Idiot Ball/Film: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
Examples of characters holding the [[Idiot Ball]] in Film include:
 
== Films -- Animation ==
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** Abe gets it rather badly shortly after spinning the "my brother knows everything I know" idiot ball—what does he do when he is informed of this rather critical piece of information? Go inform HQ that they'll probably be getting a PO'd elf prince breaking in? Work on evacuating everyone to safety? No, he and Hellboy get drunk and sing love songs.
** At any point in the movie someone could have thwarted the prince's plan by destroying part or all of the crown that controlled the Golden Army, which is exactly what they end up doing in the end.
* Nero, from the new{{when}} ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' movie has just seen his planet destroyed, and immediately falls into a time warp, sending him some 100 years into the past. What's his first idea? Destroy the planet of the man who was too slow in saving his planet. Not once, NOT ONCE is it ever mentioned that HE IS IN THE PAST. Had Nero simply returned to Romulus, he could have told his home of the disaster in the coming future, AND given knowledge of superior technology a century ahead of the times. The Romulans being the kind of folk they are would then take this technology, refit their ships, decimate the Federation and remember to evacuate their planet before their sun explodes (if they can't solve the problem altogether). He has 25 years to realize that his plan is stupid. Never crosses his mind.
** He's gone insane from the loss of his home, people, and family. He even says at one point that the Romulus of this time isn't ''his'' Romulus.
*** Particularly since going back in time caused a split timeline. Whatever happens to the Romulus of the new timeline, ''his'' home and family are irrevocably destroyed.
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** In ''[[Resident Evil: Extinction|Resident Evil Extinction]]'', LJ gets bitten through no real fault of his own, and becomes a [[Zombie Infectee]]. He survived the second movie just fine, has been travelling with other survivors for ''five years'', yet he tells no one he's been bitten.
* In ''[[Silent Running]]'', Lowell has spent eight years as the sole botanist taking care of one of the last living forests, preserved in a space station. He's implied to be the only person to still care about preserving nature and is the best man qualified to oversee the return of nature to Earth. Despite all this, towards the end of the film he suffers a crisis because he simply can't figure out why his forest is dying. In the climax, he suddenly remembers that {{spoiler|plants need ''sunlight''!}} Why did it take him that long to figure that out???
* ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]'',
** During the Vulgaria plot in ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]'', Jeremy and Jemimah are left alone and instructed to not go outside for any reason, because they would immediately be caught by the Child Catcher and imprisoned. When the [[Paper-Thin Disguise|thinly-disguised]] Child Catcher shows up trying to tempt the hungry children outside with delicious treats, Jeremy immediately wants to go outside and get something to eat, but Jemimah reminds him of the danger and says it's probably a trick. A moment later, however, she changes her mind and they both go outside and into the colorful stranger's wagon... only to be surprised that it was actually a trick and they've been imprisoned in a cage. And worst of all, ''[[The Cake Is a Lie|there are no delicious treats inside]]!''
** And the townsfolk are perfectly happy to shout "No! It's a trap!" from their doors, but apparently can't be bothered to oh, say, ''pick up the children and/or drag them inside''?
*** Children are outlawed - picking up the children and taking them inside would have gotten them arrested, so taking no action beyond a verbal warning (itself possibly risky) is understandable.
** The Child Catcher himself does this in the climax - did he ''really'' think he could handle a veritable army of them on his own? Took him about fifteen seconds to realize he couldn't before he panicked and tried to run, but didn't get far.
* The ''[[Big Bad]]'' in ''[[Gamer]]''. He's a tech genius and pretty media savvy, but makes two mistakes so laughable... First, the end reveals that {{spoiler|he has the ability to take control of the Hero at anytime, he neglects to do this anytime during the film when it would be most advantageous to do so... like taking control for a split-second while the hero is playing ''Slayers'', something he could easily do and make it look like a normal death in the game. Instead, he just hires a goon to kill him in game. Then he waits to usurp control of the hero until he is in the same room with him, and the hero has a weapon! Idiot ball indeed.}} Secondly, for someone so tech and media savvy to fall for the oldest trick in the book, having his villainous monologue broadcast to the world, is so pathetic that it doesn't bear a second thought.
* In the first ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' movie, while Grant and Ellie are holding back a velociraptor, a gun that was knocked out of Grant's hands and is just barely out of their reach. Lex is meanwhile hacking into the security system, and Tim, not doing anything else, decides to just stand off to the side cheering her on instead of picking up Grant's gun.
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* ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'' : The vain Queen Cassiopeia had the nerve to proclaim that her daughter, Andromeda, was more beautiful than the city's patron goddess, Thetis ... and she did this inside of ''Thetis's own temple,'' no less. In typical form for the Greek gods, Thetis does not take kindly to the insult, and as punishment, she demands that Andromeda be sacrificed to the Kraken, or else the entire city would be destroyed.
** Also, at the beginning of the film, the arrogant and vengeful King Acrisius of Argos condemns his own daughter, Danae, and her infant child, Perseus - ''who happens to be the son of Zeus, the leader of the gods'' - to the sea. It never seems to occur to Acrisius that Zeus just ''might'' be a little P.O.'ed by this. (Zeus commanded Poseidon to unleash the Kraken on Argos, destroying the entire kingdom. Acrisius may not have noticed, however, since he was busy being crushed to death by Zeus's hand.)
* In the original novel ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'', the heroine's attempt to reach a lovely-looking garden doesn't go well. After discovering a key that opens the tiny door that leads there - which she can't possibly fit into - she finds a shrinking potion, but after using it, finds she left the key on a table she now cannot reach. Then she finds a cake that makes her grow, and is now where she started, and finally, she shrinks again using the White Rabbit's fan, but again, doesn't have the key and is worse off than ever. Fast forward about eight years - [[Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)| to the 2010 movie, where Alice is a teenager]] - and she's back at the same place with the same set-up, and it seems she might make the same mistake again, the Doormouse (who is watching) wondering how she couldn't figure it out by now. Subverted, however, as she eventually does, making sure to hold onto the key while she takes the potion.
 
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