What An Idiot / Live Action Films G To I

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• Gemini Man pretty much sums up the entire Evil Plan of Big Bad Clay Varris as this. Twenty years ago, he made a clone specifically to kill his old friend Henry Brogan.
  You'd Expect: That he would either clone himself or someone that Brogan has no connection with.
  Instead: He creates a clone of Brogan named Junior that he raised as an assassin, lying to him that he was an orphan.
  The Result: Brogan's new friend Danielle "Danny" Zacharuski matches both their DNA and concludes to Brogan that Junior is his clone, therefore tipping off Brogan of Clay's plans. Brogan then captures Junior and tells him the truth about his origins and how Clay was lying to him all along. A devestated Junior does a Heel–Face Turn and confronts Clay over his lies.
  You'd Then Expect: Knowing that Junior now knows the truth, Clay to take any action to keep him from defecting. He can either have Junior locked up or even send an entire army with him to keep him in check.
  Instead: Clay tries to justify that his lies were necessary and lets Junior go alone after sharing a hug, thus allowing Junior to join Brogan and Danny in stopping Clay. To be fair, Clay does call in an army to ambush them but by then they already reached him. After the three managed to kill his entire army, Clay wakes up on the rooftop where Junior left him.
  You'd Then Expect: Clay to escape immediately since he doesn't stand a chance against the heroes now that he's alone, and then go through with his plan of making an entire army of clones to revolutionize the world.
  Instead: He confronts them alone and unarmed just so he can gloat about his plan and how Brogan "inspired" him while they were pointing their guns at him for that matter. Predictably, Brogan then kills him.
• Ghosts of Mars: 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.
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation:
  • 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: 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: 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.
  • 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: 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: 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 Stuff Blowing Up and SS and CC strolling away.
  • In the end, Storm Shadow was revealed to be framed by Zartan for the death of his and Snake Eyes's Master, and they form a truce so they can 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 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.
• The Giver:
  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 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 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 their decision to Release her.
• In God's Not Dead, after refusing to make a declaration that "God is Dead" just so Professor Radisson gives him an easy passing grade, Radisson threatens Josh to either fail him if he doesn't do it, drop out of Philosophy class, or try to convince him (and all the other students) that God is not dead.
  You'd Expect: Since forcing students to accept views that only the professor believes is clearly not what a real Philosophy professor would do, Josh would have gone to the chief administration's office, report on what Radisson is doing to his students, and have Radisson fired.
  Instead: Josh decides to spend the entire film making a debate on God's existence against Radisson, trying to convince him and the other students that God is not dead.
  The Result: Josh, well, being Josh, spends the entire three days of making a debate on God's existence without even bothering to mention that other people tends to believe in other kinds of faiths as well. Additionally, he clearly insults people who don't believe in God (or hate Him), saying how puerile they are compared to Christians in terms of morality, among other things. Josh then use those tactics to "win" this case against Radisson.
  Ironically: Josh has been told by Reverend Dave that God doesn't forgive those who don't believe in Him, even though God DID forgive Professor Radisson, at his deathbed, at the end of the film.
  • Speaking of which, when Radisson is trying to go to the Newsboys concert to see Josh and his girlfriend so he can reconcile with them and become a Christian once again, when he was trying to cross the street....a random car just came right out of NOWHERE, clearly going through a red light, running Radisson over! The reverends Dave and Jude end up witnessing this incident.
    You'd Expect: Oh, wait, they have a cell phone! So they could've, oh, I don't know, call 911 for an ambulance so they can get Radisson to a hospital! Then, afterwards, they can go right to the police station so they can report on what happened.
    Instead: They just came up to Radisson, who's now fatally wounded, and offered Radisson a chance to be converted to Christianity before he dies. Basically, what they're actually doing is just literally leaving Radisson, who's trying to get his life back together before this incident happened, for dead!
    For Added Stupidity: Not only Jude and Dave were celebrating the death of Radisson when they should be ACTUALLY mourning for it, but also they're letting that reckless driver get away with killing Radisson!
• In The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 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, or just kill him without talking.
  Instead: He takes his sweet time to gloat about looking for Tuco for 8 months, and the time he spent learning to shoot with his left hand. The end result? 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."
• The Goonies starts with a police officer at a jail finding one prisoner, Jake Fratelli, has hung himself with an apparent suicide note taped to his chest.
  You'd Expect: The officer to call for help to check on Jake.
  Instead: The officer reads the suicide note. It turns out Jake only pretended to kill himself and overpowers the officer while he's distracted. Almost Lampshaded by the note's actual content: "You schmuck. Did you really think I'd be stupid enough to kill myself?"
• The Great Muppet Caper: In the climax, Kermit and his friends have intervened when Nicky Holiday and his henchgirl-posse have broken into the Mallory Gallery. Some of them Zerg Rush Nicky, and Beauregard tussles with him. Animal goes Let's Get Dangerous! and chases the Girl Posse away from the diamonds, while the team plays Keep Away to prevent Nicky Holiday from getting his hands on the Baseball Diamond. The ruckus is so loud that anyone from outside can hear it, including the guard dogs that Rowlf sweet-talked.
  You'd Expect: Someone would call for help from the guards that Kermit and Fozzy distracted. Or get the Diamond out of the gallery and into the right hands and keep gangpiling Nicky so as to stop him from stealing the Diamond.
  Instead: They decide to play an actual baseball game using the diamond as a baseball. Scooter takes a break from foiling the heist to sell snacks, while Louis even starts providing commentary! (Obviously a hilarious moment, but not the time and place.)
  The Result: After a few minutes of this, Nicky gets annoyed, goes No-Nonsense Nemesis and shakes off Beauregard. He catches the diamond mid-flyball and grabs Kermit, holding him at gunpoint because he needs a hostage to leave. It's only because of Miss Piggy's timely arrival that Nicky gets distracted and knocked down long enough for Kermit to whack him with the diamond. To top it all off, several cops were chasing Miss Piggy down for breaking out of prison, car-jacking Peter Ustinov, and "borrowing" a motorcycle that fell out of a delivery truck; they get the gist of the situation, putting Nicky Holiday and his cronies under arrest.
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch:
  • Gizmo's owner, Sam Wing, is an old man.
    You'd Expect: For him to acknowledge his mortality and arrange for someone else to take care of Gizmo after he dies.
    Instead: He makes no arrangements.
    As a Result: When Wing dies, Gizmo is alone in a building that is about to be demolished. He only gets reunited with Billy thanks to a Contrived Coincidence.
  • 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. That way, the human race will be forced to turn over their cities to the Gremlins starting with New York City with Brain Gremlin being the ruler.
    Instead: He only gives the injection to the Bat-Gremlin, who later gets defeated by Murray tossing him into a pile of wet cement thus trapping Bat-Gremlin as a gargoyle.
• Halloween II (1981) has a particularly infamous one. While tracking down Michael Myers after he survives his fall from the Doyle house, Dr. Loomis spots a familiar looking trick or treater among the Halloween crowds.
  You'd Expect: For Loomis to tail the guy quietly, then take a closer look to make absolute sure he's got the right man.
  Instead: He runs at the confused and frightened man yelling and waving his gun, ultimately chasing him into the street and the path of a speeding Police cruiser. It wasn't Michael. Godspeed, Ben Tramer.
• Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers: After Michael climbs aboard the truck, and kills the 4 men, Rachel takes the wheel, throwing Michael off of the truck and ramming him, sending him flying into a ditch, and eventually the state police arrive and Rachel orders Jamie to stay in the truck.
  You'd Expect: That Jamie would listen to Rachel and stay put in the truck.
  Instead: She walks out of the truck, and goes straight towards Michael who is unconscious and touches his hand making him awake.
  As a Result: She now retained a telepathic, psychically-possessed link between herself and her uncle Michael as shown in the fifth film, after touching his hand, he possesses her making her attack her foster mother, Darlene with a pair of scissors at the end of the fourth film, and having seizures whenever he kills someone.
• Happy Gilmore:
  • The title character has wanted to be a professional hockey player since childhood, but while he does possess a very powerful slapshot taught to him by his father, his skating and puck-handling ability are both subpar, leaving him unable to get onto a pro hockey team.
    You'd Expect: That if Happy is serious about playing pro hockey, he would try and identify his flaws early on, and then work on bringing the associated skills up to a decent level.
    Instead: From what we see of him, Happy makes no attempt to ever do this, even after failing to qualify for his local hockey team eleven times (at least). The only preparation he's ever shown doing for the hockey tryouts is letting himself get shot at by a baseball pitching machine in order to toughen up, suggesting he's either unaware that he's considered to have deficiencies, or refusing to accept so.
  • Later on in the film, Happy becomes a professional golfer of decent skill, owing largely to his powerful slapshot translating into a 400 yard drive. This earns him the enmity of Shooter McGavin, one of the top stars on the pro tour, due to his envy of Happy's sudden rise in popularity. To deal with Happy, Shooter gets Donald, an obsessed fan of his, to show up in the audience and verbally harass Happy during the Pepsi Pro-Am, in the hope of provoking him into doing something violent that'll get him kicked off the tour.
    You'd Expect: Tour officials would immediately have Donald ejected once it became clear he was deliberately trying to put Happy off his game. You'd also think that Bob Barker, Happy's celebrity partner for the pro-am, would raise a complaint about Donald with the officials if they weren't doing anything about him.
    Instead: The officials do nothing, leaving Donald free to continually annoy Happy and make him botch his strokes, and Bob repeatedly berates Happy for not being able to play properly despite the obvious heckler.
    The Result: Happy's frustrations at both Donald and Bob's provocations lead to him getting into a fight with the latter. Bob proceeds to beat Happy unconscious, and the tour's board of directors have little choice but to suspend him over the incident. While Happy is certainly responsible for his own actions, things should never have been allowed to get to that point.
• In Highlander, Ramirez wounds the Kurgan in the throat during their duel, staggering him for several seconds.
  You'd Expect: Ramirez would press his advantage to strike a finishing blow.
  Instead: He stands there and taunts the Kurgan, allowing him to recover and kill Ramirez.
• In Highlander II: The Quickening, General Katana of Zeist sends his two goons to kill Connor MacLeod on planet Earth. However, Dumbass Has a Point 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.
• Hitch:
  • During the movie, gossip columnist Sarah starts feeling attracted to a guy with whom she's had two terrible dates. Then she finds out that he's a dating consultant, and interviews a guy who slept with her best friend Casey for the laughs, claiming he used this consultant to get tips on getting laid. Sarah is understandably furious and has a third date with Alex Hitchens
    You'd Expect: She would confront him about using his player habits and his clients. There's more than one side to every story, and perhaps it will all come out.
    Instead: She goes You Know What You Did, gets into a food fight with him, and runs the story on the front page the next day, against her boss's wishes.
    The Result: Hitch understandably confronts her, tells her off for believing a "pig" like Vance and that he only works with Nice Guy clients and she just ruined a genuine relationship with his client and friend Albert. Whatsoever, it's because of girls like Sarah that guys who want a genuine relationship have a hard time saying so. Sarah tries to apologize the next day, realizing she ruined two men's reputations for nothing, but Hitch isn't in a mood to listen. They only reconcile because even though she violated every tenet of ethical journalism, Hitch admits that he's in love with her.
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
  • 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.
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
  • 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.
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies:
  • Bard the Bowman, now the acting leader of the people of Laketown, now has Alfrid, a remnant of the old regime, to deal with. Alfrid disobeys orders regularly, is a Dirty Coward, acts abrasive to allies, can't fight, and is loathed by the townsfolk to the point that Bard has to save him from being lynched by them.
    You'd Expect: Bard to find some way to get rid of Alfrid, or at least make him not a problem. Even if Bard isn't willing to execute him for his criminal activities, he could throw Alfrid in prison, exile him, or just tie him up until proper justice can be passed. If Bard doesn't think it's worth punishing Alfrid, then strip him of his ranks and toss him in with the civilians, and don't afford him any special treatment or responsibilities.
    Instead: Bard does none of these things. In fact, he keeps giving Alfrid duties that he is manifestly incompetent at, including telling him to be a lookout (he falls asleep), and having him escort the women and children (he tries to disguise himself as a woman and slip away with them). Even when Bard sees Alfrid in drag, carrying an armful of gold which he stole from the treasury, he still steps in to save the guy's life—Chronic Hero Syndrome or no, at that point, what do you have to do in Bard's Dale to be punished for something?
• Hot Fuzz:
  • Nicholas Angel is an extremely competent policeman, to the point that he makes everyone else in the Metropolitan Police 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. 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 he sees as incompetent then from his contacts out of town. Or he at least wouldn't reveal himself to who he thinks is a group of killers.
    Instead: Nick upon arriving at the 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 arm himself to the teeth.
• Hot to Trot: After Don wins the race, it turns out that Boyd, one of Walter's employees, bet 100 dollars on Don. Given how much of a jerkass Walter is, made a separate bet regarding Don, and Had just lost a big bet...
  You'd expect: For Boyd to keep quiet on betting on him.
  Instead: He casually mentions this in front of his boss.]
  The result: Walter rips up Boyd's betting slip and tells him he is fired.
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1:
  • 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 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 Evil Gloating, practically spelling out his entire plan and actively admitting that he knows about the rescue team. Which leads into...
  • Snow has just admitted that 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 Katniss gets brutally beaten by Peeta.
• The Hunters: In the sequel, Erik is suspecting Torsten to be the murderer, so he goes to his basement and finds several clues such as hair and blood.
  • You'd Expect: That Erik would take some pictures, or call the police to show them this very convincing evidence.
    Instead: He doesn't bother to take pictures or call the police, and instead later arrives with his colleagues.
    As a result: Torsten has removed all the evidence, so Erik can no longer prove it.
• I Accuse My Parents: The mob boss villain learns that The Hero 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 Darkest Hour period.
• Independence Day
  • 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.
• Indiana Jones
  • In Raiders of the Lost Ark, 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 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 Raiders of the Lost Ark was set in 1936), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 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 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 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Big Bad 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.
    Result: With graphic consequences.
    Knight: He chose...poorly.
  • 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.
• Infernal Affairs and The Departed, 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.
• Inglourious Basterds:
  • Hicox and two of the Basterds, who are posing as German officers, are meeting von Hammersmark in a tavern, which happens to have a number of German soldiers inside. They decide to have one drink, as leaving so soon would look suspicious. A drunken Sergeant Wilhelm approaches their table because he is a fan of von Hammersmark, and starts talking to her.
    You'd Expect: The Basterds to tolerate this until they've finished their drink, then politely excuse themselves.
    Instead: Both Hicox and Stiglitz antagonize Wilhelm, and loudly threaten to have him jailed for his behavior. The resulting uproar catches Major Hellstrom's attention, and he starts grilling Hicox on his unusual accent. The resulting interrogation leads to Hicox blowing his cover, ending in a shootout which kills everyone in the room apart from von Hammersmark, who is shot in the leg.
    The Result: The plan to kill Hitler is severely jeopardized, and they have to go with a much riskier plan at the last minute, which gets von Hammersmark killed and would have failed if not for Landa's cooperation.
  • Shosanna has just shot 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.
    Result: Zoller shoots her dead in turn before expiring.
• Ip Man
  • Big Bad 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 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 Master Liu's death.
    Instead: He just rejects the rice, saying that it wasn't the reason he came to the fight club.
• Ip Man 4 has Geddes demands a no rules match against Ip Man, meaning attacks to the eyes and groin are completely allowed.
  You Expect: For him to follow his own rules and use such attacks. He definitely had no issue using them against Master Wan earlier.
  Instead: He never uses them, even though Ip Man himself is doing it in plenty.
  Even Worse: He also leaves Ip Man recovering on the ground and taunt him, instead of keeping his assault like he did to Wan.
  The Result: This comes back to bite him in his rear moments after, as these factors leads to his humiliating defeat.
• In It (2017), Richie and Bill are separated from Eddie when the door to the room they enter is shut. Later, Richie hears Eddie's voice calling him to an adjacent room complete with an ominous laugh.
  You'd Expect: For Richie to ignore the voice entirely, or at least report what he heard/saw to Bill.
  Instead: He walks straight to fake Eddie as soon as he shows himself.
  As A Result: Richie gets locked up alone in the room and receives his first individualized terror from IT.

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