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Some film characters' actions can get [[What an Idiot!|so dumb]], one might wish for the directors to re-write the script in order for the character to get it "right".
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* In [[Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions
* In ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'', the band Russel writes for is down a member and they promised an all-black group.<br />'''You'd expect''': Russel to try to convince the club to let a white guy sing.<br />'''Instead''': he sings in blackface, predictably leading to a fight when this secret is found out.
* Rarely does [[What an Idiot!]] actually work. ''[[Tin Cup]]'' is one of these cases, where Kevin Costner won't listen to Cheech Marin's advice to play the ball conservatively, and then loses a golf tournament when he doesn't.
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** This leads to the helicopter arriving and Joker taking off when Batman ties a gargoyle to his leg.<br />'''You'd expect''': The Joker to make a signal to the pilot to move to the chapel where the fall wouldn't be dangerous, or simply let go and hang around on the wall for the police to get him.<br />'''Instead''': He looks stupidly up at the ladder, tries to go along with escaping which causes the gargoyle to pull him down to his death. Really, it's hard to blame this act of stupidity on Batman.
* ''[[Minority Report]]'', where a cop who is racing to prevent a murder. He is armed with foreknowledge imagery of the crime, but it stymied when confronted with a row of identical houses.<br />'''You'd expect''': He would turn out a siren, loudspeaker, or simply shout out that the police were outside of the building.<br />'''Instead''': He takes several seconds to figure the one detail that was different about the correct house, then quietly races into the building to surprise the murderer.
** Far more importantly, when that same future-viewing device shows him and several coworkers that he will commit a murder himself, along with a heaping helping of details including the exact time, he runs. I'll grant him that, since the machine saying you will commit a murder is by itself enough to get you arrested and indefinitely cryogenically frozen with apparently no trial. However, what he does next is totally nonsensical.<br />'''You'd expect''': He would stay the hell away from wherever the murder was supposed to take place, and continue staying away until twenty minutes before it was supposed to happen, then take a taxi over to headquarters and show up three minutes before he's supposed to kill someone in a completely different location and say "Look, I'm here, not killing anyone, and you didn't have to arrest me for me not to kill someone. Therefore I'm not guilty." Or some variation of the above, the main part being that he avoids doing it and uses the fact that he didn't do it as evidence that he isn't a murderer.<br />'''Instead''': Convinced this was a plot to frame him, he goes all-out trying to find out who's responsible, committing many illegal acts. When at the end of the time limit he realizes he is standing outside the very building his future victim is in, charges in and confronts the guy, who turns out to just be a very bribed man who then ''uses'' Anderton to commit [[Suicide
** [[Egregious]] security errors on the part of the headquarters. Access is controlled via retinal scan.<br />'''You'd expect''': Once Anderton goes on the lam, they would lock out his retinal scan. Once he's captured and put into lockdown, they'd doubly make sure to lock out his retinal scan, especially since he switched out his eyes and had demonstrably used the originals to subvert their security once already.<br />'''Instead''': Anderton manages to breach the security of the Temple, using his retinal scan, and steals one of the Pre-cogs. After he's arrested and detained, his wife uses his eye AGAIN to gain access to the jail.
* ''[[Election]]'' sees a paranoid teacher put in charge of counting the votes in the class election. Much to his horror, he sees that his least favorite student Tracey Flick has won, but the election was [[Decided
* ''[[
** Also in ''[[
* This seems to be the only reason that [[Psycho for Hire]] Anton Chigurh from the film ''[[No Country for Old Men]]'' is able to kill anyone at all, and it may be possible that a supernatural ability to [[Too Dumb to Live|instill crushing stupidity in otherwise fairly savvy people]] is why he's done as well as he has. This ranges from garroting a deputy who forgets he has a gun, pulling over and shooting at literally point blank range an old man who may or may not be from the area and know the man who was supposed to be driving. This is while surveying the corpses of a half dozen of their men. You'd think they'd be a little wary.
* In ''[[Passenger 57]]'' -- which, overall, makes perfect sense if it's intended to take place in a parallel universe where [[Idiot Plot|everyone is an utter moron]] -- one of the best moments comes when the Hero's Girlfriend is fighting one of the henchmen near the open luggage door of a moving airplane. She's about to fall out the door, clutching at the henchman's pant leg; he reaches desperately for his rifle, lying a few inches away. Finally he gets his fingers on it, gets it in his grip...<br />'''You'd Expect:''' he might consider, you know, ''shooting'' her.<br />'''Instead:''' he turns the gun around, and hits her with the butt. Guess who ends up falling out of the plane?
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** Finally, '''you'd expect''' that these hydrophobic creatures would finally be repelled in a scheme that makes use of the planet's prodigious water supply.<br />'''Instead''', news reports say that the invasion is repelled in the ''deserts'' of the Middle East.
* At the end of ''[[Night of the Living Dead]],'' Ben goes upstairs to investigate the sound of gunshots and sees a rag-tag group of vigilantes and local policemen blasting away the few remaining zombies.<br />'''You'd Expect''' Ben to shout to the militia for help and come on out to meet them.<br />'''Instead''' he stares out the window in a rather emotionless fashion, whereupon a pair of rednecks see him in the window, think he's a zombie, and shoot him, after taking a noticeable amount of time to line up a headshot that he could have easily gotten out of the way of before said redneck pulled the trigger.
* ''[[Jumper (
* ''[[Iron Man (
* In ''[[Scream (
** In ''[[Scream (
* ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (
** In the setup for that scene, Mrs. Lovett tells Sweeney to be patient as he plots his revenge. "Soon, love, soon/Hush, love, hush" and all that.<br />'''You'd Expect''': Sweeney would understand that she's advising patience in ''waiting for Turpin to fall into his grasp.''<br />'''Instead:''' When Turpin ''does'' fall into his grasp that very day, he takes her advice to heart and spends a few minutes giving the guy a proper shave and singing about pretty women, leading to the scene above. "You told me to wait!" he snarls in the next song. Um, yes, Sweeney, she told you to wait for Turpin to come to you, ''not'' to waste time once his throat was finally under your blade! He should have been dead and packed away in the crate long before Anthony arrived!
* In the ''[[Lost in Space]]'' movie, the hotshot pilot feels the best course of action was to activate the self-destruct mechanism in order to destroy the alien-infested ship.<br />'''You'd expect:''' He'd get clear of the blast radius first.<br />'''Instead''' he sets off the destruction of the ship while they're right next to it, and rather than [[Acrophobic Bird|fly up and away]] from the exploding ship, he travels ''along'' it. This cripples the ship and leaves them stranded on a planet. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice job Joey]]. To add insult to injury, he self-righteously justifies it to the father despite the screw up being his fault.
* In ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', the Joker is in the cargo hold of a ship, burning down money. The police know he's there and are going to deploy a squad to capture him. Then they hear that the Joker's going to blow up a hospital in an hour.<br />'''You'd Expect''': That they'd send some men to evacuate hospitals or disarm the bombs in them, storm the ship, incapacitate the Joker and thus end the madness.<br />'''Instead''': They abort the operation, send every policeman to evacuate the hospitals and let the Joker walk away, which almost causes the complete collapse of Gotham into anarchy.<br />'''Except''': Locking the Joker up the first time didn't work out so well last time and besides, they needed all the men they could get to evacuate the hospitals.
** Police procedure as a whole suffered just so the Joker could be scary. Seriously, Leaving the Joker with a single guard, unhandcuffed and not locked up? One thing among many.<br />'''You'd Expect''': that a city police department up against a madman who uses dynamite would deploy a bomb unit at ''some'' point in time. Hell, even bringing one in from another city would be much cheaper than REBUILDING AN ENTIRE HOSPITAL.<br />'''Instead''': [[Holding Out for
* In the ''Transformers Generation 1'' movie, Megatron is stalling Optimus so he can grab a gun to shoot him while Optimus is busy [[Evil Gloating|talking instead of executing him]]. Hot Rod sees this and tries to stop Megatron.<br />'''You'd Expect''': Hot Rod shoots the gun, shoots Megatron in the back, or yells at Optimus "He's going for a gun!"<br />'''Instead''': He tries to tackle pound-for-pound one of the strongest and most dangerous Decepticons in the series, who easily overcomes him, thereby giving Megatron an Autobot shield from which be can blast Optimus with ease without fear of retaliation. Optimus dies as a result.
* ''[[
** The baddies want Picard. The good guys beam him over, and the transporters promptly fail. They do, however, have an prototype emergency transporter.<br />'''You'd expect:''' The good guys to beam over a bomb, use the independent transporters in the shuttles, have Data/a security team with a tech on it take a shuttle and hack their way in, or replicate the emergency transporter.<br />'''Instead:''' Data ''jumps'' for the enemy ship, finds Picard, slaps the transporter on him, then dies in the most pointless [[Heroic Sacrifice]] ever.
* ''[[A Clockwork Orange (
* ''[[Burn Hollywood Burn]]'': A director has seen his film recut by the studio behind his back. He's embarrassed about the finished product and wants to have his name taken off it. The studio heads agree to let him be credited under the standard Director's Guild pseudonym Alan Smithee. The only problem is, the director's ''real name'' is Alan Smithee.<br />'''You'd expect''': Smithee would change his own name. After all, what kind of reputation could you possibly enjoy when your name is already synonymous with failure?<br />'''Instead''': Smithee steals the only existing print of the film and holds it hostage. When the studio refuses to allow him to recut the film the way he wants it, he burns it. Smithee is committed to an insane asylum, and the studio ends up making a profit anyway when they produce a documentary about how Smithee went crazy.
** After Smithee burns the master print of the film, the studio panics, and is left wondering that to do, especially in view of the fact that the film cost $200m.<br />'''You'd expect''': That the studio would try as best they can to reassemble the film from the various other takes and alternate camera angles that are inevitably created as part of the filming process.<br />'''Instead''': Apparently Smithee was ordered only to do one take of ''every single scene in the film'', because actors are jerks and don't like performing more than one take of any given scene. As a result, they end up planning to sell the trailer as the actual film, until they come up with the "documentary" idea.
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** The raptors are trying to get in, and Ellie and Grant are struggling to hold the door closed, the gun just out of reach. Lex is busy fixing the park's computer system, and Tim is there with nothing to do.<br />'''You'd expect''': He gets the gun for them, or at least helps hold the door.<br />'''Instead''': He stands there cheering on his sister, completely ignoring their cries for the gun.<br />'''However''': Tim's been what, fried, hit, knocked around, limping, almost eaten like three times? Surprised he's not a quivering wreck on the floor. He's also ten.
* In the ''[[Phantom of the Opera]]'' film, Raoul bests the Phantom in a duel.<br />'''You'd expect''': He takes advantage of this moment, either by running him through with his sword or by knocking Erik cold and having someone fetch the Paris police to cart him off to jail.<br />'''Instead''': Immediately goes home to plan a [[Zany Scheme]] to catch the Phantom, leaving the Phantom lying there in the snow.
* ''[[Batman and Robin (
'''In that case''' all she'd have to do is spit in his mouth, since presumably the venom is present in her saliva.
* ''[[Superman Returns]]'': Lois Lane is investigating a story about a blackout which seems to have spread from a specific location.<br />'''You'd expect''' she'd do some research into who lives there before barging into the house, or tell somebody, ''anybody'' where she was going, or at least drop off her ''five year old son'' somewhere else before going there.<br />'''Instead''' she goes in without telling a soul, and gets herself and her five year old son held hostage by Lex Luthor.
** In the original ''Superman'', Lex Luthor has set into motion his plan to sink California into the sea using a nuclear missile aimed at the San Andreas Fault, and has incapacitated Superman both with Kryptonite and by sending a second nuclear bomb in the opposite direction. When he reveals that the second target is Hackensack, New Jersey, his girlfriend Ms. Teschmacher protests that her mother lives there.<br />'''You'd expect''' he would lead her out of the room, handcuff her to something and then maybe go back and watch Superman die.<br />'''Instead''' he shrugs her off, and leaves them both alone and unmonitored. Five minutes later, she's saved Superman from the Kryptonite and he's escaped through the ceiling, on his way to foiling the plan.
* ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'': Although R. Lee Ermey defined the [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] trope with his character Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, the climax at the end of the first half of the film proves that he was a failure in the end. Take "Pvt. Pyle"'s suicide, where Joker finds him in the bathroom, holding his rifle, and has it fully loaded. His loud shrieking of the Marine Corps Prayer garners the attention of GySgt. Hartman.<br />'''You'd expect''' that, upon discovering that the mentally shattered Pyle is holding a fully loaded rifle, he would get a hold of some military police to come and defuse the situation.<br />'''Instead''' Hartman taunts and speaks down to him ''more'', even when it's clear that the guy needs ''serious'' help. But after asking him, [[Famous Last Words|"What is your major malfunction, numbnuts? Didn't mommy and daddy show you enough attention when you were a child?!"]], Pyle guns down Hartman.
* ''[[
* ''[[District 9]]'': Aliens come to Earth, malnourished and unguided. They're taken from their ship, set up in a temporary camp which degenerates into a slum, and are constantly exploited by the private corporation responsible.<br />'''You'd Expect''' That the governments of the world would take an interest in preventing the abuse of these aliens, considering that they're 1) sapient and at least as intelligent as us and 2) capable of building technology that makes us look like cavemen in comparison. They're also bigger and probably a fair bit stronger. Clearly, treating them badly will not end well for us, in the long run.<br />'''Instead''' The private corporation turns the aliens into slaves in everything but name. They're restricted in where they can eat, where they can work (and what work they can do), and forced to live in slums. Their unhatched eggs are confiscated and destroyed. They are subject to being evicted from their dwellings without notice. They are required to take on human names, speak English (or understand it, anyway), and abandon any trace of their own culture. ''These requirements are published on the company's website'', where anyone can go look them up. The world's governments apparently don't give a crap, and are instead placated by the nifty new gadgets that the company is turning out.
* ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'': Shosanna has just shot {{spoiler|Zoller}} a few times, only for him to stir shortly afterwards.<br />'''You'd expect''' her to go ahead and finish the damn job.<br />'''Instead''' she shows something approaching regret and tries to go to his side. End result, she gets filled with lead from the victim's sidearm.
* ''[[Resident Evil]]: Apocalypse:'' The S.T.A.R.S. sniper is sitting on the roof of a sporting goods store, picking off zombies, with headshots, at his leisure. He's even good enough to pop the head of one sneaking up on the [[Ethnic Scrappy]]. Then, [[Giant Mook|Nemesis]] shows up.<br />'''You'd Expect''' that, as an experienced, competent sniper who seems to have realized that the monsters wandering around the city only die with headshots, he'd put one of those high caliber bullets through the Nemesis' skull.<br />'''Instead''': He shoots him dead center in the chest, and is ''shocked'' that he doesn't go down. So he shoots him ''again'' in the '''same exact spot'''. Nemesis blows him up before the sniper can get a third shot off, and then proceeds to slaughter all the rest of the S.T.A.R.S. officers.
* In ''[[Taken (
** Later in the same film, the girls, including the protagonist's daughter, are being auctioned off as sex slaves. One of the buyers finds <s>Liam</s> Bryan holding him at gunpoint and demanding he buy a girl who, yes, turns out to be his daughter. Bryan is caught, and [[Tap
* In ''[[Absolute Power (
** Later, Dennis finds out that she's not dead and he goes to the hospital to finish the job. He's in her room with a syringe full of poison. <br />'''You'd Expect:''' That Dennis is going to put the poison directly into her IV line, killing her fairly instantly and allowing him a quick getaway.<br />'''Instead:''' He's fooling around with her arm, trying to find a vein to inject the poison into. He is quickly caught by Clint Eastwood and killed with the same poison.
* In ''[[Indiana Jones and
** Similarly, in ''[[Indiana Jones and
* The backstory to ''[[
* ''[[Avatar (
** Speaking of which...<br />'''You'd Expect:''' Jake not to be so so blatant in his logs and also to have a quiet private word with the Na'Vi chief at some point before the deadline, so he could thoroughly and without haste explain the state of things and probably work out a solution.<br />'''Instead:''' He makes his announcement in the worst possible moment, when it's all but too late to do anything, and after he'd antagonized both the Na'vi by stealing a bride from one of the tribe's most influential members, and his own command by wrecking that logging machine.
** There's also the ridiculous case where Colonel Quadritch confronts Jake in the empty room, telling him the experiment is essentially over, and he's gotten Jake the money and guarantee for the surgery to fix his legs. Jake refuses to end the experiment, and gives every single sign, clear as the sun in the desert, that he's gone native and will be a thorn in their side when it comes to trying to remove the Na'vi from their tree-place.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' The Colonel to pick up on this, and forcibly eject Jake from the project, or put him under watch, or lock him up temporarily, or even refer to the above "you'd expect" example!<br />'''Instead:''' He ''completely ignores'' these signs, basically pulling the Yoda on Anakin from Episode III, then acts shocked when Jake goes native. Or maybe he was just pretending not to notice, honestly wanted to give the poor kid in the wheelchair another shot, or was just happy to try and kill him. There's a moment when he gives Jake a long look; he almost certainly knew ''something'' was up.
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** There are deposits of unobtainium large enough large enough to float mountains.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' someone would point out that these are probably both larger and easier to get to than the chunk under Home Tree. Since the natives don't notice that the research team is hanging out up there, they apparently all that important to them either.<br />'''Instead:''' No one pays any attention to the fact that there are the equivalent to entire mountains of gold.
* ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'', as you might expect, has tons of these, but here's the most obvious. After being captured by the Psychlos for slave labor, the hero, Jonny Goodboy, manages to kill one of the guards with his own gun. He runs away, but quickly gets caught by the alien leader, Terl, and brought back to where the guard was shot. Incapable of believing that a "man-animal" would ever be capable of handling a gun, he forces a guard to hand Jonny his sidearm to prove that he's harmless. Jonny promptly shoots the guard dead.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' After seeing Jonny shoot a guard before his very eyes, and having indirect evidence of him doing the same to another, Terl immediately has him killed. He's obviously dangerous and will only cause trouble for the Psychlos if he's kept as a slave.<br />'''Instead:''' He just ''tosses him back to the slave-line as if nothing happened'', still completely convinced that the humans are utterly harmless.
* ''[[Transformers (
** Also, at the beginning of the film, the human Sam Witwicky is selling the [[Plot Coupon]] on [[EBay
* ''[[Transformers:
** Alice might have as well held a [[Smart Ball]] during that scene when compared against what Sam and co. did in this scene. After they found the Crest of Leadership needed to revive Optimus Prime to defeat The Fallen, the military, who had Optimus Prime's corpse, gave Sam a call, who was at the Great Pyramids, about deciding a place to meet and revive Optimus Prime.<br />'''You'd Expect:'''That they would decide on a good rendezvous point like the Great Pyramids where the heroes were, and there were no Decepticons or witnesses around.<br />'''Instead:''' Everyone decided to go to a nearby populated village where the Decepticons were headed. The result was a huge battle between the Autobots and Decepticons in the middle of a bunch of witnesses, [[Too Dumb to Live|with Sam nearly dying in the cross-fire.]] An [[Epic Failure]] in what was already an [[Idiot Plot]].
* ''[[Space Mutiny]]'': When all the main engineering crew of the ''Southern Sun'' announce their intention to join in the titular mutiny in a meeting amongst themselves, one of the engineers, Parsons clearly isn't on-board with the whole plan. The other engineers mock Parsons, but don't actually act overly hostile towards him.<br />'''You'd Expect''': Parsons to sit out the meeting, maybe indicate that he would be amenable to joining in the mutiny, then go and alert the ship's commanders.<br />'''Instead''': He openly accuses the other engineers of mutiny and treason, and announces his intention to report them... and is then shocked when they turn on him and kill him horribly.
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* ''X-Men 3'': Scott starts hearing Jean's voice in his head, calling his name.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' That, being the leader of the team, he would (at the very least) go talk to someone about it, especially Xavier (who would be able to read his mind and figure out what's going on).<br />'''Instead:''' He secretly packs a bag, blows off Logan (who tries to help him) and goes off to Alkali Lake by himself. There, he accidentally(?) awakens Jean/Phoenix, who then proceeds to {{spoiler|de-atomize him}}. As if acknowledging Scott's actions, no one mentions him for the rest of the film. [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]] and [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome]], indeed.<br />'''Corollary:''' Prior to the events of the film (and the trilogy), Xavier implanted a series of mental mindblocks in Jean's mind to prevent a latent personality (Dark Phoenix) from taking over.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' That anytime over the last twenty-plus years, Xavier would have at least mentioned this information to Jean for her own safety. Not even when she's brought back to the school from Alkali Lake does he bother to come down and see her (when she's feeling conflicted about her identity) and try to restore the mindblocks. Instead, he's ''teaching a class''.<br />'''Instead:''' Jean, more pissed off than ever, takes up residence at her old home, and Xavier willingly walks in (with Magneto, no less) to try and reason with her. It ends [[Anyone Can Die|about as well as you would expect]].
*** Also in the third movie, Magneto wants to kill the mutant whose DNA is being used to create the anti-mutant serum, who is located on Alcatraz Island. Magneto, in a stupendous display of power, ''lifts the freaking Golden Gate Bridge'' to get to Alcatrazz.<br />'''You'd Think:''' that since Magneto wants to kill this particular mutant, and doesn't really care about civilian casualties incurred in the process, that while he was lifting an object hundreds of feet in the air that weighs over 1000 tons, he'd just drop it on their heads or turn it into a blizzard of shrapnel to tear every living being on the island into shreds.<br />'''Instead:''' he uses it to form a bridge, marches across it and digs in for a long, difficult, and unsuccessful siege of the place.
** In ''[[X
** Also in ''X-Men First Class'': Charles Xavier knows everything about Erik Lehnsherr, having read his mind and spoken to him numerous times about the future of mutants and humankind. Erik, being a Holocaust survivor, constantly voiced the view that humans and mutants could not coexist, and that the U.S. government would eventually treat the mutants like the Nazis treated Jews. Then the U.S. and Russian battleships attempt to indiscriminately destroy the mutants with missiles, which Erik catches with his powers and sends back.<br />'''You'd Think:''' Charles would remember Erik's views on mutant and humankind, especially his past as a persecuted minority, and try to phrase his arguments for not declaring war on humanity to the effect of a.) they were outnumbered and vulnerable and b.) Erik was [[He Who Fights Monsters|becoming just like his former enemies in his extremism]]. <br />'''Instead''': he says, "They were [[Just Following Orders]]." To a Holocaust survivor. Who is now a member of yet another persecuted and threatened minority.
* ''[[Asterix|Asterix and Obelix versus Cesar]]'': Having usurped power and obtained a whole cauldron of strength enhancing potion, [[The Starscream]] leads an army of Romans against the reputed rebellious Gaul village.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' that he use the fricking potion! Maybe give some to his legioneers, maybe drink it himself, but use it. After all, obtaining it was a major plot point.<br />'''Instead:''' He just sits there in his command post, clutching the cauldron and ignoring his soldiers' requests for a gulp. Naturally the Romans manage against the Gauls just as well as they usually do, id est miserably, and the Gauls hold them back long enough for the main heroes to find the Phlebotinum and trash the Romans. Oh, and the cauldron of potion ends up spilled on the ground. What a waste.
* ''[[Ip Man]]'': Ip has just destroyed ten Japanese black belts and is rewarded with many bags of rice.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' that he would take the rice and use it to feed his family and people, having made his point and avenged {{spoiler|Master Liu's}} death.<br />'''Instead:''' He just rejects the rice.
* In the very first [[Mothra]] film, an entertainment promoter, upon meeting the tiny Twin Priestesses of the titular [[Physical God]], decides to make them stars in mainland Japan.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' that he'd start with his strong suit: Cutting a (probably unfair) deal.<br />'''Instead:''' the promoter just kidnaps them, leaving himself open to countless criminal charges, with kidnapping, false imprisonment, and enslavement being only the most obvious, then compounds his error by having them perform their sacred music (with orchestral backing!) on live TV. Oh, and he does this in a world where kaiju and other supernatural phenomena are demonstrably real, and quite well-known.
* ''[[Robin Hood (2010 film)]]''. King Philip of France has mustered an army to conquer the English.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' They would land somewhere ''without'' a very high, very level bluff from which England's famous archers have perfect aim towards their troops, and they would ''get the hell out'' once they saw that they were pinned on three sides with archers to the front and cavalry to their left and right flanks, and the sea to their backs. <br />'''Instead:''' They continue right on with the landing, even as their army is being felled in swoops by English longbowmen and subsequently ground into the mud by the cavalry. Whilst some of their men are being crushed to death ''with their own boats''.
* In ''[[Alien (
* In ''[[The Ark of Truth|Stargate: The Ark Of Truth]]'', the IOA comes up with a plan to introduce Replicators into the Ori galaxy, hoping to distract them from their crusade against the Milky Way.<br />'''You'd Expect''': That they would realize how insanely stupid this plan is, especially as the only weapon capable of purging all Replicators from our galaxy was destroyed by the Ori.<br />'''Or:''' They would order the SGC to carry out the plan, allowing for better execution and plenty of safeguards.<br />'''Instead:''' They have their agent carry out this plan without informing the SGC, who at least know how to deal with Replicators.<br />'''Also:''' They program the Replicators to be immune to the anti-Replicator weapons the SGC has, forcing them to fall back on guns, just to ensure that the SGC couldn't stop their plan.
* [[Toy Story|Toy Story 3]]: {{spoiler|When Woody, Buzz, and the other toys are on the conveyor belt at the dump, at first they think they're approaching daylight, but it turns out to be an ''enormous'' incinerator, which burns all the trash that falls into it. But they see a ladder which leads upward, and avoids being pushed into it, with a stop button that will halt the conveyor belt if pressed.}}<br />'''You'd expect:''' {{spoiler|That Buzz or Woody themselves would try to climb up the ladder and hit the stop button before it's too late.}}<br />'''Instead:''' {{spoiler|They trust Lotso to climb up it and press it himself. So he does climb up there...only to pointedly ''not'' hit the button, leaving them to die.}}
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* In ''[[Saw]]'', one of the two prisoners Lawrence needs to answer the cell phone to save his wife and himself and foil the murderer's plot. Unfortunately, courtesy of the sadistic Jigsaw, Lawrence is chained to a pipe and the cell phone in question is lying about 40 cm out of his reach. He has a hacksaw and he's wearing a long sleeved shirt.<br />'''You'd Expect:'''That he takes off his shirt and swings it over the phone. Or that he uses the hacksaw to hook on the phone. Or that the other prisoner uses some object to knock the phone closer to Lawrence.<br />'''Instead:''' Having failed to reach the phone with some stupid box, Lawrence ''does'' takes off his shirt...and then ties it around his chained leg and proceeds to saw it off, instead of the pipe, or the chain, or the cuff. Hacksaws are made to cut metal, after all, not flesh or bone. * [[Face Palm]]* Yes, he was screwed up and in panic. It was still idiotic and furthermore, the other guy wasn't in panic but still he didn't suggest the obvious solution.
** In ''[[Saw]] V'', The players who have been selected turn out to be highly [[Genre Savvy]] when they figure out (early in the film) that closing the door in a room activates the next trap. This, in addition to brainstorming creative solutions to the traps, does a lot to get the audience on their side. Near the end of the film, Brit and Malick (the two remaining survivors) kill a woman named Luba and use her body to provide an electric current to open the door to the final trap. They enter the room and learn that they (and, presumably, all the other survivors who lived) have to stick their hands into a sawblade in order to draw enough blood to fill a beaker and open the final door to escape.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' Given the fact that they were a fairly smart duo, either Brit or Malick (who had suggested alternate plans before) would go back to the previous film, disconnect the electric clamps, bring her body into the final room and use her hands to draw enough blood to fill the beaker. Alternatively, they could have just cut off her arms (seeing as Brit still had a very big knife) and use it to fill the beaker that way.<br />'''Instead:''' They stick their hands in and cut halfway up through their arms to fill the beaker. They both survive, but pass out due to massive blood loss.
* ''[[Spider-Man (
{{quote| '''Butler:''' Harry, Spider-Man didn't kill your father, he killed himself.<br />
'''Harry:''' You couldn't tell me that ''before I had my right side of my face blown up?! }}
** Same film. The Green Goblin has just impaled himself on his own glider. As Peter delivers the body, Harry walks in and angrily accuses Spider-Man of killing his father while grabbing a gun.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' Peter to web the gun out of Harry's hands, and explain that the Green Goblin killed his father-- it would be truth [[From a Certain Point of View]], the wounds on Norman's body match up with the glider's weapons, and the Green Goblin already has a history of targeting [[Os Corp]] executives! Apologize to Harry for failing to save Norman and leave.<br />'''Instead:''' Peter leaves as fast as he can, leaving his psychologically unstable best friend with the mistaken belief that Spider-Man is responsible for the death of his father.
* In ''[[Highlander II the Quickening]]'', [[Big Bad|General Katana of Zeist]] sends his two goons to kill Connor MacLeod on planet earth. However, [[Dumbass Has a Point]] by saying that MacLeod was banished on earth and from what we see can die of old age anytime.<br />'''You'd Expect:''' General Katana to agree with him and let MacLeod die of old age.<br />'''Instead''' Katana slaps the guy and send him to earth and, of couse, they die returning MacLeod to the immortal phase, thus remaking the gathering, thus obliging Katana to go himself and, of course getting himself killed.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Star Trek III:
* ''[[The Mummy
* ''[[Star Trek II:
* In ''[[The Last Airbender]]'': Sokka (who has supposedly spent his entire life on ice) sees a shape in the water underneath the ice.<br />'''You'd Expect''': Sokka to realize that if the ice is so thin that he can see the water it is too dangerous to even consider breaking it on his own, and to return to the village for help or at least to try to break after he's moved off that ice. At the very least you would expect him to realize that it's dangerous to have Katara on the same patch of ice and to send her a safe distance away.<br />'''Instead''': He decides to break the ice (which is so thin that he can see the water) near ''his own feet'' and for some reason is surprised when he and his sister (who had no reason to be there) nearly fall into the freezing water.
** Later on: While with the Northern Water Tribe they learn that the Fire Nation is about to launch a massive attack. Logically, the order is given to douse every fire in the city that they can.<br />'''You'd Expect''': The order to be carried out quickly and with minimal fuss.<br />'''Instead''': When the Fire Nation attacks we can clearly see that there are ''at least'' dozens of torches clearly lit with no apparent need for them to be lit. Worse, no apparent effort is ever made to put them or any of the Fire Nation's flaming boulders out!
** What really took the cake was the scene with the Fire Nation prison camp holding the earth benders. On EARTH.<br />'''You'd Expect''': The earth benders to escape as soon as they were "imprisoned". It would've required minimal effort.<br />'''Instead''': The earth benders stay imprisoned for months (maybe longer, it's never made clear) until the [[Mighty Whitey]] heroes come along and give them the worlds most generic and lazy motivational speech.
* ''[[Rise of the Planet of
* In ''[[Sleeping Dogs]]'' at the end main character Smith is cornered by Jesperson and the [[State Sec|Special Police Force]]. He fires at Jesperson, but is obviously not trying, since he rants that isn't this what they want, him to fight them? He defiantly walks away from them while Jesperson angrily tells Smith not to turn his back on him.<br />'''You'd Expect''': Jesperson to just shoot him in the leg, or have his men go grab Smith.<br />'''Instead''': {{spoiler|He fatally shoots Smith after he turns away, ''then'' complains he needs him alive, and even kicks his corpse in frustration. [[Face Palm]]}}.
* [[Feast]] A plan has been devised that requires a corpse to be used as a distraction, and bomb, for the monsters to facilitate an escape plan. Just before the plan starts the 'corpse' regains consciousness, Bozo hesitates while Boss Man decides to continue as planned. The monsters go for the bait before they decide, and they blow her up as planned. Big Man asks if Bozo will agree not to tell the others about Harley Mom being alive.<br />'''You'd Expect''': The guy to say 'sure, no need to burden the others' since it was WAY too late to change the plan either way. <br />'''Instead''': When a distraction presents itself he gets into a fight Big Man [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|that ends in the death of Heroine]]
* In ''[[Treasure Planet]]'', the titular hero, Jim Hawkins, hears a conversation that John Silver, the only one of the ship's crew who gets along with him, will start a mutiny when they find Treasure Planet. However Scroobs, a vicious crew member, taunts him about his friendship with Jim which leads Silver to claim it was just to not get him suspicious, so to not be seen to the rest of the mutinees as his weakness. After the mutiny of the ship, Jim and his partners are trapped on Treasure Planet and John Silver eventually finds them.<br />He goes alone to negociate with Jim outside their hideout. Silver admits he said those things about Jim because if the other mutinees knew about his weakness would result in another mutiny against Silver and will most likely evicerate him and the others. Silver proposes a plan to betray his own comrades and join forces with Jim to find the treasure themselves.<br />'''You'd Expect''': Jim to understand the odds of not siding with Silver and accept his plan. He may even convince Silver to bring along his friends as they can help againts the mutinees. Silver finds his beloved treasure, Jim gets a share of it to rebuild his home, and his friends are A-OK. Everybody is happy.<br />'''Instead''': He still resents him for having said those things about him (or the greed gets the better of him) and rejects the offer. He even goes as far to tell Silver he won't get a piece of [[Big No|HIS]] (Jim's) treasure as he has the map.
* In ''[[
** Even the first movie has it when Triton angrily blasts Ariel's treasures ''all because she said she loved Eric''. When he's finished, he visibly looks sad about upsetting her.<br />'''You'd Expect''': Triton to swim up to her and apologize, and maybe have a heartfelt moment.<br />'''Instead''': Triton just swims away after that, leaving her to cry. This gives Ursula's minions a chance to exploit her emotional vulnerability, leading to her making an impulsive [[Deal
* In ''[[Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
* In ''[[Camp Nowhere]]'', [[Only Known
* ''[[Max Payne (
** Another one when Max blocks the door leading to the storage room while in pursue.<br />'''You'd Expect''': The Aesir police will have to use the bottom floor to get to the other side.<br />'''Instead''': They just blew up the door, giving Max the chance to escape with the smoke. [[Awesome Moments|Good thing Bravura calls them out for that]].
* [[Deep Impact]]: President Tom Beck knows a killer chunk of space rock is going to hit Earth and secretly builds underground cave shelters for America's best and brightest. This leaves the matter of everyone else in the country...<br />'''You Would Think:''' He would talk with his top men and at least give everyone else a list of suggestions on how they might improve their odds of surviving the disaster. Even if it was just a lot of "Duck And Cover" bullcrap, it would be better than nothing. Plus, he knew the rock was going to hit the East coast, so he could just tell the Americans to head westward.<br />'''Instead:''' He pretty much tells the rest of America he's written them off as not worth saving and that he's just going to save his own ass those of the elite. The meteor final falls, causing far less damage then anticipated. Beck, in all likelihood, will not be reelected considering how many people will be righteously pissed off at him.
* ''[[
* ''[[Mr. Bean|Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie]]'' has the titular character being chased by the police for pulling out a "gun", which it's his right hand. When the leading police said "everyone on the floor, now!", Bean also goes down, but the lady near him said "Not you, sweetie" because she knows he's their target.<br />'''You'd Expect''': To ignore what the lady says.<br />'''Instead''': Being Bean, he just follows her word, allowing the police to point their guns at him.
* [[Face Off]]: Sean Archer has destroyed the engine of the plane that his [[Arch Enemy]], Castor Troy, would try to escape Los Angeles. The pilot told him about it.<br />'''You'd Expect''': Castor would have to accept it, and let the pilot live so that he can fly it again.<br />'''Instead''': He just kill the pilot. Too bad he doesn't know how to fly it and ended up crashing it to a hangar.
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