What are the dumbest things people do in movies?

[Ted C]

Disposable guns.

Often in movies where characters are fighting for their lives with guns, you will see them throw the guns away when they run out of ammo. Why not keep it in the off chance that you can reload?!?

Or keep it for close combat. That's a pretty solid chunk of metal that you could bash against someone's head in a pinch.

[Ted C]

I'm always astonished by the people who leave perfectly good weapons lying around on the ground during a crisis situation. Often enough an evil goon is defeated, leaving a machine gun unattended, but none of the "good guys" bothers to pick it up.

[Leah]

villains who stall time, which gets them defeated.

[FatFreddysCat]

One that always struck me funny was the gal in Death Ship (1980) who took time out for a shower in the middle of the movie. Of course, since the ship is haunted, something horrible happens to her while she's showering. (I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen the film...but I will say that it's fairly underwhelming...).

I realize that it's a horror/exploitation flick and the only reason for that scene's existence was to fulfill the film's gratuitous-nudity quotient, but seriously.... who in the hell hops on board a decrepit, creaky 40-year-old derelict World War II ship in the middle of the ocean and then suddenly decides "Y'know what? I'm gonna take a shower!"??

[Leah]

I should add the screaming when someone tells them to be quiet to try to escape.

[voltron]

Going back into the house (usually to find friends). 

[Ted C]

Going back into the house (usually to find friends). 

I don't think I can call going back for your friends dumb. Going back without a plan may be dumb, but going back for your friends? That's loyalty.

[BoyScoutKevin]

But none of the above are as dumb as your average teen or pre-teen male.

All one can say is "Stupid, if naive, and thus liable to make the wrong decision."

"Lair of the White Worm"
Allowing himself to get into a car with a strange, sexy woman and having her take him to her home and drowning him in the tub.

"L'Anticristo"
Allowing himself to be lured away from his school group by a strange, sexy woman and having her take him into a deserted corridor in the catacombs in Rome and breaking his neck.

"Troll 2"
Allowing himself to follow a strange, sexy woman into a mobile home and turning him into popcorn.

"2020 Texas Gladiators"
And just because.

It works, because we know that teenage and pre-teennage  boys, especially those that are still virgins, in a film always think with their dicks instead of their brains.

On the other hand . . .

Nothing more needs to be said. That is just gilding the lily, senseless padding, and does not work. Such as in Anne Perry's "Bluegate Fields" and the TV series on BBC America "Broadchurch."

[VenomX73]

"Troll 2"
Allowing himself to follow a strange, sexy woman into a mobile home and turning him into popcorn.

I'd totally let Creedence Leonore Gielgud turn me into popcorn. 

[lester1/2jr]

People always arrive late for class if they are college. and space out in class,etc. dude just drop out

[Javakoala]

"Troll 2"
Allowing himself to follow a strange, sexy woman into a mobile home and turning him into popcorn.

Honestly, if this comment appeared virtually ANYWHERE other than this forum, people would think you had lost your mind.

I've seen that movie, and I still doubt my sanity.

One of my favorites is why does everyone flip the sunvisor in a car to look for the keys, and what freaking MORON actually leaves keys in that place to begin with?

[SynapticBoomstick]

Entertaining the belief that they can commune with or appease the monster.

See Jason X: "It's ok, he just wanted his machete back!"

[zombie no.one]

women: invariably having eyes closed for the entire duration of a shower. perfect for 'whatever' to creep into the room unnoticed

men: (policeman/detective) dabbing at a suspected illegal substance and tasting it to see what drug it is! NB only men are allowed to do this, never women.

[akiratubo]

Every action taken by any of the characters in the 2005 King Kong.

[Ozzymandias]

Ozzymandias speaks: Two things that have been parodied in comedy films.

Both Austin Powers and an episode of the Man from UNCLE pointed out that villains in spy movies tend to try to kill the hero with an elaborate but inefficient and awkward way that the hero will ultimately escape. Usually involving a conveyor belt.

Young Frankenstein parodied another stupid move by characters: putting a living monster or creature on display in front of a huge audience. The most famous was King Kong, where it doesn't seem like such an obviously bad idea. However, Revenge of the Creature features the stupidest variation on this.

"Hey, lets see if we can wake this creature up in front of several families in a water park."

"Will we need a protective partition between the audience and the creature?"

"Nah, what could go wrong?"

Ozzymandias has spoken!!