# Stupid decisions made by a character in a book or movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794 "2008-09-09T16:16:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anduinel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Anduinel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduinel)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/21 "2008-09-10T05:00:09Z")
> [@Anduinel](#): > > Warning: Link is SFW, but has some gore. Aw, crud. Forgot that there are bare boobies at that link. Could a mod please break it? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/22 "2008-09-10T05:15:03Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > The Cruise character’s Navy career was going nowhere and finished anyway. The Demi Moore assistant lawyer tells him he has a rep as a loser. But that doesn’t mean his career as a lawyer is over. There are plenty of lawyer jobs outside the Navy, and a good many locally controlled public defender offices want lawyers who will just lay down. > > So the decision to “go all in” on getting Jessup doesn’t have a really big downside. OTOH, the fact that it works is more bizarre than Bond’s drawing to the straight flush in the last Casino Royale. People in Jessup’s position don’t confess. They lie or take the fifth amendment. Really? I thought Demi Moore told him that he had a reputation as a hot-shot who plays it safe, but not necessarily a loser. And Kevin Bacon at one point says that Tom Cruise will take a deal for his clients because he (Cruise) _is_ a smart lawyer. As for being a lawyer outside the Navy, what effect would a court martial and (presumably) a dishonorable discharge have on his prospects? ETA: Furthering the theme of Tom Cruise playing dummies, what about Jerry MacGuire? The sheer work that went into preparing his manifesto, but no calls to his clients beforehand just in case he would (foreseeably) get canned? ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/23 "2008-09-10T05:59:26Z")
I liked the movie **Wag the Dog** but I’ve always had a problem with its last five minutes. Dustin Hoffman’s producer character tells Robert De Niro’s political fixer he’s going to inform the world on how they put together a phony war to distract the public from a presidential sex scandal. Aside from the questionable need to blab to everybody about the plot for reasons only having to do with pure ego, Hoffman’s act is especially stupid since he’s supposed to be fully aware that De Niro’s character can have–and has had–troublesome people “taken care of” with the flick of an eyebrow. And yet, for no other reason aside from the fact his character has suddenly lost 100 IQ points, **THIS IS THE ONE GUY HE HAS TO TELL**. Of course, it’s no surprise when it’s revealed at the end that Hoffman’s character has died under suspicious circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/24 "2008-09-10T12:33:33Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > People in Jessup’s position don’t confess. They lie or take the fifth amendment. I don’t believe the fifth is an option in a military court. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/25 "2008-09-10T13:02:52Z")
> [@Anduinel](#): > > In the may-yet-be-published comic **Genius** , a young woman who is supposedly the greatest military genius of our generation declares war on the LAPD. In the first page of the book, she stands in the middle of the street in broad daylight with a weapon in plain view of three cops after having shot a fourth cop dead in front of them. The cops then spend several panels yelling at her to put the gun down before being picked off by sniper fire from her ragtag army. This may be one of the stupidest “provide a distraction” moments I’ve seen in fiction; the central character should have hit the pavement as meat on page two. I don’t read a lot of comics, but that is probably the dumbest comic I have ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/26 "2008-09-10T13:16:58Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > People in Jessup’s position don’t confess. They lie or take the fifth amendment. Jessup didn’t think he’d done anything wrong. Plus, he’s facing this snot-nose little punk in his faggoty uniform who dragged him away from his mission for bullshit. In keeping with the theme of Tom Cruise movies with bad decisions, Craig T. Nelson as the coach in “All the Right Moves” made a bad decision in the final moments of the big game when he told Cruise to make a play instead of taking a knee with a few seconds left on the clock. Of course he later admits it was a bad decision. ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/27 "2008-09-10T13:23:00Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > “Hold your fire. There’s no life forms. It must have short-circuited.” Hold your fire? What, are we paying by the laser now? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/28 "2008-09-10T13:58:43Z")
Albert Wilmarth, from Lovecraft’s _The Whisperer in Darkness_. I’d say…well, pretty much everything from the last quarter to half of the story. I’d just say that the man was danged lucky that he managed to reach adulthood without anyone ever telling him to douse himself with A-1 sauce and climb inside a comically oversized cauldron. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/29 "2008-09-10T14:31:00Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I don’t read a lot of comics, but that is probably the dumbest comic I have ever read. I think the _One More Day_ storyline from Spiderman comes a close second. Cliff’s Notes version: Spiderman’s Aunt May gets shot. Rather than getting help from one of the many do-gooders who could save her, he makes a deal with the devil. And when I say “the devil”, I mean he literally _sold his marriage with Mary Jane to Mephisto_, to save his elderly aunt’s life. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/30 "2008-09-10T14:44:56Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > I think the _One More Day_ storyline from Spiderman comes a close second. > > Cliff’s Notes version: > Spiderman’s Aunt May gets shot. Rather than getting help from one of the many do-gooders who could save her, he makes a deal with the devil. And when I say “the devil”, I mean he literally _sold his marriage with Mary Jane to Mephisto_, to save his elderly aunt’s life. Just to make it official…how many characters, exactly, would have been willing and able to save her life? Even excluding the ones who’d _only_ be able to cut off her head and put it on a robot body, or turn her into a form of undead that has only a middling chance of resisting murderous anthropophagic urges? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/31 "2008-09-10T14:53:56Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > He was arguably right about his plan working - but look at the cost. There’s no reason to think he’d suddenly stop killing people. And the fact that he’s so smart just makes him that much more dangerous to leave alive. Even if I agreed with this (and I don’t necessarily do), who was going to kill Adrian? Nite Owl, Rorschach and Silk Spectre were all clearly outclassed by him. Jon was the only one capable of doing so, and he clearly didn’t give a damn about much of anything by then. He killed Rorschach to prevent him from screwing up Adrian’s plan, but killing Adrian wouldn’t have changed matters either way. > [@Engineer Dude](#): > > Hold your fire? What, are we paying by the laser now? Hey! You don’t make the budget Terry! ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/32 "2008-09-10T15:56:25Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Just to make it official…how many characters, exactly, would have been willing and able to save her life? Even excluding the ones who’d _only_ be able to cut off her head and put it on a robot body, or turn her into a form of undead that has only a middling chance of resisting murderous anthropophagic urges? I was exaggerating, but just among the X-Men I know of Angel and Elixir - compared to saving someone whose heart was ripped out, a gunshot wound shouldn’t be that much more difficult. Even if she couldn’t be saved, there’s a reason that making deals with the devil is seen as a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/33 "2008-09-10T16:29:14Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Cliff’s Notes version: > Spiderman’s Aunt May gets shot. Rather than getting help from one of the many do-gooders who could save her, he makes a deal with the devil. And when I say “the devil”, I mean he literally _sold his marriage with Mary Jane to Mephisto_, to save his elderly aunt’s life. In his - sort of - defense, Spidey went to both Iron Man and Dr. Strange to try and save Aunt May before resorting to the Mephisto option. And Iron Man at least totally funded May’s medical care. Also, Spidey was an outlaw at the time, and he couldn’t just approach anyone in the hero community with any assurance that they wouldn’t just knock him out and hand him over to S.H.I.E.L.D.. It was an extremely stupid story, and it was of course an idiotic decision on Spidey’s part, but he did at least try to get some outside help before going straight to the Devil. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/34 "2008-09-10T16:35:56Z")
> [@shy\_guy](#): > > In his - sort of - defense, Spidey went to both Iron Man and Dr. Strange to try and save Aunt May before resorting to the Mephisto option. And Iron Man at least totally funded May’s medical care. Also, Spidey was an outlaw at the time, and he couldn’t just approach anyone in the hero community with any assurance that they wouldn’t just knock him out and hand him over to S.H.I.E.L.D.. > > It was an extremely stupid story, and it was of course an idiotic decision on Spidey’s part, but he did at least try to get some outside help before going straight to the Devil. Moreover, the story could have been made to make more sense by having Mary Jane be the one to be shot, and having her die instantly. The shooting would have had to take place later in the arc, of course, but I can easily see Peter agreeing to give up his marriage–even the existence of his marriage–to bring MJ back. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/35 "2008-09-10T17:02:26Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > I was exaggerating, but just among the X-Men I know of Angel and Elixir - compared to saving someone whose heart was ripped out, a gunshot wound shouldn’t be that much more difficult. > > Even if she couldn’t be saved, there’s a reason that making deals with the devil is seen as a bad thing. Oh hey, don’t get me wrong, I’m with you all the way on the life-saving plan…I was just curious if the number of potential Marvel-U healers was actually small enough that I could count them _without_ using my toes. Ditto too the whole devil angle. I guess the Parkers hoping heaven looks kindly on a deal like that, even if it “works,” instead of playing whatever awful hand fate dealt them? 'Cause, y’know, there’s _so_ much case precedent in their favor. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/36 "2008-09-10T17:21:22Z")
At the end of _Disgrace_ by J. M. Coetzee one of the main characters moves out to the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Her farm helper/fix it man wants her farm, she refuses to leave, he is indirectly involved in her rape. At the end of the book she decides to live on the farm she’s given up ownership of and do chores with the man that raped her. Sure there’s tons of symbolism and complexity but at some point you just have to say “bullshit” and throw the book…and I did. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/37 "2008-09-10T17:39:36Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > I think the _One More Day_ storyline from Spiderman comes a close second. > > Cliff’s Notes version: > Spiderman’s Aunt May gets shot. Rather than getting help from one of the many do-gooders who could save her, he makes a deal with the devil. And when I say “the devil”, I mean he literally _sold his marriage with Mary Jane to Mephisto_, to save his elderly aunt’s life. Which is particularly idiotic because, not to be too cold-blooded about this, Aunt May is something like 90 years old and, if I recall correctly, has been in failing health forever. She could be carried off by a summer cold. I’ll bring up one just because it epitomized the whole spirit of the movie – in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull of Connect-the-Dot-Fight-Sequences, Indy and the kid are chased through College Town, USA by evil Russian agents. After they make their daring escape (and cause thousands of dollars in property damage), they go … to Indy’s home for a nice cup of tea and some research. Which is \* certainly \* not the first place that the evil Russian agents would look for them. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/38 "2008-09-10T17:53:23Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > I’ll bring up one just because it epitomized the whole spirit of the movie – in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull of Connect-the-Dot-Fight-Sequences, Indy and the kid are chased through College Town, USA by evil Russian agents. After they make their daring escape (and cause thousands of dollars in property damage), they go … to Indy’s home for a nice cup of tea and some research. Which is \* certainly \* not the first place that the evil Russian agents would look for them. Of course not. They’d have to be complete _idiots_ to go there, and the Russians surely know Indy isn’t an idiot. It’s all reverse psychology, see? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/39 "2008-09-10T18:12:33Z")
One of Asimov’s two pure mystery novels, _Murder at the ABA_: Halfway through the book, shortly after the murder, the protagonist discovers incontrovertibly that One of the two security guards in the building who are supposedly investigating the murder, is covering up evidence of an extensive heroin-smuggling scheme that’s centered in the hotel, by hiding the fact that heroin was found in the murder victim’s room. But he simply discards this fact, because of course, there’s no chance whatsoever that a heroin-smuggling network could in any way be possibly connected to the murder, and even if it was, the security guard is probably just covering it up because he doesn’t want bad PR for the hotel. OK, so you still need some more clues to put everything together, but still, a murder mystery gets a lot less interesting when you’ve reduced it to only two plausible suspects. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794/40 "2008-09-10T18:24:59Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > At the end of _Disgrace_ by J. M. Coetzee one of the main characters moves out to the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Her farm helper/fix it man wants her farm, she refuses to leave, he is indirectly involved in her rape. > > At the end of the book she decides to live on the farm she’s given up ownership of and do chores with the man that raped her. > > Sure there’s tons of symbolism and complexity but at some point you just have to say “bullshit” and throw the book…and I did. What exactly does “indirectly involved with her rape” mean? And does the character in question actually cohabit with the direct,physical rapist? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-decisions-made-by-a-character-in-a-book-or-movie/462794.md?page=3)