Intelligent bits in moves...

[Svengoolie 3]

There's a lot of idiocy in movies that people generally ignore, but then, there are sometimes bits of intelligence that filter thru the cracks once in a while.

One example was in the movie "Creepshow" where hal holbrook, during "The box", wonders how a creature that is not significantly larger than a human being eat 3 human beings in rapid succession. (Well, two human beings and his wife Wilma.) He even asks rhetorically "Where did they go? I mean, how much could it eat?"

A very intelligent question given the creature was humanoid and not significantly larger than a human, a very good question.

(I will forgive the movie the issue of how hal holbrook moved a crate with a creature likely weiging at last ~200lbs plus 2 adult men plus his adult wife and her massive rack.)

Juxtapose this with the movie Jaws, where a shark eats a large full grown man and minutes later seems intent on devouring another. In all reality, a full grown adult, even if chewed up thoroughly,  should fill even a large shark's stomach to capacity. the shark was maybe 35 feet long, a 6 foot+ man should really have had its stomach hanging out the "No vacancy" sign.

Catch a glimmer of intelligence in a movie? Let us know...

[Gabriel Knight]

For some reason the first and only one to come to my mind right now is: Arnold realizing that the Predator has thermo vision and then covering in mud to avoid being detected. I mean, the whole final battle is more about outsmarting each other, and that is quite awesome in action movies because you don't see it that often.

[A_Dubya]

Two that I've always thought were smart:

Danny retracing his footprints in the snow from The Shining.

Andy using the cover of a thunderstorm to break out of Shawshank.

[zelmo73]

Two that I've always thought were smart:

Danny retracing his footprints in the snow from The Shining.

I believe that was a classic Stanley Kubrick move, in that over the years it made me think a lot about the psychological effect that the Overlook Hotel had on Jack Torrance. Jack was clearly under some type of paranormal or demonic possession at that point, but as Jack left the building to chase after Danny in the hedge maze, the hotel's "hold" on Jack seemed to weaken as he became more sluggish and disoriented. Perhaps it was the cold weather that was doing this, but it didn't seem to have that effect on Danny who had been outside in the cold longer than Jack; but then again Danny could have been under an intense adrenaline rush due to his fear of Jack, not to mention that he had been under some type of possession of his own due to Tony. Was it Tony that realized that the Hotel's power was weakened the further away that Jack was from the Overlook, and why Tony led Jack into the hedge maze? Could we expect a 5 year old kid to think outside the box like that and retrace his own footsteps, or did Tony think of that? Who in tf was Tony, come to think of it?

Granted, those questions never seemed to be answered completely in the novel, other than that Tony was a completely separate entity from Danny as he saw Tony's shadow leaning against a lamppost down the street during one of Danny's "visions" in the novel. But the hedge maze had to have been Kubrick's idea, and it is the fine mark of a great storyteller that we are still talking about the movie like this over 40 years later. 

[Dr. Whom]

They sometimes show up in the oddest places as in the La Mujer Murciélago, a Mexican Batman knock off with side of luchador movie thrown in.

The Mad Scientist has had a first run in with Batwoman, and she decides to go back incognito in her everyday identity. The Mad Scientist takes one look at this unknown woman who is suddenly snooping around his yacht, and immediately concludes 'that must be Batwoman'

The secret identity of superheroes is supposed to be this impenetrable mystery, and here you have the most cartoonish of villains in a movie that is dumb as box of rocks solving it in two seconds flat.