Best mystery movie stupidity of all time

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And Then There Were None picture

Stupidity: The doctor smells the poison in the glass, but to be perfectly sure, decides also to taste it. Why not, what could possibly go wrong?

Sammo

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Inception picture

Stupidity: Cobb convinces Fischer to enter a dream saying it's Browning's dream. A couple of scenes later he says it's Eames' dream, in front of Fischer, who doesn't know Eames was impersonating Browning. (00:51:35)

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Suggested correction: Firstly, the Browning that the team "catches" is not Eames, it is a projection of Fischer's subconscious. Eames was only impersonating Browning in the first level. Secondly, Cobb doesn't say they are going into Browning's dream, he says they should put him under and do to him what the kidnappers were planning to do to Fischer. That is, use Fischer as the subject of the next dream level. Fischer knows that Eames is the dreamer on the third level, he even jokingly asks why Eames couldn't dream of a beach. But he thinks that Eames is part of Mr. Charles' security team. He believes that Browning is to be the subject on the last level when in fact, Fischer is the subject on each level. Because of how effective the Mr. Charles gambit was, Fischer is unaware that the team has been fighting his subconscious all along.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Salt picture

Stupidity: When Salt is handcuffed, there is a long chain between the handcuffs. Why would they let a trained killer wear those handcuffs?

kh1616

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Scream 3 picture

Stupidity: The killer manages to surprise Stone talking to him on the phone in the middle of the night without Stone managing to hear him; he was outside the trailer with the open door. (00:42:00)

Sammo

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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

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Holes picture

Stupidity: Why would Stanley say the shoes fell out of the sky? It happened under a bridge. Any normal person would instantly realise someone threw them off the bridge.

MikeH

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Suggested correction: It's an idiom/expression. When something turns up out of nowhere, we say "it came/fell from the sky." In fact, Mr. Sir says this to Stanley when he finds Stanley with his empty bag of sunflower seeds, "Where did this come from? Did it fall from the sky?" Obviously a sarcastic way of saying, "it didn't get there by itself, someone put it there." So the shoes obviously fell from the bridge and Stanley knows this because Zero refers to the bridge later in the movie.

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Vendetta picture

Stupidity: After Danny kills Kat on the sidewalk, he just stands there with Rory while the other gang members flee to their vehicles. William comes running out of the Mexican restaurant and Rory tells Danny, "We gotta go, brother. Now." Rory sees William and gets into the vehicle without getting Danny to go with him. The gang drives away with Rory watching out the window as William tackles and fights with Danny. Rory and the rest of the violent gang left behind someone who just passed the initiation. (00:07:10 - 00:07:40)

KeyZOid

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The Prowler picture

Stupidity: Given the killer had been chasing her, Pam should've gone with Mark when he went into the dorm instead of staying in his vehicle, she'd have been safer this way.

Rob245

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Tenebre picture

Stupidity: A detective who explicitly frequents morgues not being able to tell the difference between a real slashed throat and fake blood spurted on a neck is one thing. When he returns to the room and finds the body missing, instead of becoming alert, drawing his gun, putting his head on a swivel, and warning his friend outside, he slowly walks over to examine the razor and figure out how the magic trick was performed, allowing the killer to ambush and kill him almost comically easily.

Anson Gordon-Creed

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Ten Little Indians picture

Stupidity: Martino's plan involves walking across the desert for 200 miles, in a raincoat, dress shoes, and nothing to cover his head. That's just silly and probably needed no sabotage from the killer at all, but he realises his compass was broken and his canteen emptied when it's already too late to go back.That's no subtle sabotage, in particular the compass being shattered, glass included. He didn't even perform a rudimentary check on his survival kit. (00:50:00)

Sammo

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Disturbia picture

Stupidity: It was very idiotic of Turner, who is an experienced serial killer, to not only knock out and take Julie prisoner, but to attack Kale as well, considering the recent circumstances. The police and Julie didn't believe Kale, and Turner suddenly goes on a rampage? He took a huge risk when he attacked Kale and could have very easily blown his cover.

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Jagged Edge picture

Stupidity: After Jack is found not guilty, you would think the first thing he would do is to get rid of the typewriter he used to send the notes to Teddy to manipulate her into winning the case for him, especially when she is sleeping with him at his home. Not to even mention the fact he hid the typewriter in an unsecure manner in a closet behind a stack of towels, a place where it would very easily be found. This foolish mistake exposed the truth to Teddy and cost him his "freedom."

Movielover1996

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Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror picture

Stupidity: Sherlock Holmes, a "simple" detective, knows the whole story of an English officer and that of a Nazi secret agent and their great physical resemblance, but Barham's colleagues in British Intelligence do not know any of these facts and are surprised when Holmes tells them all the details.

Big Game

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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

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The Maze Runner picture Video

Stupidity: The creatures in the maze make it inside the living area after the gates open and some of the heroes hide in the corn field. While that alone isn't the smartest thing... one of them keeps a lit torch in their hand burning brightly at night while trying to hide from these creatures.

Quantom X

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A Simple Favor picture

Stupidity: Stephanie empties Emily's large closet, but when she comes back with the movers, lo and behold, all of the dead person's belongings are back. They are back though exactly as they were with superhuman inch-perfect precision. Since this movie does not have a supernatural element, that appears really silly. (01:00:30)

Sammo

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The Double picture

Stupidity: There is a scene about a null hypothesis proving Cassius is the killer. Nearly everything is wrong in this scene. Statistically, you never prove a null hypothesis true. (01:23:11 - 01:24:22)

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The Amityville Horror picture

Stupidity: Considering the movie takes place in the winter of '75, it seems unlikely that the babysitter would arrive in a halter top and barefeet.

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Suggested correction: I agree that this is a "stupidity", but think your use of the words "it seems unlikely" allows for the suggested corrections already given. Perhaps replace "it seems unlikely" to "it isn't rational." Even if the daytime temperature was mild for winter, the temperature would probably drop by around 30° overnight.

KeyZOid

Suggested correction: Actually, January of 1975 was very mild, much like the winter in the northeast this year, so it would not be impossible for the babysitter to wear unseasonable clothing.

Suggested correction: Ordinarily I would agree with this observation, however, I believe the girls outfit matches her carefree attitude. She did bong hits in the family bathroom, laid on the boys bed seductively and asked him if he French kissed so dressing comfortably to babysit isn't out of context.

Adding to this, almost every babysitter I had growing up went barefoot or at least shoeless. Even this past new years eve, the young lady who came to watch my kids took her shoes off as soon as she came in the house.

It is a common courtesy to remove shoes when entering someone's home to protect the carpeting (or other flooring) from getting soiled by whatever might be on the bottom of shoes after walking outdoors.

KeyZOid

Maybe I'm wrong, but after watching this movie last night, it sounded like the girl was wearing flip-flops when she walked across the bathroom to open the door. Would it be rational for her to have worn sandals too?

Considering she was barefoot for most of the night, yes, she may have worn them for comfort.

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Fracture picture

Stupidity: The protagonist knocks at every door, humiliates himself, losing any hope of getting his dream job, jumps through all sorts of hoops to get a court order to save Crawford's wife, but somehow, once he gets it, he has to drive through LA and physically get to the hospital room where euthanasia will be performed, because he couldn't be bothered to phone the hospital to tell them about the court order or talk to someone in the lobby.

Sammo

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Morgan picture

Stupidity: The chef/cook of the house has his rifle, and he knows Morgan lost control and pretty much killed everybody on the premises. He comes face to face with her, but he lowers his rifle instead of taking the subject (Morgan) out with a shot. There is no logic here but to only pro-long the film. There's no reasoning with a scientifically created subject which is killing everybody it comes into contact with. (01:09:00)

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