What An Idiot / Live Action Films A To C

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• 28 Weeks Later:
  • 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.

A

• Absolute Power (1997):
  • Clint Eastwood'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 Clint Eastwood and killed with the same poison.
• The Addams Family
  • In the second film Addams Family Values, Wednesday and Pugsley have been sent to summer camp. They obviously hate it, and are forced to participate in a saccharine, racist Thanksgiving pageant. Wednesday and Pugsley, who have been conscripted to play inaccurate "savages" and a turkey, rally the other minority kids and go off-script.
    You'd Expect: Amanda, the Alpha Bitch playing the head pilgrim, to run on hearing the speech. The others should as well. She knows Wednesday is a Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant and does not bluff.
    Instead': She complains to Gary, the director and camp counselor, that Wednesday is making up lines. Cue the prop village burning down and Amanda getting tied to a stake and gagged with an apple.
    You'd Then Expect: The adults in the audience to defy All Part of the Show, go Mass "Oh, Crap!" and rescue their pilgrim kids the way Amanda's parents try, before getting the hell out of dodge. Sure, they might fail, but the adults are bigger than the kids and can establish some order. Also, Joel does knock his parents and the adults sitting with them off their bench.
    Instead: Adults Are Useless come fully into play. Joel's mother complaints about them wasting money on camp for him to go "Woo-Woo", while half the parents sit in shock and the other half just leave. Amanda's parents freeze on getting hit with pie.
    'The Result: They tie up the camp counselors and leave them roasting over a spit. As the minority kids celebrate, Joel, Pugsley and Wednesday make their getaway. The adults are only lucky that Wednesday did not burn or scalp anyone for real.
• American Hustle:
  • Irving Rosenfeld 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? Thank God for me.
• Amusement:
  • Tabitha manages to get out of the house where the killer is, and she is now in the backyard with a good head start on him.
  • You'd Expect: She does something to help her situation such as running to a neighbor's house, running to her car, or even standing in the backyard and screaming for help.
  • Instead: She goes directly to the shed in the backyard and inadvertently finds a dead body standing upright in a closet of some kind. The body then falls on her, pinning her down until the killer arrives. In effect, she fucks up so badly that she incapacitates herself for him.
• In 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.
• An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn:
  • 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 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.
    Result: 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.
    Result: They end up planning to sell the trailer as the actual film, until they come up with the "documentary" idea.
• Army of the Dead:
  • It all started when an army convoy carrying Patient Zero were driving through the desert to transfer its payload.
    You'd Expect: That the people in the convoy would treat this with the upmost respect. Even if the people driving didn't know what was in the convoy, they should have at least realized to keep their eyes on the road at all times.
    Instead: The people in the front are so immersed in conversation they fail to notice the incoming lights of a car with a couple getting frisky moving right into them.
    Result: The crashes right into the truck carrying the package, causing Patient Zero to escape and kickstarting the entire plot of the movie.
    ** A group of talented individuals led by Scott Ward have been assigned to retrieve an item from a safe in Las Vegas that is currently being quarantined due to a zombie outbreak. His daughter Kate insists on joining the group to bring her friend Geeta out of the quarantine zone. Scott has his misgivings but agrees, saying that they will make time to search for her.
    You'd Expect: That Kate would agree to those terms and help out in any way she can. She may not have much in the way of survival skills or weapons training and would have a difficult time getting through the city on her own. She may be estranged with Scott, but she should realize that he is her best chance of finding her friend.
    Instead: She goes off all by herself without telling anyone. The subsequent rescue mission to find her results in the deaths of many people in that group, including Scott himself.
    ** The most infamous scene has to be the exchange between Chambers and Martin. Despite her misgivings with group in general, she correctly suspects that Martin has ulterior motives for sending the group into this mission.
    You'd Expect: That she would keep this to herself and try her hardest not to be in a situation where she has to rely on Martin. At the very least she trusts Guzman, the gun expert, and could have told him so that they could keep an eye on him.
    Instead: She unsubtle tells Martin right in his face that she's going to get to the bottom of what his real reason for the mission and doesn't bother to tell anyone this.
    Result: Martin uses an opportunity to separate Chambers from the rest of the group and leave her at the mercy of the zombies.
    Later: Despite this Chamber survives and manages to break out of a window, alerting the group behind her. She has a couple zombies fighting her, but she doesn't seem to have been bitten yet.
    You'd Expect: That Chambers sings to the heavens that Martin tried to get her killed and to help her survive.
    You'd Also Expect: Since the group is only about 20 feet from her, they'd just tell her to duck or move out of the way while they lay suppression fire on the zomibes chasing her. It's not like they were that far from each other.
    Instead: Neither she nor the others do much of anything.
    Result: Chambers gets swarmed and her friend Guzman blows her up with her own gas can as an act of mercy.
• 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 separate 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, ABSOLUTELY 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 The Asylum:
  • 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.
• As It Is in Heaven: 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, possibly killing him.
• Asterix and Obelix versus Cesar: Having usurped power and obtained a whole cauldron of strength enhancing potion, The Starscream 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.
• Austin Powers: In the third movie, Mini-Me abandons Dr. Evil to fight alongside Austin Powers. While in Austin's hotel room, the Mole gives Mini-Me a letter which certifies his defection. While the Mole takes a cell phone call, Mini-Me grabs a knife and is about to open the envelope when Austin returns.
  You'd Expect: Mini-Me to drop the knife and show Austin the letter.
  Instead: He grins while holding the knife, which Austin mistakes for a Slasher Smile. Austin then kicks Mini-Me across his room. Then Mini-Me puts up a peace sign in front of him.
  You'd Expect: Austin to ask him if he genuinely wants to defect.
  Instead: Thinking back to the time where Mini-Me used a peace sign on him to drop his guard down in the second movie, he thinks Mini-Me is trying to trick him again, thus the two fight until the Mole tells him of Mini-Me switching sides.
• 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 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 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.

B

• In Baby's Day Out, a wealthy woman named Laraine Cotwell is having a baby photographer come and take pictures of her infant son Bink for the newspaper, and the alleged photographer asks her if he can have some time alone with Bink, claiming it is so he will not be distracted by her while he's taking the photographs.
  You'd Expect: Laraine to realize that no genuine baby photographer business would ever ask a parent if they can be completely alone with their kid, have him escorted out of the house at once and report him to the police.
  Instead: While initially a little hesitant, once the photographer comments on how her outfit isn't quite right for the photo, she is convinced to go change and leave her son with him. Naturally, the photographer and his assistants turn out to actually be a trio of crooks posing as the photographers she hired, and drive off with Bink to hold him for ransom.
• Bad Boys (1995): When Marcus is put in charge of guarding Julie while she's in witness protection he has to leave his family for a few days.
  You'd Expect: Marcus would be honest with his wife and tell her he's guarding a witness to a murder.
  Instead: He makes up a lie about having a federal subpoena in Cleveland.
  The Result: Marcus' wife sees him on TV and thinks he's having an affair.
• Barbie:
  • In an attempt to ensure her well-being, the CEO of Mattel has coaxed Stereotypical Barbie into entering a life-sized box, which, once he closes, will send her back to Barbieland and erase her memories of her excursion to the real world. Just after being strapped in, Barbie asks if she can step out to use the restroom.
    You'd Expect: The CEO would not allow it.
    Or: If he does allow her, one of his executives would send her with an escort to make sure she only goes to the restroom and nowhere else.
    Instead: He simply allows her to get out of the box without any vigilance.
    The Result: Stereotypical Barbie ends up escaping the Mattel headquarters, forcing the CEO to chase after her with his executives and Aaron.
  • After Beach Ken brings patriarchy to Barbieland and gets most of the Barbies brainwashed into serving the Kens through unexplained means, he announces that in two days, all the Kens will vote to change the Barbieland constitution so as to put themselves in charge of Barbieland permanently. Stereotypical Barbie, Gloria and the outcasts of Barbieland are led by Weird Barbie to stop this by progressively un-brainwashing the brainwashed Barbies, making the Kens believe said Barbies are still brainwashed in order to cause them to drop their guard, and manipulating them into envying their fellow Kens, to the point where they decide to fight each other on the day of the election.
    You'd Expect: They would fight after voting for the constitutional change.
    Instead: The fight is the first thing they do in the morning.
    The Result: While they're busy fighting, they inadvertently let the Barbies go to the polling place and vote against changing the constitution. Lampshaded at the fight's last minute, when Basketball Ken asks Beach Ken whether they were supposed to vote that day, after it's too late.
• 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.
• Batman (1989) :
  • Batman and Vicki Vale are cornered in an alley by Joker's henchmen. The only way out is up and Batman asks Vicki how much she weighs.
    You'd Expect: Vicki to tell him her real weight, since it's a life or death scenario.
    Instead: She says she weighs 108, which is an obvious lie considering she's a rather tall woman and is probably at least ten pounds heavier than that (for the record, Kim Basinger was 125).
    As a result: Batman's grapple gun motor is incapable of lifting both of them and malfunctions about halfway up. Luckily, Batman tells her to grab the gun from his belt and ride the rest of the way without him, but Batman takes a bad fall and is stuck with Joker's men. Being Batman, he survives and fends them off, but it was still incredibly stupid of Vicki to risk their lives just because she didn't want to reveal her true weight. Batman points this out once the Joker's men are dealt with.
    Batman: You weigh a little more than 108.
    Vicki: Oh, really?
  • 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 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.
    Result: Batman 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 climactic 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. Heck, he could even use one of his gag weapons if he still has them.
    Instead: The Joker punches Batman in the abdomen, covered by his sturdy suit, and 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.
• Batman Forever: Dick Grayson has evaded the security system that Bruce has installed to prevent intruders getting in.
  You'd Expect: Bruce to update the security system to prevent further break-ins.
  Instead: That thought never occurs to him.
  Even Worse: The system actually reveals the equipment and Batmobile rather than securing it, allowing the Riddler to destroy it when he visits later.
• Batman & Robin: 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.
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:
  • 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 unconscious 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, which she is likely trained to use.
    Instead: He uses the spear himself, risking himself for no good reason. This results in his death when Doomsday impales him.
• Battlefield Earth, 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.
  • One that is just as good: The Psychlos are looking for gold. They love gold more than anything.
    You'd Expect: They'd scour the earth for all sorts of depositories of gold in the thousand years they occupied the planet.
    Instead: They continued to be oblivious to caches like FORT FRIGGIN' KNOX, and it comes as a complete shock to Terl that it even exists. One thousand years after the planet was conquered. Note they didn't make this mistake in the book; Jonnie found an armored truck carrying gold because they had already raided Fort Knox.
• 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 Bean, he just follows her word, allowing the police to point their guns at him.

• Behind Enemy Lines 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.
• Beyond the Valley of the Dolls:
  • When Casey finds herself in the middle of an on-going massacre, she calls her friends to come help her. Those friends are Kelly, Petronella, Emerson, and Harris, who is wheelchair-bound and paralyzed from the waist down.
    You'd Expect: For Harris to be left behind as he would not be much help against a murderous maniac in the state he's in.
    Instead: Harris is brought along.
    Result: They waste a lot of time loading him into the car and Casey ends up getting killed just as they arrive at the scene.
  • Earlier in the movie, Lance Rock was tied up by Z-Man, who, in their mania, revealed that they had a pair of feminine breasts. Keep in mind that Z-Man was playing around with a sword while they were doing this. And Lance was tied up.
    You'd Expect: Lance to realize that he's dealing with someone very, very dangerous and try to reason with them in order to untie him so that he could get out of there.
    Instead: Lance makes the bright decision to taunt Z-Man over their gender, eventually calling them an ugly broad, and laughing. Keep in mind that he's tied up. And Z-Man is armed with a large sword!!!
    The Result: Z-Man snaps and decapitates Lance, before going on a killing spree that ultimately leads to Otto's, Roxanne's, and Casey's deaths, and eventually their own in a struggle with the above-mentioned characters (except Harris).
• Birdemic:
  • 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! Way to go, Rod!
• Beverly Hills Cop: 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: 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 throw Axel through a window, leading Axel to take a closer look at him.
• The Bourne Ultimatum: Bourne is guiding Simon Ross, a Guardian journalist, through Waterloo Station while CIA agents attempt to kill them both.
  You'd Expect: Since Ross is a Non-Action Guy and he has written enough articles about Bourne to know of his reputation as an incredibly clever and badass assassin, he would listen to every word Bourne says and follow his orders.
  Instead: He panics and deviates from Bourne's instructions twice.
  The Result: He exposes himself to a sniper and gets killed as a result.

• Bring It On: New cheerleading captain Torrance realizes that her predecessor would plagiarize routines from another school team, the Clovers, and the Clovers will not hesitate to bust them for it. She calls her college boyfriend for help, and he tells her to raise money to hire a choreographer for a new routine. Torrance decides to do so once she and her team the Toros raise enough money.
  You'd Expect: Torrance would carefully screen for a good choreographer. They may all be wealthy but this isn't chump change for a competition.
  Instead: A con man manages to grab the position and foist a routine on the girls that he proceeds to teach to at least one other cheerleading team who performs at semi-finals.
  The Result: The Toros nearly get disqualified, and they're understandably mad at Torrance for her mistake. The only reason they get to move forward is because they were defending champions before and because said con man swindled multiple teams.
• Brokeback Mountain: Ennis and Jack go on infrequent fishing trips, in which they're actually cheating on their wives. They have been doing this for sixteen years by the end of the film.
  You'd Expect: They bring home some fish, or at least touch the fishing equipment to keep up with the lie, especially knowing that Ennis's wife and daughters love fish.
  Instead: They didn't try to fish anything while saying they caught a lot of fish without bringing any home. Worse, Ennis didn't even open his creel case once as later noted by Alma when she said the note she put inside was still there. Granted, she already knew her husband was cheating but at least Ennis could try.
• Bruce Almighty:
  • After being annoyed by his arrogant behavior, Bruce's girlfriend Grace 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's 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.
  • The news station makes the decision to award the anchor position to Evan rather than Bruce.
    You'd Expect: They would inform everyone at the station of this in a closed-door meeting or anywhere that wouldn’t be broadcast to the entire Buffalo metro area before they announce it on the air, giving the disappointed Bruce a chance to process it before he goes on the air.
    Instead: They announce it for the first time LIVE.
    The Result: Bruce has an epic meltdown that could have been prevented, and while it hurt Bruce more than it hurt the station, the station certainly had some blowback from it and lost a great field reporter.
• In the No Budget Hong Kong flick Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave, one of the Big Bad Ensemble, 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 Info Dump — 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.
• Burn After Reading: Chad sneaks into a marshall's house to steal files. The marshall (Harry) happens to come home from a jog at that precise time.
  You'd Expect: Chad would find someplace good to hide. Like the third floor of the building.
  Instead': Chad, being a idiot, heads to the second story, into the first door he sees; the main bedroom. When he realizes that isn't going to work out, he hides in the closet. Harry accidentally finds and reflexively caps the weirdo in his closet.
• To put it simply, Evan Treborn from The Butterfly Effect 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: 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: 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 stop Tommy before the rope. 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 stop just before the blaming Tommy part.
    Instead: Evan gets the 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.

C

• Carrie (2013): Unlike past versions of the story, Chris survives her and Billy's attempt to run down an angry Carrie. Billy, meanwhile, is killed on impact. Carrie hesitates for a moment about killing Chris after she sees her mourn for Billy.
  You'd Expect: Chris to use the moment to make like a tree and leave. Or even try to beg for forgiveness.
  Instead: Chris decides to run down Carrie again. This ends up getting her telekinetically flung into a gas pump, and the crash gets her stuck in the windshield. And then the gas pump goes boom.
• Casper: In the backstory, when Casper's father was haunted by his son's ghost and was building the Lazarus machine to bring him back to life:
  You'd Expect: Him to keep his damn mouth shut about the entire business, working on his machine and interacting with his son in secret.
  Instead: He spreads it around that he is being haunted by his son and is inventing a machine to bring him back to life, to the extent that it makes the local papers.
  As a Result: Casper's father is declared insane and committed before he can bring his son back.
• Child's Play 2: 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 Kyle 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 Phil and Joanne. In the end, when he tries the chant again, it was already too late. Cue the Big "NO!".
  Bonus stupidity: Earlier on, Chucky breaks into Phil and Joanne's house and decides to substitute their Good Guy doll, Tommy, for himself.
  You'd Expect: He'd throw Tommy in the trash, put him in the attic, anything like that.
  Instead: He bludgeons the doll with Joanne's statuette, and then buries him in the backyard; not only that, he buries Tommy under the swing set, you know, where feet are constantly scraping against the ground?.
  Predictably: Kyle goes outside for a smoke and ends up uncovering the buried and mutilated remains of Tommy.
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Child Catcher lures Jeremy and Jemima with free ice cream and candy after Truly left them to find food for them.
  You’d Expect: The children to realize this might be a trick and stay hidden from the Child Catcher since it is really not wise for children to accept candy from strangers, as kidnappers often use tricks like that to lure children into coming with them, and Truly told them to stay there until she came back. Plus, they had already seen the Child Catcher before and his disguise wasn’t very good. At the very least, his very large nose should have given him away.
  Instead: They are tempted by his offer and run out to buy some ice cream.
  As a Result: They get captured by the Child Catcher.
  • While this is going on, some of the townspeople witness the children running and recognizing the trap, try to warn them.
    You'd Expect: For one of them to maybe go after the children and bring them inside with them.
    Instead: They only shout at them. To be fair, children are outlawed in that country so they would be taking a risk, but does that really justify letting them get kidnapped?
• Christmas with the Kranks:
  • Empty-nesters Luther & Nora decide to take a Caribbean cruise over Christmas, scandalizing their neighbors, who adhere strongly to local traditions.
    You'd Expect: Luther & Nora to gently ease the neighborhood into this abrupt break with tradition, maybe still make donations to the local community groups and make their Christmas decorations available for use.
    But Instead: Luther & Nora are JerkAsses about it, refusing to buy a Christmas tree from the local Boy Scouts and the police department's charity calendar. The neighborhood (somewhat) justifiably responds in kind, which when their daughter returns home for Christmas, only makes Luther & Nora's task of throwing a traditional Christmas celebration more difficult.
  • The cops and the thief they catch get their own share. For the cops:
    You'd Expect: If the cops want to join in on the Krank's party, they'd drop the thief off for booking, then go.
    But Instead: They leave him unattended in the car outside the party. This gives him the chance to convince Spike Fromeyer to let him out via a crock of shit sob story. Then for the thief...
    You'd Expect: He'd count his blessings and make a run for it.
    Or: If he really wants to steal some stuff, he go into one of the dozen empty houses on the block.
    Instead: He robs the Krank's house... the one filled with people having a Christmas party, including the cops.
    As A Result: He ends up getting cold cocked with an umbrella by Marty the umbrella salesman.
• A Clockwork Orange: 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.
• 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.
• Clueless
  • Cher's dad gets a lot of this. He knows that his daughter has to drive because they live in the valley.
    You'd Expect: He would set her up with a driving instructor so she can get proper lessons.
    Instead: He refuses to let her drive the car after she gets several tickets on a learner's permit — which is also a dumb thing for Cher to do — and says she need to find a driver properly licensed to sit in the passenger seat.
    Predictably: Cher fails her driving test owing to the haphazard instruction from driving with Josh, her ex-stepbrother. She hops two lanes, nearly hits a biker, and scrapes some cars.
  • Likewise, he wants Cher to be a good student and apply herself to her classes. Cher has a habit of bullshitting her way through serious subjects without doing the work. While she gives a great speech in Debate to talk about refugees, the professor tells her she gets a C- because she went off-topic and obviously failed to research the Haitian crisis. Cher later tells her dad that she's negotiating to get a better report card.
    You'd Expect: Her dad to tell her that's not how life works. She can't bullshit her way forever.
    Instead: He nods approvingly and says she can argue her way out of anything. And this is after saying she lacks focus in life, unlike Josh.
    The Result: Cher is at a loss when she tries the same tactics on the driving instructor and he's not impressed.
  • Cher has made it clear she's not interested in high school guys. The one who sits behind her in class, Elton, keeps hugging her in thanks for making their debate teacher nicer.
    You'd Expect: Cher would tell him to knock it off. She's not interested in him.
    Instead: She doesn't even seem to notice and just thinks it's a guy thing.
    The Result: Cher is completely blindsided when she tries to set him up with the new girl Tai, and Elton uses the drive home to start to forcibly make out with her. When Cher gets out of the car, he strands her in a remote area where she promptly gets mugged. All in all, not one of her best nights.
  • Tai admits to Cher that she likes Cher's ex-stepbrother Josh. Cher, in a fit of Green-Eyed Monster, asks if they would mesh. She doesn't know what she's doing.
    You'd Expect: Tai would realize that Cher is feeling awkward about her new friend dating her older brother. Which isn't exactly wrong.
    Instead: While she accurately pegs Cher as being self-serving in discouraging her from pursuing Josh, Tai gives her "The Reason You Suck" Speech about being a virgin who can't drive.
    The Result: Tai goes My God, What Have I Done? when Cher goes into Heroic BSoD and they apologize to each other.
• The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
  • Accused of murder while under the influence of demonic possession, Arne Johnson is locked in solitary confinement in prison. Realizing his life may be at risk, the protagonists of the film, Ed and Lorraine Warren, call the prison chaplain and ask him to be put on suicide watch.
    You'd Expect: The chaplain to do just that— putting a prisoner on suicide watch is something that's fairly routine, even in 1981.
    Instead: The chaplain gives Arne a bottle of holy water to protect him. A glass bottle, no less.
    The Result: Arne attempts to ineffectively protect himself with a circle of holy water, only to get possessed. He's compelled to break the glass bottle and nearly slits his own wrists before Lorraine's actions elsewhere in the plot barely save him. Not only does this add needless tension to a story that's already on thin ice when it comes to being Based on a True Story, it accidentally makes The Power of Christ look ineffective in a horror franchise that may as well be the MCU for Catholic demonology.
• Crimson Peak
  • Edith Cushing is visited by her own dead mother in the beginning of the film warning her to stay away from Crimson Peak, which she has yet to find out what that is. Shortly after, Thomas and his sister Lucille come to town and Thomas begins to romance Edith. Her father does not approve of Thomas for various undisclosed reasons and does not want them to see each other. He then turns up dead having "slipped and fallen" in a washroom, hitting his head. This leaves Edith almost completely alone but for Thomas (and his creepy, seemingly sinister and jealous sister Lucille). Her father was not elderly and was a very able-bodied gentleman and the injury he sustained during his death seems suspicious.
    You'd Expect: Edith approaches her good, close childhood friend the doctor and asks about the state of her father's body when it was found and asks if there were any signs of foul play. \\
  • Instead: Edith questions nothing and marries Thomas, despite the obvious signs that he and his sister are shifty. She eventually finds out that Thomas and Lucille's home is sometimes referred to as Crimson Peak because it sits upon very bright red clay and is sinking into it year after year. She still doesn't leave nor does she question the hauntings she experiences while living with them.
    ** The Result: Staying with them allows Lucille to begin slowly poisoning Edith to death so they can steal her fortune. She gets lucky and realizes it before Lucille has given her enough to kill her, but when she confronts them, they reveal they're in an incestuous relationship and decide to just kill her outright because she has nowhere to run with a blizzard outside, weak, alone, and having no weapons. It also results in her being forced to kill them both to survive, none of which would have happened including the murder of her father if she had simply listened to her mother's spirit and bothered to notice that her father's death was hella suspicious. \\

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