Best drama movie stupidity of all time

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It Snows All the Time picture

Stupidity: Trying to fix his dad's old car, Jesse hangs a portable "trouble light" under the open hood near the right edge - with the light facing the garage wall and the metal cage towards the engine. (00:42:45)

KeyZOid

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Fatal Attraction picture

Stupidity: After Dan confesses his affair to his wife, he never thinks about bringing the tape Alex had sent him to the police. This would have been proof beyond a reasonable doubt of her mental instability and harassment of him, and she would have been immediately sought out and likely committed to an institution, and both of the film's endings wouldn't had to happen.

Movielover1996

More Fatal Attraction stupidity
Becky picture

Stupidity: Becky possessed the mysterious key that the four neo-Nazi prison escapees were at the lake house to retrieve. Becky didn't know what the key was for, so did not have a vested interest in it. By first denying that she knew where the key was and later refusing to give it to Dominick, her father was killed. Had Becky simply handed over the key when Dominick asked for it, it is possible no-one would have been hurt/ killed. Becky keeping the key with no importance to her served to further the plot.

KeyZOid

More Becky stupidity
A Day to Die picture

Stupidity: When Joaquin was running from Cornell, he turned into an alley between buildings. He was to the left (of the screen), which was unobstructed, but ran to the right, so he could jump over boxes. Cornell could have also stayed to the left, but ran far enough to the right where he could kick the boxes out of his way. Easily avoiding the boxes would have been faster. (00:11:37)

KeyZOid

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Sanctum picture

Stupidity: Spoiler alert. After the son makes it out, he could get a rescue team to get his dad by going in where he came out.

More Sanctum stupidity
Criminal picture

Stupidity: Quaker has to go to the airport himself to be told that the guy picked up by the tampered cameras is not the real Dutchman. The whole affair should have been settled by smartphone much earlier.

Sammo

More Criminal stupidity
Rosewood Lane picture

Stupidity: In the opening scene, Sonny has come to her now-deceased father's house. Police and the coroner are in the basement taking notes while standing around the body - which is face down and awkwardly lying at the bottom of the steps. Det. Sabatino informed Sonny that the death was ruled accidental due to a high blood-alcohol level. Detectives or the coroner did not rule out other possibilities: natural cause, suicide, or murder. High blood-alcohol level could be secondary.

KeyZOid

More Rosewood Lane stupidity
Thelma and Louise picture

Stupidity: Given Louise's character, it makes no sense at all for her to leave Thelma in charge of the money. She's known Thelma for years, and knows fully well how flaky Thelma is. And Louise is shown as a person who lives by "If you want something right, you've gotta do it yourself". She's responsible, perhaps even uptight, at that point in the movie. So it defies everything about her character that she would let Thelma guard the money - it smells like a device set up just to allow the money to be stolen.

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Heat picture

Stupidity: During the drive-in theater scene, Chris fires three high-caliber, well-placed rounds into the driver's side of the windshield of the truck, and the driver isn't hit. (00:51:20)

Snag.1

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Unlawful Entry picture

Stupidity: It's very idiotic that Michael and Karen kept the same security password, even after being harassed and not feeling comfortable with Pete being around them any longer. There's no way the pyramid password should have been kept the same, with Pete being able to enter their home, plant drugs, and frame Michael. Changing your security password, the same password that the lunatic cop once knew, would be the first thing to do after his psycho behavior starts.

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Sudden Death picture

Stupidity: The secret service officer near the elevator gets shot right in the middle of his head by the Penguin mascot, and she drags his dead body into the elevator. Suddenly he's able to moan and groan and she shoots him again. The guy was very shot in the head, as in graphically. How is he suddenly alive enough to moan?

manthabeat

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Suggested correction: A bullet to the head is not guaranteed to kill someone. Movies and video games have taught us that being shot in the head is instant death, but that just isn't the case.

BaconIsMyBFF

Pretty sure you wouldn't wake up in seconds after a bullet to the head.

manthabeat

Correct. You probably would just lay there stunned while moaning and groaning... exactly like the scene depicts.

He didn't "wake up", he moaned. Which is 100% possible and actually happens quite frequently.

BaconIsMyBFF

Someone I know shot himself in the head. He was making sounds when found and "lived" for another three months, though there was no higher brain function anymore.

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Pacific Heights picture

Stupidity: When Drake cuts off power to Hayes' apartment, the cops can't physically make a landlord abide by the laws, and seeing a judge would take months. In the meantime, by keeping the power off in the apartment, Hayes would have had no choice but to abandon his scheme and move on to another victim. With no power in the apartment, it's unusable and unlivable.

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Payback picture

Stupidity: Kind of dumb for the bad guys to leave Porter in the car trunk with nobody there to watch and make sure he doesn't try to escape.

Rob245

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Boyhood picture

Stupidity: Liv was a graduate psychology student when she met Bill and, after marriage and being physically abused, knew that the leaving Bill put her in a (potentially) very dangerous situation. It is best if the abuser does not know where the victim is "hiding" after separation, but Liv brought along Carol to pick up the kids - and they were going to be staying at Carol's house.

KeyZOid

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: She brought Carol along as a chaperone/protection when she picked up her kids. She didn't announce to Bill that that would be where she was going to be staying, she only told her kids that when they had already driven away from the house. Bill didn't seem to know who Carol was anyway. Even if he did manage to find out where she went, she could have easily got a restraining order against him.

Phaneron

It is more likely that she brought Carol along for emotional support and to act as a witness. If she were looking for protection, she would have used a police escort. It was implied they were going to be staying at Carol's, but, even if not, Carol's presence offered Bill a hint of where to start looking for Liv, and there should not be any leads. Liv unwittingly put Carol in a potentially dangerous situation - if Bill went to Carol's looking for Liv, and Carol truly did not know where she went, Bill would insist that she did and threaten or do worse if Carol didn't tell him. Remember how Bill drilled all the kids about where Liv went, checked their phones, accused Sam of knowing more, then got them into the car and drove like a maniac? Bill has a temper and propensity toward violence (at least when drinking, which he did everyday). Court orders take time to get, but are not very effective. Numerous women who had restraining orders against abusers ended up six feet under.

KeyZOid

More Boyhood stupidity
Death on the Nile picture

Stupidity: When Poirot's team attacks the Germans, they do it through the cover of gas they release. The Germans are having a good time chatting and not taking the situation seriously when there's a big cloud of noxious gas advancing towards them. Despite Poirot's oh-so-clever plan, they should by all means know that something is coming their way, but they get caught entirely with their pants down.

Sammo

More Death on the Nile stupidity
World War Z picture

Stupidity: Throughout the movie, and especially up on the top of the apartment building before they get rescued at the beginning of the movie, Gerry counts 12 seconds to check if someone has been infected. Just to mention this apartment example, he gets blood on his face and spends more than 12 seconds getting up and to the edge of the roof, plenty of time to become "Zeke." He then counts 12 seconds, as if they would actually matter to his infection.

dudeguyman

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Rabbit-Proof Fence picture

Stupidity: When the policeman comes for the girls, the people run along a straight path, completely straight, without bothering to go over the fence right next to them or run in a different direction.

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Top Gun: Maverick picture

Stupidity: When Maverick dives the F-14 into the hills to confuse the targeting system on the enemy aircraft, the enemy aircraft fires its guns, and the F-14 fires off flares in response...waste of flares that they could have used after the 3rd enemy fires a missile at them.

Steve Kozak

More Top Gun: Maverick stupidity
Fargo picture

Stupidity: Carl buries the case with the money in a field by a fence. He looks at the fence line and wonders how he is going to be able to find the spot when he returns. He plants an orange ice scrapper to mark the spot. The scrapper is only 6-8 inches, but it's the middle of winter in Minnesota. The scrapper will be buried by snow. He should have marked the spot by tying something on the fence. (01:18:26)

Snag.1

More Fargo stupidity
The Town That Dreaded Sundown picture

Stupidity: Why they let the high school hold their prom during the height of the Phantom's reign of terror is never explained.

Rob245

More The Town That Dreaded Sundown stupidity

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