Easy Answers for Fictional Dilemmas

This might not be what the OP is asking for, but in the 2008 movie The Dark Knight, the Joker’s “dilemma” was flawed. He said, “Either one of you boats blows up the other, or else I’ll blow both up at midnight.”

This isn’t even a dilemma at all. He is giving the boats no reason not to blow up the other - since both boats die if no one takes action. It’s not even a Prisoner’s Dilemma game theory thing.

It should have been, “One of you blows up the other, or else I’ll pick one boat at random to be detonated and the other will be spared.” Then that might lead to more of a moral dilemma.

The way the Joker presented it in the movie, the choice was obvious; blow up the other. Indeed, that even becomes a moral duty, because you’d be saving the lives of all the fellow passengers on your own boat.