What An Idiot / Resident Evil

This page is for the games. For the Resident Evil films, see here.

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• "Resident Evil":
  • Chris manages to drop his gun in the opening sequence to the mansion. The only reason he's not stuck with a knife for most of the game is because Wesker and Jill have disappeared and Jill's fully loaded gun is left behind on the floor in the main hall. Accidentally dropping his gun isn't that bad, but Chris eventually encounters Wesker, who claims he doesn't know where Jill is and brushes off their earlier disappearances as the result of a monster attack. Chris has Jill's gun and knows it was fully loaded at the time it was left behind.
    You'd Expect: Chris would immediately be smart enough to suspect Wesker of not telling the truth. After all, would Jill, a trained member of an elite task force, simply have dropped her gun and run? Wesker should have been there with her as well, so how is it plausible that Jill was attacked while standing in a massive room, dropped her gun without firing a shot and Wesker also disappeared without bothering to collect it? There's no blood or signs of a fight, either.
    Instead: Chris accepts Wesker's excuses at face value, and allows Wesker to wander off unchallenged. By not realizing Wesker's lying, Wesker goes free and later shoots Enrico dead.
  • In the Remake of RE1, before his final confrontation with Wesker, Chris can discover evidence that points irrefutably to Wesker being the traitor (the slideshow and Jill locked up telling him it's Wesker).
    You'd Expect: Given the evidence, you'd think Chris would quite sensibly inform Rebecca to be careful of Wesker. And, in the final confrontation with Wesker, his back is turned to Chris, which would give Chris (and Rebecca) ample time to draw their guns on Wesker.
    Instead: Chris walks up to confront Wesker, with both he and Rebecca barehanded.
    The Results: Rebecca gets shot in the chest, and could have died if not for her bulletproof vest. At least in the PS1 version, Wesker is already facing Chris when he comes around a corner, so Wesker more understandably catches Chris by surprise there, and in Jill's far more sensible scenes in both the original and remake, Barry has his gun trained on her during the Wesker confrontations, denying Jill a chance to draw her gun.
• Resident Evil 2:
  • Chris is investigating Umbrella and has contacted the FBI asking them to look into the police chief, suspecting he's corrupt.
    You'd Expect: Chris would stick around the police department and figure out how deep Chief Irons' involvement is, given that other officers and his own secretary have noticed his unusual and erratic behavior. He'd wait to be contacted by the FBI before making any moves, or would leave his contact info with the FBI before planning to travel to Umbrella's headquarters in Europe.
    Instead: As per his diary, he just up and leaves to Europe, doesn't bother to contact or make up an excuse with Claire, and doesn't leave the FBI with any way to contact him other than the fax machine that's in the same building as the police chief he suspects might be a traitor.
    The Results: With Chris gone, Chief Irons manages to get most of the officers at the RPD killed (the ones he hasn't killed himself), the fax detailing Chief Irons' corruption and involvement with Umbrella never reaches Chris and instead is just sitting there where Irons or an accomplice of his could easily intercept it (it's the fax that arrives just as Leon A / Claire A are leaving the STARS office with the Unicorn Medallion), and both Claire (in RE2) and Jill (in RE3) are left wondering where the heck he is as he's gone no-contact. This especially backfires with Claire as she comes to the now zombie infested Raccoon City in search of him, nearly gets killed by Chief Irons, and gets involved in more danger fighting against Umbrella while searching for Chris as per the events in Code Veronica.
  • HUNK and his teammate have just critically wounded William Birkin, the head researcher of the G-Virus project and are standing alone in his laboratory. They have at least two more men positioned outside. They are all highly trained, heavily armed and armored professional killers whose only likely opposition are a 110-pound woman with no combat experience and her pre-pubescent daughter.
    You'd Expect: They would do a sweep of the room, searching for any additional virus samples and checking to see if the man they were sent to kill and just riddled with bullets was in fact dead.
    Instead: They book it, grabbing the virus samples and getting out. Not only did Birkin survive the attack, though gravely injured, he also happened to have a sample of the monster-making virus on his person. When he injects himself with it, the results are predictable.
    The Results: The near-complete decimation of the team, the virus infecting the entire city and the downfall of Umbrella.
    Even Worse: This happened before, chronologically anyway. Dr. James Marcus was similarly assassinated by the U.S.S—it's entirely possible and even speculated that HUNK was a part of that operation—and a similar outcome led to Marcus coming back to life, infecting a train, destroying two Umbrella facilities and nearly becoming unstoppable were it not for the timely intervention of a rookie cop and an ex-Marine.
  • Elliot Edward, a police officer, is stranded on a roof where a pair of zombies are approaching him. He manages to get a submachine gun, and a helicopter is coming in to save him, but there's still the matter of the zombies.
    You'd Expect: Elliot, being a trained police officer, to be capable of, you know, shooting two barely-moving targets that are six feet in front of him.
    Instead: He Screams Like a Little Girl and engages in A-Team Firing, failing to hit a single zombie until they're right on top of him, and even then failing to do any significant damage.
    Even Worse: After he gets tackled to the ground, his random firing - in one of the worst cases of a Contrived Coincidence in video game history - MANAGES TO HIT AND KILL HIS WOULD-BE RESCUER, SENDING THE CHOPPER CRASHING DOWN ON ELLIOT WHILE THE ZOMBIES ARE TRYING TO EAT HIM. No wonder they changed his death completely in the remake.
• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis:
  • Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira meet up in a gas station when they hear a horde of zombies coming to their location. They start to panic a little bit since they are effectively trapped.
    You'd Expect: Jill and Carlos try to find another way out or at least barricade the door and windows.
    Instead: Carlos decides to play hero by going ''outside where the zombies are'' and attempt to mow them all down with his assault rifle. Somehow, Carlos doesn't die, but you can find him slumped over and passed out from his injuries, which he wakes up from and can still walk.
  • A viral outbreak of an insanely contagious virus able to cross-infect almost any species of living organism—everything from humans to earthworms to plants—has occurred in Raccoon City, a small city located within the heart of the mainland United States. If this were in real life, it would make the Bhopal gas leak incident look like a fart in a crowded room by comparison. In this beyond worst-case scenario, Umbrella decides to send in teams of soldiers on behalf of the U.S Government to try evacuating survivors from the city.
    You'd Expect: Umbrella to do some sort of damage control. Yes, this incident is bad. Beyond bad, it's a horrifying nightmare, but with a juicy government contract on the line, you would think they would attempt to save face in some manner by having this team actually attempt to rescue civilians.
    But This Being Umbrella: They decide instead that it is a better idea to send these mercenaries in—who are by the way a group of terrorists, war criminals and dishonorable discharges all facing death penalties with a casualty rate of 98%—to die by the hands of their escaped biological monstrosities to gather combat data, rather than actually rescue civilians.
    It Gets Worse: They insert "supervisors" into the command ranks of the mercenaries to gather said combat data, who Umbrella plans to extract once they have completed this task, or at the very least the data they hand in. All well and good, until one of them decides to pull a The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and bump off all the other Supervisors to take their combat data and sell it off to the highest bidder. Canonically, he escapes, so out of this fracas Umbrella didn't even get that much out of it.
• Resident Evil 4:
  • Osmund Saddler has kidnapped the President's daughter, Ashley Graham, and infected her with a parasite that will allow him to mind control her when it matures, and he plans on using her to infect the President.
    You'd Expect: Saddler would let the girl go quickly, since the plan.
    Instead: When Leon Kennedy shows up to rescue Ashley, Saddler has him infected with a plaga while monologuing about it, and repeatedly attempts to re-kidnap Ashley.
  • When initially researching las Plagas, Saddler had Luis Sera build a machine that could kill a plaga without harming the host.
    You'd Expect: Saddler to immediately dismantle the machine once his plan to kidnap and mind-control the President's Daughter begins since he does not need it anymore.
    Or: At the very least keep it password protected and make sure Ashley is never anywhere near it.
    Instead: It's kept fully operational, ready to use, and nearby to where Ashley is held.
  • At several points, Salazar appears and starts monologuing to the tune of "You have done well to make it this far, Mister Kennedy. But you will never stop our master plan!" Most of the time, he is only accompanied by a couple of those Granados Leon's been mowing down all game, and at one point Leon even finds him completely alone and defenseless.
    You'd Expect: Leon to blow his brains out, sparing himself the trouble of dealing with him later on down the line.
    Instead: Leon squanders 5 golden opportunities to kill him.
    The Result: Leon has to fight him as a giant tentacle monster.
• Resident Evil 5:
  • Albert Wesker confronts Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar in his jet. He puts the former down with one punch on his side and two punches on his chin, and a kick then focuses on the latter with Chris' gun. As Chris tries to shoot him, he dodges every bullet he throws at him. Next, he pulls out his Samurai Edge and points it at Chris' head.
    You'd Expect That: Wesker would use this as an opportunity to blow his brains out, finally killing Chris.
    Instead: He basically says, "A new Genesis is at hand, and I will be the creator." Five seconds after, Sheva, whom he's not focused at that time, tries to attack him with a knife, missing the chance.
  • Excella Gionne has partnered with Wesker.
    You'd Expect: Now that she gets the position of being CEO of Tricell, she wouldn't blindly follow orders from some mysterious guy who is prone to betraying everyone he works with in the first place. Even if she knew Wesker is really dangerous, she would try to betray him in some way.
    Instead: Not only does she trust him, but she continues to get involved with him. No surprise when Wesker betrays and gets her killed in the end.
  • Chris pulls a gun on Wesker, at which point Wesker reveals that one of the minions flanking him is Jill Valentine (Chris's Not Quite Dead friend).
    You'd Expect: For Chris to stay alert, especially since Jill is clearly not his ally anymore.
    Instead: He lowers his gun and tries to reason with Jill. Both she and Wesker take this opportunity to attack Chris.
  • And of course, after a bit of prodding from Chris, Jill begins to fight the the brainwashing.
    You'd Expect: Wesker to stop screwing around, plug Chris once and for all, launch his missiles, and perhaps hit a drive-thru before The End of the World as We Know It.
    Instead: He remarks how impressive it is that Jill is resisting, turns up the dosage of the Psycho Serum, and just leaves. Of course Chris gets through to her, yanks the mind-control device off of her, and she spills all the beans on Wesker's hideout and plan.
• Resident Evil 6:
  • Leon Kennedy and his partner encounter what is obviously an airport-style metal detector on a university campus crawling with the undead, where being quiet is of the utmost importance.
    You'd Expect: Leon to climb over the waist-high desk beside the metal detector and continue on unimpeded.
    Instead: Your only option is to derp through the detector, which wails bloody murder since he's carrying more weapons than the Korean People's Army, which attracts every zombie on campus and hurls Leon into a vicious Hold the Line battle.
  • Chris learns from Leon that Jake Muller is the late Albert Wesker's son, which explains why Chris had a sense of familiarity when they first met. Chris decides to tell Jake about his father, namely outing himself as the one who killed him.
    You'd Expect: Chris would wait until his mission was over before breaking the news to Jake.
    Instead: He decides to tell him in the middle of the mission, knowing full well that Jake would not take it well and could possibly retaliate. Predictably, Jake gets very pissed off, pulls his gun on him, and fires but purposely misses Chris's head by mere centimeters while stating that he will deal with him later. The way Chris acts non plussed when he confesses that he's Wesker's killer as well as not flinching from the gunshot makes him look like he wanted to be killed.
• Resident Evil 7:
  • Ethan Winters encounters a police officer early on whilst trapped in the Baker residence.
    You'd Expect: Ethan to explain he was looking for his wife and was trapped by the crazy people living there, showing his stapled on wrist as proof.
    Instead: Ethan is as unhelpful and vague as possible, making it look like he's the crazy person in this scenario. He also demands the police officer's weapon, as though he expects a police officer to just hand over his police issued weapon without consequence.
    The Obvious Result: The officer doesn't trust him at all, only gives him a pocket knife, then tells him to meet him in the garage, leaving him alone in the house.
  • Ethan actually manages to make it to the garage unaccosted, running into the police officer in the process.
    You'd Expect: The police officer to quickly get Ethan out of the garage one way or another, whether it's just by taking him out of there or even in handcuffs.
    Instead: The officer stands there for no particular reason trying to get Ethan to explain what's happening (when Ethan has just proven he's not taking the situation well enough to explain it).
    Predictably: He gets stabbed in the back of the head by Jack Baker.
    Even Worse: It's implied that the officer didn't even call for backup when he went to the house, meaning he travelled to this house that he has suspicions about (a note in the house says that he's been around multiple times) and didn't tell anyone where he was going or what he was doing.
    As A Result: No help shows up at the house at all and Ethan has to, among other things, fetch a key out of the officer's own corpse to escape.

• Resident Evil Village:
  • Chris Redfield shows up at the beginning of the game and shoots Mia right in front of Ethan.
    You'd Expect: Chris would explain things right then and there so Ethan could at least understand there was more going on than he thought. And that Chris was trying to help him, since the "Mia" that he shot was actually Miranda, who was trying to kidnap Rose.
    Or: At the least, at the lake, tried doing so when he and his men ambush Ethan.
    Instead: He just keeps ordering him to “Stay out of his way” without giving any context as well as saying villainous things like “I’m surprised you made it this far. It would be a shame if something happened to you now.“ Ethan didn't know they were investigating things, so of course he wasn't gonna just sit by after learning his child was kidnapped. It's only after Ethan dealt with most of the threats himself that Chris finally talks with him in Heisenberg's factory. Yes, he explains that he didn't want to get civilians involved, a good sentiment. But if he would've told Ethan to at least trust him at the start (the two seemed chummy enough and Ethan even stated Chris was the one to move the family to Europe after the events of RE7) or at least backed him up sooner when it was clear Ethan was in too deep but capable of holding his own, things may have turned out a lot differently.
    The Result: Ethan gets mortally wounded at the end and, while he succeeds in saving Rose, sacrifices himself to kill Miranda once and for all. To Chris' credit, his team does call him out for his decision and even he notes he screwed up badly how he handled things.
  • Ethan goes to the lake to retrieve another flask containing Rose's dismembered body parts. The flask is found early-on within arm's reach, with Salvatore Moreau just beyond it, unaware of Ethan's presence.
    You'd Expect: Ethan would quickly and quietly grab the flask and leave, with Moreau none the wiser.
    Instead: Ethan decides to alert Moreau of his presence before grabbing the flask, and after grabbing the flask, stays to question Moreau about the Four Lords' intentions with Rose.
    As A Result: Moreau blocks Ethan's escape route while they were talking, trapping Ethan in the lake where he must fight through dozens of enemies, including Moreau himself, whose monstrous form has an enormous advantage over Ethan in the water, until Ethan is finally able to kill them all and escape.
  • Heisenberg, being the Gadgeteer Genius Mad Scientist with a grudge against Miranda he is, decided to build a makeshift mecha tank from the various scraps found in his factory, equipped with a Chainsaw, machine gun, and a BFG.
    You'd Expect: He would build it out of metals that he can control in case someone thinks to try using it themselves against him, allowing him to either toss it around or dismantle it the moment it occurs.
    Instead: He builds it out of a metal/polymer composite, which he can't use his polarity on.
    As A Result: Ethan is able to hijack it with Chris' help and use it, namely its BFG, to kill him once and for all.