Best thriller movie stupidity of all time

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Coyote Lake picture

Stupidity: Dirk squeezed a long stream of lighter fluid onto the pile of Mario's clothes, then saw a necklace, which he removed (and potentially got lighter fluid on his hand while doing so). Instead of tossing a match from a safe (r) distance, Dirk crouched next to the saturated clothes and held a match near the bottom of the pile, risking burning himself. (00:06:40 - 00:07:21)

KeyZOid

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Stowaway picture

Stupidity: Two things: 1. I find it inconceivable that there is only one Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDMA) and no spares for a two-year mission. 2. The crew has 20 days to fix an oxygen problem. The commander decides on a 10-day window. 5 days into that window they try to load oxygen from the Kingfisher spacecraft. One is lost into space. Zoe decides to go and fill the other one in the midst of a solar storm that will only last hours. Why take that chance? A few hours wait is still quite possible.

toroscan

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Ninja III: The Domination picture

Stupidity: If the ninja can inhabit a dead body (and one that has been dead for a LONG time, even) without any penalty in his agility and powers and it is stated that only another ninja can truly kill him (which surely seems correct, since he would still fight even when hit by hundreds of bullets), the whole movie plot that involves him possessing Christie - who is a reluctant and part-time host - does not quite make sense.

Sammo

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Vendetta picture

Stupidity: After Danny kills Kat on the sidewalk, he just stands there with Rory while the other gang members flee to their vehicles. William comes running out of the Mexican restaurant and Rory tells Danny, "We gotta go, brother. Now." Rory sees William and gets into the vehicle without getting Danny to go with him. The gang drives away with Rory watching out the window as William tackles and fights with Danny. Rory and the rest of the violent gang left behind someone who just passed the initiation. (00:07:10 - 00:07:40)

KeyZOid

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Shoot to Kill picture

Stupidity: When Jonathan is chasing the truck to try and save Sarah, he could have removed his heavy backpack and run faster...but instead just leaves it on. No wonder he wasn't fast enough.

Gavin Jackson

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Hotel Artemis picture

Stupidity: The building is supposed to be without power - at all since the generator has been destroyed - and life support machines are not powered up, but the 3D printers in every room are powered up - so that the good guy can squish the bad guy's head in it, and the elevators, so that the good guys can escape. What sort of hospital has its electric grid rigged in a way that the elevators keep working but critical surgical equipment goes dead the moment the power fails? (01:12:00)

Sammo

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The Equalizer picture

Stupidity: When he's using carbon monoxide to poison the corrupt detective Frank Masters, the windows in the car were operated by the key fob. Unusual, but OK. Maybe. But the detective could've simply opened the doors after McCaul left him in there. The door worked when he was forced into the car. (01:24:30)

applejackson

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Mile 22 picture

Stupidity: The team raids the house and locates 5 people inside deemed to be Russian operatives. They are subdued and placed on their knees, while some of the team works on gathering intel from the home. The subjects should have been handcuffed/zip-tied. Since they were not they were able to grab stashed weapons and cause a gun fight which led to one of the entry team's members being killed and all the Russian operatives killed. It's common knowledge to restrain people. Cops and military always restrain. (00:04:00 - 00:12:00)

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The Card Counter picture

Stupidity: Instead of breaking into Gordo's house, covering all the furniture in one room with sheets/thin blankets, and waiting for Gordo to return home in order to kill him via a "dramatic re-enactment" (in an adjacent room which was not shown to the audience), Bill could have taken Gordo anywhere to avoid getting caught or calling the police on himself. Had Bill taken Gordo to his already-"wrapped" motel room, he had enough injuries after the fight to claim self-defense against an intruder. (01:43:20)

KeyZOid

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G.I. Joe: Retaliation picture

Stupidity: Roadblock aborted the launch, but all the satellites explode. That is one hell of a weird abort sequence...and interestingly enough no authentication of any kind is required to abort. (01:30:00)

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Escape Plan picture

Stupidity: The security system is able to automatically ascertain the malfunction to the exact valve, and the electrical problem, but the alarm is not triggered at that point, but only when the holding cells are already filled with water and Breslin is making his return. They are on a ship, the fact that it's taking on water feels like a pretty important issue to monitor.

Sammo

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Kiss the Girls picture

Stupidity: The first time they see the bad guy in the Land Rover, Morgan has him in his sights but can't shoot, as he doesn't want to kill him. Clearly, the obvious thing to do is to shoot the car tires, but he doesn't and lets him drive off.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Shooting out car tires is not an actual effective strategy to get a vehicle to stop. A 9mm bullet simply doesn't cause enough damage to a tire to get it to go flat immediately. It causes similar damage as running over a nail. It is a movie cliche, similar to using a gun to shoot out a lock or a rope, it just doesn't happen in real life.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Survive the Game picture

Stupidity: David and his partner Cal drive into a weeded area near the garage/warehouse the drug bust is going to be made. David says, "This might go south. We need backup." David and Cal sit in the car talking about not letting the product get onto the street where someone might die, etc. then exit the vehicle without calling for backup, which could have been done in a few seconds (and should have been done as soon as David said they needed backup). (00:02:10 - 00:02:37)

KeyZOid

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Another 48 Hrs. picture

Stupidity: In the bar scene, Jack gets into a fight with a guy he busted a few years back, then Reggie turns to the bartender and asks for a gun. The bartender hardly hesitates and hands it over. There is just simply no scenario where a bartender would hand a loaded gun to a patron they had just met.

jshy7979

More Another 48 Hrs. stupidity
In the Forest picture

Stupidity: To try to get his tire out of a rut, Stan (Grandpa) brings a tire jack from inside the RV/motorhome and realizes it is the "wrong jack." It is a small, car-sized jack, inexplicably the only jack available for his ~ 30' Coronado that weighs around 9 tons. (00:10:20)

KeyZOid

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Detective Knight: Redemption picture

Stupidity: After the cloth was lit, the "Santa" could have easily thrown the Molotov Cocktail far enough to ignite the Christmas tree but, instead, casually walked to get closer (within several feet) before tossing it. This may have been for dramatic purposes, but carrying a lit rag (part of a Molotov Cocktail) unnecessarily increases the risk of getting a burn injury (which can be quite serious/painful). (00:02:35)

KeyZOid

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The Gauntlet picture

Stupidity: Other than creating a scene for the movie, there was no reason for them to be driving so slow through the streets of Phoenix when they are going to City Hall. If they had gone at a faster speed, they would've made it through without getting hit so many times.

Cynthia Gurski

More The Gauntlet stupidity
Predator 2 picture

Stupidity: Harrigan leaves his partner's badge on his grave where anyone could take it and use it to impersonate a cop or abuse it in other ways. (00:50:15)

Jack Vaughan

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Wrath of Man picture

Stupidity: For someone trained like "H", it was absurd that he would run down the center of the road toward masked gunmen and get shot multiple times. It was also ridiculous for him to have taken his son to a location that was potentially dangerous and put him in harm's way in the first place. (01:13:20)

KeyZOid

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: I'm not sure how much H was trained. If I recall correctly he's a skilled criminal, and all his "training" was faked so he could get the job with the company. Regardless... training or not, all that goes out the window when your child is being attacked. Paternal instinct took over and he was rushing in to protect his son. As for your 2nd point, it's made clear that his task was to simply stake out what was supposed to be a routine truck route. They had no idea the truck was going to be robbed.

jshy7979

More Wrath of Man stupidity
Forbidden Planet picture

Stupidity: All of Robbie's circuits have been burned out as a result of Morbius ordering him to kill the Id monster. The crew only has 24 hours to get the ship loaded and a safe distance away from Altair IV before it explodes. But one or more of the crew spends the little time they have fixing Robbie, a very sophisticated piece of technology, who is working the controls at the end of the movie.

Mike Lynch

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