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** When Anakin tells Windu of the fact that Sidious is a Sith Lord, Windu fails to tell anybody outside of the four who leave with him (the novelisation states that Yoda is informed). So when it goes tits up, it really does look like the Jedi attempted a coup to everyone.

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** When Anakin tells Windu of the fact that Sidious is a Sith Lord, Windu fails to tell anybody outside of the four who leave with him (the novelisation states that Yoda is informed).informed, too, not that it makes things better though). So when it goes tits up, it really does look like the Jedi attempted a coup to everyone.



* In Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''Film/TheThing1982'', the movie begins with a man chasing after a dog with explosives and a rifle, trying to warn the others that the dog is a monster in disguise and must be destroyed. The man's warning is unheeded and he is shot and killed because he was speaking Norwegian while the main characters were American and couldn't understand. As mentioned in the ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' entry, it's hard to imagine the main characters reacting any different no matter what language the guy had been speaking.

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* In Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''Film/TheThing1982'', the movie begins with a man chasing after a dog with explosives and a rifle, trying to warn the others that the dog is a monster in disguise and must be destroyed. The man's warning is unheeded and he is shot and killed because he was speaking Norwegian while the main characters were American and couldn't understand. As mentioned in the ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' entry, it's hard to imagine the main characters reacting any different no matter what language the guy had been speaking.speaking, especially when the Norwegian accidentally grazes one of the station workers with a bullet before getting shot.
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*”Film/{{BodiesBodiesBodies}}”: Pretty much the entire plot of this film involves people dying due to poor communication.

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* ''Film/{{The Princess|2022}}'': The fat merc being too tired/lazy to give an appropriate sitrep when he finally reaches the Princess' chambers at the top of the tower, giving her some time to get further downstairs. This trope can also be taken literally, since this also allows her to chop up plenty of Julius' troops on the way.
* ''Film/ReapTheWildWind'': Steve successfully argues for Jack to be made the captain of the ''Southern Cross'', but Commodore Devereaux orders him not to tell Jack about this decision until his guilt or innocence in the wreck of the ''Jubilee'' is established. When Jack finds out, he accuses Steve of deliberately stopping his promotion and Steve goes along with the deception (presumably to avoid turning Jack against his boss, Captain Devereaux). As a result of this misunderstanding, [[spoiler:when Devereaux dies, Jack thinks that Steve will fire him and makes a HeelFaceTurn.]]

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* ''Film/{{The Princess|2022}}'': ''Film/ThePrincess2022'': The fat merc being too tired/lazy to give an appropriate sitrep when he finally reaches the Princess' chambers at the top of the tower, giving her some time to get further downstairs. This trope can also be taken literally, since this also allows her to chop up plenty of Julius' troops on the way.
* ''Film/ReapTheWildWind'': Steve successfully argues for Jack to be made the captain of the ''Southern Cross'', but Commodore Devereaux orders him not to tell Jack about this decision until his guilt or innocence in the wreck of the ''Jubilee'' is established. When Jack finds out, he accuses Steve of deliberately stopping his promotion and Steve goes along with the deception (presumably to avoid turning Jack against his boss, Captain Devereaux). As a result of this misunderstanding, [[spoiler:when Devereaux dies, Jack thinks that Steve will fire him and makes a HeelFaceTurn.]]HeelFaceTurn]].
* In ''Film/TheRuins'', poor communication literally kills, as the Mayan-speaking locals are unable to effectively warn the main characters away from the titular ruins. TruthInTelevision, as it's very common for Mayans in the poor rural areas of Mexico to speak no or very little Spanish, much less English.
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* In the 2023 horror film ''Cobweb'', Peter's parents' attempts to take him out of school and punish him by locking him in the basement for a couple of nights leave him willing to accept the idea that they have kept his older sister in captivity for years and intend to kill them both. If his parents had actually told Peter that he had a sister who they kept locked away because she was dangerous, at the very least Peter might have been willing to find out more rather than [[spoiler:give in to his sister's encouragement and actually poison his parents in the belief he was saving a fellow victim of their abuse]].
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*** The entire airport fight and all the associated injuries and property damage could have been avoided if Steve had just called Tony and let him know about the other Winter Soldiers. Notably, Tony gives up on chasing them and goes to help once he finds out. To be fair to Steve, he did try to talk to Tony about right before the fight, but Tony cut him off, having been too stressed out by Ross and his ultimatums to listen by that point.
*** And, of course, the climactic final fight arguably could have been avoided if Steve had told Tony that Bucky had killed Tony's parents while under brainwashing. Granted, he was a bit fuzzy on the details until he, Bucky, and Tony were shown what went down, but the fact is that Cap knew for 2 years how it happened and he kept his mouth shut.

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*** The entire airport fight and all the associated injuries and property damage could have been avoided if Steve had just called Tony and let him know about the other Winter Soldiers. Notably, Tony gives up on chasing them and goes to help once he finds out. To be fair to Steve, he did try to talk to Tony about right before the fight, but Tony cut him off, having been too stressed out by Ross thanks to the stresses of Ross' and his ultimatums to listen by that point.
ultimatums.
*** And, of course, the climactic final fight arguably could have been avoided if Steve had told Tony that Bucky had killed Tony's parents while under brainwashing. Granted, he was a bit fuzzy on the details until he, Bucky, and Tony were shown what went down, but the fact is that Cap knew for 2 years how it happened and he kept his mouth shut. Cap even apologizes (by letter) in the denouement.
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* ''Film/{{Arrival}}'': The crux of the film is the difficulty of communication with an alien species that has recently landed on Earth, and mankind collectively going crazy wondering if this is a hostile invasion or not. The world's militaries manage to keep a tight enough lid on things to prevent anyone from actually attacking the aliens... for the most part. When humanity finally manages to pose the question "What is your purpose?" to the aliens, their response complicates things. [[spoiler:The message they send back is interpreted as "Use weapon". This very nearly causes several militaries to attack the aliens, and in one case a small group of soldiers goes rogue and bomb an alien vessel as a pre-emptive strike, which winds up killing one of the aliens. Later it's learned that what the aliens ''meant'' to say was "Offer gift". Fortunately, the aliens seem to understand that the bombing was carried out by a rogue group and was not representative of all humans, and do not take the attack as a declaration of war.]]

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* ''Film/{{Arrival}}'': The crux of the film is the difficulty of communication with an alien species that has recently landed on Earth, and mankind collectively going crazy wondering if this is a hostile invasion or not. The world's militaries manage to keep a tight enough lid on things to prevent anyone from actually attacking the aliens... for the most part. When humanity finally manages to pose the question "What is your purpose?" to the aliens, their response complicates things. [[spoiler:The message they send back is interpreted as "Use weapon". This very nearly causes several militaries to attack the aliens, and in one case a small group of soldiers goes rogue and bomb an alien vessel as a pre-emptive strike, which winds up killing one of the aliens. Later it's learned that what the aliens ''meant'' to say ''actually'' said was "Offer gift". Fortunately, the aliens seem to understand that the bombing was carried out by a rogue group and was not representative of all humans, and do not take the attack as a declaration of war.]]
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* The cheesy, melodramatic 80s kung fu-romance flick, ''Journey of the Doomed'', has a ThirdActMisunderstanding that happens between the protagonist Lin and his lover Shui-erh, because Shui-erh mistakens Lin having an affair with their common friend, a mute girl, when in actuality Lin was trying to help the mute girl after she was bitten by a poisonous snake. Never mind that they have a lengthy FallingInLoveMontage several scenes ago, and that they've proclaimed their love ''one'' scene before the misunderstanding: somehow it ''never'' occurs to Lin to explain, their mutual friend was injured and he's only trying to help. It gets really egregious when the ''mute'' girl attempts to communicate between the two arguing lovers to no avail (because she's... mute?) while the two lovers only knows how to scowl and raise voices at each other for no apparent reason.

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* The cheesy, melodramatic 80s kung fu-romance flick, ''Journey of the Doomed'', ''Film/JourneyOfTheDoomed'', has a ThirdActMisunderstanding that happens between the protagonist Lin and his lover Shui-erh, because Shui-erh mistakens Lin having an affair with their common friend, a mute girl, when in actuality Lin was trying to help the mute girl after she was bitten by a poisonous snake. Never mind that they have a lengthy FallingInLoveMontage several scenes ago, and that they've proclaimed their love ''one'' scene before the misunderstanding: somehow it ''never'' occurs to Lin to explain, their mutual friend was injured and he's only trying to help. It gets really egregious when the ''mute'' girl attempts to communicate between the two arguing lovers to no avail (because she's... mute?) while the two lovers only knows how to scowl and raise voices at each other for no apparent reason.
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*** Anakin doesn’t help by being extremely vague about what happened his visions. You can’t properly help someone if you have very little idea of what the problem is. He didn’t even need to give much more detail simply say it was a fixable medical problem to which Yoda would either offer the Jedi Temple’s med centre or if not that recommend a good doctor.
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* ''Film/{{Sleepers}}'': Michael and Carol's relationship ended because he wouldn't let Carol close beyond a certain point. During the trial when Carol found out about the sexual abuse Michael endured as a juvie boy, she says maybe things could've been different if he told her. Given she's a social worker and almost certainly would've seen similar behavior from others who'd been abused in her job, it's perhaps a slight case of IdiotBall that she didn't appear to consider even the possibility. Or not, since there ''is'' a reason social workers are not allowed to work on the cases of people close to them -- the emotional bond understandably makes them prone to bias.
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* ''Film/GlassOnion'': [[spoiler:Helen]] and Whiskey have a friendly discussion during the day which ends with [[spoiler:Helen]] advising Whiskey that Duke is a shithead and she should dump him. Later that night, Whiskey stumbles across [[spoiler:Helen ransacking Duke's room]] and tearfully says she "left" Duke. Helen comforts her, saying that this is better for Whiskey and Duke got what he deserved. Unfortunately, Whiskey meant she "left" in a blind panic after Duke died and thinks [[spoiler:Helen]] is gloating about killing him.

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* ''Film/GlassOnion'': [[spoiler:Helen]] and Whiskey have a friendly discussion during the day which ends with [[spoiler:Helen]] advising Whiskey that Duke is a shithead and she should dump him. Later that night, Whiskey stumbles across [[spoiler:Helen ransacking Duke's room]] and tearfully says she "left" Duke. Helen comforts her, saying that this is better for Whiskey and Duke got what he deserved. Unfortunately, Whiskey meant she "left" in a blind panic after Duke died and thinks [[spoiler:Helen]] is gloating about killing him. This ends with Whiskey grabbing a speargun and nearly killing [[spoiler:Helen]].
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* ''Film/GlassOnion'': [[spoiler:Helen]] and Whiskey have a friendly discussion during the day which ends with [[spoiler:Helen]] advising Whiskey that Duke is a shithead and she should dump him. Later that night, Whiskey stumbles across [[spoiler:Helen ransacking Duke's room]] and tearfully says she "left" Duke. Helen comforts her, saying that this is better for Whiskey and Duke got what he deserved. Unfortunately, Whiskey meant she "left" in a blind panic after Duke died and thinks [[spoiler:Helen]] is gloating about killing him.
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* In ''Film/MyCousinVinny'', When Vinny's cousin and his friend are first arrested, they end up [[DiggingYourselfDeeper digging themselves deeper]] as they answer the police's questions while simply assuming they were being arrested for shoplifting, and the police never even mention to the two why they were arrested until well into the process. Incidentally, this shows how poor communication can put innocent people in prison if they talk to police without legal counsel.

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* In ''Film/MyCousinVinny'', When Vinny's cousin and his friend are first arrested, they end up [[DiggingYourselfDeeper digging themselves deeper]] as they answer the police's questions while simply assuming they were being arrested for shoplifting, and the police never even mention to the two why they were arrested until well into the process. Incidentally, this shows how poor communication can put innocent people in prison if they talk to police without legal counsel.counsel or knowing their rights.
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** ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'': The entire movie could have been averted had Dr Strange just taken five minutes to fully explain to Peter what the memory-erasing spell was going to do before he started casting it. Had he done that and established exactly why Peter wanted the spell cast, he could have either cast it differently (for example, making the world forget that Mysterio had revealed Peter's identity and accused him of being the one who killed him) or simply told him that you're allowed to appeal being rejected by a college.
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* ''Film/NurseBetty': Wesley scalps Del-and promptly freaks out over it-because he mistakes a story that Charlie recounts about how a man can survive being scalped to frighten Dale and rub in how insensitive Dale is toward Native Americans. Wesley interprets this as an order to scalp Dale and does so, leaving both hitmen horrified and forcing them to shoot Dale when he breaks loose due to the adrenaline.

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* ''Film/NurseBetty': ''Film/NurseBetty'': Wesley scalps Del-and promptly freaks out over it-because he mistakes a story that Charlie recounts about how a man can survive being scalped to frighten Dale and rub in how insensitive Dale is toward Native Americans. Wesley interprets this as an order to scalp Dale and does so, leaving both hitmen horrified and forcing them to shoot Dale when he breaks loose due to the adrenaline.



* In the novelization of "Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock", we get the likely answer for why Spock didn't tell Kirk about [[spoiler:the katra being in Dr. [=McCoy=]'s mind before dying:]] according to Sarek, Dr. [=McCoy=] suffered some kind of allergic reaction to Spock's katra being in his mind and thus didn't know that he had to go to Mount Seleya on Vulcan to have it returned. Had [=McCoy=] not had the allergic reaction, he would have probably told Kirk about the katra and the need to go to Mount Seleya.

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* In the novelization of "Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock", ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock'', we get the likely answer for why Spock didn't tell Kirk about [[spoiler:the katra being in Dr. [=McCoy=]'s mind before dying:]] according to Sarek, Dr. [=McCoy=] suffered some kind of allergic reaction to Spock's katra being in his mind and thus didn't know that he had to go to Mount Seleya on Vulcan to have it returned. Had [=McCoy=] not had the allergic reaction, he would have probably told Kirk about the katra and the need to go to Mount Seleya.
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* ''Film/ThePrincess'': The fat merc being too tired/lazy to give an appropriate sitrep when he finally reaches the Princess' chambers at the top of the tower, giving her some time to get further downstairs. This trope can also be taken literally, since this also allows her to chop up plenty of Julius' troops on the way.

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* ''Film/ThePrincess'': ''Film/{{The Princess|2022}}'': The fat merc being too tired/lazy to give an appropriate sitrep when he finally reaches the Princess' chambers at the top of the tower, giving her some time to get further downstairs. This trope can also be taken literally, since this also allows her to chop up plenty of Julius' troops on the way.
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correction


** On the first day of battle, Robert E. Lee tells General Ewell to take an important hill "if practicable" so that the Union can't mount a defense on it. "If practicable" was a standard courteous phrase of the era, which Lee's ''other'' generals understood as "do it." Ewell, who was implied to have become a ShellShockedVeteran after the loss of his leg, interpreted it literally and, over the protests of his subordinates, decided it was not practicable. The hill? Little Round Top, which becomes the extreme right flank of the Union position the next day and is successfully defended from repeated Confederate attacks by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine.

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** On the first day of battle, Robert E. Lee tells General Ewell to take an important hill a Hill "if practicable" so that the Union can't mount a defense on it. "If practicable" was simply a standard courteous phrase of the era, courtesy, which Lee's ''other'' generals understood as "do it." Ewell, who was implied to have become a ShellShockedVeteran after the loss of his leg, interpreted it literally and, over the protests of his subordinates, decided it was not practicable. The hill? Trimble predicts bitterly that many of his men will die trying to take the hill tomorrow. (Although the film implies that it was Little Round Top, which becomes it was actually Culp's Hill on the extreme right flank of ''other'' flank--and the Union position general in charge had been a civil engineer before the next day and is successfully defended from repeated Confederate attacks by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine.war. The breastworks he had his men construct proved to be nigh impregnable.)

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* ''Film/{{Gettysburg}}:'' On the first day of battle, Robert E. Lee tells General Ewell to take an important hill "if practicable" so that the Union can't mount a defense on it. "If practicable" was a standard courteous phrase of the era, which Lee's ''other'' generals understood as "do it." Ewell, who was implied to have become a ShellShockedVeteran after the loss of his leg, interpreted it literally and, over the protests of his subordinates, decided it was not practicable. The hill? Little Round Top, which becomes the extreme right flank of the Union position the next day and is successfully defended from repeated Confederate attacks by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine.

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* ''Film/{{Gettysburg}}:'' ''Film/{{Gettysburg}}:''
**
On the first day of battle, Robert E. Lee tells General Ewell to take an important hill "if practicable" so that the Union can't mount a defense on it. "If practicable" was a standard courteous phrase of the era, which Lee's ''other'' generals understood as "do it." Ewell, who was implied to have become a ShellShockedVeteran after the loss of his leg, interpreted it literally and, over the protests of his subordinates, decided it was not practicable. The hill? Little Round Top, which becomes the extreme right flank of the Union position the next day and is successfully defended from repeated Confederate attacks by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine.Maine.
** The difficulties of physical communication in an era before instant long-distance transmissions crop up several times, but most prominently with J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry. For the first half of the film, the Confederates are left to rely on an actor that Longstreet has retained as a spy to know where the Union is because Stuart, whose cavalry is ''supposed'' to keep Lee informed of such things, is gone who-knows-where in Pennsylvania. When Stuart finally does arrive, having done the comparatively unimportant job of capturing some supply wagons, Lee reprimands him in a bout of TranquilFury.

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