# What are some movies where the characters are absurdly incompetent or just flat-out idiots? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 17, 2017, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624 "2017-04-17T13:53:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/21 "2017-04-17T17:23:00Z")
Sgt. Al Powell seems to be on the ball. Many, many horror movies rely on stupidity to get the characters alone and vulnerable; I am not going to bother listing examples, but will point out that a horror movie franchise, “Scream,” goes to the trouble of having its characters\* point this very phenomenon out.\* ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/22 "2017-04-17T18:09:14Z")
Slasher flicks. There is a knife-wielding killer on the loose. So, let’s all split up and hide in the dark. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/23 "2017-04-17T18:29:23Z")
There’s a scene in **Shooter** where the evil Gov’t Agents have captured Michael Pena, and have him tied up to a rig that has his arm in a sling with a gun on the end of it, so it will look like he killed himself. Something they say “they’ve used many times before.” He’s saved by Mark Wahlberg just before they make him pull the trigger. All very impressive, except that while he’s tied up in his suicide rig, they proceed to **beat the shit out of him**. Uh…I’m not sure why they thought having him all bloodied and bruised wasn’t going to maybe create some doubt about their “committed suicide” plan. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/24 "2017-04-17T18:30:09Z")
There was this Diane Lane movie, “Untraceable”, about a killer who kidnaps people and puts them in front of a camera- the webpage views determine how fast the victim dies. I could fill pages and pages about how incredibly stupid the whole movie is. But the part that really gets me is when Diane Lane partner, played by Colin Hanks, specifically tells Diane that if he ever got captured in that manner, he would send information by blinking in morse code for the people watching. Yes, you guessed it. He does gets captured. And when Diane Lane sees him desperately blinking through the streaming video she… does nothing. For hours. She spends hours watching him slowly die until she manages to remember a conversation she had about this specific circumstance with this specific person just days before. And this is played as a hero moment. She isn’t bashing her head against a wall and resigning immediately, as anybody else would. The whole scene is played as in we are supposed to think her character smart and competent for finally remembering something obvious. Oh, and Colin Hanks dies before he can complete the entire message, because, get this, the writers weren’t aware that you can just record stuff from the internet. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/25 "2017-04-17T18:42:21Z")
Imagine that you’d never heard of James Bond, and that I told you I had an idea for a multi-billion-dollar franchise: a _famous_ secret agent – who makes a point of not only introducing himself by name, but carefully repeating his last name for emphasis. I’m guessing your sneering response would be, _so, what, he gets captured every time?_ And, as we all know, the answer is (a) _yes_; but (b) _fortunately, they place the guy in easily-escapable situations involving unnecessarily-slow-moving parts_. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/26 "2017-04-17T19:08:34Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Lots of stuff but the two most egregious examples are a scientist reacting to a strange alien organism (that looks like an albino snake) by trying to pet it Specifically, it’s a _biologist_ who tries to pet the menacing albino snake thing. And he gets into this situation because he and the _cartographer_ get lost, despite having a 3d map that shows them exactly where they are in the structure they’re wandering through. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/27 "2017-04-17T19:22:27Z")
The **Jurassic Park** sequels are all entirely predicated on everyone who makes a decision making the wrong one at nearly every possible opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/28 "2017-04-17T19:36:16Z")
> [@dude\_robert](#): > > Another scene would be where a small U.S. armoured division is confronted by medieval men on a large mountain. At first, the medieval rush at the vehicles and get mowed down, but then they employ advanced tactics of hiding slightly under the mountain cliff. This causes the (largely incompetent) U.S. armoured division to rev their engines and drive straight at the hiding medieval men, and drive right off the sheer cliff, plunging to the ground hundreds of meters below, thus wiping out the U.S. armoured division. There’s a _Twilight Zone_ episode where the present-day National Guard is on maneuvers near the Little Bighorn battlefield where Custer and his detachment were wiped out in 1876. A three-man tank crew (one of whom is a Custer buff) keeps hearing and seeing clues consistent with that battle happening right then & there. At the end of the episode, the tank crew take up their little cavalry carbines and go on foot over the crest of a hill into the 1876 battle, already being fought to no effect (from the losing side’s point of view) with cavalry carbines. :smack: To be fair the writers: (1) had to resolve the issue that way, as a tank would’ve changed the battle, and (2) lampshaded the issue by having a National Guard officer remark that they would’ve done better with the tank. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/29 "2017-04-17T19:41:04Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Pretty much every cop (FBI included) who is not John McClane in the first _Die Hard_? > [@RickJay](#): > > Sgt. Al Powell seems to be on the ball. Yeah, the only one outside who doesn’t come off as incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/30 "2017-04-17T19:52:06Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > you can just record stuff from the internet. Not necessarily. Could be that none of the characters were tech savvy enough to circumvent any download blockers. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/31 "2017-04-17T20:03:43Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Not necessarily. Could be that none of the characters were tech savvy enough to circumvent any download blockers. No, look, if you can see it in a screen, it can be recorded. Sure, you may need sometimes specialized easy-to-obtain software, but this was literally the FBI’s cybercrime unit. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/32 "2017-04-17T20:16:40Z")
> [@dude\_robert](#): > > FHowever, the movie should not be a satire, like Starship Troopers, because then it doesn’t count. It should be entirely serious. Three words: John Wick 2. Basically, the premise is that the world’s top assassin has the emotional temperament of a two year old. “John, I need you to put your toys away.” “No!” “You promised you would. Now do it.” "No!’ “John - there’s going to be trouble.” “Noooo!” John pulls out custom handgun and kills five people with a variety of gun-fu, stabbing, and flying joint locks. Mob boss gives long-suffering sigh at sight of carnage. “John, you still need to put your toys away.” “Shit. Okay.” “When you’re done, we’re going to grandpa’s.” “No!” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/33 "2017-04-17T21:25:11Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > No, look, if you can see it in a screen, it can be recorded. Sure, you may need sometimes specialized easy-to-obtain software, but this was literally the FBI’s cybercrime unit. Okay, _they_ should have been able to download. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/34 "2017-04-17T21:28:31Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > No, look, if you can see it in a screen, it can be recorded. Sure, you may need sometimes specialized easy-to-obtain software, …or a phone you can point at the screen… ---
**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:** [April 17, 2017, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/35 "2017-04-17T22:18:13Z")
Are we just counting movies where, in-universe and in the context of the story, the characters are idiots, or ones where the characters are written (due to laziness or incompetence) as acting stupidly, but this is considered “normal” in-universe? Admittedly, these can be hard to tell apart, unless there’s a “smart” character who notes the idiotic behavior, or at least acts differently in contrast. _Aliens_ would be a good example of the former, on a few levels—a very green CO makes a poor tactical decision, in a novel situation he admittedly wasn’t really prepared for, then starts to freeze up under pressure. Also, in a lesser-sung moment, the Marines fail to ensure proper security for their LZ. For the latter, _Jurassic Park 2_—a couple of the main characters get several people killed; the cases where they do it by accident are what count—and the cult [BBC TV show “Bonekickers.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonekickers) To give you an idea…one internet critic who covered the show in [a delightful series of reviews](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f2bAcpx7QA&list=PLOt8i0lTzwawHOmR3b1T1TQwpKUs9TFCY) commented that the aforementioned Prometheus is like (spoilers for both) “[Bonekickers, the Motion Picture](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hvlb36nWjY).” ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/36 "2017-04-17T22:57:19Z")
Nash, one of the cops in _Black Christmas_, is quite the dunderhead, as evidenced here at the [23:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kK5din-fHE) mark. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/37 "2017-04-17T23:32:17Z")
_The Interview_ wasn’t a particularly good movie anyway, but James Franco’s character was offputtingly stupid. I get that Kim Jong Un’s outwardly friendly demeanor and toys seduced him to the dark side, but the constant childlike stupidity was too much. > [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Specifically, it’s a _biologist_ who tries to pet the menacing albino snake thing. And he gets into this situation because he and the _cartographer_ get lost, despite having a 3d map that shows them exactly where they are in the structure they’re wandering through. More specifically, this was _after_ the biologist gave a speech about not interfering with native life or some such. Then he proceeds to pet something that any 4 year old can tell you screams “DANGERDANGERDANGER!” ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/38 "2017-04-18T00:29:32Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Specifically, it’s a _biologist_ who tries to pet the menacing albino snake thing. And he gets into this situation because he and the _cartographer_ get lost, despite having a 3d map that shows them exactly where they are in the structure they’re wandering through. And the captain, who is supposed to be overseeing the away team, has wandered off the bridge to shag the blonde tart because she asked him to. You wouldn’t hire these people to deliver junk mail. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/39 "2017-04-18T00:59:27Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _Alien_. Stupid, stupid people from start to finish and who can be counted on doing the wrong things in every circumstances. This is essential for the plot to work, however. Agreed. But early in the film at least, Lambert is the voice of reason ("What happened to the rest of the crew? [pause] “Let’s get the hell out of here”) but she is of course ignored as it’s not her movie. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624/40 "2017-04-18T02:29:16Z")
I’ve given this screed before about the original “Night of the Living Dead.” Young black Ben is portrayed as the hero, while white, middle aged Harry is portrayed as a stupid bigot. But every idea Ben has leads to death and disaster! He got the young couple killed in a foolish attempt at gassing up the truck. He gets Barbara killed by rejecting Harry’s idea (stay in the cellar) and trying to board up the windows. Ben himself survives the night by locking himself in the cellar- just like fat, white stupid Harry told him to in the first place! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-movies-where-the-characters-are-absurdly-incompetent-or-just-flat-out-idiots/784624.md?page=3)