Best movie stupidity of 1997

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Event Horizon picture

Stupidity: In the scene where Lewis and Clark nearly hit the Event Horizon, One of the crew is calling out the closing distance and another confirms this information. Regardless of clouds obscuring their view they were aware of their proximity and the fact that they were speeding towards it and forced to attempt an abrupt stop makes no sense.

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Scream 2 picture

Stupidity: Ghostface ambushes Sidney and her friend with the two detectives protecting her while in the car. Ghostface busts out of the driver window, and slashes the throat of the driver detective and then assaults his partner, kicking the crap out of him. Ghostface is obviously going with the intent to kill and has a weapon. He just killed one of the detectives and threw the other in the street in front of the car. When Ghostface jumps in the car to take off, the living detective, beaten, jumps up with his gun trained on Ghostface. But rather than do anything smart, he just yells at the killer, the cop killer, to freeze and get out of the running car that he's standing in front of. He just saw the guy kill his own partner and knows he is intending to kill the girls in the back. His gun is pointed at Ghostface who is about to drive over him, but he just yells at him instead of shooting.

Quantom X

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The Full Monty picture

Stupidity: When Gaz tries to steal a jacket and Dave, who works as security, catches him in quite a dramatic manner they are seen by other employees. Dave lets Gaz go because he is a friend. But the next day both stroll together through the shop as if nothing had happened, with no enquiries or follow-up from the other employees. (00:59:30)

NancyFelix

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Starship Troopers picture

Stupidity: When the invasion of planet P begins, we see the Rodger Young get hit. In the explosion sequence, we are treated to people sitting around tables in what can only be described as a mess hall exploding. In a military environment, this would be a time where everyone would be at their "battle stations". Nobody would be having chow or off-time when the ship is expecting combat. In this case, it was a planned troop landing.

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Suggested correction: Yes, it was stupidity, but it was an intentional depiction that supports the plot. During the landing, the Captain is completely surprised by the bombardment and says something like, "This isn't light uncoordinated resistance." The fleet's lack of preparedness at Planet P is a major plot point that later results in the replacement of the Air Marshal in command.

No, you are talking about a different sequence. When they are unprepared, they are doing an invasion of Klendathu, the Bug's home planet. This is earlier in the movie and the Rodger Young was only slightly damaged in that. The stupidity is about the invasion of Planet P at the end of the movie, where the Rodger Young is cut in half.

lionhead

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I Know What You Did Last Summer picture

Stupidity: When the teens are about dump Ben Willis off the pier, he regains consciousness and snatches Helen's crown. Despite knowing he's alive with strength to spare, they nonetheless drop him in the water and continually refer to him as "dead."

Joey221995

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Batman and Robin picture

Stupidity: Mr, Freeze and Poison Ivy join together and plan to cover Gotham in freezing temperatures and plants, with none of them ever considering in the slightest that plants don't survive freezing temperatures, despite both of them being scientists.

Movielover1996

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Suggested correction: Poison Ivy made super-plants that could survive the new ice age they were going to create. As for the fate of normal plants, though this is only really clarified in the novelization (and original script), Poison Ivy's god complex has (pun intended) grown to where she no longer cares about individual or existing plants, just playing out her fantasies of being "Mother Nature."

Anson Gordon-Creed

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Con Air picture

Stupidity: For a brilliant criminal mastermind, Cyrus makes so many idiotic mistakes. (1) He leaves his entire escape plan hidden in the wall for the guards to find later instead of trying to dispose or destroy them (2) He makes the fatal mistake of trusting Santiago completely and never suspecting a double-cross. At the very least, he should have checked all of Lerner airfield just in case the plane was hiding (which it was). (3) He never notices or even questions Billy Bedlam's sudden absence until he sees his body. Odd considering he notice Santiago's absence immediately. And (4) When escaping on the firetruck, he (pointlessly) chooses to ride on the ladder instead of the front seat where he stands out, and Poe and Larkin both spot him. No surprise his whole plan failed.

Gavin Jackson

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Breakdown picture

Stupidity: Red and his gang have a barn full of stuff and talk about other couples and people they have kidnapped, robbed and probably killed. This indicates they have been in the "game" for a long time and been successful to avoid capture this long yet when Kurt Russell didn't want to get in the car, instead of cutting their losses, they went along with kidnapping his wife and initiating the whole ruse of her never getting in Reds truck which is what led to their downfall. Someone with the experience of this that Red has should know not to take such a big risk with a complicated story.

The_Iceman

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Volcano picture

Stupidity: Mike Roark is supposed to be the director of an agency that is in charge of coordinating all the resources of the city in the event of a natural disaster, but he doesn't know what a "geological event" is, not to mention magma?

jbrbbt

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Speed 2: Cruise Control picture

Stupidity: Dafoe does a lot of looking around while flying the plane. He could have pulled up much sooner. Then he screams and puts his hand to his face, and then he sees the tower and crashes into it. (01:53:29)

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Home Alone 3 picture

Stupidity: When Alice opens the door for the dumbwaiter, how did she not see the bottom of the elevator was removed when she was looking right at it? She even realised it was missing as she was getting in, but she still let go and fell to the basement.

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Kiss the Girls picture

Stupidity: The first time they see the bad guy in the Land Rover, Morgan has him in his sights but can't shoot, as he doesn't want to kill him. Clearly, the obvious thing to do is to shoot the car tires, but he doesn't and lets him drive off.

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Suggested correction: Shooting out car tires is not an actual effective strategy to get a vehicle to stop. A 9mm bullet simply doesn't cause enough damage to a tire to get it to go flat immediately. It causes similar damage as running over a nail. It is a movie cliche, similar to using a gun to shoot out a lock or a rope, it just doesn't happen in real life.

BaconIsMyBFF

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La Confidential picture

Stupidity: When White and Exley meet outside the motel and realise they've been set up, White suggests they leave, but Exley says it's too late. It wasn't even close to too late. There were no other people around, they had cars and there was a road right in front of them. Then they decide to go trap themselves inside the motel. It seems like they wanted to be shot.

MikeH

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Rocketman picture

Stupidity: Central to the plot is the layout of the Mars lander. There are no seats or any restraints of any kind in the lander, which is ridiculous. Spacecraft require safety belts in order to prevent astronauts from being injured during rapid course corrections. Additionally, ordinary rolling desk chairs would not be sent into space, and would certainly not be placed on a landing vehicle.

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Murder at 1600 picture

Stupidity: Anyone with a job in the White House would have to be known to the Secret Service on a daily basis, so the two Secret Service agents that find Cory the janitor should have been aware of his identity without him having to state who he was and that he worked there.

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