Best action movie stupidity of all time

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XXX (2002)

XXX picture

Stupidity: Why did the bad guys even go for Xander as he was snowboarding down the mountainside? First of all, it was impossible for them to even get to him as the mountainside had several cliffs. Secondly, why did so many go? Wouldn't it be clever to have as few as possible leave in case his snowboarding was simply to draw attention away from an ambush? They knew he was an agent by now and should know he could have gotten reinforcements. Thirdly, they could just have simply waited for him to get to them.

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Ghost Rider picture

Stupidity: When the rider is on the roof of the skyscraper dealing with the helicopter and the wind demon, everyone around the building keep looking up in shock and awe - like they could see ANYTHING from ground level.

Dangar

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Ghostbusters 2 picture

Stupidity: Suspension of disbelief is fine for a movie like this, but even as a child I found unbelievably silly the fact that the Ghostbusters use a Nintendo controller to move the Statue of Liberty. The concept is never set up and never is shown properly; all the movie showed and told us was that items possessed by the slime dance wildly to the beat of music. There's no logical (as in, movie internal logic) passage between that and "so we fire up some beats and it won't start dancing to it, but just calmly move according to our inputs on a joystick."

Sammo

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Saving Private Ryan picture

Stupidity: When they are preparing for a German assault towards the end of the movie, Miller explains to them the concept of the sticky bomb and adds, "If you have a better idea of knocking the treads off a tank I'd like to hear it." Um... The bazooka? They had eight rounds for it, and it could have easily been used to disable the treads. And the men wouldn't blow themselves up with it. While it couldn't destroy a tank by penetrating the armour, it's certainly strong enough to disable the tracks.

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Suggested correction: Allied forces familiar with the Panzer VI "Tiger", a 60-ton Main Battle Tank during the war knew that the armor is very tough and, even with support fire from a friendly tank, the odds of destroying a Tiger tank with a bazooka like Horvath's are pretty small. From the infantry perspective, techniques that were developed and employed in order to combat heavy Tiger tanks focused mainly on disabling the tank rather than destroying it. Anti-tank weapons of the era, such as the bazooka, were ineffective against most areas of the Tiger's armor, so specific weak points in the design were the focus. Hitting the Tiger in the tracks, suspension, engine compartment, observation slits, and in the joint between the main body and turret were some of the common weak points. Tiger tanks could only be destroyed head-on or from the sides by land mines, or direct hits by heavy artillery shells, or bombs dropped from aircraft. In the film, the first Tiger is disabled by taking out the tracks with "sticky bombs" followed by grenades thrown in the turret hatch. When Horvath fires at the second Tiger, both shots are placed on the joint between the body and the turret, the idea most likely being to hinder or incapacitate the turret's ability to swivel left or right. As the war went on, the Allies developed better strategies for disabling Tigers. One example involved British Cromwell or US Sherman tanks trying to "flank" a Tiger by working in squadrons or columns. One or more tanks would act as a diversion to keep the Tiger's crew focused in front of it while another tank would maneuver behind the Tiger and hit it in the rear section where its armor was the weakest.

Joey221995

Excellently put.

Ssiscool

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Rocky IV picture

Stupidity: Considering Rocky keeps hitting Drago after the bell sounds to end the round in their main event fight shouldn't he be disqualified?

Rob245

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Suggested correction: This is up to the discretion of the ref. If he deems the strikes to not be particularly egregious he can let the fight continue. Even if they are deemed illegal strikes, that doesn't mean that Rocky will be automatically disqualified. The ref can dock a point from Rocky instead, which he very well might have done at some point which we never see. Since Rocky wins by knockout having a point docked doesn't matter.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Eternals picture

Stupidity: Arishem's plan with the Deviants hardly makes any sense; he sent out biological beasts that he can't control, to kill off the natural predators of every planet. Forgetting the fact that obviously it didn't work (but the movie does not say that) because Earth has always had predators, that's a terrible plan to begin with, since any ecosystem needs predators or the other animals will grow uncontrollably.

Sammo

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Top Gun picture

Stupidity: When Cougar (and later, Maverick and Goose) report to Stinger's office at the beginning of the film, a photo of an F-5 in flight (or possibly a T-38) appears on the wall beside his desk. However, the F-5s that appear in this movie are standing in as MiGs. Of all the aircraft photos the set designer could have selected for this scene, it seems strange to use one of an "enemy" aircraft.

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The Tomorrow War picture

Stupidity: A major effort is put in the future to develop the time portal, so they can recruit people from the past to help fight the war in the future. Yet they never seem to think to share anything with the past about the creatures and how to kill them or find out where they came from so the can help either prevent it from happening or help save the future before humanity is wiped out. Muri does recruit Dan for this purpose but it seems wasted to only use 1 person for this much more important goal.

lionhead

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Fast & Furious 8 picture

Stupidity: When the crew go to New York they are in the back of a fish truck carrying fish. There's no need for them to do that. So long as the truck looks normal outside to keep their cover, they could have the inside kitted out any way they want. When they get to the fish factory they open up the warehouse in front of the workers to reveal the cars, so the workers are in on it being a front - it makes no sense to actually have fish in the back of the truck.

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X-Men 2 picture

Stupidity: The prison where Magneto is held should have had a contingency plan just in case of escape, like machine guns outside the cell, or tranquilizer darts, or gas.

oswal13

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Suggested correction: What good would machine guns and tranquilizer darts be against a man who can literally control and manipulate metal? As for gas, the area outside the cell is so large that any gas would quickly dissipate before it could be effective.

Phaneron

A gun made of plastic, there are million of materials beside metal.

oswal13

They had guns made of plastic.

lionhead

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Space Sweepers picture

Stupidity: When the crew think that Dorothy is a robot with a bomb planted in her and is capable of exploding, they begin to think that she is about to explode and attempt to dodge it. Rather than hide somewhere or take cover behind an area that may protect them, they just get down on the floor in front of them and cover their heads with their hands. If they thought the explosion was going to be as deadly as the one they saw on the news, this method of taking cover wouldn't be even remotely effective. (00:24:40)

Casual Person

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48 Hrs. picture

Stupidity: The fact that Nolte even gives in to Eddie's demands is ridiculous. Why not just interview him in prison, ask him where to look for certain people, etc, and if it's a dead end, report back and ask for further tips, etc. They had zero problem going to prison and asking Kirkland Smith in the sequel.

ckbyers

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Suggested correction: He refused to tell him anything unless Kates takes him out of prison.

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Jurassic World picture

Stupidity: When the Pteradons are loose and flying over the crowds, people run from inside buildings out into the open where the birds are attacking people. (01:22:00)

Ssiscool

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Suggested correction: A person is smart, people are stupid. A crowd in a panic would do exactly that sort of thing. Like trampling over each other running in panic from a shooting or a fire when not needed. It's the nature of panic in humans as a group to act stupid. It's not a movie mistake. It's actually one of the more realistic parts of the film.

Quantom X

Suggested correction: The dinosaurs were also breaking into/attacking people inside, so they weren't safe no matter what.

True, but one option is certainly safer than the other.

wizard_of_gore

Between being stuck outside and easy pickings and being inside and protected to a degree you can certainly see that one is safer as you say, than the other.

Ssiscool

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Black Widow picture

Stupidity: Natasha is in Norway on the run - Norwegian radio mentions her by name, Yelena talks about her being on magazines, she's very recognisable, and yet she goes into a gas station with her sister without changing her appearance in any way, and loudly talks about being an Avenger and killing people, right in front of the gas station attendant who for all she knows would be on the phone to the authorities the second she's out the door.

Jon Sandys

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Stupidity: At the beginning after Loki steals the tesseract he could easily uses his magic to make a portal in order to disappear from there.

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Suggested correction: Loki has never been shown to have the ability to form portals.

Never? He used the Tesseract in Endgame to disappear.

oswal13

The original entry is saying that Loki could have used his own magic to create a portal. He has never been shown to have that power. If he did, he would have been able to escape the portal Doctor Strange trapped him in in Thor: Ragnarok.

Phaneron

Suggested correction: Loki is a trickster and only has the ability of creating illusions making anyone see what he wants them to see.

Suggested correction: Loki didn't need to create a portal to escape (not that he has that ability anyway). He escaped very easily with Hawkeye, who became his henchman.

Suggested correction: Loki does not possess the ability to create portals with his magic. He could potentially use the Tesseract to do so, but it's possible he believes it needs to be connected to a machine or in some other kind of housing to be safely utilized, since that is how the portal opened that allowed him to come to Earth, and then later allowed him to open the portal above Stark Tower to allow the Chitauri to invade.

Phaneron

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Pacific Rim Uprising picture

Stupidity: The coast cities should have an alarm that detects the Kaijuns. If they do, they should work when the beasts are few miles away from the shore in order to give the people time to get to the shelters. Instead of that there are still people on the streets in Japan and on the docks in Los Angeles (in the flashback) while the kaijuns arrive from the sea.

oswal13

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Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi picture

Stupidity: Leia was carrying a handheld bomb. Yet she doesn't think to bring it with her later on while freeing Han.

Rob245

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Suggested correction: Novels from the Expanded Universe make it clear that with the exception of guards, nobody is allowed to carry weaponry in Jabba's Palace.

LorgSkyegon

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Midnight Run picture

Stupidity: Jack has been using Mosley's badge and identification to pass himself off as FBI. He never once uses this trick to commandeer a civilian car for him and John when it would have been the safest way to get to L.A. much sooner.

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Suggested correction: Probably because If he did that, the car's owner like Red the bar owner would eventually call the FBI office to get their car back and then the feds would know the make, model, license plate, and the last location of Walsh and the Duke. The police would have caught them in minutes. Walsh had to keep a low profile.

Zorz

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