Best action movie stupidity of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

Morbius picture

Stupidity: Despite being wanted for murder, escaping jail, and having his face plastered on the front page of the newspaper, Morbius meets Martine in a public diner and doesn't even make an attempt to conceal his identity while they are seated. Even shaving off his beard and cutting his hair short would have gone a long way in making him more unrecognizable.

Phaneron

More Morbius stupidity
Detective Knight: Independence picture

Stupidity: The patient was wearing a white and gray striped tie when he was walked into the ambulance. The EMT did not remove or even loosen the patient's tie (to facilitate breathing). Instead, the tie was moved from the front to along his shoulder/neck, apparently to get it out of the way while she was cutting off the patient's shirt. (00:07:50 - 00:08:20)

KeyZOid

More Detective Knight: Independence stupidity
Olympus Has Fallen picture

Stupidity: There are numerous snipers on and around the White House. They should have barraged the lawn and wiped out all the attackers on foot with rifles and machine gun fire.

More Olympus Has Fallen stupidity
Thriller: A Cruel Picture picture

Stupidity: Frigga's captor Tony kills a fellow prostitute, removes her body, but doesn't bother to get rid of her blood soaked sheets.

Rob245

More Thriller: A Cruel Picture stupidity
The Numbers Station picture

Stupidity: A trained CIA hitman wants to kill the owner of a bar. Why would he go into the bar during opening hours, ensuring that there are witnesses to be eliminated, when he could break in after hours, use a few less bullets, and have fewer loose ends to tie up? The break-in would also provide a cover story for the kill. All rather unprofessional.

More The Numbers Station stupidity
The Punisher picture

Stupidity: During the final shootout in Saint's club, Lincoln (the long-haired hitman) sneaks up on the Punisher and fires at his chest with a shotgun at point-blank range, which does not harm the Punisher because of his body armor. Even though Lincoln could see that the Punisher was wearing body armor, he takes another point-blank shot at his chest to no effect when he had a clear head shot.

Phaneron

More The Punisher stupidity
Den of Thieves picture

Stupidity: At the end of the movie during the shootout. Cops would not engage in automatic gun fire with dozens of civilians in direct cross fire. Why not get a chopper and chase them down a bit maybe in an open area with fewer civilians? Then maybe engage in gunfire.

More Den of Thieves stupidity
Bullet Proof picture

Stupidity: Mia said, "Look, there's a clinic. Are they open?" The Thief replied, "I don't know, but we gotta get off the road" (because Temple and his goons were chasing them and not far behind). The thief parked in front of the clinic, which was along the road, and he and Mia went into the clinic. (00:39:38)

KeyZOid

More Bullet Proof stupidity
Survive the Game picture

Stupidity: David and his partner Cal drive into a weeded area near the garage/warehouse the drug bust is going to be made. David says, "This might go south. We need backup." David and Cal sit in the car talking about not letting the product get onto the street where someone might die, etc. then exit the vehicle without calling for backup, which could have been done in a few seconds (and should have been done as soon as David said they needed backup). (00:02:10 - 00:02:37)

KeyZOid

More Survive the Game stupidity
Born a Champion picture

Stupidity: Lyla does not like the idea of Mickey fighting and initially does not want him to agree to the fight. Lyla eventually tells him "okay", but he must stop when she tells him to stop. This may give her a reason to go to Dubai, UAE with him, but she is about 8 months pregnant. An international flight has some risks plus she would be far away from her OB-GYN doctor if there were a complication. She should have had enough sense to avoid international flights/traveling so close to her due date.

KeyZOid

More Born a Champion stupidity
The Old Guard picture

Stupidity: When they're tied up in the lab it's not that hard to escape. They have this loose straps with clips. (01:35:40)

More The Old Guard stupidity
Star Wars: The Force Awakens picture

Stupidity: Immediately after Unkar Plutt makes Rey a generous offer for BB-8 and she refuses, he tells someone over his communicator to follow her and bring back the droid. He should have at least waited until she was out of earshot before he said that, especially if he was trying to be covert about it.

zendaddy621

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

Suggested correction: But he was out of earshot of her.

lionhead

I posted this immediately after watching the scene in question, and it looked as though Plutt spoke into his communicator right after Rey turned around and went on her way; certainly too soon for her to have gotten more than a few steps away. Also, he spoke at a normal, conversational volume rather than anything that sounded like a whisper or "sotto voce", so unless he was relying on the ambient noise of other nearby activity, I still believe this "stupidity" is valid.

zendaddy621

That depends on how sneaky you think Plutt is. Rey walks away in quick paces, so she is out of earshot. Also I don't think it bothers him that much if she heard, she is just a scavenger, what can she do about it?

lionhead

Rey was definitely out of earshot. Rey walks completely out of the shot, which appears to be about 10 feet away. Unkar Plutt then angrily swipes the portions off the counter and picks up his communicator. At the pace Rey was walking she would have been a considerable distance away from him when he spoke. In addition, Unkar Plutt lowered his voice when he spoke because he was being sneaky. She might have been able to hear him speak, but it is totally reasonable that she wouldn't be close enough to make out exactly what he was saying.

BaconIsMyBFF

More Star Wars: The Force Awakens stupidity
Piranha 3D picture

Stupidity: Jake throws Derek overboard to distract the piranha, then swims under the boat and doesn't get attacked, so why couldn't he just go downstairs the normal way and have Kelly swim over to him? They could have escaped a lot more easily.

brianjr0412

More Piranha 3D stupidity
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: We're talking about Amanda Waller who had no issues murdering innocent government employees that were accidentally exposed to her top-secret Suicide Squad program they weren't cleared for (versus making them sign an NDA not to talk about it as in a real-life accidental exposure to uncleared employees). Waller just took the easier option which was to threaten to kill Enchantress if she didn't obey versus spending countless dollars (and exposing more people to Waller's program) trying to cure her.

AD

More Suicide Squad stupidity
The Fast and the Furious picture

Stupidity: At the end Vince fires a grappling hook at the passenger seat of the truck then attaches the other end to himself, all the truck driver has to do now is hit the brakes and Vince would be dead under the truck or dragged along the road.

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

Suggested correction: In point of fact, the truck driver does slam on his brakes; but, defying physics, Vince is catapulted around the right side of the truck to the passenger door.

More The Fast and the Furious stupidity
The Humanity Bureau picture

Stupidity: After Noah shoots the Humanity Bureau vehicle following them, they continue down the road and stop at an old abandoned building that still has some sort of running water in it. Lucas has to go to the bathroom so his mother just lets him wander off by himself to find a restroom. She doesn't go with him or make sure he's fine. And this is in an area where they know that most of the residents are hostile, and they are being chased by the Humanity Bureau. Noah even calls her out on the stupidity of her letting Lucas go by himself and she claims it's because he needed to do number 2 and that Lucas insisted and he's not a little kid any more... Which doesn't excuse the stupidity of the action of letting an 11 year old go by himself to find a bathroom in such a situation. And ultimately it does lead to him getting found by Agent Westinghouse. (01:08:30)

Quantom X

More The Humanity Bureau stupidity
Dark Phoenix picture

Stupidity: The X-Men depart for space on a vehicle not designed for space, for an incredibly dangerous mission they know nothing about (and none of them can survive in space at that point), but don't suit up for it in the slightest - and with Nightcrawler and Quicksilver's powers as they are shown later, it'd be easy to do it without wasting time. Not only that, but Xavier communicates with NASA to get the briefing only after the X-Men have already departed.

Sammo

More Dark Phoenix stupidity
True Lies picture

Stupidity: When seeing that the bridge is out, JLC could've easily climbed out of the sunroof and hop off the back of the limo and onto the pavement, suffering a few cuts and bruises at the most. I know that it would've been anticlimactic, but still.

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

Suggested correction: You're assuming that jumping off a runaway car is a simple task that anyone can do. She's scared out of her mind, and many people in a similar situation would probably be scared at the prospect of jumping off a moving car, even with the knowledge that they will be flying off the road shortly.

Phaneron

More True Lies stupidity
Bloodsport picture

Stupidity: Amongst the dubious statistics attributed to the real Frank Dux at the end of the film is the claim that he holds the record for "Most Consecutive Knockouts in a Single Tournament - 56." A single tournament with at least 56 rounds would include over 72,000,000,000,000,000 entrants.

BaconIsMyBFF

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

Suggested correction: While the entire film could be considered fiction based on Dux's dubious claims, your statement is only valid for a single-elimination style tournament. There are other types of tournaments, such as a round robin which would only require 57 contestant (Dux plus at least 56 guys to knock out).

Bishop73

The kumite is a single elimination tournament. It wouldn't make any sense to have a full-contact tournament, where the action is so (legally) violent that fights routinely end in severe injury or even death, use any other form of bracket.

BaconIsMyBFF

Nothing is stated that every tournament Dux was in was the Kumite as depicted in the film. Just that he retired undefeated in the Kumite.

Bishop73

The records listed at the end of the film are kumite records. The information comes from Frank Dux himself who made the claims on more than one occasion. When it says 56 consecutive knockouts, it is referring to the kumite and not some other, possibly round robin (which honestly would still be a ridiculous claim) tournament. It is likely the makers of the film believed "consecutive knockouts" meant "single tournament."

BaconIsMyBFF

I guess everything I've read on him over the decades never made it clear it was talking about one type of tournament with all the accomplishments he's claimed to have. And I've read the same repeated factoid about how many contestants 56 rounds would have that you read.

Bishop73

More Bloodsport stupidity
Ghostbusters: Afterlife picture

Stupidity: The whole movie happens for unbelievably convoluted causes. Despite their friendship and the simple fact that he still runs an occult shop (showing that he's not exactly insensitive to the past), Ray in years never spent a single moment to check on Egon's whereabouts, which he knew, or listen to him. The city has Shandor's name all over and any cursory investigation would have unveiled the connection. Assuming of course that Egon turned into such a lunatic he couldn't do the namedropping himself.

Sammo

More Ghostbusters: Afterlife stupidity

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.