortally wounded in the process of trying to steal his father's crown from his corpse. His mother, Queen Aislinn, and mentor, Sir Bowen, take the dying prince to see the dragon that would later be given the nickname "Draco". Draco observes right away that Einon is a manipulative brat and every bit as evil as his father, and voices his reservations about granting their request to heal him. Aislinn and Bowen swear on Einon's behalf that he wouldn't be like his father.\\
'''You'd Think:''' That Draco would refuse to help Einon, depose Aislinn as queen, and install someone of sounder mind and moral character to take over rule. Einon's word isn't worth its weight in his own spit, and Draco can see that StockholmSyndrome has Bowen and Aislinn wrapped tight around Einon's finger, whether they realize it or not.\\
'''Instead:''' Draco makes Einon swear the oath with his dying breath, takes him at his word, and shares his heart with him, restoring the prince to life and granting him a portion of the dragon's power.\\
'''Result:''' Einon uses his newfound power to become more monstrous than his father had been through extortion, torture, murder, and even rape.
** A despondant Bowen concludes that this was the dragon's doing, and returns to the lair to confront him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Draco to meet Bowen at the cave entrance, disarm him, and then pin him down until he listens to reason. He does just that in a later scene, proving that he is capable of it.\\
'''Instead:''' Draco vacates. An enraged Bowen develops a grudge against Draco, abandons the Old Code, and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge takes out his revenge by hunting dragons into near-extinction]], leaving Draco as the LastOfHisKind and screwed out of his afterlife when the movie catches up with him.
* One prime example from ''Film/DumbAndDumber'': Harry and Lloyd, the two eponymous idiots, are stranded in the middle of nowhere with no money and no motor scooter, wondering when/if they’ll ever catch a break. Just then, a bus arrives carrying a group of bikini models on a national tour looking for two “royal boys” to grease them up.\\
'''You’d Expect:''' Harry and Lloyd to gladly accept their invitation and board the bus.\\
'''Instead:''' Harry [[ComicallyMissingThePoint comically misses the point]] and directs them to a town where there may be said royal boys. The models then shrug and drive off.\\
'''However:''' Lloyd [[WhatTheHellHero admonishes Harry:]] “Do you realize what you’ve DONE?!” Lloyd then runs to catch up to the bus and apologize for Harry’s misguiding.\\
'''You’d Then Expect:''' Lloyd to tell the models that he and Harry are boarding.\\
'''Instead:''' He directs them the OTHER way, confusing the models even ''more.''\\
'''But Let’s Be Honest:''' You’d expect plenty of stupidity from a movie with a title like this, and you won’t be disappointed there.
* During the titular event in ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'', a man has to run inside a house to turn off a ruptured gas line.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' He would dispose of his lit cigarette first.\\
'''Instead:''' [[TooDumbToLive He does not]]. [[StuffBlowingUp The house goes boom.]]
* ''Film/{{Election}}'' sees a paranoid teacher put in charge of counting the votes in the class election. Much to his horror, he sees that his least favorite student Tracey Flick has won, but the election was DecidedByOneVote.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' He'd simply erase one checkmark for Flick and replace it with one for her opponent. It's not unheard of for someone to change their mind in the voting booth, after all. He also could have just stuffed the papers in his pocket. It's not like they'd frisk him.\\
'''Instead:''' He casually tosses two votes for Flick into the trash can, taking no effort to disguise or bury the papers they're written on. [[FinaglesLaw Naturally]], the papers are discovered and his voter fraud is caught.
* In ''Film/{{Elf}}'', Buddy, a human raised by elves at the North Pole, detects that the [[MallSanta Santa Claus working at Gimbels is an imposter]] and confronts him for an interrogation.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Buddy to ask a question that the real SantaClaus would most likely know so he can put the Gimbels Santa on edge. He could remind him why he was sent to New York City in the first place or grill him on the whereabouts of his biological father, especially considering he's on the naughty list.\\
'''Instead:''' He asks the Gimbels Santa what song he sang for him on his birthday. Naturally, the Gimbels Santa replies with "[[CaptainObvious 'Happy Birthday' of course!"]]
* In ''Film/EvilDead2013'' there are several moments:
** Eric has just found a mysterious bundle in the cabin's basement. Said basement had dozens of mummified, mutilated cats hanging from the ceiling and the bundle was wrapped in a garbage bag that had been tied up in barbed wire.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Eric would leave the clearly ominous thing alone or even just leave it for some other time since he's supposed to be there as part of a group effort to help Mia.\\
'''Instead''': He painstakingly cuts it open to see what it is.
** Upon cutting it open, he sees it's clearly a TomeOfEldritchLore. It's bound (badly) in nerotic flaps of GenuineHumanHide, and inside it is filled with a combination of horrific illustrations of demons and mutilated corpses, interspersed with deranged scribbled warnings that had have been added by some prior reader. He eventually reaches a part where several words have been painstakingly scribbled over, with large printed warnings to leave them alone.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' He'd get freaked out and leave things well enough alone, because this is some creepy shit.\\
'''Instead:''' He painstakingly etches out the blanked words, reading them aloud as he does, and opens a gateway for the Deadites to come through.
** The entire reason they've come to the cabin is to be there to help Mia get through her addiction and they've suggested that they should even stop her if she tries to leave.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For them to agree that someone should at least always be around to keep an eye on her since she's going to be in horrible shape and probably not rational.\\
'''Instead:''' No one notices that Mia is huddled and walking in circles in the pouring rain.
** From the start of the movie, the people who stopped the last Deadite attack had the book, clearly knew exactly what it did and given that they took the time to tie a girl to a stake, set it on fire and bundle the book in barbed wire, they clearly weren't in a hurry.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' If for some reason they had to leave the book in the cabin, unguarded, then they would put it in something that no one could get open with an hour's work like a safe. You'd also expect it to be put somewhere very hard to see.\\
'''Instead''': They left the book covered by just the wire and bag, and in clear view on the desk.
* In ''Film/{{Evolution}}'', General Woodman is preparing to use napalm bombs against the invading aliens, when he receives a call from Dr. Allison Reed, who claims to have "important information" relating to his plan. Previously, Allison had [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere walked out on him]] in response to his behaviour towards the main characters.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Woodman to at least hear her out, regardless of whatever she did in the last few hours.\\
'''Instead:''' He doesn't take the call. The bombing goes ahead, and it causes the aliens to all fuse into a [[EldritchAbomination gigantic amoeba-like creature]]. Turns out that Allison was calling to warn him that excessive heat causes the aliens to rapidly evolve. Luckily for Woodman, the heroes manage to destroy the creature, however it's implied that he'll receive a hefty demotion as a result of his screwup.
* ''Film/FaceOff''
** The Walsh Institute is keeping Castor Troy alive, in a coma. They decide to carry out a surgery that causes Sean Archer to receive Castor's face.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That afterwards, they keep the comatose Castor under the watch of armed guards 24/7, and also restrained to his hospital bed.\\
'''Instead:''' The people at the Institute decide that Castor is not enough of a flight risk to justify even restraining to the bed, even though Castor is a cop killer, and even have a phone in the same room as Castor's bed. Hence, when Castor wakes up, it's easy for him to call his cronies, so that he can force Dr. Walsh to give him Archer's face.
** Earlier, before he undergoes the surgery, Archer is told by Miller that the mission he is undertaking is a black bag operation (classified, strictly off the books, no paperwork), meaning he cannot tell his boss Victor Lazarro or his wife and daughter that he is about to receive Castor's face. Archer seems skeptical and a bit reluctant at first to carry out such a mission, thinking that there are a number of ways that something could go wrong, one of which appears to be "what if Castor comes out of his coma?".\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Archer to disregard Miller's instructions and tell his family and the director that he is about to get Castor's face with a special surgery. That way, there is someone who knows who Archer really is in the event something happens to Tito or Miler.\\
'''Instead:''' He never does. Castor comes out of his coma, makes the doctor give him Archer's face, then kills Dr. Walsh, Miller, and Tito by burning down the Institute, before going to the prison to taunt Archer that with everyone alive who knows who he really is dead, he'll be stuck in prison for the rest of his life. It is hence impossible for Archer to prove who he really is until he breaks into his own house to tell Eve that he and Castor have different blood types.
* In ''Film/FantasticFour'', the titular team successfully defeated Dr. Doom by having Johnny use supernova on him and Ben spraying him with water afterwards. Doom is frozen after this.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Given he's living metal, frozen or not, precautions would be taken to make sure he doesn't cause trouble again.\\
'''Instead:''' He's shipped back home and left unguarded, apparently under the assumption that he's stuck that way forever. Naturally, he returns in the sequel.
* In [[Film/FantasticFour2015 the 2015 reboot of the Fantastic Four movie]], Ben Grimm receives a telephone call at 3:00 in the morning from Reed Richards, who is by his own admission drunk out of his mind. Reed asks him to accompany him in an unauthorized joyride on the dimension travel device he just finished inventing.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Him to say "It's three in the damn morning. Go to bed." and hang up the phone.\\
'''Or''': Him to say "I'll be right there.", head to the Baxter Foundation, and talk Reed out of said joyride.\\
'''Instead''': He agrees to accompany him. [[ForegoneConclusion Guess what happens. Just guess.]]
** Once they reach the alternate dimension, they survey the landscape and notice a strange green energy nearby.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Victor to take a few pictures and call it a day.\\
'''Instead''': He goes down to take a closer look.\\
'''You'd Then Expect''': When he starts approaching the energy, someone to say "DontTouchItYouIdiot".\\
'''Instead''': Nobody does.\\
'''The Result''': The energy reacts explosively, and in their escape three of their number and the person who guided them back in are irreversibly mutated while the fourth is thrown into the energy and presumed dead for a year.
** Eventually, on a return trip to the alternate dimension, they find Victor has inexplicably survived and promptly bring him back to receive treatment.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Dr. Allen, who ''knows'' he's dealing with a man who has noted anti-government beliefs and in fact believed that the military would hijack the project at the first opportunity, to apologize for leaving him behind and promise to help him as much as they can.\\
'''Instead''': He makes a statement that effectively amounts to, "Haha! We let the military hijack the project at the first opportunity!"\\
'''The Result''': Victor goes on a rampage throughout the facility, killing him, [[spoiler:Dr. Storm]], and many other unnamed personnel.
** Victor goes on a rampage throughout the facility, killing many people by [[YourHeadAsplode making their heads explode]]. He then comes across the Fantastic Four.\\
'''You'd Expect''': [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Victor to explode their heads.]]\\
'''Instead''': [[BondVillainStupidity He fights them the old fashioned way.]]\\
'''The Result''': The Fantastic Four are able to stop his plans and kill him.
* In ''Film/{{Feast}}'', a plan has been devised that requires a corpse to be used as a distraction, and bomb, for the monsters to facilitate an escape plan. Just before the plan starts the 'corpse' regains consciousness, Bozo hesitates while Boss Man decides to continue as planned. The monsters go for the bait before they decide, and they blow her up as planned. Big Man asks if Bozo will agree not to tell the others about Harley Mom being alive.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The guy to say 'sure, no need to burden the others' since it was WAY too late to change the plan either way. \\
'''Instead:''' When a distraction presents itself he gets into a fight Big Man [[NiceJobBreakingItHero that ends in the death of Heroine.]]
* In ''Film/TheFifthElement'', bad guy Zorg, after watching numerous {{Mooks}} fail to get the [[MacGuffin four stones]] he's after, decides to hunt them down himself. He walks in on Leeloo holding a box that he assumes holds the four stones. He orders her to give him the box. She throws it to him and tries to escape, whereupon he fires blindly into the duct system she hid in. \\
'''You'd Expect:''' Zorg to make sure Leeloo's dead, then check the box to see what's inside before leaving, especially since Leeloo gave the box up without a fight and this isn't the first time he's been handed a box that he thought had the stones in them. \\
'''Instead:''' He plants a bomb [[ForTheEvulz for no discernible reason]], heads back to his ship, leaves, and ''only then'' looks inside the box. Unsurprisingly, the stones aren't in there.
* ''Franchise/FinalDestination'': In every movie, one of the characters has a Premonition about him/her and his/her friends dying at whatever place they are currently at, the character suggests they should get out of there before they end up killed, and after they get of the place, one of them ends up dead in strange circumstances eventually, leading to the main characters trying to cheat death. \\
'''You'd Expect:''' That our heroes would be careful when using sharp objects, avoid going to risky events, stay indoors, stay off work, etc. \\
'''Instead:''' They do everything but the above.
** In ''Film/FinalDestination2'', Kimberly Corman and Thomas Burke arrive near a dentist where Tim Carpenter has just had a dental check-up, there are also pigeons nearby \\
'''You'd Expect:''' Kimberly would keep her mouth shut about the pigeons \\
'''Instead:''' Kimberly screams about the aforementioned pigeons, and it causes Tim to go stomp around them, one of the pigeons accidentally causes a construction worker to drop a glass pane. \\
'''So now you'd expect:''' That either Kimberly, Burke, Nora, or one of the construction workers would shout "Jump!", thus ensuring Tim's safety. \\
'''Instead:''' They stand there looking shocked as the glass pane crushes Tim, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero way to go, Kimberly.]]
* ''[[Film/{{Frankenstein 1931}} Frankenstein]]'': It's a sad lookout when the monster with the supposedly abnormal brain ends up being the most intelligent character in the movie.
** The Monster has risen, and Frankenstein, the doctor and Fritz are trying to control him... except Fritz has a torch in his hand and the Monster is afraid of fire and getting more riled by the moment by its presence.\\
'''You'd Think They'd:''' ''Get the bloody torch out of there.''\\
'''Instead:''' They let Fritz ''[[TooDumbToLive get even closer with the bloody torch]]'', agitating the Monster further.
** Fritz has been abusing and antagonizing the Monster, enraging him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Doctor Frankenstein to sternly admonish Fritz to stay as far away from the Monster as possible.\\
'''Instead:''' Fritz keeps screwing with the Monster until the Monster hangs him [[KarmicDeath with his own whip]]. [[FromBadToWorse And then is completely berserk.]]
** Frankenstein and the other doctor have subdued the Monster, and believe he may be dead. The other doctor has promised to dispose of him quickly.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' They'd get some gasoline, find a clear patch, and immedately incinerate the Monster then scatter the ashes just to be sure, if for no other reason than to prevent any diseases from the dead body parts from a myriad of corpses.\\
'''Instead:''' The other doctor places the Monster on the gurney again and decides he's going to have him some dissectin'. The Monster snaps his neck.
** The Monster has escaped and comes across a young girl playing in a field.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That faced with a rotting, scarred, lumbering creature, she would scream and run with all speed to find a responsible adult (which, given the caliber of the adults in ''this'' film would entail her running straight into another movie...)\\
'''Instead:''' She asks "would you be my friend?" and gives him a bouquet of flowers. He ends up accidentally causing her death by drowning.
** The Monster is on the loose, and is believed to be coming towards the Frankenstein estate, where Henry Frankenstein is about to be married to his fiancee, Elizabeth, and may even be in the house.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Henry would make sure that at least an area code was between Elizabeth and the Monster, would not leave her alone, and certainly make sure there was an escape route for her in case of trouble.\\
'''Instead:''' He locks her, alone, from the outside (ensuring she can't get out) in a ground-floor room with big glass windows, perfect for the Monster to walk right through to terrorize her.
** Frankenstein is leading his section of the angry mob on their search to find The Monster. He hears something and wants to investigate.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Frankenstein would go back and make sure that at least some of the mob came with him.\\
'''Instead:''' [[LetsSplitUpGang He shouts to them, and when he doesn't get a response, climbs up the hill alone]] where [[CurbStompBattle the Monster layeth down the smack upon him.]]
* ''Friday the 13th: Film/JasonGoesToHellTheFinalFriday'': The FBI has managed to kill Jason by luring him out into the open with a sexy agent, then blow him up with an airstrike.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Given that they clearly know Jason has superpowers and has come back to life on several occasions, and they're not taking any chances, they'd take whatever was left of him, and throw it into a pit full of thermite. Problem solved. Series over. Or if they wanted to know more abouthim, they could ship them off to a place like Area 51, with tons of security and the resources to properly study him.\\
'''Instead:''' They send his remains to a nearby ordinary morgue for ordinary people with an ordinary coroner and only two guards.\\
'''The Result:''' Granted neither tactic would have actually worked, since Freddy Krueger was planning on resurrecting Jason, and he can apparently do so even if Jason's heart has been destroyed. Plus, Jason can apparently posses you without any outward signs or you having to eat his heart (as he was implied to have done Roy Burns and Tommy Jarvis). But the government couldn't possibly have known either of these things.
* In ''Film/FrightNight1985'', horror movie show host Peter Vincent is facing down Jerry Dandridge. Vincent knows full well that Jerry is a real vampire, and attempts to use a crucifix to stall him in front of a window to be killed by the rapidly approaching morning sun. However, because until that case Vincent has had no previous experience with the supernatural, he doesn't immediately realise that this only works if he truly believes in the crucifix's holy power (even though he learned this from a previous failed attempt to use a crucifix against Jerry).\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Jerry, who is privy to this information (and knows that Vincent is too, having ''told him himself''), to keep his trap shut about it, and use his superhuman powers to overpower Vincent.\\
'''Instead:''' Jerry mocks him, then [[LargeHam loudly proclaims]] "'''YOU HAVE TO HAVE FAITH FOR THAT TO WORK, MISTER VIN-CENT! RE-MEM-BERRR?'''" then stands there laughing. Vincent promptly [[SkepticNoLonger has faith]], and manages to hold Jerry in place where he's nearly killed by the sunlight.
* ''Film/TheFugitive'' has Samuel Gerard seeing Dr. Richard Kimble in Cook County Jail from behind his back as he is walking down the stairway.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' He should sneak on him quietly while he is going the stairs and catch him from behind. Pretty easy, huh?\\
'''Instead:''' He just shouts his name out loud while he's not much far from him by the stairway. This results in Gerard nearly getting arrested by two police officers that Kimble say that he's a criminal, and losing him again.
* ''Film/FullMetalJacket'': Although R. Lee Ermey defined the DrillSergeantNasty trope with his character Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, the climax at the end of the first half of the film proves that he was a failure in the end. Take "Pvt. Pyle"'s suicide, where Joker finds him in the bathroom, holding his rifle, and has it fully loaded. His loud shrieking of the Marine Corps Prayer garners the attention of [=GySgt.=] Hartman.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That, upon discovering that the mentally shattered Pyle is holding a fully loaded rifle, Hartman would send Joker get a hold of some military police to come and defuse the situation, and in the meantime try to keep Pyle calm. As it is, he could quite easily shoot the two of them dead, after which he would be free to butcher the rest of the squad.\\
'''Instead:''' Hartman doesn't do that, and just calmly asks for the rifle. Pyle fails to comply and takes aim at Hartman... who taunts and speaks down to him ''more'', even when it's clear that the guy needs ''serious'' help. But after asking him, [[FamousLastWords "What is your major malfunction, numbnuts? Didn't mommy and daddy show you enough attention when you were a child?!"]], Hartman is shot dead by Pyle. Only the fact that Joker is the closest thing Pyle has to a friend stops him from going on a killing spree, and he instead takes his own life.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films G-L]]
* ''Film/TheGiver'':\\
'''You'd Expect''': That although no member of the Community can escape camera watch completely, Jonas would move out of direct camera range to kiss Fiona.\\
'''Instead''': He kisses her in full view of the camera, which incriminates him when the Chief Elder brings up all his activity for the past year.\\
'''You'd Expect''': The Chief Elder to choose anyone but Asher, Jonas' best friend, to [[spoiler: find him, and then "accidentally" have him eliminated.]]\\
'''Instead''': She sends Asher, who is not only a rookie drone pilot and probably couldn't be trusted with any job of that magnitude, but also [[spoiler: lets Jonas go.]]\\
'''You'd Expect''': Fiona to try to escape the Nurturing Center empty-handed. Her pursuers already know or can at least infer Jonas has Gabe, and escaping empty-handed would keep Fiona relatively safe.\\
'''Instead''': She grabs, and starts running with, an empty baby carrier. This is ostensibly to throw pursuers off the scent, but it doesn't work and just hastens [[spoiler: their decision to Release her.]]
* ''Film/GhostsOfMars'': Melanie Bernard... this becomes very obvious at the second half of the film:\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That when what's left of the crew and prisoners finally reach the train, they escape and deliver their prisoner Kincaid, which they were originally supposed to do, and inform their precinct of the danger so they can suit up and get reinforcements.\\
'''Instead:''' Melanie Bernard stops the train 30 seconds later so they can ''go back to kill off the possessed miners''. Even though they all know that if they die, the ghosts will simply find another body to possess and there's no guarantee that her plan to cause a nuclear explosion will work, they decide to go anyway. ''Everybody except Kincaid and Bernard dies.''
* ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'':
** [[spoiler: Zartan orders an attack on Roadblock and Duke's group in Pakistan. They succeed in wiping out the entire unit except for Roadblock, Lady Jaye, and Flint, who jump into a well as the missiles start coming down. Cobra foot soldiers then check the area to see if they missed anybody. They then come across the well ]].\\
'''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: One of the Cobra soldiers to throw a grenade down the well, just to be on the safe side, so that he can make sure that if there were people hiding in the well, that they wouldn't survive. Then they would have killed Roadblock, Flint, and Lady Jaye. Then the area will have been secure. And they wouldn't be able to stop Cobra's plot]].\\
'''Instead:''' [[spoiler: He tries shooting his assault rifle down the well and it doesn't prove effective, as it misses them by inches. Roadblock, Flint and Lady Jaye eventually get out of the well and eventually make it back to the States, and eventually foil Cobra's master plan]].
** [[spoiler: Snake Eyes is captured and taken to a secret underground prison which also houses Cobra Commander and Destro. Only it turns out "Snake Eyes" is Storm Shadow in disguise.]]\\
'''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: The prison director to inform his superiors that not only is Snake Eyes still at large, but a known Cobra agent has been captured. Then possibly, they'd proceed to interrogate Storm Shadow as to why he was running around as Snake Eyes. Or at the very least strip him.]]\\
'''Instead:''' [[spoiler: They merely shrug and throw Storm Shadow in the same torture rigs Cobra Commander and Destro are in. Only Storm Shadow was there to spring Cobra Commander. Cue StuffBlowingUp and SS and CC strolling away.]]
** In the end, Storm Shadow was revealed to be [[spoiler: framed by Zartan for the death of his and Snake Eyes's Master]], and they form a truce so they can [[spoiler: avenge him, and he dies at Storm Shadow's hands]].\\
'''You'd Think:''' The Joes would arrest him now that their truce is over, seeing as how he still killed innocent civilians and their comrades, and destroyed the Eiffel Tower, as seen in the [[Film/GIJoeTheRiseofCobra last movie]], and Storm Shadow himself stated that things would never change between them anyway.\\
'''Instead:''' They let him walk away, to inevitably murder more innocents in the future, making the Joes responsible for his future crimes, not to mention aiding and abetting a terrorist and murderer.
* In ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'', the One-Armed Bounty Hunter, who was wounded by the titular "Ugly" of the trio, decides to seek revenge on him for the loss of his right arm. When he finally gets to confront his enemy, seemingly helpless in his bathtub....\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The hunter to say only a few words before killing Tuco right there, [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim or just kill him without talking]].\\
'''Instead:''' He takes his sweet time to [[EvilGloating gloat about looking for Tuco for 8 months, and the time he spent learning to shoot with his left hand]]. The end result? [[TalkToTheFist Tuco shooting him at the very end of his talking]] with his own gun hidden in the soap foam. {{Lampshaded}} by Tuco with the line: "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
* In ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch,'' the Brain Gremlin finds some "Genetic Sunblock" in the lab, a substance that could rid his species of its greatest weakness for good.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' He'd inject himself with it immediately, and then line up as many Gremlins as possible to get the shot as well.\\
'''Instead:''' He only gives the injection to the Bat-Gremlin, who later gets himself killed.
* ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' has a couple:
** After Troy, the basketball captain and star player, blows off practice in favor of preparations for the school play, the coach (his own father) rags him out for it.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Coach Dad would say something like "It's great that you've got a girlfriend, and it's okay that you're exploring musical theater too. But you've already made a commitment to this team; you need to decide where your focus should be, and stick to it."\\
'''Instead:''' He starts off verbally attacking Gabriella, the one person who shoulders approximately ZERO PERCENT of the blame for Troy's missing practice. This puts Troy on the defensive.
** Later, Troy's teammates confront him over his lack of focus on the upcoming big game.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That Troy might apologize for his recent lack of focus, but then to tell them that he likes Gabby and he intends to try out for the school play, and that what he does on his own time is his own business.\\
'''Instead:''' He allows his teammates to pressure him into renouncing not only the school play, but Gabriella as well.
** Concurrent to the above: Taylor has on her laptop a live webcam feed from one of Troy's teammates; she shows this video to Gabriella, particularly the part where Troy dumps Gabby.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Gabby would, at the very least, be suspicious that Taylor should have access to this "CoincidentalBroadcast" and to suspect a setup.\\
'''Instead:''' She totally accepts Troy's words at face value, leading to their (temporary, but they don't know that) break-up.\\
'''You'd Also Expect:''' That Troy would notice his teammate setting up a webcam in plain sight five feet in front of him.\\
'''Instead:''' He totally FailedASpotCheck.\\
'''Result:''' The ThirdActMisunderstanding.
* In ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening'', [[BigBad General Katana of Zeist]] sends his two goons to kill Connor [=MacLeod=] on planet Earth. However, DumbassHasAPoint by saying that [=MacLeod=] was banished on Earth and from what we see can die of old age anytime.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' General Katana to agree with him and let [=MacLeod=] die of old age.\\
'''Instead:''' Katana slaps the guy and send him to Earth and, of couse, they die returning [=MacLeod=] to the immortal phase, thus remaking the gathering, thus obliging Katana to go himself and, of course getting himself killed.
* ''Film/TheHobbitAnUnexpectedJourney''
** During the battle of Moria, Thorin manages to cut off the hand of Azog, the Orc leader. Azog proceeds to clutch his wrist in pain for several seconds.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Thorin to take this opportunity to finish Azog off for good.\\
'''Instead:''' He just stands there, apparently assuming that Azog will later die from the wound. Azog escapes the battle, survives his injury, and comes back with a vengeance when Thorin tries to retake Erebor.
* ''Film/TheHobbitTheDesolationOfSmaug''
** Thorin's company has been captured and imprisoned by the elves of Mirkwood. Aware of their quest to reclaim Erebor, the Elven King Thranduil offers the dwarves a deal; he'll let them go in exchange for them giving him the White Gems of Lasgalen, which are believed to be lying in the mountain somewhere, should they succeed in their quest. Thorin is none too fond of Thranduil, due to the elven king refusing to help the dwarves following Smaug's takeover of Erebor.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Thorin would take this deal. Even if he's no fan of the elves, he would have to be aware that if he does accept, Thranduil must fulfill his part of the agreement first. Once Thorin and the company are safely out of Mirkwood, he can decide whether he'll keep his word or get back at Thranduil.\\
'''Instead:''' Thorin refuses and insults Thranduil, who decides to imprison the dwarves for a few decades and let them think about his offer. Bilbo subsequently has to break the dwarves free, members of the company nearly die in the escape attempt, and the dwarves ultimately end up outside of Mirkwood with no weapons, one of their number badly injured, and a horde of orcs hunting them down.
* ''Film/HotFuzz''
** Nicholas Angel is an extremely competent policeman, to the point that he makes everyone else in the Metropolitan Police [[InsistentTerminology Service]] look bad. The higher-ups want to sort this issue out.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Them to do something that would allow Angel to continue to aid the service, without him hogging all the spotlight. Such as putting him in charge of training up new recruits, so that the service can hopefully have more policemen officers like him, and become better at its job as a result.\\
'''Instead:''' They reassign him to Sandford, Gloucestershire. While Angel does manage to stop a series of murders there, crime in London sharply rises as a result of his absence. By the time the higher-ups realise they need him back, he likes the village too much to leave.
** Nick while in the town witnesses murders that are labeled as "accidents". Although there is plausible deniability for most of the deaths, his instinct tells him that each one is a murder. [[spoiler:He finally gets proof when one of them tries to murder him.]] Nick barely wins, and gets a lead on who's behind each death.\\
'''You'd Expect''': He would either go with backup, if not from the fellow officers that see him as incompetent then from his contacts out of town. Or he wouldn't reveal himself to [[spoiler:who he thinks is a group of killers.]]\\
'''Instead''': Nick upon arriving at the [[spoiler:NWA meeting reveals himself, to confront the murderers. Then he realizes that they include his boss and all the village leaders, who all have a violent streak and can't be reasoned with because their motives are petty. If not for Danny faking Nick's death, he would have been killed as well, and dumped in the town catacombs.]]\\
'''Fortunately''': Nicholas learns from this and in the climax makes sure to [[spoiler:arm himself to the teeth]].
* ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjayPart1'':
** Katniss has been recruited for PR purposes, being the face of the rebellion and a symbol for others to rally behind.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Every effort would be made to keep her safe. After all, her death would basically crush the rebellion.\\
'''Instead:''' During the bombing run by the Capital, Katniss is left to her own devices and is almost trampled on her way to the bomb shelter, then nearly gets locked out when she has to go back for Prim.
** As part of her PR job, Katniss is sent to a hospital in District 8 to mingle. Snow gets wind of this.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Since he wants Katniss dead, he would send ground troops to take her out.\\
'''Instead:''' Per his earlier edict that any association with the Mockingjay is a death sentence, he has the entire hospital bombed. Not only does this fail to kill Katniss, since she's left by then and they are warned of the bombing, but only gives her good PR and makes District 8 that much more willing to revolt. Indeed, this entire incident is basically the straw that broke the camel's back. For a Capital that understands that "Bread and Circuses" is the best way to placate the masses, killing a bunch of perceived innocents had no positive outcome whatsoever.
** During the attack on the dam in District 5, the attackers are clearly trying to drag large, heavy crates inside.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The Peacekeepers would lock the doors. Every second they spend bashing those things open is a second more of them spend dying.\\
'''Instead:''' The doors are left open and the attacks Zerg their way inside, blowing up the dam. Especially made facepalm-worthy by showing the Peacekeepers could have stayed safely on top of the dam and fire downwards without risk.
** During the operation to rescue Peeta and the other hostage Tributes, Katniss tries to goad Snow into talking with her so their jamming signal will keep going through the broadcast.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Since this entire operation is actually a gambit by Snow [[spoiler:to have a brainwashed Peeta kill Katniss]], he would make every effort to make it look like it went off without a hitch. The only reason Katniss even tries this tactic is because the Capital is blocking the original transmission.\\
'''Instead:''' Snow takes the bait to indulge in some EvilGloating, practically spelling out his entire plan and actively admitting that he knows about the rescue team. Which leads into...
** Snow has just admitted that [[spoiler:rescuing Peeta]] is a trap with a hint so blatantly transparent that a 10-year-old would probably take the hint. Hell, even the rescue team admits they only escaped because they were allowed to.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' ''They take the hint.''\\
'''Instead:''' No precautions are taken and [[spoiler:Katniss gets brutally beaten by Peeta]].
* ''Film/IAccuseMyParents'': The mob boss villain learns that TheHero Jimmy, who works (discreetly) for him, is also dating his gun moll. He goes to the moll a step ahead of Jimmy and orders her, on pain of death, to break up with Jimmy, then hides in the next room to make sure she does it.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That when Jimmy arrives, she'd go through her improvised break-up speech but, whilst doing so, would grab a pen and paper (which were often to be found near a telephone in the days before answering machines) and quietly write a note along the lines of PLAY ALONG BLAKE IS BEHIND THE DOOR HE WILL KILL US PLAY ALONG.\\
'''Instead:''' She goes through her improvised break-up speech with Jimmy but makes no move to alert him to what's really going on, allowing him to take her completely at her word.\\
'''Result:''' The film enters its DarkestHour period.
* ''Film/IndependenceDay''
** David Levinson, a computer genius, has worked out that the aliens have a countdown. He calls his ex-wfe Connie, the President's Communications Director, to alert the government.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Connie, knowing her ex-husband, would at least listen to what he has to say (he has made a big effort to call her) and tell someone about it.\\
'''Instead:''' She hangs up on him, causing David and his father to drive all the way to Washington DC to warn her. The President could have ordered the evacuation of the cities earlier had he known.
** Jasmine Dubrow's house, outside Los Angeles, is a safe distance away from the alien spaceship over the city (she can see it in the distance from her house).\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Jasmine and her young son Dylan to stay at home, far away from the aliens.\\
'''Instead:''' She drives into the city, with Dylan and the dog Boomer, to "pick up [her] paycheck". Then she ends up ''working''. Finally, she ends up stuck in traffic fleeing the city and is almost killed when the aliens attack.
** Dr Okun and his team are performing an autopsy on a captured alien.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That the room would be heavily secured, the alien would be severely restrained, and at the very least the alien would be given some anesthetic to ensure that it remains sedated.\\
'''Instead:''' None of these things happen. The alien wakes up, breaks free from its flimsy restraints, and kills everyone in the room.
* ''Franchise/IndianaJones''
** In ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', when Indy tries to get on the wing of the Nazi airplane, a big, bald, burly German mechanic comes out to attack Indy.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Indy to [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim simply shoot the mechanic with his revolver]] and then take care of the pilot of the plane.\\
'''Instead:''' He engages the mechanic in a fist fight, and nearly gets beaten by him. The plane's propeller is what ends up killing the mechanic.
** In its next film (which is a prequel, as it was set in 1935, while ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' was set in 1936), ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', Chinese gangster Lao Che has just tried to have Indy killed. Indy escapes with companions Willie Scott and Short Round, but they end up getting on a plane belonging to Lao Che's company. Lao Che orders the pilots to kill the three of them. As the plane's flying above the Himalayas, the pilots decide to do the deed.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' They'd just off the three of them there (by maybe slitting their throats while they're asleep or shooting in the back), and then throw them out of the plane.\\
'''Instead:''' They just parachute out of the plane, leaving it to crash with the good guys inside. Not only does this give Indy time to come up with an escape plan, but it's a waste of a perfectly good vehicle.
** Later on in ''Temple Of Doom'', Indy is cornered on a rope bridge, with Thuggees guarding both ends of it. He threatens to drop the [[MacGuffin Sankhara Stones]] from the bridge into the crocodile-infested waters below, but the Thuggee leader, Mola Ram just laughs and tells him that the Thuggees would eventually find them again, and would have no reason to keep Indy or his friends alive if he threw the stones away.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The Thuggees to wait until Indy passes out from either thirst or hunger (granted, this might not have actually worked since Blumburtt and his troops were on the way, but Mola Ram wouldn't have known that). Alternatively, since Mola Ram is holding Willie and Short Round hostage, he could threaten to kill them unless Indy hands the stones over, and actually carry out the threat on one of them if Indy accuses him of bluffing.\\
'''Instead:''' Mola Ram and most of the Thuggees walk out onto the bridge themselves, making it easy for Indy to take them out by cutting down the bridge's supports. Granted, they had the sense to send Willie and Short Round with them, to prevent Indy doing what he does, but they failed to spot them preparing for when Indy cuts the supports.
** Similarly, in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', the BigBad of the film, Walter Donovan, makes it to the Grail Chamber, where the true grail and many false grails reside. The immortal knight warns him, "You must choose, but choose wisely, for as the true grail will bring you life, the false grail will take it from you." Donovan definitely seems to take the warning seriously.\\
'''You'd Think:''' Donovan would do one of the following: \\
A.) Ask for more volunteers, like he did at the first booby-trap, and waiting until one of them survives, thus proving the true grail.\\
B.) Alternatively, he's a ''Nazi'' after all, and the knight he's talking to is immortal, so why not just torture the knight indefinitely until he coughs up the secret? (Unless the grail also makes one immune to pain, of course).\\
C.) And if it turns out you must continually use the cup over and over to remain immortal, well, just look for the one with the least amount of dust on it.\\
'''Instead:''' Elsa offers to choose for him, subtly hinting to the audience that she's deliberately choosing the wrong one, and Donovan just decides that it must be the real grail. With [[BodyHorror graphic consequences]].
** Speaking of the grail, after Indy chooses the right one, the knight warns him and Elsa not to take it beyond the seal at the entrance.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For them to listen to him and not take the grail past the seal.\\
'''Instead:''' Elsa decides to...well, take a guess. The ensuing earthquake sends her falling to her doom.
* ''Film/InfernalAffairs'' and ''Film/TheDeparted'', where Yan/Costigan approaches Ming/Sullivan about reinstating his identity after Sam/Costello is dead. When Ming/Sullivan leaves the room, Yan/Costigan notices an envelope with his handwriting on it, realizing Ming/Sullivan is the mole.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Yan/Costigan would, after years of deep undercover work, have a really good poker face, conclude his business with Ming/Sullivan and then quietly inform the other policemen that he's the mole.\\
'''Instead:''' Yan/Costigan immediately runs out like a madman with the envelope in plain view, revealing his hand to Ming/Sullivan who then promptly erases Yan/Costigan's identity from the police database. This leads to a series of events where Yan/Costigan is eventually shot in the face.
* ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'': Shosanna has just shot [[spoiler: Zoller]] a few times, only for him to stir shortly afterwards.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' She would go ahead and finish the damn job.\\
'''Instead:''' She shows something approaching regret and tries to go to his side. End result, she gets filled with lead from the victim's sidearm.
* ''Film/IpMan'':
** BigBad [[NobleDemon General Miura]] has set up a fight club within the occupied Foshan in which Chinese martial artists can fight his military trainees to win bags of rice. At one point, Miura decides to fight three Chinese at once, and as an added bonus, he offers to give his opponents the rice just for participating. The fight begins, and Miura proceeds to [[CurbStompBattle own]] the three Chinese fighters, to the point that two of them give up within seconds.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Lin, the last of the Chinese fighters, to realise he's outmatched and give up as well. If he's not going to do so immediately after the other two, he could at least do so after trying to fight Miura on his own.\\
'''Instead:''' He keeps fighting, and gets killed.
** Later on, Ip has just destroyed ten Japanese black belts at the fight club, and is rewarded with many bags of rice.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Ip to take the rice and use it to feed his family and other people, having made his point and avenged [[spoiler: Master Liu]]'s death.\\
'''Instead:''' He just rejects the rice, saying that it wasn't the reason he came to the fight club.
* In ''Film/ItsPat'', Kyle is obsessed with knowing what [[AmbiguousGender gender]] Pat is, to the point of stealing computer diary and figuring out the password, only to find nothing on Pat's gender. Eventually, a desperate Kyle confronts Pat, revealing he has the diary but has not learned the one thing he wants to know, and Pat, believing Pat put everything in the diary, wonders what else there is to know.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' With how obsessive he is and how much trouble he's gone through to find out, he'd just flat-out ask Pat what gender Pat is.\\
'''Instead:''' Kyle just tells Pat to take off Pat's clothes. Pat just sees him as a pervert and runs.
* In ''Film/{{Jaws}}'', [[MayorPain Mayor Larry Vaughn]] has a shark roaming his town's beaches around the Fourth of July. A band of shark-hunters kills a shark, Larry declares it mission accomplished. Chief Brody isn't convinced that it's ''the'' killer shark.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Larry would take Brody's concerns seriously and regulate, if not close, the beaches.\\
'''Instead''': Larry ignores Brody and lets the beaches remain open for the Fourth of July. It's only when the shark kills another man does Larry take Brody seriously.
** In the unpopular sequel, Film/Jaws3D, Martin's son Michael is now working at SEa World, and he and his girlfriend Kathy have discovered a an overgrown baby great white shark that swam in through the dysfunctional gate connecting to the park to ocean and has supposedly killed a technician who was trying to fix it the previous night. Katherine suggests they capture the shark and put it on display as "the first great white alive in captivity", guaranteeing a boatload (pun intended) of cash and notirety for the park. They succeed in doing so, but first must nurse it back to health, which will take a decent time.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Calvin, the manager of the park, to be patient and wait for the shark to recover remembering that good things come to those who wait.\\
'''Instead:''' He loses patience with waiting after a ''single day'', and orders the baby shark moved to an exhibit without Katherine's approval to do so. The tank the baby shark is placed into is apparently incapable of supporting Great White sharks, and the baby dies almost immediately along with the good fortune that he would have brought to the park if Calvin had been a little more patient or talked to Katherine first. Making matter worse, the baby's 35 foot mother isn't too happy with what has happened to her baby...
* In ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', the band Russel writes for is down a member and they promised an all-black group.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Russel to try to convince the club to let a white guy sing.\\
'''Instead:''' He sings in blackface, predictably leading to a fight when this secret is found out.
* In Film/JohnWick, mafiya member Iosef Tarasov takes a fancy to the title character's [[CoolCar Ford Mustang Mach 1]] and tries to buy it from him, but John - a recently retired hitman - refuses to sell.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Iosef to just find out the model of the car and buy one of his own.\\
'''Instead:''' Iosef steals the car from John, and kills his beloved pet dog in the process. This causes John to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Iosef.
* In ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'', the protagonist Alan Parrish has just gotten the shit beaten out of him from some bullies because his father refused to drive him home, insisting he instead fend for himself, unaware that he is outnumbered five to one. Upon hearing this news, while guilty about what happened, he is impressed that his son attempted to take them on like a man, and decides along with his wife that he is ready to go to an elite boarding school that all males in his family attend. Alan however is ''not'' into the idea.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Alan to just calmly tell his parents that he's just not interested in going. Even if they initially refuse to relent, going about it politely would more likely guarantee them to possibly reconsider.\\
'''Instead:''' Alan is completely rude and snappy about it, even stating that he's not interested in being a success like his father...or even a Parrish. This ends up with his father telling him he's going on Sunday whether he likes it or not, and that's the end of it and Alan telling him that he's never speaking to him again and plans to run away. But that supernatural board game he found in a construction site and brought home has ''other'' plans for him.
* ''Film/{{Jumper}}'': The main character's a freaking moron. After living it up with his teleportation ability, he encounters a guy who knows what he is and has been following him since a locked-door bank robbery he pulled years ago.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' After escaping, he'd flee far far away. Hide. Keep a low profile. Anything but...\\
'''Instead:''' He returns to his hometown, immediately visits his father, then looks up an old flame. And then picks a fight with a guy who has a vendetta against him, teleports him to '''THE VAULT FROM THE SAME BANK ROBBERY THAT TIPPED OFF THE BIG BAD IN THE FIRST PLACE''' and leaves him there. And then is angry when he squeals.
* In ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'', Guy becomes King of Jerusalem, and decides to get rid of all of the Muslims in the holy land alongside his ally, Raynald of Châtillon.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That if Guy and Raynald insist on going to war with Saladin, they would at least do so competently.\\
'''Instead:''' They have most of Jerusalem's army march through a hot desert, which severly weakens it. As a result, Saladin wipes them all out, kills Raynald [[spoiler:and later takes Jerusalem]].
* ''Film/KingKong2005'': Carl Denham has brought Kong back to New York City to put on display and make tons of money.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Denham to remember what all Kong can do and restrain or enclose him properly, and/or keep him properly sedated.\\
'''Instead''': Denham puts Kong on a Broadway stage in Times Square, of all places, with just a few steel restraints. Kong is annoyed by the song and dance routine, and is enraged by the fake Ann Darrow used in the act. He promptly escapes and rampages. People are injured and killed, and much property is damaged. And Kong dies. And Denham's name is attached to the whole fiasco.
* ''Film/TheLawnmowerMan'' features a ''triple''-whammy of idiocy from all three protagonists during the finale:
** Dr. Angelo finds out that his test subject, Jobe has successfully transformed himself into a being of pure energy and uploaded his mind into the main computer at Angelo's former employers, VSI. Fortunately, Angelo has brought enough C4 to level the building.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Angelo to set the timer for the bare minimum time for him required to haul ass out of there. Alternatively, since he's apparently willing to go out in a HeroicSacrifice, just bypass the timer and manually detonate the charge; he'll die immediately, but so will Jobe.\\
'''Instead''': He sets the timer for ''fifteen minutes'', then enters the virtual reality world inside the mainframe in order to trash-talk Jobe. Jobe's response is to MindRape Angelo, which lets him know about the bombs, in turn causing him to speed up his efforts to transfer out of the mainframe, which he eventually does successfully. The only thing saving Angelo from being guilty from one of the biggest cases of NiceJobBreakingItHero in the history of '''any''' film was that ''Film/LawnmowerMan2BeyondCyberspace'' completely ignored the first film's ending.
** As this is going on, Angelo's friend Carla Parkette and her son Peter are waiting in a car outside, with Angelo having warned them to be ready to escape in case anything bad happens.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Carla to stay alert and remember that they're dealing with a man who has demonstrated both severe emotional instability and the ability to disintegrate people from a distance.\\
'''Instead''': She decides that now would be the perfect time to catch a nap and falls asleep.
** With his mother snoozing away, Peter desperately wants to do something to help Jobe, who he was friends with before meeting Angelo and undergoing his treatments.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Peter to realize that he's out of his league, that Jobe is dangerous and unpredictable, and that Peter doesn't know the layout of the VSI building. Ultimately, there's nothing he can do but hope Angelo can deal with Jobe.\\
'''Instead''': Peter runs into the building and immediately gets lost. It's only the fact that Jobe has a PetTheDog moment that prevents Peter from being blown to shreds with the rest of the building.
* In ''Film/TheLastAirbender'':
** Sokka (who has supposedly spent his entire life on ice) sees a shape in the water underneath the ice.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Sokka to realize that if the ice is so thin that he can see the water it is too dangerous to even consider breaking it on his own, and to return to the village for help or at least to try to break after he's moved off that ice. At the very least you would expect him to realize that it's dangerous to have Katara on the same patch of ice and to send her a safe distance away.\\
'''Instead''': He decides to break the ice (which is so thin that he can see the water) near ''his own feet'' and for some reason is surprised when he and his sister (who had no reason to be there) nearly fall into the freezing water.
** Later on, the Northern Water Tribe learns that the Fire Nation is about to launch a massive attack. Note that all but the most powerful firebenders are helpless if there is no nearby fire to bend. Logically, the order is given to douse every fire in the city that they can.\\
'''You'd Expect''': The order to be carried out quickly and with minimal fuss.\\
'''Instead''': When the Fire Nation attacks we can clearly see that there are ''at least'' dozens of torches clearly lit with no apparent need for them to be lit. Worse, no apparent effort is ever made to put them or any of the Fire Nation's flaming boulders out! You'd think people able to control water would be good at putting out fires.
** Heck this applies to countering Firebenders in general considering that they require a living source of fire such as a torch to Firebend.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That they simply ''not'' put any torches whatsoever and if they bring out a torch to Firebend? Just put them out with any bending with any means necessary.\\
'''Instead:''' They have torches all over the place for no reason other than decoration where the Firebenders can easily exploit. No wonder they ended up losing against them. It's because they are completely oblivious to the fact that their torches are used against them.
** What really takes the cake is the scene with the Fire Nation prison camp holding the Earthbenders.\\
'''You'd Expect''': The Fire Nation to lock their captured earthbenders - [[DishingOutDirt people who can freely manipulate earth]] - up [[TailorMadePrison somewhere with little earth nearby]]. Such as, say, a metal ship in the middle of the ocean (which is what they did in [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender the original show]]).\\
'''Instead''': The earthbenders are imprisoned in some sort of natural valley that's entirely [[LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard made up of earth]]. The only reason the place works as a prison is due to the Earthbenders having their own idiot moment.\\
'''You'd Expect''': The earthbenders to escape as soon as they were "imprisoned". It would've required minimal effort.\\
'''Instead''': The earthbenders stay imprisoned for months (maybe longer, it's never made clear) until the MightyWhitey heroes come along and give them the most generic and lazy motivational speech in the world.
* In the [[Film/LesMiserables2012 2012 film adaptation of Les Miserables]], Fantine has received a letter from the innkeepers taking care of her daughter born out of wedlock, requesting money to pay for her care. This is during a time when people who had illegitimate children were not looked upon well by the rest of society.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Fantine to keep the letter hidden and out of sight, or even just destroy it once she knows what it says.\\
'''Instead:''' She takes it with her to work, and doesn't make any attempt to keep it hidden when her shift's over. As a result, the letter is discovered but it only says her child is being cared for by another woman. Fantine's boss confronts her about it.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' She'd claim her husband died and she's a widow, to appeal to his sympathy, rather than tell him the truth that her husband ran out and thus have to fight against his prejudices.\\
'''Instead:''' She tells him her husband left her and begs to keep her job. Her boss think she's a liar and a whore, and thus fires her. [[FromBadToWorse It only goes downhill from there]].
* In the 2005 film of ''Film/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', Peter, Susan, and Lucy are trying to cross a river and being menaced by the Witch's {{Dragon}}, a big wolf named Maugrim.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Susan to listen to the Beavers, who have been guiding them at risk of their own lives, and try to get herself and Lucy across the fracturing ice while encouraging Peter, who is trying to fend Maugrim off with the sword he just got.\\
'''Instead:''' She actually takes Maugrim's side and says Peter should listen to him and drop the sword... which was one of the weapons Father Christmas gave to all three of them, including herself. Side with the menacing wolf and arguing on melting ice. It's particularly absurd because ''she'' was the one who pointed out earlier in the film that they couldn't go to the Narnian police for help because of the "ransack this house" order that had been ''signed by Maugrim''.
* ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors''
** On Skid Row, Seymour Krelborne finds a "strange and interesting plant" that brings customers to the flower shop where he and his crush work. It keeps growing and wilting, which makes him fret. He finds out by accident that the plant, that he names Audrey II, wants to drink his blood.\\
'''You'd Expect''': That Seymour wouldn't give his blood to the plant the minute it tries to bite him. In the musical he seems to think it's a one-time deal, but in the movie not so much. You'd also expect that he would experiment with other types of blood and meat, so that he doesn't have to cut his fingers every time little Audrey II gets hungry.\\
'''Instead''': Seymour doesn't. He keeps feeding Audrey II his own blood, without attempting substitutes while the little flytrap grows. When the plant starts talking, "Twoey" insists that he needs fresh blood, from humans and persuades Seymour to murder the dentist Orin Scrivello. Things get FromBadToWorse from there.
** This only applies to the Director's Cut of the film. Towards the end, Twoey is getting too big for Seymour to feed. Seymour, wracked with guilt about [[spoiler:allowing Twoey to murder his boss and father figure Mushnik, decides he needs to run away with ''his'' Audrey and let the plant starve. Twoey gets wise of this plan and lures Audrey to the shop, to swallow her and drink her blood. Seymour gets her out of Twoey's mouth but finds that Audrey has lost a lot of blood and she is dying. Audrey as a last request tells Seymour to feed her to the plant so that he can have all the promised riches and fame.]]\\
'''You'd Expect''': That Seymour wouldn't, and would instead [[spoiler:call an ambulance, to save his fiancee. He has the money for it, and he knows that Twoey is stronger with every drop of blood drunk.]] \\
'''Instead''': [[spoiler:Seymour feeds Audrey to Twoey and prepares to kill himself in turn. Then when he decides to stop the plant on realizing that Twoey's plan is to spread across America, the plant reveals it can break out of its pot, move around, and succeeds in murdering Seymour. Then Twoey's descendants spread across the States and cause a plant apocalypse]]. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice going, Seymour.]]
* In ''Film/{{Looper}}'', the Loopers have their contracts closed by being sent back in time to be killed by themselves. But, as one might expect, this doesn't always go as planned. Not wanting to die, the old version bolts, and the young version is then hunted to be tortured so as to affect the older version and bring them back to die.\\
'''You'd expect:''' The older version to make every effort to get their past selves on board with the idea. After all, the fate they suffer is far and away ''worse'' than what their older self will face.\\
'''Instead:''' The older self inevitably ditches the young one, expecting them to take care of themselves. The first time this happens, the young one is caught and mutilated until the older one surrenders. The second time, with the protagonist Joe, he's dead set on closing the contract. To his credit, at least Old!Joe ''tried'' to talk down his younger self ''after his younger self was nearly caught''.
* In the ''Film/LostInSpace'' movie, the hotshot pilot feels the best course of action was to activate the self-destruct mechanism in order to destroy the alien-infested ship.\\
'''You'd expect:''' He'd get clear of the blast radius first.\\
'''Instead''' he sets off the destruction of the ship while they're right next to it, and rather than [[AcrophobicBird fly up and away]] from the exploding ship, he travels ''along'' it. This cripples the ship and leaves them stranded on a planet. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job Joey]]. To add insult to injury, he self-righteously justifies it to the father despite the screw up being his fault.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films M-R]]
* In ''Film/{{Mannequin}}'', Johnathan enters the back room of the rival department store and sees his beloved Emmy in a pile of other mannequins on a conveyor belt, about to be fed into a huge shredding machine.\\
'''You'd Think:''' Jonathan would run over to the bright yellow control console, slap that big red EMERGENCY STOP button, and then calmly walk up to retrieve Emmy without having to worry about either of them getting ground into bits.\\
'''Instead:''' He runs up the conveyor without turning off the machine. Sure, after seeing Emmy come to life, the janitor ''hits the aforementioned button Jonathan should have hit in the first place'' and we have a happy ending, but damned if it wasn't a really close call.\\
'''You'd Also Think:''' The janitor would hit the stop button the instant Jonathan jumped onto the conveyor, if for no other reason than to avoid the liability and/or termination of his employment that would follow if something tragic happened.\\
'''Instead:''' He doesn't do jack until ''after'' he sees Emmy come to life. "Okay, let me get this straight Mister Janitor; you couldn't give a crap if some dude gets himself killed in a rather gruesome and messy manner right in front of you, but you will hit the emergency button if a hot chick is in danger? [[SarcasmMode Nice,]] ''[[MenAreTheExpendableGender real]]'' [[UnfortunateImplications nice]]."
* ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'': Mike, his young wife Margaret, and his daughter are lost in the middle of nowhere. They happen upon a creepy lodge and its creepy caretaker Torgo, who tells them about a creepy "Master," and intermittently begs them to leave. Margaret doesn't like the looks of things, and asks Mike to leave.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Mike to be a rational human being and get out of there. This "Master" fellow obviously isn't nice, and there's clearly something wrong with Torgo.\\
'''Instead:''' "Well, how about it, Torgo? Can we spend the night here?" Things get worse for everyone, including the audience.
* ''Film/TheMask'' has Dorian Tyrell, the antagonist, being ordered to meet his boss, Niko. By that time, he has plans on turning against him.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Suspecting it's a trap, he should come with two men to accompany him in case Niko is pulling some shit on him.\\
'''Instead''': He comes alone to the meeting. Niko's men put him down with a gun on his head and golf tee on his mouth while Niko himself strikes a golf ball that is on his mouth. Tyrell's bloody lucky that he's just ordered to leave Edge City.
* ''Film/MaxPayne'':
** The title character interrogating Jason Colvin about his wife's death roughly. While doing so, his secretary, Jackie, is knocking on his door.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Max forces Colvin to tell her that everything is okay.\\
'''Instead''': He continues to interrogate him roughly, giving Jackie the chance to call Aesir police.
** Another one when Max blocks the door leading to the storage room while in pursue.\\
'''You'd Expect''': The Aesir police will have to use the bottom floor to get to the other side.\\
'''Instead''': They just blew up the door, giving Max the chance to escape with the smoke. [[AwesomeMoments Good thing Bravura calls them out for that]].
** Also, early on, Mona's sister, Natasha is planning on having sex with Max. Not wanting this, he orders her to leave.\\
'''You'd Expect''': He should frisk her to make sure she hasn't taken anything from him.\\
'''Instead''': He just allow her to leave without having checked out anything from her. It turns out she has stolen his wallet, and it's found on the crime scene. This is how Mona briefly thinks Max killed her before they worked together in finding the real murderer.
* In ''Film/{{The Maze Runner|2014}}'', Thomas has just been dumped in the glade and is greeted by its inhabitants.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' This being a song and dance all these characters are well acquainted with, Thomas would be sat down (by force if necessary), then told in detail the exact conditions of his new life. It is in their absolute best interests to make sure every new person that pops up becomes a contributing member of their society after all.\\
'''Instead:''' The characters only give the barest of explanations as to what's going on, pointedly refusing to even ''mention'' the maze, and then they act like it's his fault when he gets curious about it. The only reason they behave this way is because the alternative would have been a clunky exposition dump.
* In Film/MeanGirls, Cady has a crush on Regina's ex boyfriend, Aaron, and she is scared to talk to him. She realizes that he is good at math, so Cady thinks of exploiting this by pretending to be bad at math.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For Cady to realize that by purposely failing her class, she will risk ruining her grade point averae and getting in trouble with her parents.\\
'''Or:''' For her to simply have study sessions, rather than tutoring sessions, with Aaron since they are both equally good at math.\\
'''Instead:''' She pretends to be bad at math and purposely gets bad grades in her math class. It's not until she confesses this to Aaron at her party and getting condemned by Aaron does she realize how idiotic her actions really were.
* In ''Film/MeetTheParents'', Mr Jinx, the pet cat of the Byrnes family escapes one day, and family patriarch Jack has the entire household search for him. While checking around at the local animal shelters, Greg - the boyfriend of Jack's daughter Pam - discovers another cat that looks very similar to Mr Jinx, and it occurs to him that if he were to pass the cat off as Mr Jinx, Jack would be overjoyed with him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Greg to perhaps think about it and then leave it at that. There's no guarantee he'll be able to keep the ruse up for a long period of time, and he's already on thin ice with Jack and the rest of the Byrnes family as it is.\\
'''Instead:''' Greg goes ahead with it. The real Mr Jinx is found that same evening, and to make matters worse, Greg's cat destroys the Byrnes's living room while they're out. The result is that Pam and Diana - Jack's wife and Pam's mother - the only members of the family who had his back at that point turn against him, and Greg is ultimately kicked out of the Byrnes home.
* ''Film/MeganIsMissing'':
** Megan meets a random guy named Josh on a chat room. She doesn't know what he looks like; when asked about his web-cam, he claims the dog ate it. Megan quickly likes him; Josh convinces Megan to meet each other in person.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For Megan to have reservations about it. Or simply not go.\\
'''Instead:''' She heads off to meet "Josh" and is kidnapped.
** Later: With Megan still missing, her friend Amy goes to her favorite spot, a bridge, to record her video diary.\\
'''You'd Expect:''': For Amy to make sure she's not being watched by suspicious characters.\\
'''Instead:''' [[FailedASpotCheck She ignores her surroundings and]] [[spoiler: is also kidnapped by "Josh."]] [[DownerEnding The End.]]
* ''Film/MinorityReport'':
** Anderton is racing to prevent a murder. He is armed with foreknowledge imagery of the crime, but it stymied when confronted with a row of identical houses.\\
'''You'd expect''': He would turn out a siren, loudspeaker, or simply shout out that the police were outside of the building.\\
'''Instead''': He takes several seconds to figure the one detail that was different about the correct house, then quietly races into the building to surprise the murderer.
** Far more importantly, when that same future-viewing device shows him and several coworkers that he will commit a murder himself, along with a heaping helping of details including the exact time, he runs. We'll grant him that, since the machine saying you will commit a murder is by itself enough to get you arrested and indefinitely cryogenically frozen with apparently no trial. However, what he does next is totally nonsensical.\\
'''You'd expect''': He would stay the hell away from wherever the murder was supposed to take place, and continue staying away until twenty minutes before it was supposed to happen, then take a taxi over to headquarters and show up three minutes before he's supposed to kill someone in a completely different location and say "Look, I'm here, not killing anyone, and you don't have to arrest me for killing someone. Therefore I'm not guilty." Or some variation of the above, the main part being that he avoids doing it and uses the fact that he didn't do it as evidence that he isn't a murderer.\\
'''Instead''': Convinced this was a plot to frame him, he follows the vision as precisely as possible to find out who's responsible, committing many illegal acts. When at the end of the time limit he realizes he is standing outside the very building his future victim is in, he charges in and confronts the guy, who turns out to just be a very bribed man who then ''uses'' Anderton to commit SuicideByCop. That's right, in trying to prove his innocence he knowingly charges right into the scene of the crime, and nearly commits it. Clearly, he never heard about SelfFulfillingProphecies. While he does in fact avert the prophecy by not murdering the man, said man grabs the gun and Anderton fires reflexively, meaning ultimately the difference is so insignificant that he's still on the hook for murder.
** JustForFun/{{Egregious}} security errors on the part of the headquarters. Access is controlled via retinal scan.\\
'''You'd expect''': Once Anderton goes on the lam, they would lock out his retinal scan. Once he's captured and put into lockdown, they'd doubly make sure to lock out his retinal scan, especially since he switched out his eyes and had demonstrably used the originals to subvert their security once already.\\
'''Instead''': Anderton manages to breach the security of the Temple, using his retinal scan, and steals one of the Pre-cogs. After he's arrested and detained, his wife uses his eye AGAIN to gain access to the jail.
* ''Film/MidnightInParis''
** Owen Wilson's character wants to give the woman he's in love with a pair of earrings.\\
'''You'd Expect''': He has money, and he's in Paris. There are literally hundreds of jewelry stores he could go to.\\
'''Instead''': He tries to steal a pair of his fiancee's earrings, almost gets caught doing it by her and her parents, and some completely innocent hotel maid nearly gets arrested.
* In ''Film/MikeBassettEnglandManager'', the title character's habit writing his squad list on the back of a box of Benson and Hedges cigarettes ends up resulting in his secretary unwittingly adding two lower-league footballers, the 47-year-old Ron Benson and the grossly overweight Tony Hedges to the squad list circulated to the press (for argument's sake, we'll say that said secretary made this mistake because she was so rushed off her feet dealing with Bassett's general incompetence).\\
'''You'd Expect''': That in the ensuing press conference, Bassett would blame this on a prankster and clarify that Benson and Hedges aren't actually part of the squad.\\
'''Instead''': He claims that IMeantToDoThat, and that age, weight and the division one plays in shouldn't be an obstacle to being selected for England. The assembled press don't buy this for a minute, and mockingly suggest that Bassett might want to pick Lambert and Butler, or Peter Stuyvesant for the next match. And ''then'' Bassett actually names Benson and Hedges as substitutes for the match, wasting two of the five substitute slots that teams had for World Cup qualifying games back in those days.
* ''Film/MissionImpossible'' Film series:
** In the first movie, Kittridge believes that someone on Ethan's team has been leaking information to their enemies. At the end of a staged mission, it appears that Ethan is the only one left alive.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Kittridge to wait until they've actually confirmed that everyone on his team is really dead before deciding who they think is guilty. Also, even if they're sure of his guilt you'd think that they would wait until they have him at gunpoint before making their suspicions known.\\
'''Instead''': Kittridge instantly assumes it's Ethan and tells him to his face while sitting only a few feet away from him across a table, with none of his backup team close enough to restrain Ethan if he tries to hurt Kittridge or take him hostage. While dealing with a man that they believe was responsible for the brutal murders of his own team.
** In the fourth movie, ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'', When Ethan infiltrated the Kremlin to try to get info on someone codenamed "Cobalt", he couldn't find the info. Just then, the guy codenamed "Cobalt", Kurt Hendricks, breaks into the executive armory room, kills a guard by breaking his neck, steals the nuclear "football" briefcase, and hacks into Ethan's team's radio frequency. Ethan then aborts the mission and as he tries to leave the Kremlin he comes across Hendricks.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Ethan to notice the briefcase that Hendricks (Cobalt) was holding (though he didn't know that he was Cobalt, but still, he ''was'' carrying a ''suspicious'' briefcase) or even the opened door to the executive armory where he got the nuclear football case and maybe turn around after passing him and stop him, and thus averting the explosion of the Kremlin.\\
'''Instead:''' He just passes him, and ''doesn't'' even notice the opened door to the armory, and ends up not being able to stop Hendricks because he then sets off the explosion, knocking Ethan out, and framing the United States and the IMF (Impossible Mission Force), causing the President of the U.S.A. to disavow IMF by initiating Ghost Protocol.
* ''Film/{{Monsters|2010}}'':
** [[spoiler:Andrew's]] admittedly drunken decision to sleep with a random woman simply because [[spoiler:Samantha shot him down]] isn't so bad considering he's single. [[spoiler:She probably only rejected him]] due to fact he was so drunk or maybe conflicted over being [[spoiler:still technically engaged]]. But the true error of judgement comes the morning after when [[spoiler:his fling ends up stealing Samantha's passport and Andrew's cash. Leaving your valuables unattended with your room door wide open is a bad idea in general. ''Moreso'' with a stranger still in your bed]].
** Sam, too, for leaving her passport with Andrew who she technically didn't have to see again before getting on the ferry, alongside the fact that she stormed off in a huff while leaving said passport behind.
* ''Film/MortalKombatAnnihilation'':
** Right at the beginning of the film, when Shao Kahn pulls his invasion of Earth, Raiden establishes that as long as he has the power to stop Kahn, the invasion will never take place. Kahn then boasts that as long as the portal between Earth and Outworld remains open, Earth is his for the taking. They then have a brief fight in which, although Kahn lands the opening move, Raiden soon afterward [[CurbStompBattle utterly trounces him]].\\
'''You'd expect:''' That since Raiden has such a huge advantage, he'd just KILL KAHN RIGHT THEN AND THERE. After all, it was already established in the first ''Mortal Kombat'' movie that his powers don't work in Outworld, but here they're on Earth and his powers work just fine, plus the merger between realms hasn't yet proceeded far enough for him to have lost any power.\\
'''Instead:''' Raiden gives Kahn a moment of reprieve, in which Kahn manages to secure a whip from a minion and rope Sonya, getting her as a hostage as a result.\\
'''Speaking of which, you'd have expected:''' That Sonya, considering the situation, would've been a lot more on her guard up to that point.\\
'''Instead:''' She just stands there and gets roped into the hostage situation. This directly leads to Johnny Cage's death moments later, as outlined below.
** Shao Kahn tells Raiden to surrender or he'll kill Johnny Cage, to which Raiden basically says he'd then easily kill all of Kahn's generals with his glowing lightning cage. Kahn says that Raiden would never let one of his precious humans die. Raiden offers to trade himself for Johnny. Kahn tells Raiden to bow at his feet, causing Raiden to drop the cage. Shao Kahn then shouts, ''"Fool!"'' and snaps Johnny's neck.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Raiden then instantly brings the energy cage back up, and uses it to kill Kahn's generals.\\
'''Instead:''' Raiden just stands there until Kahn blasts him through a wall.\\
'''On the subject:''' Rather than kill Johnny ForTheEvulz, Kahn should have just ''accepted'' Raiden's offer. Without Raiden, the protagonists would literally have never gotten anywhere close to figuring out the plot and subverting it, because Raiden was the only one in the group with the knowledge to put it together. Kahn blew the entire plan just because he felt like being a dick.
** [[LetsSplitUpGang The gang splits up]]. Liu Kang and Kitana are sent to go find Nightwolf. During their journey, they have a brief intimate moment [[MomentKiller that's broken up by the cyber-ninja Smoke]]. Liu takes on Smoke and proceeds to get his ass handed to him.\\
'''You'd expect:''' Since Smoke is metallic, that Liu would use his Fireball technique (y'know, the same move he used to finish Shang Tsung in the first movie?) and give himself an edge.\\
'''Instead:''' Liu continues to get his ass kicked, only being saved by [[BigDamnHeroes Sub-Zero]] at the last moment.
** Sub-Zero and Scorpion fight. Sub-Zero gets knocked off a ledge and is dangling over a river of lava below, so Liu Kang rushes to save him. Scorpion, seeing Liu coming, disappears. Kitana is left standing by herself.\\
'''You'd expect:''' Kitana just handled a bunch of mooks perfectly fine on her own, and Scorpion's just been established as an enemy who's able to teleport, so Kitana should be on her guard, right?\\
'''Instead:''' She just stands there holding the IdiotBall and gets grabbed from behind by Scorpion. She doesn't even try to fight back.
** Midway through the movie, after Sonya has gotten to Jax and they've escaped the attack on them at their military base, they're trudging through a desert area where Jax complains that he can't understand what's happening. He asks for an explanation from Sonya and demands to know what he's going to be putting his life on the line for.\\
'''You'd expect:''' For Sonya to give Jax even a dumbed-down summary of the situation, even if, as she says, "(she) can't explain it." After all, it's not as if she's just gotten into the situation herself, right? She's already been through the Mortal Kombat tournament, she's already gotten an explanation from the first film about the whole point of the tournament, and she's been briefed at the start of this film about what's been happening. A simple "Our world was part of an inter-dimensional tournament, we won, but the host decided not to abide by the rules and just to screw us over instead, so now we have to defeat him before he completes his six-day takeover plan" would have gone a long way, right?\\
'''Instead:''' She grumbles about nobody telling her why Johnny had to die (of which Jax naturally has no idea what she's talking about), the two argue a bit, and then Sonya stomps off...and gets ambushed by Mileena moments later. [[PoorCommunicationKills Poor communication almost kills her here]].
* In the very first Film/{{Mothra}} film, an entertainment promoter, upon meeting the tiny Twin Priestesses of the eponymous PhysicalGod, decides to make them stars in mainland Japan.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' that he'd start with his strong suit: Cutting a (probably unfair) deal.\\
'''Instead:''' the promoter just kidnaps them, leaving himself open to countless criminal charges, with kidnapping, false imprisonment, and enslavement being only the most obvious, then compounds his error by having them perform their sacred music (with orchestral backing!) on live TV. Oh, and he does this in a world where kaiju and other supernatural phenomena are demonstrably real, and quite well-known.
* ''Film/TheMusicBox'': [[Creator/{{LaurelAndHardy}} Laurel and Hardy]] are idiots in [[UpToEleven all their films]], but this example particularly stands out. They finally get the piano up the stairs, [[NowYouTellMe only to be informed by a postman that they could have just drove round a nearby hill.]]\\
'''You'd Expect''': They simply get the piano inside and finish the job.\\
'''Instead''': ''They take the piano down the stairs all over again and go round.''
* ''Film/{{Bean}}: The Ultimate Disaster Movie'' has the title character being chased by the police for pulling out a "gun", which is his right hand. When the leading police say "everyone on the floor, now!", Bean also goes down, but the lady near him says "Not you, sweetie" because she knows he's their target.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Bean to ignore what the lady says.\\
'''Instead''': Being [[IdiotHero Bean]], he just follows her word, allowing the police to point their guns at him.
* ''Film/TheMummyTombOfTheDragonEmperor'':
** In the film's prologue, the sorceress Zi Yuan casts what she claims is an immortality spell on the titular Dragon Emperor, but is in fact a curse that will transform him and all his followers into terracotta statues. Before this becomes obvious, the emperor tells Zi that she will marry him, and threatens to have her lover, Ming Guo, torn apart by wild horses unless she agrees to be his bride. However, Ming shouts out that he's doomed no matter what she does, so there's no point agreeing to marry the emperor.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Zi to try and keep the emperor talking until the curse kicks in and immobilizes him and his followers, then she can free Ming from the horses.\\
'''Instead:''' She instantly refuses, promptly resulting in Ming's grisly death. Moreover, she is severely wounded and nearly killed by the emperor, before the curse ''finally'' takes hold and transforms him and his followers into statues, allowing her to escape.
** Later on, the resurrected emperor succeeds in gaining immortality and shape-shifting powers, with which he kicks the asses of the heroes and steals a dagger which is the only weapon in the entire world capable of killing him, before turning into a winged dragon and returning to the ruins of his palace.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The emperor to drop the dagger into an active volcano, the ocean or the middle of the Gobi desert. Basically, anywhere where the good guys would have little-to-no chance of finding it.\\
'''Instead:''' He keeps it on his person, which rapidly comes back to bite him on the butt when...
** Zi Yuan, who has sacrificed the immortality she formerly possessed in order to help stop the emperor, takes him on in combat and then impales herself on his sword in order to steal the dagger.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Zi to immediately stab the emperor and put an end to his plans once and for all.\\
'''Instead:''' She doesn't do anything once she's got the dagger, leading to the emperor just shoving her wounded body off the sword and off a cliff, which quickly causes her to expire.\\
'''You'd Then Expect:''' The emperor to jump down to the bottom of the cliff, take the dagger back, and then maybe take the hint that he'd be better off disposing of it.\\
'''Instead:''' He just walks off and doesn't try to retrieve the dagger. Rick and Alex quickly take it from Zi's corpse, and after a climactic fight with the emperor finally succeed in destroying him once and for all.
* In ''Film/{{Neighbors|2014}}'', Jimmy putting a Hebrew taunt in the school seal of the counterfeit lifting-of-probation letter as a "calling card", tipping Teddy off to the fact that it was a fake and they're still on probation. [[LampshadeHanging Everyone else calls him out on doing this before they actually won.]]
* At the end of ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968,'' Ben goes upstairs to investigate the sound of gunshots and sees a rag-tag group of vigilantes and local policemen blasting away the few remaining zombies.\\
'''You'd Expect''' Ben to shout to the militia for help and come on out to meet them.\\
'''Instead''' he stares out the window in a rather emotionless fashion, whereupon a pair of rednecks see him in the window, think he's a zombie, and shoot him, after taking a noticeable amount of time to line up a headshot that he could have easily gotten out of the way of before said redneck pulled the trigger.
* In ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors'', when Will Stanton got the wizard powers in the dream that he was about to finish Freddy Krueger off.\\
''' You'd Expect:''' Stanton will better to keep far away from Krueger and beat him.\\
'''Instead:''' He runs towards to Krueger , but he was been captured and died as Freddy Kruger said ''"I don't believe in fairy tales"''.
* In ''Film/{{Noah}}'', a loose retelling of the bible story, Noah believes that he and his family will be the last people on earth, since the only other woman, aside from his wife is infertile, thus ending sin and purifying the Lord's creation. When said girl (Ila) becomes pregnant on the ark (as Noah's wife asked a priest to make her pregnant through God):\\
''' You'd Expect:''' That Ila and Shem, as Noah has made it abundantly clear that he is determined to make God's creation pure again by ending the human race, would know that he would not be pleased with Ila being pregnant, thus allowing the human race to continue, and ''not'' tell him about this, and immediately start to secretly build a raft to escape in before he notices Ila's growing stomach and discovers the truth himself.\\
''' Instead:''' They tell him ''immediately'' after discovering Ila's pregnancy, and naturally Noah is furious, and says that if their child is a girl, he will kill her when she is born. \\
And '''later''', when they actually ''do'' try the escape raft plan:\\
''' You'd Expect:''' They would make their escape at night, while Noah is asleep.\\
''' Instead:''' They try to make in the middle of afternoon in broad daylight, and Noah catches them, and burns the escape raft.
* In ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'', Anton Chigurh is arrested by a cop and taken to the police station; the two are alone.\\
'''You'd Expect''': The cop to lock Chigurh in a jail cell.\\
'''Instead''': The cop turns his back on Chugurh to sit down at his desk and make a phone call, apparently trusting that he won't do anything untoward. Chigurh strangles him with his handcuffs, gets the key to unlock them, and steals a police cruiser. Immediately after, Chigurh, in his cruiser, pulls over a random motorist and gets out to talk to him.\\
'''You'd Expect''': The driver would wonder ''what the hell someone who looks and dresses like the Grim Reaper and carries a captive-bolt pistol would be doing driving a police cruiser and pulling him over'', figure out something's not right, and then take off, or, at the absolute least, ask Chigurh about his lack of standard police attire.\\
'''Instead''': The driver complies with Chigurh's request to step out of the car and is shot in the head. Chigurh steals his vehicle.
* ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'': Roger Thornhill goes to the UN in New York to speak with Lester Townshend and find out who was impersonating Townshend. One of the {{Big Bad}}'s mooks throws a knife at Townshend, causing Townshend to collapse into Thornhill's arms.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Thornhill to leave the knife as-is, and yell out, "Get a doctor! He's been stabbed! Someone threw a knife at him!"\\
'''Instead:''' Thornhill yanks the knife out of Townshend's back, getting his prints all over the knife and looking very much like he'd done the deed. A photographer catches his picture while he's holding the knife.\\
'''Even Worse:''' Thornhill bolts from the building and goes on the lam, making his innocence look even more in doubt.
* In ''Film/PacificRim'', facing an upsurge in {{Kaiju}} attacks, the world's governments decide to abandon the Jaeger program in favor of building a giant wall to stop the Kaiju. Then in 2024, the Kaiju Mutavore breaks through the Sydney wall. The only reason they don't have to nuke the city is because they'd only closed the local Shatterdome the day before, so Striker Eureka is still on hand to take Mutavore down.\\
'''You'd Expect''': They'd realize that the wall doesn't work and instead restore funding to the Jaeger program.\\
'''Instead''': They continue to maintain that the wall will work, leaving the Jaeger program alone to stand against the Kaiju. The Kaiju are eventually defeated, but only at the cost of ''all'' of the remaining Jaegers and most of the remaining experienced pilots.\\
'''You'd Also Expect:''' If they're not going to cancel the wall, they might think about putting at guns on it. The wall isn't getting rid of the kaiju, just blocking them, and the oceans are kinda important if humanity wants to survive.\\
'''Instead:''' Whoever had the idea seems to have never thought beyond "wall stops kaiju", and thus all it takes for an undefended wall to be breached is a kaiju pounding on the thing for an hour. Some of the workers even lampshaded on what's the point of building a wall if a kaiju will simply smash it down.
* ''Film/PansLabyrinth'':
** The normally intelligent and bookish Ofelia is given the task of entering a magical room and retrieving a knife that's under the care of a monstrous, sleeping guardian. Said guardian will only ''remain'' asleep as long as Ofelia doesn't touch any part of the [[SchmuckBait sumptuous feast]] that's sitting on the table in front of him.\\
'''You'd expect''': That Ofelia would remember ''every'' single FairyTale she's ever read that featured a situation ''similar'' to hers that had gone sour; that she'd remember the admonitions of the ''very'' scary-looking faun who'd given her the task, the disturbing, sharp-nailed cenobite-like guardian who is sitting at the end of the table ''and'' the time limit that she's working under, AND that she would complete her task and get the hell out of there as quickly as her prepubescent legs could carry her.\\
'''Instead''': She stops to dawdle long enough to eat two grapes, thus awakening the ravenous guardian, which proceeds to chow down on the fairies and then try to eat ''her'' as well.
** Also in ''Film/PansLabyrinth'', when Mercedes gives the key of the storage house to Captain Vidal, she confirms that it's the only key.\\
'''You'd expect:''' She would then proceed to tell the partisans she's aiding to bring some explosives or other means to break through the sturdy door.\\
'''Instead:''' She gives them a duplicate of the key, which they use in their very next raid to steal supplies. This immediately results in Vidal getting suspicious of the person originally in charge of the keys, i.e. Mercedes, and eventually leads to her getting captured, and inches away from horrible torture.
* In ''Film/{{Passenger 57}}'' -- which, overall, makes perfect sense if it's intended to take place in a parallel universe where [[IdiotPlot everyone is an utter moron]] -- one of the best moments comes when the Hero's Girlfriend is fighting one of the henchmen near the open luggage door of a moving airplane. She's about to fall out the door, clutching at the henchman's pant leg; he reaches desperately for his rifle, lying a few inches away. Finally he gets his fingers on it, gets it in his grip...\\
'''You'd Expect:''' he might consider, you know, ''shooting'' her.\\
'''Instead:''' he turns the gun around, and hits her with the butt. Guess who ends up falling out of the plane?
* In the sequel to ''Film/PaulBlartMallCop'', Paul and his daughter Maya travel to Las Vegas for a security guard convention and wind up stumbling upon an art heist. Midway through the film, Maya accidentally sees the criminals doing their dirty work and winds up incarcerated in a hotel room by them. Shortly afterwards, her LoveInterest, Lane, comes by looking for her and bumps into Vincent, the leader of the art-nappers. Lane, unaware of what's happened, asks if he's seen Maya.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Vincent to tell Lane that Maya has just gone some other way and lead him away from their dirty work.\\
'''Instead:''' They immediately pull a gun on him and imprison him in the hotel room with Maya. While we obviously don't want the bad guys to win, it's ultimately because of Vincent and his mooks pulling a random (to them) passerby that they could have ignored or directed away from their scheme that they end up losing, as Lane helps Maya make their escape [[MacGyvering with a snow globe]] he had with himself, and they learn the key to defeating Vincent later. (Namely his oatmeal allergy.)
* ''[[Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters]]'': Luke puts the Golden Fleece onto Kronos' coffin/sarcophagus, which will eventually reawaken him. The protagonists all make a beeline to remove it. They meet opposition, but [[spoiler: Tyson shows up and takes care of it]], leaving the coffin wide open.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Percy runs up to the coffin and removes the Golden Fleece, which is his current main goal. It's right next to him, there's no way he'd miss it.\\
'''Instead:''' Percy completely ignores the coffin and wastes at least a minute [[spoiler:hugging Tyson and saying he's glad Tyson's okay]], which is enough time for Kronos' revival to be complete.
* ''Film/{{Phantasm}}'': The brothers have just escaped from one of the Tall Man for a second time, and have managed to capture one of his undead dwarf minions in the process.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Now that they have a piece of solid evidence that something seriously wrong is going on that hasn't turned into a giant killer fly (long story) they'd follow their original plan and go the the police.\\
'''Instead''': They take matters into their own ill equipped hands, and never even consider going to the authorities throughout the entire film, resulting in many more deaths, and several more sequels.
* In ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera2004'', Raoul bests the Phantom in a duel.\\
'''You'd expect''': He takes advantage of this moment, either by running him through with his sword or by knocking Erik cold and having someone fetch the Paris police to cart him off to jail.\\
'''Instead''': Immediately goes home to plan a ZanyScheme to catch the Phantom, leaving the Phantom lying there in the snow.
* In ''Film/ThePinkPanther2006'', Chief Inspector Dreyfus is investigating the murder of the French football team's coach, and has made the inept policeman Jacques Clouseau the official face of the investigation so that Dreyfus can operate from behind the scenes until he's ready to take over the case.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Dreyfus to have developed a fairly rock-solid case by the time he took Clouseau off the investigation.\\
'''Instead:''' He decides that the killer is a Chinese doctor, due to the coach being murdered with a poison made from Chinese herbs, and the doctor having reason to want the coach dead. On top of this, Dreyfus is never shown to have any hard evidence against the doctor. Turns out it wasn't him, and Dreyfus only manages to avoid causing an international incident due to Clouseau arresting the real killer that same night.
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''
** In the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl first film]], the crew of the Black Pearl arrives at Port Royal in search of the last cursed medallion along with Bootstrap Bill Turner's descendant, whose blood they need to break the curse. They eventually find the coin in possession of a woman who gives them Turner as her last name.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The crew to make sure that she is Bootstrap's child. After all, Turner is a very common last name and she could've taken it from a man she married. Just possessing the medallion isn't conclusive proof as the crew mentioned spending the other coins across the Caribbean.\\
'''Instead:''' They assume she is Bootstrap Bill's child and kidnap her to use her blood. When they do the ritual, it doesn't work and only then do they ask her if Bootstrap was her father, to which she answers no.
** In the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd third film]], Captain Jack Sparrow is visited in Davy Jones' Locker by his old friends, crew, enemies, and a load of Chinese pirates, all of whom want to get him out of there. They prepare to leave on the Black Pearl, but Jack refuses to take along Will, Elizabeth, Barbossa, Pintel and Ragetti, since all five have attempted to kill him in the past. He discovers that Barbossa has in his possession a special map that is implied to be their only way out of the locker, seemingly leaving Jack with no choice but to take him and the other four along, since his magic compass doesn't work here.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Jack to have the many pirates at his command overpower the five and get the charts, if he doesn't trust them enough to let them be in his crew. Then he can leave them in the locker while he uses the charts to escape.\\
'''Instead:''' He decides to take the lot of them with him. While most of the immediate consequences are either comical (Jack and Barbossa both trying to captain the ship) or quickly overcome ([[spoiler: Will's]] betrayal of the crew), the film does end with Barbossa [[spoiler: stealing the Black Pearl]] AGAIN.
** In the third film's climatic big battle, [[TheHero Will Turner]] has gotten behind [[TheDragon Davy Jones]]. Will is armed with a cutlass.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Will to remember that Davy Jones's heart isn't in his body, and instead target his limbs to try and immobilize him, or at least slow him down.\\
'''Instead:''' He stabs Jones where his heart would be. Jones [[NoSell isn't affected]], disarms Will, [[spoiler: and fatally wounds him soon after]].
** Also during that battle, Captain Jack Sparrow manages to get his hands on said heart. Jack intends to stab it and achieve immortality, since whoever does so will take Davy Jones's place, and will have the job of ferrying those who die at sea to the next world for eternity.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Jack to immediately stab the heart]].\\
'''Instead:''' He reveals to Jones that he has the heart. [[spoiler:Jones responds by stabbing Will, and Jack ends up making Will stab the heart, so that he can captain the Flying Dutchman, and continue to see [[LoveInterest Elizabeth]]]].
** Near the end of the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides fourth film]], Barbossa has just stabbed [[spoiler:Blackbeard]] with a sword, and left it in him. Angelica rushes over to pull the sword out.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Her to pull the sword out by the handle.\\
'''Instead:''' She pulls it out by the handle AND the blade, cutting her hand as a result.\\
'''To make matters worse:''' The blade's poisoned. Jack subsequently has to pull a BatmanGambit on Blackbeard to make him [[spoiler:unwittingly give up his life for Angelica's]].
* ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes2001'': When Leo and Thade are fighting, Thade knocks Leo's gun from his hand which lands a few feet away.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Leo to immediately go and get his gun.\\
'''Instead:''' He waits until Thade sees the gun and when he starts to go for it, Thade pins him down and goes right for the gun.
* ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'': The Freeling family have rescued their daughter from a malevolent demon and its almost inescapable dimension located inside their house. The tiny medium lady they brought in to help declares "This house is clean."\\
'''You'd Expect:''' They'd move out immediately. Not take the risk despite what the medium says and live in Holiday Inn and move their stuff out of the house during the day.\\
'''Instead:''' The Freelings decide to stay in the house one more night until all their stuff has been moved out. They get attacked again.
* Film/ThePrincessDiaries:
** Mia had been invited by JerkJock Josh to go to his beach party, where the AlphaBitch Lana and her posse also will be at. This clashes with the plans of Mia being a guest of Lilly's TV show.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For Mia to have been suspicious of the fact that Josh was acting nice to her all of a sudden, and politely reject his request.\\
'''Or:''' For Mia to remember that she already made plans to attend Lilly's show and stick to her word.\\
'''Instead:''' She foolishly attends the party with Josh, and the paparazzi are able to find Mia.
** Later at the party, Mia is running away from the paparazzi. She wants to change her clothes quickly. She comes across a tent, where Lana nand her posse are standing next to. Mia tries to ask Lana and her friends to watch out for the paparazzi while she changes her clothes.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For Mia to realize that trusting someone like Lana to look out for her would be a foolish thing to do (considering how Lana takes pride and pleasure out of humiliating Mia) and find somewhere else to change her clothes.\\
'''Or:''' For Mia to just simply not change her clothing ,leave the beach, and focus on getting ''far'' away from the paparazzi (her clothes weren't too inappropriate for the public).\\
'''Instead:''' Mia foolishly trusts Lana to look out for her. As expected, Lana and her friends (being the assholes they are) lift up the tent, allowing the paparazzi to see Mia, and the paparazzi takes a lot of photos of her in a towel. As a result, Mia is humiliated. Later in the movie, her grandmother gets angry at her for (unintentionally) embarrassing the family. Lilly and Michael end up angry as well.
* ''Film/PulpFiction'':
** Hitmen Vincent and Jules are driving in a car, with their new acquaintance Marvin riding in the back seat. During the ride, Vincent wants to ask Marvin about his opinion on the current topic of conversation.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Vincent to ''[[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety put the damn loaded gun down]]'' before he makes his point.\\
'''Or''': Unload the gun.\\
'''Instead''': He casually lays the gun on top of the seat of the car, pointed ''directly at Marvin's head''.\\
'''You'd Then Expect''': Marvin to say something about the gun currently pointed at his face.\\
'''Instead''': He says nothing.\\
'''The Result''': The trope IJustShotMarvinInTheFace [[TropeNamers is named]].
** As a result of scamming Vincent's boss, Marcellus, by winning the fixed fight he was supposed to throw, Vincent has been told to find and kill Butch. He visits Butch's appartment but doesn't find him here and has to use the bathroom.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Vincent to take his gun with him to the bathroom, or at least have a spare with him, in case Butch decides to show up for whatever reason.\\
'''Instead''': He leaves it on the kitchen table, where Butch finds it when he has to return to his apartment to retrieve his precious watch. This immediately makes him suspicious, and he proceeds to shoot Vincent with his own gun when he emerges from the bathroom, unarmed.\\
'''Additionally''': Earlier in the movie, when Butch was getting his instructions from Marcellus, Vincent was also present and after Marcellus left, he made it a point to purposefully harass Butch and call him names, making it all the more likely that Butch would later shoot him on sight instead of trying to spare him, which Vincent should also have considered when leaving his gun on Butch's kitchen table.
* In the ''[[Franchise/{{Rambo}} 2008 Rambo film]]'', Rambo is ferrying a group of missionaries to Burma when they run into pirates. Rambo tries to negotiate with them, but the pirates refuse to leave without Sarah, the lone woman of the group, leaving Rambo with no option other than to brutally kill the lot of them.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The missionaries to accept that under those circumstances, Rambo had little other choice, and that they wouldn't hold it against him too much.\\
'''Instead:''' [[UngratefulBastard They're utterly disgusted with him]], with the leader of the group even telling Rambo that whatever the situation, violence is never a suitable answer.
* ''Film/RatRace'':
** The Cody brothers decide to split up in order to double their chances of winning the race, and go to a locksmith to have a copy of their key made.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The two of them to keep quiet about the race around strangers.\\
'''Instead:''' They openly talk about how they're racing to Silver City in order to open a locker in the railway station containing $2 million. The locksmith overhears, and decides to steal their key and go after the money himself.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The locksmith would give the Cody brothers two identical cut keys, so that they don't notice the theft.\\
'''Instead:''' He gives them two uncut keys. As a result, the brothers realise almost immediately that they've been robbed, chase the locksmith down and manage to steal the key back.
** Whilst driving on the highway, Randy Pear accidentally burns one of his fingers, and unintentionally flips off a [[BikerBabe female]] [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels biker]]. His wife Bev decides to apologise and explain things to the biker.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That she would be able to do so without resorting to obscene hand gestures.\\
'''Instead:''' She flips off the biker in order to demonstrate what happened. That, combined with Randy accidentally insulting the biker, results in the Pear family getting attacked by a load of bikers wielding baseball bats. They subsequently crash their car on the stage of a meeting of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII World War II]] veterans. Randy, who burnt his tongue during the chase steps forward to explain things.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That after two seconds ''at the most,'' Randy would realise that he's [[TheUnintelligible unintelligible]], shut up, and get another member of the family to speak.\\
'''Instead:''' He rants on, seemingly unaware of what he sounds like, and flips the veterans off as part of his "explanation". To make matters worse, the Pear family showed up in [[ItMakesSenseInContext Adolf Hitler's car]], Randy sounds like an angry German, and unknowingly looks like Hitler himself. One of the vets mistakes him for the real thing, and fires at the family with a revolver.
* In ''Film/ResidentEvilAfterlife'', The T-Virus-infected Albert Wesker needs to eat human flesh. He thinks eating Alice's flesh will give him control of the virus. He has all the resources of Umbrella and two of Alice's former allies-turned-mind-controlled-puppets at his disposal.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' He'd use those resources to find Alice, specifically Claire, who knew where Alice was headed, and set a trap for her there.\\
'''Instead''' he gambles on Alice following the radio transmissions to Arcadia. Then when she arrives at Arcadia:\\
'''You'd Expect:''' he'd unleash a horde of mind-controlled people to hold her down, or pull out a taser or do something to incapacitate her while he has the element of surprise.\\
'''Instead''' he has a single mook train a gun on her, explains his plan and expects to succeed by beating her in combat.
* ''Film/ResidentEvilApocalypse'' The S.T.A.R.S. sniper is sitting on the roof of a sporting goods store, picking off zombies, with headshots, at his leisure. He's even good enough to pop the head of one sneaking up on the EthnicScrappy. Then, [[GiantMook Nemesis]] shows up.\\
'''You'd Expect''' that, as an experienced, competent sniper who seems to have realized that the monsters wandering around the city only die with headshots, he'd put one of those high caliber bullets through the Nemesis' skull.\\
'''Instead''': He shoots him dead center in the chest, and is ''shocked'' that he doesn't go down. So he shoots him ''again'' in the '''same exact spot'''. Nemesis blows him up before the sniper can get a third shot off, and then proceeds to slaughter all the rest of the S.T.A.R.S. officers.
* ''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'':
** (Human) Protagonist Will has been dosing his father with his experimental brain-boosting drug, ALZ-112, developing the drug on his own after his company had scrapped development because of a bungled presentation. After seven years of not only full reversal of his father's Alzheimer's, but improved brain function, Dad starts to develop resistance to the virus that delivers the drug into his system and deteriorates rapidly as his Alzheimer's returns with a vengeance. Nevertheless, Will goes back to his boss and tells him the drug works, but only temporarily.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Will to consider investigating the possibility of using immunosuppressant drugs or other ways to reduce human immune response to the delivery mechanism, which are widely used in organ transplants.\\
'''Instead''': He starts in on a more-aggressive virus designed to beat the immune system. Soon enough, his boss has his own WhatAnIdiot moment when he sees how effective the treatment is on apes and brings in many more apes to experiment on, refusing to listen to Will's pleas to slow down on testing because they don't know the potential effect this more aggressive viral strand will have on humans. [[spoiler:The virus turns out to be both the catalyst for the titular "uprising", and causes the implied [[ApocalypseHow Class 3a Human Extinction Event]] that allows enhanced apes to take over the planet.]]
** During testing of the new strain, which has been aerosolized for easy delivery, there's a accident when they administer it to an ape and one of the researchers is exposed.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' They'd quarantine his ass on the spot, along with everyone in the room.\\
'''Instead:''' They do nothing, and he's allowed to go home and eventually infect others. Goodbye human race.
* ''Film/RobinHood2010''. King Philip of France has mustered an army to conquer the English.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' They would land somewhere ''without'' a very high, very level bluff from which England's famous archers have perfect aim towards their troops, and they would ''get the hell out'' once they saw that they were pinned on three sides with archers to the front and cavalry to their left and right flanks, and the sea to their backs. \\
'''Instead:''' They continue right on with the landing, even as their army is being felled in swoops by English longbowmen and subsequently ground into the mud by the cavalry. Whilst some of their men are being crushed to death ''with their own boats''.
* ''Franchise/RoboCop''
** In the [[Film/RoboCop1987 first film]], Dick Jones demonstrates a combat robot (ED-209) in a public office of OCP, hoping for it to be mass-produced for use in Detroit.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That he'd have the combat robot not loaded with live rounds for this demonstration, in case something goes wrong (imagine that) and it doesn't stop being aggressive even after throwing down your weapon on the ground.\\
'''Instead (!!!):''' He has the ED-209 loaded with live rounds for the demonstration, and wouldn't you know it, it malfunctions and kills one of the board members, Kinny!
** ''Film/RoboCop2''. [[MegaCorp OCP's]] Security Concepts division has been trying to create a successor to Robocop, dubbed [[TitleDrop Robocop 2]]. Ala Robocop 1, all of their test subjects have been recently slain officers, only these officers were DrivenToSuicide by the conversion. Dr. Faxx concludes that Alex Murphy's strong moral convictions were what kept him from offing himself.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Having quite literally the exact mental conditions necessary for a stable transplant, she would select the appropriate officer from the police and [[DeadlyEuphemism help him transition into his new role]]. Please note this is exactly what her predecessor did, and it worked brilliantly. At ''the very least'', she could pick a civilian that falls under similar criteria.\\
'''Instead:''' She selects [[BigBad Cain]], a sociopathic crime boss and dealer of the FantasticDrug Nuke, on the basis that his desire for immortality is similar to Murphy's strong dedication to duty (y'know, the thing that makes him ''the perfect Robocop'') while his addiction will act as a method of controlling his behavior. She's right to the point that he's a stable transplant, but without Murphy's strong moral compass, he predictably goes berserk [[DisastrousDemonstration during his unveiling to the press]]. Johnson is quite right to pin the blame for the mess on her.\\
'''For Added Stupidity:''' During said berserk moment, Faxx continues to look at [=RoboCain=] with pride like she wants him to win. She's arguably nearly as unstable as Cain himself at that point.
* In the low-budget horror schlockfest ''Film/RockNRollNightmare'', the entire band and their girlfriends are alerted to the sound of manager Phil screaming in terror in the basement. Unable to find him at the basement, Randi, the girlfriend of lead vocalist John Triton, suggests that they look for Phil upstairs. Triton says that "it sounded like the scream came from down here."\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The gang to remain in the basement and keep looking for Phil.\\
'''Instead:''' In less than a second, Triton goes "right, let's look upstairs," immediately agreeing to his girlfriend's bonehead suggestion.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films S-Z]]
* ''Film/TheSandlot'': The gang are attempting to retrieve the Babe Ruth autographed baseball from the clutches of the Beast. One of their schemes involves using ropes and pulleys to lower Yeah-Yeah into the Beast's yard. Yeah-Yeah grabs the ball and holds onto it for a few seconds, but the Beast walks up.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Yeah-Yeah to clutch the ball with both hands and hold onto it for dear life as he's raised outta there.\\
'''Instead:''' He panics, and the ball slips out of his one-handed grip when he's jolted upwards.
* ''Film/TheSantaClause'': In the event that the current Santa Claus dies, the role is passed down to the next man to put on his trademark coat. This happens to Scott Calvin who continues delivering presents after the previous Santa falls off his roof. Scott is understandably confused by this, even after the elves explain the situation at the North Pole.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The elves to be in contact with Scott all the way through the following Christmas. That way, he'll at least be better prepared for what to do when the big day arrives. This especially considering that Scott is divorced and took his son Charlie to the North Pole without the knowledge of his ex-wife Laura and her husband Neil.\\
'''Instead:''' They magically send Scott home on Christmas morning and don't even bother to say anything else to him until the following Thanksgiving, ''eleven months later''.\\
'''The Result:''' Scott at first is forced to think the entire trip is a crazy dream, a claim that becomes less believable when he goes through the transformation into Santa. By the final stages, Laura and Neil think he's snapped and deny him visitation rights to Charlie.
* ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'': During the Omaha Beach assault, one soldier has a bullet pass through his helmet without killing him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Him to keep his head down and be happy that he was lucky, or if he ''is'' going to take his helmet off, do it after keeping his head down.\\
'''Instead:''' He straightens up, takes his helmet off and feels his head.\\
'''Result:''' BoomHeadshot
* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'':
** In the first ''Film/SawI'', one of the two prisoners, Lawrence, needs to answer the cell phone to save his wife and himself and foil the murderer's plot. Unfortunately, courtesy of the sadistic Jigsaw, Lawrence is chained to a pipe and the cell phone in question is lying about 40 cm out of his reach. He has a hacksaw and he's wearing a long sleeved shirt.\\
'''You'd Expect:'''That he takes off his shirt and swings it over the phone. Or that he uses the hacksaw to hook on the phone. Or that the other prisoner uses some object to knock the phone closer to Lawrence.\\
'''Instead:''' Having failed to reach the phone with some stupid box, Lawrence ''does'' takes off his shirt...and then ties it around his chained leg and proceeds to saw it off. *FacePalm* Yes, he was screwed up and in panic. It was still idiotic and furthermore, the other guy wasn't panicking yet still didn't suggest the obvious solution.
** In ''Film/SawV'', The players who have been selected figure out (early in the film) that closing the door in a room activates the next trap. This, in addition to brainstorming creative solutions to the traps, does a lot to get the audience on their side. Near the end of the film, Brit and Malick (the two remaining survivors) kill a woman named Luba and use her body to provide an electric current to open the door to the final trap. They enter the room and learn that they (and, presumably, all the other survivors who lived) have to stick their hands into a sawblade in order to draw enough blood to fill a beaker and open the final door to escape.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Given the fact that they were a fairly smart duo, either Brit or Malick (who had suggested alternate plans before) would go back to the previous room, disconnect the electric clamps, bring her body into the final room and use her hands to draw enough blood to fill the beaker. Alternatively, they could have just cut off her arms (seeing as Brit still had a very big knife) and use it to fill the beaker that way. Granted, the arms wouldn't be attached to a beating heart, meaning the amount of blood yielded almost certainly wouldn't fill the beaker all the way, but it'd still lessen the damage Brit and Malick would take to their own bodies.\\
'''Instead:''' They stick their hands in and cut halfway up through their arms to fill the beaker. They both survive, but pass out due to massive blood loss, and when Malick later appears again in ''Film/Saw3D'' it's revealed that he permanently lost the use of his left arm due to nerve and muscle damage.
* ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}'' has Tony Camonte/Montana finally founding Guino Rinaldo's/Manny Ribera's location. When he's about to explain to him about what is it about, Cesca/Gina also entered the fray, trying to explain that they're married.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That Tony should ask Guino/Manny if it's true that he's trying to sleep with his sister and let him explain of what's going on.\\
'''Instead:''' He kills Guino/Manny without even saying a word. This results in Cesca/Gina being heartbroken and she even goes so far as to take her own pistol and plans to kill her brother.
* In the beginning of ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'' Casey Becker is having a phone call talk to the Ghostface which he is going after her and murdered her.\\
'''You'd Expect''': She can hung up the phone and calling the police for help.\\
'''Instead''': Still using the phone and [[TooDumbToLive until then she was been kill by Ghostface]].\\
'''Later''': The killers, [[spoiler:Billy and Stu]] have captured Sydney and plan to kill her by framing her father [[RedHerring who has not appeared since the beginning of the film]] and then killing him in "self-defense". To make the plan more convincing, they plan to cut themselves to make it seem like they "barely got out alive".\\
'''You'd Expect''': That they would kill them '''FIRST''' ''then'' set their plan into motion.\\
'''Instead''': They cut themselves up first, [[TooDumbToLive leaving Sydney just standing there and giving her a chance to escape]] and leaving themselves in no condition to kill Sydney and the NotQuiteDead news reporter lady that they thought they had killed earlier.
* In ''Film/{{Scream 2}}'', Sydney and another victim are in the back of a police car when the killer steals it. In the ensuing confusion, the killer crashes the car into a light pole, pinning a dead, armed cop to the hood and knocking himself unconscious.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Either woman to take the loaded handgun sitting in full view on the hood and shoot the killer in the chest. Failing that, hold him at gunpoint until help arrives.\\
'''Instead''': They run away into the night, allowing the killer to revive and continue the chase.
* ''Film/ScaryMovie'':
** The first movie's plot is a parody of the movie ''[[Film/{{Scream 1996}} Scream]]'', meaning that there is a killer; one of the main characters, [[AlphaBitch Buffy Gilmore]], is convinced that the serial killer is just a prankster, even with what had been going on. Eventually, she finds herself in a confrontation with Ghostface. \\
'''You'd Expect''': That Buffy would finally catch on to the fact that the killer was real, and go for help. \\
'''Instead''': She sarcastically mocks every Slasher movie cliche in the book, resulting in her death.
* ''Film/SevenPounds'':
** With Emily only having a month to live due to her failing heart and no waiting donors because of her rare blood type, Tim decides to kill himself to become a donor for her as he has the same blood type. Craziness aside...\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Tim to do something simple like slit his wrists or hang himself.\\
'''Instead:''' He pours ice cold water in his bathtub along with his pet jellyfish and lets the jellyfish sting him to death. It is, in fact, a box jelly, whose venom kills by inducing a ''heart attack.'' Of course, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology since this is the dramatic climax]], his heart is just fine for the transplant.
* ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'': In this spoof of ZombieApocalypse movies, the lead character and his best friend discover the living dead plague not long after a night at the pub. The news reports on their TV states that they should stay inside, and the lead character's mother and ex-girlfriend are outside.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' They would listen to the news reporters and stay put in the house they're in, clearing it of any zombies ([[NotUsingTheZWord or whatever they are]])first of course, and hope that the mother and ex-girlfriend are safe at the end.\\
'''Instead:''' They make a rescue attempt. For extra stupidity, they convince themselves the ''pub'' is the safest place to hold out. This results in the lead character and the ex-girlfriend [[spoiler:almost getting killed and the friend and mother becoming undead.]]
* ''Film/TheShining'':
** Jack Torrance gets an interview from Mr. Ullman about being a caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. While doing so, he is being told a story about the previous caretaker, Charles Grady, having gone insane and killed his family with an axe before killing himself due to a supernatural force living in there.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That Jack should take a hint that he may earn this similar problem and just drop out of the job.\\
'''Instead:''' He takes the job anyway. It gets worse from there.
** The cook Dick Hallorann offers to take Wendy's son, who is only five years old, away from his mother for a few moments for some ice cream.\\
'''You'd expect:''' His mother offers to come with him. How does she know he's not going to kidnap her son? After all, a good parent wouldn't let their child out of their sight.\\
'''Instead:''' She does and doesn't even question it. WhatAnIdiot, indeed.
** Danny learns he can contact Hallorann via psychic communication. Hallorann tells him to do it only in an emergency. Danny contacts him when he finds that his father is going into the same room where Danny was traumatized.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Hallorann would realize that Danny's father is losing his mind and that he should not go up there by himself, instead having the police handle the situation.\\
'''Instead:''' He drives up there by himself without any weapons.
** Hallorann is in the Overlook hotel. He knows Jack has lost his mind and has gotten into a bit of trouble.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' He would be quiet and not draw attention to himself. After all, he doesn't have a weapon to defend himself with.\\
'''Instead:''' He dumbly calls out to Jack, revealing his presence and getting himself killed. WhatAnIdiot.
** Wendy is trapped in the bathroom and has pushed Danny out of the window while her husband is busy smashing down the door. She has a knife by her side.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' She automatically gets out of there while she could or just stab him.\\\
'''Instead:''' She wastes time SCREAMING every time he whacks the ax into the door. She stabs him, but only bruises his arm when she could have gone for a more vital spot, thus rendering him out of bounds.
* ''Film/{{Signs}}:''
** There is a species of aliens for whom water is a lethal acid.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' These aliens would stay far away from a planet that has a 70% water surface. Or, at the very least, they'd stay in their advanced interplanetary spaceships for the duration of the invasion, or they'd wear some sort of environmental suits to protect from the deadly acid that exists in gaseous form in the air and frequently falls from the sky. \\
'''Instead:''' The aliens invade water-soaked Earth, on foot, naked.\\
'''You'd Also Expect:''' Aliens advanced enough to conquer interstellar travel would be somewhat intelligent, or at least technologically superior to humans.\\
'''Instead:''' The aliens are unarmed, are outmatched by baseball bats and glasses of water, and are outsmarted by ''closet doors''.\\
'''You'd ''Really'' Expect:''' These hydrophobic creatures would finally be repelled in a scheme that makes use of the planet's prodigious water supply.\\
'''Instead:''' News reports say that the invasion is repelled in the ''deserts'' of the Middle East.
** '''This Entirely Sums It Up:'''
--->'''Cracked Magazine:''' It's like humans landing on a planet where 70 percent of the surface is covered in molten lava, and the inhabitants are basically just moving sacks of lava. Even the atmosphere is so dense with lava vapor that often lava just rains from the sky with little to no warning. So what's your plan of attack? If you say anything other than "Jump out of the spaceship completely naked, your junk proudly flopping about, and engage the lava monsters in hand-to-hand combat," then congratulations -- you are smarter than the aliens in ''Signs''.
* ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNightPart2'':
** Jennifer's ex-boyfriend Chip gets Ricky annoyed enough that he ends up frying Chip alive with a car battery charger, as Jennifer watches.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Jennifer to run away and get help while Ricky's busy killing Chip, or else try and keep Ricky calm long enough for her to call the police and prevent him from killing anyone else.\\
'''Instead:''' She grabs hold of Ricky, starts screaming that he's crazy and yells "I hate you, Ricky, I hate you!", which just gets her added to the body count as well.
** Immediately after Jennifer is killed, a cop comes across Ricky and holds him at gunpoint, a good distance away. Ricky obviously isn't too intimidated by him, but isn't putting up any resistance.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The officer to do what any halfway competent trained cop would do in this situation -- namely tell Ricky to get down on the ground, throw him a pair of handcuffs and make him put them on, all the while keeping his gun trained on Ricky.\\
'''Instead:''' He walks right up to Ricky, takes the safety off his gun and waves it in Ricky's face. Fortunately, he's saved from the indignity of having to explain why he accidentally shot an unresisting suspect in the face... because Ricky snatches the gun away and shoots him dead, before going going on his infamous "Garbage Day" rampage, resulting in at least three more deaths.
** At the film's climax, Mother Superior manages to escape from Ricky and arm herself with a knife. For argument's sake we'll accept that her being confined to a wheelchair means that trying to escape isn't a practical option, and that she reasoned that one of the neighbors ''probably'' called the police in response to a loudly ranting maniac chopping down her front door with an axe.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Mother Superior to keep the knife hidden, lure Ricky in close and then stab him with it. With any luck she'll be able to kill him first, and worst case she should at least get the pleasure of TakingYouWithMe.\\
'''Instead:''' As soon as Ricky enters the room, Mother Superior holds the knife in open view and essentially tells him "You're a naughty boy, so come here and let me punish you by stabbing you to death!" Ricky has a simpler solution, and just decapitates Mother Superior with his axe.
* In ''Film/SkyHigh2005'', near the end of the movie, Will's friends arrive at the hall, seeing him pinning Gwen/Royal Pain, ready to finish her off.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' They would wait for Will to finish her off before calling him.\\
'''Instead:''' They call him right away, distracting him, allowing Gwen to break free.
* At the end of ''Film/SleepingDogs'', main character Smith is cornered by Jesperson and the [[StateSec Special Police Force]]. He fires at Jesperson, but is obviously not trying, since he rants that isn't this what they want, him to fight them? He defiantly walks away from them while Jesperson angrily tells Smith not to turn his back on him.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Jesperson to just shoot him in the leg, or have his men go grab Smith.\\
'''Instead''': [[spoiler: He fatally shoots Smith after he turns away, ''then'' complains he needs him alive, and even kicks his corpse in frustration. FacePalm]].
* In ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit'', Buford and Junior are chasing the Bandit, until they come across an I-beam.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Buford and Junior to follow the Bandit's lead, and turn right.\\
'''Instead:''' "Duck, or you gonna be talkin' out of your ass!" Sure, they do just that, but...\\
'''The Result:''' ...Buford's police car become an InstantConvertible, when it could've been avoided. Then again, [[RuleOfFunny we wouldn't have had this gem]]:
--> '''Junior:''' Daddy, the top came off!
--> '''Buford:''' No shit.
* In ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit 2'', Justice has the Bandit at gunpoint and tries to take him in. The Bandit tricks him into using up his bullets. He orders Junior (the poster child for this trope) to give him his own gun as the Bandit tries to escape.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Junior's gun to be loaded and Justice successfully scares the Bandit into surrendering.\\
'''Instead''': Junior's gun is empty and the Bandit escapes.\\
'''It Gets Worse'''
-->'''Justice:''' Why didn't you have your gun loaded?!
-->'''Junior:''' When I put bullets in it, daddy, it gets too heavy.
* ''Film/TheSmurfs'': Papa Smurf and the other Smurfs visit the bookstore to find a component for their plan to return home. They get surprised by Gargamel forcing them to escape via an air vent.\\
'''You'd Expect''': That ''all'' the Smurfs would run like heck for safety.\\
'''Instead''': For no apparent reason, Papa decides to stay and hold off Gargamel while the other Smurfs continue on. By this point, Gargamel is armed with a powerful weapon made from Smurf Essence and easily captures Papa. Note that Gargamel likely couldn't follow them through the little vent in the first place, making Papa's sacrifice [[StupidSacrifice pointless]] and causing everyone to have to rescue him.
* While storming the castle in ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman'', the heroes are stuck right outside the castle because the gate is still shut.\\
'''You'd Expect''': The guards would take this opportunity to pour boiling oil on the heroes, quickly and easily winning the war for the villains.\\
'''Instead''': They wait until after the gate is open and half the army is inside.
* ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'' has Joe and Jerry see that Spats, the mobster who they saw kill Toothpick Charlie, is himself bumped off by overbosses. At the time, they are hiding under the tables because it's a party for the mob. Spats can't hurt them anymore, because he and his men are dead.\\
'''You'd Expect''': They would hide under the tables until everyone leaves. With Spats dead, the heat is off them, and they can stop being incognito.\\
'''Instead''': They get out from under the tables and try to sneak out. This sets the rest of the mobsters in the room after them.
* ''Film/SpaceMutiny'':
** When all the main engineering crew of the ''Southern Sun'' announce their intention to join in the titular mutiny in a meeting amongst themselves, one of the engineers, Parsons clearly isn't on-board with the whole plan. The other engineers mock Parsons, but don't actually act overly hostile towards him.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Parsons to sit out the meeting, maybe indicate that he would be amenable to joining in the mutiny, then go and alert the ship's commanders.\\
'''Instead''': He openly accuses the other engineers of mutiny and treason, and announces his intention to report them... and is then shocked when they turn on him and kill him horribly.
** Later on, one of the bridge crew, Lamont receives evidence that the mutineers were responsible for the destruction of a shuttlecraft. The ringleader, Kalgan, decides that she must be disposed of.\\
'''You'd Expect''': That in order to take advantage of the fact that the identity of the mutineers is still largely unknown, Kalgan would send some of his loyalists to "escort" Lamont from the ship's disco (don't ask), then dispose of her in a part of the ship he controls.\\
'''Instead''': He sends some of his loyalists, and they escort her to... right outside the disco, where Kalgan shoots her dead in person. Naturally this is heard by several people in the disco, including TheHero, Dave Ryder, who promptly tries to chase Kalgan down. While Ryder fails to actually capture Kalgan, his stupidity ends up giving the good guys direct evidence that the mutiny exists, and that Kalgan is one of the ringleaders.
** What's worse: Lt. Lamont had only a few scenes ago spoken with a man in engineering who warned her about the conspiracy. After she orders him to the bridge he is cornered by Kalgan's men and commits suicide.\\
'''You'd Expect''': That Lt. Lamont would notice that the man she ordered to the bridge to tell her about the mutiny failed to show up, and would tell someone else about it.\\
'''Instead''': She goes disco dancing and gets murdered (as described above).\\
'''For Added Idiocy''': Lamont was *on the bridge* when she got the report and while the evidence was intercepted, the engineer still gave very specific details which should've logically been passed on to the Captain. A double bout of idiocy both for Lamont for not saying anything, and for Kalgan for just assuming she didn't say anything and not just laying low for a while.
* ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'':
** Later on in the [[Film/SpiderMan3 third film]], Harry, now the New Goblin, recovers from the amnesia he got from his last fight with Peter, and decides to switch from killing Peter to making his life miserable. To that end, he breaks into M.J's home and threatens to kill Peter if she doesn't break up with him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' M.J. to remember that her boyfriend is a superhero who has dealt with supervillains several times by now, and tell him what Harry's up to. And if Harry finds out, at least Peter will be prepared for another attack from the New Goblin.\\
'''Instead:''' M.J. does everything that Harry asks of her, contributing further to Peter's moral and emotional downfall, and later prompting him to [[spoiler:try and murder]] his former best friend.
** Also, in the third film, Flint Marko has fallen in a particle accelerator, where an experiment involving sand is being conducted.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The scientists, after seeing an unknown mass, stop the experiment immediately.\\
'''Instead:''' They shrug off the mass as a bird, and then continue the experiment. The radiation gives Marko [[DishingOutDirt sand powers]], making him a dangerous supervillain.
* In a short film ''Film/TheStrangeThingAboutTheJohnsons'', Sidney wants to show his wife Joan a manuscript of his book "Cocoon Man" speaking about the sexual abuse he endured in the hands of his son. However, Joan is in the bathroom taking a shower. Isaiah wants to enter his parents' room, but Sidney hesitates to let him in.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For Sidney to assert his dominance in the household since he's the father and tell Isaiah that he just doesn't want him to enter the room. Then, Joan will find out about the sexual abuse Sidney is suffering.\\
'''Instead:''' Sidney doesn't even try to assert himself as the father to Isaiah. Isaiah then proceeds to enter the room, obtain the manuscript of the book, and threaten Sidney with consequences should he discover another printed manuscript.
* ''Film/{{Superman}}'' series
** In the original ''Superman'', Lex Luthor has set into motion his plan to sink California into the sea using a nuclear missile aimed at the San Andreas Fault, and has incapacitated Superman both with Kryptonite and by sending a second nuclear bomb in the opposite direction. When he reveals that the second target is Hackensack, New Jersey, his girlfriend Ms. Teschmacher protests that her mother lives there.\\
'''You'd expect''' he would lead her out of the room, handcuff her to something and then maybe go back and watch Superman die.\\
'''Instead:''' He shrugs her off, and leaves them both alone and unmonitored. Five minutes later, she's saved Superman from the Kryptonite and he's escaped through the ceiling, on his way to foiling the plan.
** ''Film/SupermanReturns'':
*** At the end of ''Film/SupermanII'', in just a week of his absence, three superpowered villains wreak havoc with the entire world while Superman is gone. He tells the President that he's sorry, and that he'll never put the world in that position again.\\
'''You'd expect:''' Anything, anything, ''anything'' but what he ends up doing.\\
'''Instead:''' He leaves without telling ''anyone'' he's going into deep space to find out what he was ''told'' by his own ''father'' happened: Krypton blew up. He ends up being gone ''five years''. Did we mention that Luthor goes free because Supes '''didn't show up in court to testify'''? WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong
*** Lois Lane is investigating a story about a blackout which seems to have spread from a specific location.\\
'''You'd expect''' she'd do some research into who lives there before barging into the house, or tell somebody, ''anybody'' where she was going, or at least drop off her ''five-year-old son'' somewhere else before going there.\\
'''Instead''' she goes in without telling a soul, and gets herself and her five-year-old son held hostage by Lex Luthor.
* After a small town is attacked by the titular swarm of killer bees in ''Film/TheSwarm'', the military decides to evacuate the town's population by train.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Since it's established that 3 or 4 stings from these bees is somehow enough to kill instantly, and even a single sting can result in hallucinations and eventual death, that all the train's windows would be shut as securely as possible.\\
'''Instead:''' The train's drivers have the windows in the engine cabin wide open. Sure enough, a bee gets in, and when one of the drivers kills it, the entire swarm descends upon the train in seconds, killing the drivers and causing the train to run out of control. It subsequently crashes [[MadeOfExplodium and violently explodes]], killing the town's ''entire population''.
* The final battle of ''[[Film/TaiChiMaster Tai Chi Master]]'', in which [[TheHero Junbao]] is soundly beating [[BigBad Tienbo]]. Tienbo calls for his army to attack Junbao, but they refuse, since Junbao's ally Siu Lin has the corrupt governor at swordpoint. Tienbo charges towards Siu, who turns the sword at him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Tienbo to take this perfect opportunity to disarm Siu, and perhaps kill her off while he's at it. Governor out of danger, problem solved.\\
'''Instead:''' ''[[DidntThinkThisThrough He kills the governor right in front of his entire army]]'', and tries to declare himself their leader. It's a simple matter for Siu to point out to the soldiers that Tienbo just killed their boss, and as a result of that, and Tienbo's BadBoss tendencies, they leave him to get his ass kicked.
* ''Film/{{Taken}}'':
** The main villains are human traffickers working for the Albanian Mafia.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That if you want to get into human trafficking in Europe, you'd get your supply from Eastern Europe, East Asia, Africa, and all those other places full of vulnerable women without money. Hell, tell them that you'll take them to a 1st world country to work as a maid or something, and they'll climb into the truck and pay you for it. Their governments have little resources to defend them, their families are poor and without any international clout, and because they're in the country illegally, a lot of law enforcement will look the other way.\\
'''Instead:''' They believe that the ideal victim is a girl with a family rich enough to send her on vacations, from a country with enough diplomatic clout to demand explanations. Better yet, let's scout for targets at a post 9/11 airport where our actions will be taped by security cameras and since they just got past customs, all the women have been officially documented as having just entered the country. [[SarcasmMode Yup, that'll end well]].
** Bryan's daughter Kim and her friend Amanda aren't much better in terms of common sense.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That they would get a licensed taxi to take them to wherever they're staying, and not tell anyone they don't know where that is.\\
'''Instead:''' They accept a ride with a complete stranger, and give the exact same stranger the address for the place they're staying at, their room's location, and also tell him that they'll be alone. As a result, the kidnapping gang's job becomes a lot easier.
** Later in the same film, the girls, including the protagonist's daughter, are being auctioned off as sex slaves. One of the buyers finds Bryan holding him at gunpoint and demanding he buy a girl who, yes, turns out to be his daughter. Bryan is caught, and [[TapOnTheHead clonked on the head]], [[UnwillingSuspension hung him from a pipe]], and asks what the hell he's doing and why he just cost him over half a million dollars. Bryan offers to pay the guy back.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' A number of options present themselves. He could scoff at the suggestion, sure that this anonymous attacker can't refund him over half a million dollars, whereupon said anonymous attacker would produce some proof that yes, he could (and [[CrazyPrepared you know he would]]). He could say "Oh, well in that case I guess I can forget this ever happened," possibly demand a little extra for his silence (Bryan didn't specify what he was paying for, or how much). Or, if he insists on being a CardCarryingVillain, he could [[JustShootHim shoot him in the head]] with his own gun.\\
'''Instead:''' He goes on about how this is "a unique business, with a unique clientele", which completely fails to explain why he thinks it's a good plan to walk away, leaving him in the hands of his security guys, who Bryan has already proven himself quite capable of overcoming. He breaks out, of course.\\
'''Result:''' After killing all the guards, Bryan heads straight for him, with the latter trying to talk his way out and failing utterly, finishing with [[NothingPersonal "it wasn't personal."]] Bryan responds "It was all personal to me" and puts six rounds in his chest, leaving the body in an elevator for the partygoers upstairs to find.
* In ''Film/ThelmaAndLouise'', Thelma meets a handsome stranger named Harlan who turns out to be a HandsomeLech. Harlan tries to rape Thelma, but is driven off at gunpoint by Louise, who disregards his excuse that they were "just having a little fun."\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Harlan to back off and walk away. If he's got anything nasty to say, fine, just make sure Louise can't hear it. Because, you know, she has a gun.\\
'''Instead:''' This exchange:
-->'''[[TooDumbToLive Harlan]]:''' [[BullyingADragon Bitch! I shoulda gone ahead and fucked her!]]\\
'''Louise:''' What did you say?\\
'''[[AssholeVictim Harlan]]:''' [[FamousLastWords I said suck my cock!]]\\
'''Louise's Gun:''' BANG!
* In ''Film/TimeAfterTime'', Creator/HGWells' acquaintance John Leslie Stevenson steals Wells' time machine and departs 1893 for November 5, 1979, after being outed as UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper. However, because Stevenson doesn't have a special key, the time machine automatically returns itself to 1893 and shows Wells where (or when) Stevenson ended up.\\
'''You'd expect:''' Wells to get a detective or a companion, cram both of them into the machine, and set the date for a couple of days before Stevenson arrives -- say, November 3, 1979 -- and wait to nab Stevenson as soon as he arrives.\\
'''Instead:''' Wells goes alone, and travels directly to November 5, 1979. It takes him a couple of days to find Stevenson. When he does, Stevenson overpowers and eludes him and resumes his killing spree.
** Later, Wells goes to the police in 1979 to tell them that Stevenson is the San Francisco Ripper. The detective runs a check on Stevenson's name but it comes up negative. He asks Wells for more information.\\
'''You'd expect:''' Wells to at least ''pretend'' to have personally witnessed a murder. Or have the detectives talk to a hotel maid who witnessed the scuffle between Wells and Stevenson. And for Wells to identify himself as Herbert Wells (his real name), which is less commonly known and much more ordinary sounding than his pen name (remember that Amy didn't make the connection until Wells told her the truth).\\
'''Instead:''' He hems and haws and can't come up with a good explanation as to why he suspects Stevenson. And he identifies himself as Franchise/SherlockHolmes to the detective, thinking that the fictional sleuth's popularity would have waned by 1979, not even taking into account that the policeman ''might'' have heard about the character. Unsurprisingly, the detective isn't convinced, and more murders occur.
** Later on, Stevenson has targeted Amy in order to get back at Wells, and has left a threatening letter at her apartment. Wells tells Amy the truth and proves it by taking her two days into the future. She sees herself on the cover of a future newspaper, identifying her as the Ripper's fifth victim.\\
'''You'd expect:''' Wells to take Amy back to 1893, drop her off at his house for her own well-being, return to a bit earlier in 1979 to handle Stevenson on his own, then return to the past to retrieve Amy. They have all the time in the world with a time machine!\\
'''Instead:''' They both go back to the very day they arrived from, try to stop the fourth murder, and fail spectacularly. Wells tries calling 911 to report the murder, identifying himself as Holmes again, but it only makes him look like the guilty party.\\
'''Even worse:''' Wells decides that Amy should ''stay home'' for a bit (!!!), gather her nerves, and then go to a hotel to hide. Except she takes some sleeping pills with liquor and is completely out of it when Wells is arrested, and is still at home when Stevenson comes around. [[spoiler:If not for a ProphecyTwist, she'd be dead.]]
* At the end of ''Film/TimeBandits'', Kevin is teleported back to his room, which is filled with smoke and firemen are in his house because the family microwave caused the fire. His parents find a strange-looking rock inside the microwave. Kevin warns them not to touch it.\\
'''You'd expect''' that they give the firemen the microwave or just don't touch the rock.\\
'''Instead''' they touch it and [[spoiler:explode]].
* In ''Film/Titanic1997'', the ship is sinking and Jack and Rose are trapped in steerage with the hallway starting to flood. They try bringing a child to safety when his father steps in and [[LanguageBarrier yells at them in a language they can't understand]]. At one end of the hallway is a door ready to burst open with water.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The father to see the water practically foaming out of said door at this point and stay the hell away.\\
'''Instead:''' He carries his son over there to [[SkewedPriorities pick up their luggage]], Jack and Rose yelling at him not to. When he sees the door, he stands there like a DeerInTheHeadlights and it opens, [[DownerEnding sweeping them both away]].
* In ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'', a trio of thugs attempt to rob a restaurant with a shotgun and a pistol. Toxie later intervenes, and it soon becomes clear that the thugs can't beat him in melee combat.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That one of the thugs would pick up one of the guns and [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim just shoot Toxie]].\\
'''Instead:''' This idea never occurs to them, and Toxie subsequently kills all three of them.
* ''Film/{{Transformers}}'':
** The Decepticons are primarily aircraft alt-modes. The Autobots are ALL restricted to land movement. The humans plan is to place Sam and the Allspark and a few soldiers on a helicopter transport. Which is standard procedure for EVAC of civilians, but hardly appropriate in this situation!\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The Decepticons LET them load the Allspark onto the helicopter. Then he wait until the copter is high in the air, reasonably far from the Autobots... then they just fly up to it and take the Allspark with minimum resistance from the puny humans.\\
'''Instead:''' They let Starscream blow up the helicopter, keeping Sam grounded. Megatron when he tries to take the AllSpark from Sam gets met with sturdy opposition from Optimus Prime and the U.S. Army.
** Also, at the beginning of the film, the human Sam Witwicky is selling the PlotCoupon on Website/EBay.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The Decepticons hack themselves a Paypal account and bid on the item.\\
'''Instead:''' They send two Decepticons to interrogate Sam, running afoul of the Autobot sent to protect him.
* ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'':
** Alice, [[spoiler:a Decepticon Pretender masquerading as a girl]], is caught in a... tender embrace with Sam by Mikaela. Disgusted, Mikaela storms out of the room.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Alice prevents Sam from getting off the bed at all. If that's not possible, quickly and efficiently pin him down in one move while raising minimal fuss.\\
'''Instead:''' When Sam does resist, Alice spends some time throwing Sam around. The noise alerts Mikaela, who is able to get back in time to help him.
** Alice might have as well held a SmartBall during that scene when compared against what Sam and co. did in this scene. After they found the Crest of Leadership needed to revive Optimus Prime to defeat The Fallen, the military, who had Optimus Prime's corpse, gave Sam a call, who was at the Great Pyramids, about deciding a place to meet and revive Optimus Prime.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That they would decide on a good rendezvous point like the Great Pyramids where the heroes were, and there were no Decepticons or witnesses around.\\
'''Instead:''' Everyone decided to go to a nearby populated village where the Decepticons were headed. The result was a huge battle between the Autobots and Decepticons in the middle of a bunch of witnesses, [[TooDumbToLive with Sam nearly dying in the cross-fire.]] An EpicFail in what was already an IdiotPlot.
* ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'':
** Starscream is chasing down Sam and Carly with intent to terminate the two "insects".\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Starscream to simply kill them with his missile launcher or multi-barrel cannon.\\
'''Instead:''' He toys with the insects and just chases them and scares them with his buzzsaw for the fun of it. This of course gives Sam the time and opportunity to use Autobot Que's grapple-hook gadget to tear out Starscream's right eye. Starscream then goes berserk from the pain this gives him and because Sam's attached to him through the hook, he sends Sam flying around.\\
'''You'd Then Expect:''' Starscream to grab Sam and snap him in half.\\
'''Instead:''' He starts swaying around out of pain and only tries kicking Sam in the air with his foot. Then, Sam manages to install a stick-bomb in his other eye, blinding Starscream before [[YourHeadASplode the bomb explodes and kills him by blowing his head out]].
* ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'':
** Joshua Joyce is building his own Transformers and is trying to get his hands on a Seed, a terraforming bomb that creates Transformer metal he needs for his prototypes. However, he's secretly being manipulated into doing this by [[spoiler:Megatron]], who has covertly taken over one of his prototypes and has his own plans for the Seed.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Given this entire plan hinges on Joyce being none-the-wiser that his technology has been compromised, [[spoiler:Megatron]] would allow Joyce to control the prototype until such time that he could obtain the Seed for himself.\\
'''Instead:''' [[spoiler:Megatron]] hijacks control of the prototype at several points just to be needlessly sadistic and even ''speaks through it'', something the prototypes are outright incapable of doing. With a little push from Cade, Joyce rightly suspects that something's amiss and throws a wrench into the entire plan.
** In the climax, corrupt government official and the movie's human BigBad Harold Attinger engages Cade in a fight, during which Attinger manages to get the Cybertronian dagger Cade found on Lockdown's ship away from him. He now has Cade unarmed and at gunpoint. Optimus Prime is currently engaging Lockdown less than 100 yards away, with clear line-of-sight to where Attinger is standing. Attinger is convinced that all Transformers are dangerous, regardless of alignment. Furthermore, Optimus proved earlier in the film that he has fewer compunctions about killing enemy humans now than he had in the previous films, ''especially'' ones that threaten or kill his allies.\\
'''You'd Think:''' That Attinger would dispense with the speeches and shoot Cade, and then haul ass into the nearest cover before Optimus gets the chance to retaliate in kind.\\
'''Instead:''' He stands there and goes on a MotiveRant. Optimus sees him holding Cade at gunpoint and, as soon as he gets the opening, shoots Attinger with a shotgun slug the size of a large truck. Lockdown is able to use the diversion to get the upper hand against Optimus, but Cade is able to recover the dagger and harass Lockdown with it until Optimus can get back on his feet and rejoin the fight.
* Early in ''Film/UniversalSoldierTheReturn'', the military decides to shut down and dismantle S.E.T.H., the artificially-intelligent computer which controls the [=UniSols=]. S.E.T.H. naturally isn't too keen on this, but has a problem in that if he just kills all the people trying to shut him down, it'll eventually trigger a SelfDestructMechanism that requires a certain code to be entered every day in order to temporarily disarm it. Only two people know the code -- S.E.T.H.'s creator, Dr. Cotner, and former [=UniSol=] Luc Deveraux.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That S.E.T.H. would use the [=UniSols=] under his command to take control of the facility, capture Luc and Cotner before they know what's going on, and then have the [=UniSols=] torture them until they give up the codes. Granted, Luc is a former soldier and not all that likely to break under torture, but Cotner will probably be a different story, given that he's a scientist with no combat experience.\\
'''Instead:''' S.E.T.H. has the [=UniSols=] start taking over the facility... but not until after he's already let Luc and Cotner know about his rebellion courtesy of a PrecisionFStrike. And then just to ''really'' turn the idiocy UpToEleven, he fries both Cotner and an innocent bystander alive with an electricity beam -- an honorary What an Idiot also goes to whoever thought it was a good idea to install ''that'' in a fully autonomous AI with few-to-no programming constraints -- leaving Luc as the only one who knows the code. And he naturally isn't inclined to give it up to S.E.T.H. under these circumstances.
* ''Film/TheUntouchables'':
** [[TheDragon Frank Nitti]] accidentally exposes himself as the murderer of [[TheMentor Jim Malone]] to Eliot Ness. Nitti promptly flees the scene and heads for the rooftop. After a scuffle with Ness, Nitti [[LiteralCliffHanger finds himself hanging from the rooftop]]. Out of principle, Ness helps him up and apprehends him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Nitti to exercise his right to remain silent, for anything he says can and will be used against him. Such as what he actually does.\\
'''Instead:''' He decides to [[EvilGloating mock Malone's]] [[WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied death]] in-front of Ness and brags that he'll [[KarmaHoudini beat the rap]]. Ness promptly abandons his code of ethics and tosses Nitti off the roof.
** Earlier, Frank Nitti writes Malone's address on a matchbook to help him carry out his murder.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Since it's now potential police evidence, Nitti would dispose of it right away.\\
'''Instead:''' He does not. The matchbook is what identifies him as Malone's killer, which leads to his downfall.
* TheSeventies cheesefest ''Film/VivaKnievel'':
** Evel Knievel's protege-turned-rival Jessie has overheard a plot to kill Evel via sabotaging his his latest stunt, then using the transport of his body to cover for the transport of millions of dollars in cocaine over the Mexico/US border. Jessie clumsily tries to tell Evil this, then knocks Evel out when he tries to blow Jessie off.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Jessie to call off the jump and point out the rigged bike to authorities, thwarting the Big Bad's plans without risking anyone's life.\\
'''Instead:''' Jessie takes Evel's place on the big jump and dies instead. A StupidSacrifice that turns into a SenselessSacrifice, when the bad guys merely claim Jessie's body is Evel's and proceed as planned. Made even worse by an earlier scene, when...
** Evel sneaks into a Mexican sanitarium to talk to his mentor/mechanic, Will. Will tells Evel that he'd found pictures of their custom tractor-trailer in the possession of the BigBad, leading to Will's being set up as being a junkie and institutionalized (getting him out of the way so that the bad guys' sabotage of Evel's bike would go undetected.)\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Evel to postpone the jump - at least until he could get Will out of the sanitarium.\\
'''Instead:''' He tells Will that he has to stay in the sanitarium until after the jump. Despite the fact that he knows he's been targeted by criminals. The same criminals he knows ''were Jessie's patrons.''
* The backstory to ''Film/{{Wishmaster}}'' reveals that if someone makes three wishes of a Djinn, it will destroy the barriers between our world and the Djinn's world and allow their kind to overrun the Earth. One such creature grants two wishes to an ancient sultan, the second of which inflicts all kinds of horrible suffering on his subjects. Just as the sultan is about to make a third wish to undo his previous one, the court sorcerer shows up and tells the sultan what will happen if he makes his third wish.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The Djinn to dismiss the sorcerer's accusations as nonsense, and to reassure the sultan into making his third wish.\\
'''Instead:''' He ''admits'' everything the sorcerer is accusing him of, and even goes so far to show the other Djinn that are attempting to break through the now-weakened barriers between the worlds. Naturally the sultan is reluctant to make a wish under these circumstances, and it gives the sorcerer time to imprison the main Djinn inside a jewel.
** As a corollary to this, the Djinn's plan is dependent on the one who awoke him making their three wishes, and it is in his best interests not to alienate said person.\\
'''You'd Expect''' The Djinn would make every effort to grant the wishes as positively at possible, or at the very least sabotage them in ways that don't make him look like a needlessly sadistic prick. Also, maybe hold off on randomly screwing other people who make wishes for yucks. There will be plenty of time for that when his kind rule the world.\\
'''Instead:''' The Djinn goes about doing his JackassGenie thing, inevitably causing the heroes to find some way to weasel out of freeing him.
* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'': Three guards equipped with spears have snuck up behind Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion and are about to ambush them..\\
'''You'd Expect''' That they would use their spears and simply stab them while they weren't looking.\\
'''Instead''' They THROW AWAY their spears and attack them in a hand to hand fight, which the Guards ultimately lose.\\
'''The Result''' Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are able to take the Guards gear as disguise and rescue Dorothy.
* ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'':
** Gary, on a pub crawl with his old school friends, is in a restroom at pub 4 when a teenage boy comes in and starts using the urinals down the room. Gary tries to engage in small talk now that he has company.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The boy would add input into the conversation. Note that he and almost the entire town [[AlienInvasion have been replaced by replicant]] [[YouKeepUsingThatWord 'Blanks']], so a little conversation will have prevent Gary from finding out.\\
'''Instead:''' He doesn't answer, leading to TheReveal and a fight with Gary and his friends.\\
'''But You'd Also Expect:''' Gary and his friends to do a ScrewThisImOuttaHere on the town and get out and far from the [[spoiler:the other locations that have taken over by the]] Blanks so they won't be targetted.\\
'''Instead:''' Gary insists that continuing the crawl will lessen the suspicion. Naturally, [[spoiler:the Network controlling]] the Blank colony tries to make them part of their number as a result.\\
'''You'd Then Expect:''' The group would stick together at all times to avoid being replaced.\\
'''Instead:''' One of them goes to the bathroom alone [[spoiler:and gets replaced.]] Oh, and then they begin to break apart.
* ''Film/WorldWarZ'': It is a ZombieApocalypse, and zombies are known to be attracted to loud noise.\\
'''You'd Expect''' That A) the utmost importance of keeping quiet would be hammered into survivors everywhere, all the time, and it would be strictly enforced, and B) that the military would immediately weaponize this trait, creating lures to drive the zombies away from survivors and into traps.\\
'''Instead''' The second part is merely neglected, but the people of Jerusalem actually go out of their way to violate the first one. While in a city, protected from the undead hordes by a wall, they decide to celebrate their good fortune by singing. All together. ''Through a microphone''. Naturally, zombies cannot pass such a heartfelt invitation and start forming a zombie-pile outside until they scale the wall.\\
'''You'd Then Expect''' That since that wall is essential to the city's survival, the military would monitor it. After all, the zombies are not exactly subtle or stealthy.\\
'''Instead''' They somehow miss the assaulting horde untill it literally spills over the wall.
* ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'':
** Scott starts hearing Jean's voice in his head, calling his name.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That, being the leader of the team, he would (at the very least) go talk to someone about it, especially Xavier (who would be able to read his mind and figure out what's going on).\\
'''Instead:''' He secretly packs a bag, blows off Logan (who tries to help him) and goes off to Alkali Lake by himself. There, he accidentally(?) awakens Jean/Phoenix, who then proceeds to [[spoiler:de-atomize him]]. As if acknowledging Scott's actions, no one mentions him for the rest of the film. StuffedIntoTheFridge and SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome, indeed.
** Prior to the events of the film (and the trilogy), Xavier implanted a series of mental mindblocks in Jean's mind to prevent a latent personality (Dark Phoenix) from taking over.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That sometime over the last twenty-plus years, Xavier would have at least mentioned this information to Jean for her own safety. Not even when she's brought back to the school from Alkali Lake does he bother to come down and see her (when she's feeling conflicted about her identity) and try to restore the mindblocks. Instead, he's ''teaching a class''.\\
'''Instead:''' Jean, more pissed off than ever, takes up residence at her old home, and Xavier willingly walks in (with Magneto, no less) to try and reason with her. It ends [[AnyoneCanDie about as well as you would expect]].
** Magneto wants to kill the mutant whose DNA is being used to create the anti-mutant serum, who is located on Alcatraz Island. Magneto, in a stupendous display of power, ''lifts the freaking Golden Gate Bridge'' to get to Alcatraz.\\
'''You'd Think:''' that since Magneto wants to kill this particular mutant, and doesn't really care about civilian casualties incurred in the process, that while he was lifting an object hundreds of feet in the air that weighs over 1000 tons, he'd just drop it on their heads or turn it into a blizzard of shrapnel to tear every living being on the island into shreds.\\
'''Instead:''' he uses it to form a bridge, marches across it and digs in for a long, difficult, and unsuccessful siege of the place.
* ''Film/XMenFirstClass:''
** After successfully preventing the Cuban Missile Crisis from escalating into a full-out nuclear war due to the meddling of a psychotic mutant, mutants are now known to both the Russian and U.S. governments as a powerful force capable of causing hurricanes, flying, blasting people, and lifting an entire submarine out of the ocean.\\
'''You'd Think:''' Both sides would see the potential for using these people in combat, especially given that they prevented a full-on nuclear war since the CIA was well-aware of the role that the mutants played in the incident. Or at the very least, acknowledging that these are the ''last'' people you'd want to provoke and make angry!\\
'''Instead:''' Both sides just see the potential threat presented by these powerful individuals and try to blow them up with missiles. After just seeing one of the mutants lift a submarine with his power!
** Moira is fighting against Erik, a guy who she knows can control metal with his mind.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That she wouldn't [[NoSell fire a gun at him]], given that guns ''shoot metal bullets''. Hell, with the power Erik possesses, he could probably shoot them back at her!\\
'''Instead:''' He deflects the bullets ''easily'', and one of them hits a bystander.\\
'''Even Worse:''' Even after Moira sees him deflect the first bullet, ''she keeps shooting'', accomplishing fuck-all.
** Charles Xavier knows everything about Erik Lehnsherr, having read his mind and spoken to him numerous times about the future of mutants and humankind. Erik, being a Holocaust survivor, constantly voiced the view that humans and mutants could not coexist, and that the U.S. government would eventually treat the mutants like the Nazis treated Jews. Then the U.S. and Russian battleships attempt to indiscriminately destroy the mutants with missiles, which Erik catches with his powers and sends back.\\
'''You'd Think:''' Charles would remember Erik's views on mutant and humankind, especially his past as a persecuted minority, and try to phrase his arguments for not declaring war on humanity to the effect of a.) they were outnumbered and vulnerable and b.) Erik was [[HeWhoFightsMonsters becoming just like his former enemies in his extremism]].\\
'''Instead''': He says, "They were JustFollowingOrders." To a Holocaust survivor. Who is now a member of yet another persecuted and threatened minority.
* ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'':
** There is no doubt Mystique is a heroic figure in the movie. By the 70s, she is the only one who actively works for the mutant cause and does things like rescuing Alex's unit from being experimented on by Trask. She decides the best way to deal with Trask is to eliminate him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Mystique would kill him in his sleep or in an otherwise covert manner. It's not like she can't reach him, having consistently proven she can sneak into any location with ease.\\
'''Instead:''' She chooses to attack Trask at ''very'' high profile events like the Paris Peace Conference and the Sentinel demonstration in Washington DC, where security is typically tight and she has a higher risk of being killed and/or captured, which is exactly what happens in the original timeline when Charles Xavier isn't there to talk her out of killing Trask. This is especially stupid for the first attack, as Mystique has no idea Trask carries around a mutant detector and has no valid reason to resort to such a public assassination.
** Magneto deciding to [[spoiler:try and kill Mystique]] is hypocritically in-character for him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Like the above example, Magneto would kill her at her most alone and vulnerable.\\
'''Instead:''' He attempts to kill her right after they've just prevented the assassination of Trask. The stupid part is that Wolverine and Beast, two people capable of kicking his ass, are present and accounted for. Wolverine gets taken out due to some flashbacks, but Beast very nearly drowns Magneto in a fountain.
[[/folder]]
----

'''Result:''' Einon uses his newfound power to become a more CompleteMonster than his father had been through extortion, torture, murder, and even rape.

* Asian Schoolgirls, by the Asylum:

* In [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney's Great Adventure]], the Dream Maker egg ends up at a restaurant after B.J. accidentally tosses it.

** In "A Very Brady Sequel," a con artist, Trevor Thomas, is able to easily maneuver his way into the Brady household, claiming he is Carol's "long-lost first husband," Roy Martin. Even though there are obvious red flags, the Bradys are such idiots that neither Mike, nor Marcia, Jan or Cindy, nor Carol ask him tough questions to expose "Roy" as a fraud. For instance, even Mike would be able to recognize the physical features of Carol's first husband, and Carol would remember what happened to her first husband and why he's had no contact with her or her daughters, or in the very least subtle personality/physical quirks that Thomas would not have picked up on. Only arguably the dumbest person in the original TV series – Alice – senses that "Roy" is not who he says he is. (Of course, much of the humor of this film comes from exactly that – a con man who otherwise would be stopped dead in his tracks taking advantage of a family so stupid to recognize their own stupidity.)

* ''The Wizard of Oz'': Three guards equipped with spears have snuck up behind Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion and are about to ambush them..\\

* ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'': Their attempt to send food to Andy in the gun store has gone awry, and Nicole has gotten herself trapped in his store. All of the men except Steve are going to rescue her and load up on ammunition, leaving Steve to wait and open the one-way fire door that is their only way back into the mall.\\

'''Instead''': Evan goes on and on about random philosophical bull beforehand and also telling Lenny to [[ExactWords stop Tommy]] [[SkewedPriorities before the rope]]. [[PoorCommunicationKills Combined with Evan's suddenly eloquent speech beforehand, Lenny easily misinterprets to mean kill Tommy]].\\

'''Instead''': Evan goes on and on about random philosophical bull beforehand that [[PoorCommunicationKills Lenny easily misinterprets to mean kill Tommy]].\\

** Eventually, Evan gets another shot at an incident where Tommy burnt Evan's puppy alive in a bag, and their friend Lenny's knife wasn't sharp enough to cut the bag. In the original timeline, this incident and Tommy's threats during it haunted Lenny immensely. This time, Evan gives Lenny a much sharper knife.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Evan would tell Lenny to simply and only cut the bag open, then stop.\\
'''Instead''': Evan goes on and on about random philosophical bull that [[PoorCommunicationKills Lenny easily misinterprets to mean kill Tommy]].\\
'''Making This Worse''': Evan is able to appeal to Tommy's better nature this time and convinces him to free the puppy. Not only does this mean the knife was pointless- shortly after, Lenny kills Tommy with the knife, leading to the worst possible timeline.

'''Instead''': Evan goes on and on about random philosophical bull that [[PoorCommunicationKills Lenny easily misnterprets to mean kill Tommy]].\\