Best thriller movie stupidity of all time

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Die Hard: With a Vengeance picture

Stupidity: In the scene with the water-jug puzzle, both Zeus Carver and John McClane initially suspect that the small carrying case contains a bomb. McClane goes ahead and opens the case, which confirms that it is a bomb (the electronic readout in the case even says: "I AM A BOMB. YOU HAVE JUST ARMED ME"). If they suspected it was a bomb in the first place, why didn't Carver and McClane immediately try to warn the dozens of pedestrians all around them to evacuate the area before McClane opened it? That would be a seasoned police officer's first instinct. Instead, McClane and Carver banter and bicker and never attempt to warn the public, even as the timer is ticking down.

Charles Austin Miller

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Suggested correction: This carries over from the very first time McClane and Zeus talk to Simon on the phone (the "As I was going to St. Ives" scene). Simon tells the two not to run and McClane assures him they won't but that there are at least 100 people on the street, to which Simon responds "That's the point." McClane takes this to mean he can't just warn everyone or Simon will set the bomb off. They open the case because they don't know that doing so will arm the bomb. They wanted to know if there was a riddle or more instructions. Having the bomb be armed by being opened, complete with the pithy text "you have just armed me" was just a way for Simon to torment McClane. The bantering and bickering is of course, still pretty stupid but is consistent with how the characters behave for the entire movie.

BaconIsMyBFF

Still, McClane's whole motivation in this movie is to save innocent people from death, which goes above and beyond his motivation in the first movie (which was to save his wife). What is the whole point of disarming the briefcase-bomb in the park if not to save the public? As stated in the original post, no seasoned and dedicated officer of the law would proceed without warning the public.

Charles Austin Miller

Except he was told specifically earlier not to do that. If he warned people of the bomb, it was implied that Simon would remotely detonate it. It can't be "stupid" of McClane to not warn people if he thinks doing so will get them killed. I agree that it is a trite movie cliche that a cop doesn't act like a cop would in the real world, but in the context of this film McClane's actions are consistent with the instructions Simon gives him.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Lethal Weapon 2 picture

Stupidity: It was pure stupidity for Riggs to bring Rika back at her residence after escaping the hit on Riggs. The villains know where Riggs' love interest lives and this nor the option to hide somewhere else or safer never occurs to him?

Movielover1996

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A Nightmare on Elm Street picture

Stupidity: When the parents knew Freddy was doing the killing then why didn't they watch him like a neighborhood watch so they could catch him trying it again, and thus avoid the legal technicality which threw out of the first case? It seems idiotic they broke the law to punish this lawbreaker.

Rob245

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Suggested correction: The parents believed Freddy would not face justice for his crimes. They were unwilling to allow him the opportunity to kill another child, and believing the justice system had failed them they took the law into their own hands. They completely got away with their vigilante justice. The only bad thing that happened was Freddy was brought back as a vengeful demon with superpowers. There is no way the parents could have known this would happen.

BaconIsMyBFF

It is still a stupidity. Even if they wanted him to suffer, they would try to avoid legal problems at all costs. It is good that they wanted to prevent him from killing another child but they still shouldn't act so hastily.

Stupidity entries are not meant to be stupid acts by characters. They're for minor plot holes. Without in-film evidence why the acts would be a plot hole, there is no stupidity mistake. And assuming what characters would or would not do does not make a valid mistake (not to mention revenge killings do happen in real life and in movies a lot).

Bishop73

No, it's not. What else were they supposed to do when he was caught and set free? It's still not their fault what happened next.

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The Silence of the Lambs picture

Stupidity: Lecter fires the first bullet to alert the police that something is up, and the lift goes up, then comes down. Now in all this, only 6 or 7 go up the floor where Lecter was. Why aren't police sent in groups to investigate every floor? Lecter could have been anywhere, instead there are about 30 police huddled on the lobby floor.

kh1616

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Knives Out picture

Stupidity: Marta is shown to barf whenever she lies, and Blanc knows this. He should've asked her who did it right away. The entire plot of this movie is rendered unnecessary.

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Suggested correction: That would only work if Blanc knew that Marta had knowledge of who killed Harland and if he came to the conclusion that Harland actually killed himself. Blanc doesn't know that Harland killed himself to protect Marta until Marta confesses. Also, this wouldn't have solved the "who done it" anyway, since Marta had no idea that Ransom switched the vials.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Die Hard picture

Stupidity: Hans keeps a major part of his plan secret from his own team: that the electromagnetic lock will be disabled if the FBI shuts down power to the building. The mercenaries hired as muscle don't need to know the minutiae of the plan, but it seems ludicrous that Theo wasn't told. Theo states on more than one occasion that he can't proceed past a certain point and that he hopes Hans has a plan for the final lock. Evidently, Hans was keeping this information secret simply to amuse himself, which makes little sense considering how much planning went into the heist.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Suggested correction: Or because he simply doesn't trust anyone with that kind of knowledge. He neither trusts them or cares about them, it's all him.

lionhead

So he trusts that Theo would be on board with all the murder and mayhem, open all the other locks, be in a tactical lookout position when the police try to breach, and drive the getaway vehicle. But he doesn't trust Theo enough to tell him the last lock will open when the power goes out?

BaconIsMyBFF

It's not about trust; Hans needs Theo to do what he is there for and that is all you mention up to the final lock. He has a plan for the final lock and so there's no need to discuss it with the team, since it won't be any of them responsible.

kayelbe

The more people that know the plan the more chances of someone talking. Especially when they are hired mercenaries.

Ssiscool

Theo was already on board with taking hostages and committing murder. Him knowing that the power needed to be shut off to open the last lock doesn't appear to be particularly important information you would need to keep from someone to keep them from talking.

BaconIsMyBFF

If he's the only one that knows the final step to get the money, then at least up until that moment he is absolutely indispensable to the plan and ensures no-one would double-cross him. In any case I'm not sure being more cautious than necessary really qualifies as "stupidity."

TonyPH

More Die Hard stupidity
Batman and Robin picture

Stupidity: Mr, Freeze and Poison Ivy join together and plan to cover Gotham in freezing temperatures and plants, with none of them ever considering in the slightest that plants don't survive freezing temperatures, despite both of them being scientists.

Movielover1996

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Mission: Impossible picture

Stupidity: You would think if the security systems in the computer vault have to be off in order for a technician to access the computer then the computer itself wouldn't be accessible if the security systems were on.

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan picture

Stupidity: Reliant's prefix code is 16309. This code prevents an enemy ship from ordering a friendly ship to lower its shields or something similar. Five digits with no symbols. We know that symbols and letters aren't used since Spock uses a 10 digit set of switches to input the code. This is ludicrous. In 2016, a high powered server could crack a 6 digit password in approximately 0.0224 seconds (at 100 billion guesses/second). Any starship computer would have to far more processing power then a 2016 server. The prefix code protecting a starship from cyber attack would have to be insanely complex in order to be useful.

Grumpy Scot

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Suggested correction: Keep in mind the era that this movie was made in. This movie was made before PCs really existed. Computers at this time were typically huge devices or box like containers. Their data storage capacity was minuscule and there certainly wasn't any form of AI logic programs built to "hack" passwords. I know this movie is about space and set in the future but there's a lot of stuff in Star Trek movies that based on our technology or development currently, we would expect something bigger, smarter, etc. We still have problems today with people using archaic password structures like 1.2.3.4. or actually using the word password for/in their password. Back in '81-'82, I'm sure that most people would not have thought about codes being hacked. This is not to mention that in many movies, which I don't know if there is a specific reason for using 16309, codes, passwords, numbers for addresses/apt#/room#/etc and other info frequently come about as tribute, honoring, or coming from something in the lives of a film's director/producer/actor/etc! So sure with today's technology, which could have been accomplished more than 10 years ago as well, using a single string of numbers as security measures for anything is foolish and can be hack by a self running password-like cracker program... But they made this "code" back in the very early 80s when computer hacking was barely unconscionable (MAYBE) so unless these #s were a tribute or to honor something, I'm pretty sure no one was even thinking of hacking back then... We all aware of today... all about the hacking threats and YET we still have people using 1.2.3.4., the word password, or other horrible predictable password choices that can easily be broken by a password cracking program... And we know that there's a huge hacking threat requiring strong security measures but don't do so while back then, there was little awareness of the threats of hacking much less the concept of hacking altogether.

OR... in this future they have limited the number of password attempts to one a day and the ship automatically goes to red alert after a failed attempt until the right code is entered. That way it would take 7,327 years or so to try all the codes with the crew on notice and plenty of time to address the threat.

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The Girl with All the Gifts picture

Stupidity: Towards the end, one of the soldiers (Kieran) gets trapped in the store with a group of child hungries - he was injured in an ambush, but is still lucid/human. He threatens them with a grenade, even though he knows that throughout the story they are mindless and hardly capable of reason. Fair enough as a bad character mistake, but then to allow the hungries to close in on him and not detonate the grenade is inexcusable. Soldiers are trained to fight and, to a degree, accept even death, to obtain an objective or protect the others in their "unit." Dying anyway, he should have blown up the hungries to at least whittle down their numbers.

Erik M.

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Suggested correction: A soldier not having the nerve to kill himself is hardly "stupid." Suicide goes against the human desire for self-preservation. Even when faced with assured death it would still be difficult for someone to actually kill themselves and it can't be considered a mistake if someone fails to work up the nerve to do so.

BaconIsMyBFF

Perhaps so, but soldiers accept that, to a level, their lives are expendable to serve the mission, greater good, etc. Some even seek out a honorable demise. Having many servicemen in my family, this is something repeated frequently. I accept your position as valid! He chose not to use the grenade when faced with his being eaten, and it's tragic. Solely in the context of the movie, it just seemed odd to me then-an opinion.

Erik M.

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More Death Proof stupidity
Halloween 4 picture

Stupidity: For being supposedly clever as well as purely evil Michael's pretty stupid here. He gets to the gas station well ahead of Loomis yet waits for him there, doesn't kill him either despite knowing he'd try to stop him like the last time.

Rob245

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Army of the Dead picture

Stupidity: In the opening scene with the military convoy, the two soldiers in the lead vehicle never notice the car veer into their lane, even though their faces are bathed in bright light from the car's headlights. They simply ignore it and keep talking to one another.

wizard_of_gore

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Friend Request picture

Stupidity: Since the main people could not delete, or even change their own Facebook accounts; why not contact Facebook support in order for the company to do it for them?

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Outland picture

Stupidity: When the shuttle arrives with the assassins, O'Niel is shown loading a shotgun, then he carries that gun when he runs to his office. When he leaves his office again to confront the assassins he grabs another shotgun from the locker. Why didn't he just grab the gun he walked in with?

jbrbbt

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Speed picture

Stupidity: Howard has the opportunity to shoot Jack at the end, but doesn't for no discernable reason; he's already committed multiple felonies, and shooting Jack would help cover his tracks all the better. In fact, he could even have just taken the cash onto the subway and left Annie behind while staying in full disguise as a cop.

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Suggested correction: Howard Payne's taunting dialogue in the subway station suggests that he wants Jack to live a long life, tormented by the fact Payne was able to beat him. He doesn't become intent on murdering Jack until the dye pack goes off, ruining the money. After that, he tries to shoot Jack but runs out of bullets, then decides to beat him to death with the detonator but fails.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Random Acts of Violence picture

Stupidity: Adam, Hannah, and Megan [sitting in SUV with flat tire] saw the Man flashing his headlights, getting out, kicking his own SUV and ranting while holding a machete. Instead of fleeing, they got out of their SUV and saw the Man was wearing a welder's mask. When they returned to their SUV, they didn't lock the doors. The Man ran over, pounded on the front passenger's window and then opened the door. He stabbed Adam 36? times while the two girls just sat there screaming and one said, "Please stop."

KeyZOid

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Alien: Covenant picture

Stupidity: In the first action scene where James Franco's body becomes mortally engulfed in flames in his cryopod, when they are using the jaws-of-life-hatch-removing tool to manually free him, there are two very strong men struggling with all their might to pull down on the levers to pop the lid off. A) If you watch closely, one of the guys is only using one hand to pull down on the lever. Hardly a serious effort to crank the thing open. B) Meanwhile, there are three other men present who, rather than jumping in with the other two guys trying desperately to pull those levers down, are instead ridiculously engaged in holding Franco's hysterical girlfriend back from the now-flaming pod. (00:10:00)

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Alita: Battle Angel picture

Stupidity: In 300 years, in an empoverished world full of people hungry for techs, nobody ever tried to remove the ship from a small pond barely 15 feet deep, and everything inside seems intact. It is mentioned that few tried because the technology is hard to sell being unknown (which is laughable), but surely some would try to strip the ship for alloys, and certainly the lights and monitors wouldn't stay untouched in a world based on scavenging. For 300 years and so close to the city, even.

Sammo

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The Cabin in the Woods picture

Stupidity: We see that the control room had the teenagers' heartbeats and pulses monitored. When Marty was presumed killed, the control room thought so as well, but he did surprisingly reappear at the end. They didn't bother to check the monitor to see whether or not his vital signs had stopped.

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