There have been so many movies where the characters make really stupid decisions. The most common example is when someone is safely locked inside the house, but they hear a noise outside and decide that they should investigate (barefoot, wearing a nightgown, and carrying only a flashlight), even though about 8 of their friends have recently been decapitated, burned, hanged, impaled, slashed, crushed, etc.
What is your favorite example of a character doing something REALLY stupid?
How about cartoons?
I nominate Wiley Coyote! Doe's he actually think he's going to catch the Roadrunner? Or perhaps Sylvestor the cat . . . if either one of these characters ever caught their prey the would be in the unemployment line the next day!
Thoughts?
Rob
But it answers the question. I was browsing the horror section of the local used book store and happened across a tome called Slime, a Blob style monster knock-off. Picking it up, I read the opening pages.
Prologue has Nefarious Evil Corporate Goons illegally dumb toxic waste. Cliche Check #1.
Opening Chapter: Gentile Farmer (who will be our first victim, no duh - Cliche Check #2) roams his land only to discover his prize cows dissolving in puddles of GREEN SLIME!!!. The Farmer watches, aghast for a few paragraphs (thus allowing the author to describe the slurping, crackling sound the slime makes as it feeds. Gentile Farmer notices the slime in the grass sliding over his shoes, but it seems to lose interest. He then sticks his finger into, to see what this glop eating is cows is.
Let me repeat.
After seeing his cows getting dissolved by a GREEN SLIME!!!, and after seeing this GREEN SLIME!!! slithering around his feet. Farmer Gentile proceeds to STICK HIS FINGER IN IT!!!!!!
Needless to say, there is a nice melting Farmer passage. Nice to see Darwin in action.
the redhead girl in 'the raft' (the second bit from 'creepshow 2') does the same thing - why would people want to touch ooze?
I'd have to say the decision by the evil cyborgs in Future War to take the time to build a galaxy-spanning empire of time machines to enslave mute kickboxers and dinosaurs rather than to build thumbs. Yes, for those fortunate enough to have missed this one, I said they don't have thumbs.
Brother R
Probably in the Stuff, where the guy sees mysterious ooze leaking out of the ground so he eats it.
The one that comes to mind is Ally Sheedy's reporter character in Man's Best Friend. She finds an enormous, mean-looking dog in a lab that's obviously doing some kind of illegal medical research and TAKES THE FRIGGIN' THING HOME. Idiot!
A close runner up would be any mad scientists who create monsters and put them in cages that spring open automatically when the power goes out.
Or evil overlord wannabes who continue to give detailed plans to captured heroes, giving the heroes time to escape. Enough already. Don't you evil overlord wannabes ever watch movies?
everyone from resident evil....just cause I hate this movie and everyone in it to death...
illcos wrote:
> the redhead girl in 'the raft' (the second bit from 'creepshow
> 2') does the same thing - why would people want to touch ooze?
Well, at least she had the excuse of being hypnotized by the ooze. Farmer Greenbean had only hisowndumbself to blame.
Then there was the old dude in The Blob and its remake.
Right on! "Hey! What's this! It's coming out of the ground" reaches down and sticks finger in it. Hey! For something oozing out of the ground, this is pretty good! Give me a break. Fun movie though.
Scottie
Our heroes in Cannibal Ferox (Make Them Die Slowly) who decide to hang out, for no particular reason, in the cannibal village while trying to elude the cannibals who live in the cannibal village.
When the black girl opens the front door in Slumber Party Massacre only to be instantly cut down by the Driller Killer. Anyone could see it coming, she hadn't been a stupid character until that point. And they killed off the cutest girl in the flick just to jack up the body count a little more.
You know the most dumbest thing I've seen and I couldnt believe how old it was...
ABBOTT & COSTELLO in Hold that Ghost...
The party finds a dead body in a room, and seconds later cops show up (strangly how nobody calls for them) then they show the cops the body and no body... So the cops says "we are going to look thru the hotel"
And would you believe what happens next...
The party agrees to go to bed and sleep for the rest of the night... Wait for one second here... first you have a dead body in the house, and cops walking thru the rooms and your group wants to go to bed...
And this is from an old movie too... :D
Any protagonist who manages to capture a small but nasty creature in a box, garbage can, suitcase, etc., then can't resist peeking in to see if it's really in there.
All James Bond villains. By now they should realize that Bond needs to be shot on sight.
Any protagonist who manages to capture a small but nasty creature in a box, garbage can, suitcase, etc., then can't resist peeking in to see if it's really in there.
All James Bond villains. By now they should realize that Bond needs to be shot on sight.
The moron in "Demon Wind" who go outside to check out the "hot chick" who is beckoning to them. The characters know that they are in the middle of a cursed land and in a cursed house, but out the door he goes. Heck, I cannot remember for certain, it might even be two of the men.
I can think of two instances that really annoy me. Firstly, in "The Thing" towards the end of the film, the cook is working in an underground passage. He sees something further down the passage, so he walks down towards it. HELLO! This guy is one of only three survivors in a camp infiltrated by a shape-shifting alien monster, and he walks off into a dark ice passage ALONE, UNARMED and WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE!
Secondly, in "Arachnophobia", the hot shot arachnologist (right word?) played by Julian Sands finds a huge web in a barn, obviously spun by the sinister spider he's hunting. He sees it and - plucks one of the strands with his finger. HELLO AGAIN! What is this guy thinking? "I'll just see if Spidey is home"? "Can I get an F sharp on this"? "Has Peter Parker been here"? For Heaven's sake, he's supposed to know his spiders and the first part of the film sets up how incredibly knowledgeable he is about them. And then he gets tired of life??? Grrr!
Andrew wrote:
> The moron in "Demon Wind" who go outside to check out the "hot
> chick" who is beckoning to them. The characters know that they
> are in the middle of a cursed land and in a cursed house, but
> out the door he goes. Heck, I cannot remember for certain, it
> might even be two of the men.
Oh, yeah. I remember those guys. But it should be noted that the chick outside was exposing her big boobies so many of us wuld have fallen for that also.
What, no ones taken the "Hero knocks out armed thug, and does not take the thug's gun" card? Guess its up to me, then.
People...mostly, but not always women, who stand there and scream, when confronted by a known lethal threat.
To paraphrase Arther J. Rimmer, "I choose to avoid any creature that has more teeth then the entire osmond family".
In short...run, you moron! At least try!....sheesh!
After reading all these responses, I guess my 2 all-time favorite stupid decision (which appears in MANY, MANY movies) are when:
1. Someone knocks out (or apparently kills) the villain, and then decides to get very close to where the body is lying in order to check and see if the villain is really unconscious (or dead) . . . only to have the villain open his eyes and grab the person's throat.
2. Someone knocks out (or apparently kills) the villain, and then decides that the best way to escape is to step over the villain's body . . . only to have the villain open his eyes and grab the person's ankle.
(I think the same scriptwriter invented both of these scenarios).
Or even just leaving the unconscious villian there. At least tie him up!
There is a simple rule for monster movie survival: Don't. Touch. The goop. Ever. Tasting requires touch old man.
Idiotic decisions goes to all the folks in "The Creeping Terror" who end up in the Creeping Terror.
As a friend once said to me: "Oo! Oh! It looks dangerous! Lets poke it with something!"
----ooo-'U'-ooo-----Kilroy was here.
Why didn't any of the criminals think to shoot Robocop in the fleshy part of his face?
I don't know if that would've put him down but it sure would have made a mess of him!
I remember the first time I saw Robocop back in the late 80's.
I remember thinking that throughout the entire film....whether or not they'd hurt him by shooting him there.
Post Edited (05-29-03 21:37)
I cant believe Ripley in Alien, the only survivor on the ship and she goes back for a damn cat. Now I am a pet lover for sure, but not enough to go back through alien territory to find a damn cat.
In fact I hate it whenever the protaginist decides to go back and rescue everyone else instead of calling for help or grabbing a weapon they wont drop the first time they are hit.
Trying to reassure someone that "it's just your imagination", "there's nothing out there", "relax and have a toke/drink/etc".
The horror movie characters who say "There's no such thing as..." will usually find a chainsaw cleaving them in half before the end of that sentence.
JUST KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT AND BELIEVE THE CRAZY OLD MAN WHEN HE SAYS THE VOYAGE IS DOOMED!!!!
No one has mentioned the number one rule, which is DO NOT GO UP (or in the case of basements DOWN) THE STAIRS!!!
I have quite a few and 2 of them come from the movie Daredevil
Right after Bullseye gets shot through the hands he looks to this guy ,who he just spent the past 10 to 15 minutes trying to kill him, and asks him to show mercy. Only to have him introduced to the finer ponts of base jumping without the parachute.
Now he falls like 6 stories into a car and basicly goes through the car. The NYPD ,good work in making them seem like a laughing stock, run up to the car with guns drawn screaming, "Don't Move!" Hello?!?!?!?!?!
I also see all of these posts aboout horror movies and not one person has mentioned the number one killer of women in horror movies, High heels.
How many movies have you seen where they are supposed to be roughing it only to see a woman running from the killer or monster in 5 inch spike heels?
Post Edited (05-31-03 10:16)
Like in Dreamcatcher when BEaver has the worm thingy in the toilet and drops his toothppicks in the red crap. He decides to go for the toothpick even though he's holding something thats not good under him in a toilet. Needless to say he gets ate.
What about the hero in Octopus? This a guy who's whole damn existance is idiotic. He can't bring himself to shoot the bad guy afer the guy kills his partner, or when his's escaping, or whe he has a hostage (he even kills the hostage and the boob can't even aim).
D
A good thread. Any thread that makes me laught is a good thread. (IMHO) Is that idiotry w/ reason or idiotry w/o reason?
For example Kevin (Pitt) getting into a car with a stranger in "Lair of the White Worm."
That is an idiot decion, but, there is a reason behind it. He is cold. He is wet. And it is warm and dry in the car, and the car is driven by a righteous babe.
On the other hand, in "Rawhide Rex," when the American couple is leaving town with their two children, knowing a Monster is in the area, they let their little girl out of the car to go to the bathroom, without one of them accompanying her. Then when the girl screams, both parents leave the boy alone in the car with the doors unlocked and the window open. That is the idiotry that makes me want to drive my head through the TV
screen. Because the screenwriters, at this point in the film, were too lazy to think up a way to reasonablely move the plot forward, they resorted to having the characters doing something idiotic.
God were do I start
The burbs:If you ever found a human femur in your neighbors backyard wouldn't your first reaction be to call the cops.
The evil dead movies:STOP READING FROM DEMONIC BOOKS YOU STUPID f**kS NOTHING GOOD EVER COMES OF IT!
Halloween,nightmare on elm street and friday the 13th:If your friends are disapering or dying in strange ways DO NOT have sex, split up and go looking by your selves for the killer or missing people, and dont ever think that the killer is ever dead if it has not been "killed" by something other than fire,explosions,or through ancient rituals.
Evan3, i'd go back into an alien-infested ship to save my bunny.
wouldn't leave without her.
what i want to know is why the government, upon seeing that the hellish virus/killer spiders/evil robot/whatever is loose, insists upon killing as many people to keep it hushed up, as the thing itself kills.
if i knew a killer robot was on the loose in my town, i'd sleep with one eye open, one fist balled up, and a jumper cable wired to a power line under my pillow.
why not let the community help identify and dispatch the problem?
Oh,God...please don't get me started on Octopus.....I hate that film!
And Pythons too, that mega mess!
Idiots may.be explainable in one way. If your used to a normal quiet life, it could be hard to realy accept the horror you have been thrust into, and your mind may block out this weird reality enough you make a boo boo.
However...if you've been in the situation more then a few hours, this could get weaker as an explination, as time passes, and more of your friends are turned into monster kibble.
ErikJ. I could see the NYPD in the Marvel universe saying "Don't move" to a guy who just fell 6 storied into the roof of a car....in THAT NYC, he could indeed be just stunned!
spikesangel wrote:
> Evan3, i'd go back into an alien-infested ship to save my
> bunny.
> wouldn't leave without her.
>
>
But if you save the bunny, who the hell is gonna save you???
Just finished watching Friday the 13th part 2, how about this one: the girl who was all hot for the guy in the wheelchair goes back to her cabin to freshen up, and Jason gets a little machete-happy while she's gone. She comes back to the main cabin, can't find him, and decided to LOOK UPSTAIRS???!?! I know she was stoned and all, but he wouldn't have any reason to go up there, and he wouldn't have taken his wheelchair!!!
Possibly in "Wes Craven's They" (any idea if Craven had anything whatsoever to do with this film? I can't find him anywhere), when the irritating main character opens the medicine cabinet, finds a horrible black slime dimension inside, then REACHES INTO THE CABINET. I wish these movies were interactive, so you could personally murder every last member of the principal cast.