Alien invasion? Time for a baby!
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00:00Even the most outlandish movies need to present consistent and believable character logic,
00:05and ultimately, it's totally fine for characters to do stupid and absurd things, since we do
00:11them every day, right?
00:12It just has to be plausible within the context of their prior behaviour and the overall story.
00:18Of course, writing believable people is hard, and it's far more common that films fail
00:23to justify a character's ridiculous behaviour in the long run, with the result being that
00:27the all-important suspension of disbelief is thoroughly derailed.
00:31These are the movies that were impacted severely by the idiosyncratic, eyebrow-raising and
00:36straight-up inane choices their characters made, condemning themselves and others to
00:41some seriously unnecessary fates.
00:43Whether it's the results of writers getting lazy or backing themselves into a tough dramatic
00:48corner, all we want is some respect.
00:52So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, here with 10 Insane Character Decisions That
00:58Totally Ruined Movies.
01:0110.
01:02Maisie Frees the Dinosaurs – Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom
01:05Because the first Jurassic World having its female protagonist run away from a T-Rex in
01:10high heels wasn't asinine enough, its sequel, Fallen Kingdom, decided to one-up it with
01:15its head-smackingly idiotic ending.
01:17Maintaining the Jurassic Park series' long-standing tradition of annoying child characters, the
01:23film reveals that Maisie is in fact a clone of her grandfather Benjamin Lockwood's dead
01:28daughter.
01:29So far, so dumb, right?
01:31Well, it gets worse.
01:33The whole clone subplot is ultimately just an attempt to justify Maisie's final decision
01:37to release the dinosaurs into civilisation after a gas leak threatens to kill them.
01:42This completely ignores the fact that the dinosaurs are now going to rampage their way
01:46across the US until they're inevitably slaughtered by the trigger-happy US military.
01:50So all Maisie accomplished was buying the dinos a little time, getting some innocent
01:55humans pointlessly killed, and ensuring the dinosaurs suffer decidedly more brutal deaths
01:59in the near future.
02:00Good going!
02:01To be clear, Fallen Kingdom is a mind-numbingly silly film as it is, but this climactic decision
02:06pushed it over the edge from amusing trash into genuinely insulting.
02:109.
02:11Jar Jar Gives Palpatine Emergency Powers – Star Wars Episode II, Attack of the Clones
02:18When you consider the facts, Jar Jar Binks is effectively responsible for the rise of
02:22the Galactic Empire.
02:24In Attack of the Clones, he acts as a delegate to the Galactic Senate, and his impassioned
02:28speech convinces them to grant Chancellor Palpatine emergency powers.
02:33This eventually leans to Palpatine overthrowing the Senate, the Empire rising, and democracy
02:37ending for trillions of people.
02:39And you know what?
02:40It's one of the prequel trilogy's more fully-formed ideas.
02:43In theory.
02:44The notion of Palpatine exploiting a trusting and naive politician to his own nefarious
02:49ends makes a lot of sense, but did it have to be Jar Jar?
02:52Given that the character served as nothing more than merch bait in The Phantom Menace,
02:57integrating him into the plot in such a significant way here places an unnecessary dramatic black
03:02mark on the Empire's rise.
03:04The Sith will now forever be linked to Jar Jar's stupidity.
03:088.
03:09Nobody Wears a Helmet on an Uncharted Planet – Alien Covenant
03:13There are many, many silly decisions made by the characters of Ridley Scott's Prometheus.
03:18None more so than scientists freely removing their helmets on an uncharted planet.
03:23The fan outcry was strong enough that Scott promised the sequel, Alien Covenant, would
03:27rectify this issue while hewing closer to the core alien mythos fans know and love.
03:33And then the movie came out.
03:34Not accepting Captain Orym's ill-advised choice to detour from their planned route
03:38to check out a nearby planet for possible habitation, the fact that the colonists set
03:42foot on the planet's surface without any protective gear, let alone helmets, is just infuriating.
03:47Unsurprisingly, it's not long before a member of the team becomes infected with a black
03:53goo spore, which could have been prevented by… wearing a helmet.
03:58And alas, you know what happens next.
04:01Now, nobody's asking that these movies have entirely watertight character logic, but repeating
04:05one of Prometheus' most universally reviled decisions just smacks of either laziness or
04:11arrogance or both.
04:127.
04:13Superman Gives Lois an Amnesia Kiss – Superman 2
04:17In Superman 2, Lois Lane finds out that Clark Kent is indeed Superman, and the end of the
04:23film sees her struggling to come to terms with this fact.
04:26So Clark decides to arse-pool a new superpower totally out of nowhere by planting a passionate
04:32kiss on Lois' lips, which erases her memory of his superhero alter ego.
04:36Huh?
04:37Even if you can accept the totally nonsensical mechanics of the power, it's pretty uncomfortable
04:42and creepy.
04:43Frustratingly, it takes an icky ignorance-is-bliss approach to the Lois-Clark dynamic and undoes
04:48the genuinely intriguing wrinkle of Lois knowing that Clark is Superman.
04:52Diminishing Lois and Clark's romance had the knock-on effect of relegating her to a
04:56mere cameo role in the third film, and though she returned for a more substantial part in
05:00the fourth, her relationship with Clark took a backseat once again, this time to nuke Lear
05:05Man.
05:06All because of that damn kiss.
05:07Thankfully, the amnesia kiss isn't present in the Richard Donner cut of the movie, but
05:11the version that most people have actually seen is unmistakably tainted by Clark effectively
05:16giving Lois a roofy kiss.
05:19Yikes.
05:206.
05:21Leonidas pisses off a vindictive hunchback, 300
05:25Early in 300, Leonidas meets with Spartan Ophieltes, who wishes to join Leonidas' ranks
05:31and even provides intel of a secret path the Persians may use to flank them.
05:35Leonidas rather curtly rejects his request, due to Ophieltes' inability to hold up a shield
05:40as a result of his hunchback.
05:42So Ophieltes consequently defects to Persia and tells them about the secret passageway
05:47and more or less hands the Persians a victory.
05:50This could have all been easily avoided had Leonidas simply given Ophieltes something
05:53else to do that made him feel vaguely part of the action.
05:56Have him work intel, send him off to fight with another army, or just place him behind
06:00the Spartans' precious phalanx.
06:02Letting the man who knows your army's only weakness walk into the enemy camp is mind-bogglingly
06:07stupid from a military strategy perspective.
06:10Leonidas basically played himself, which sucks a lot of the epic majesty out of his heroic
06:14final moments.
06:155.
06:16Plugs Silva's Laptop Directly Into MI6?
06:19Skyfall
06:20After MI6 captures Raul Silva midway through the movie, his laptop is given to Q, who plugs
06:26it directly into the MI6 mainframe in order to decrypt its contents.
06:31Unsurprisingly, Silva's laptop then hacks MI6 and allows Silva to make his escape.
06:35All while anyone with even the most rudimentary tech know-how is wondering why a supposed
06:40gadget genius would plug a cyber-terrorist's laptop into a government's computer system.
06:45You don't need much knowledge of IT or state security policy to know that such a test should
06:50be conducted in a separate, closed system, and Q, flouting obvious protocols so brazenly
06:55infuriated fans enough that a fan theory suggesting he was a double agent all along was created
07:00in order to explain it away.
07:02As many great things as there are in this film, Q's inconceivable stupidity here presents
07:07a logical hole so big you could drive a tube train through it.
07:10Which, incidentally, is exactly what happens.
07:13For the rest of the film, it's tough to shake the nagging feeling that Silva would still
07:17be in jail if not for Q acting uncharacteristically dumb because plot.
07:224.
07:23Laurie Hesitates to Kill Michael – Halloween Resurrection
07:26One of the reasons that Halloween's Laurie Strode became an iconic final girl in the
07:31first place is that she was presented as both smart and resourceful, traits that were completely
07:36thrown out with her fan-service-heavy, paycheck-grabbing appearance in 2002's awful eighth film, Halloween
07:42Resurrection.
07:43Laurie has a trap set for Michael in the opening moments, and even when he takes the bait and
07:47ends up hanging upside down, Laurie hesitates to cut the rope and send him to his death,
07:52fearing that she might again end up killing the wrong man.
07:55As a result, she slowly tries to remove Michael's mask and confirm the kill, forgetting that
08:00the shape still has his hands free, allowing him to get the better of her and eventually
08:06stab her to death.
08:07Whoops.
08:08So, Halloween Resurrection is a craptastic entry into the franchise for many reasons.
08:13The worst, in fact.
08:14But this not only got the film off to an immediately sour note, it fatally undermined a character
08:19known for making smart decisions.
08:21Furthermore, the marketing implied that Laurie had a much larger role than a mere opening
08:25cameo, and fans had to wait an entire 16 years for Laurie's dumb, self-inflicted death to
08:31be undone with the soft reboot sequel.
08:343.
08:35Don Kisses His Obviously Infected Wife, 28 Weeks Later
08:39The sequel to Danny Boyle's cult classic horror flick peaks in its very opening scene,
08:45as Don, his wife Alice, and a few fellow survivors find their idyllic cottage getaway attacked
08:50by a horde of rabid people infected with the rage virus.
08:53Don makes the impossible decision to escape without his wife after he sees her being overcome
08:58by the infected, but it later turns out that Alice in fact survived and is an asymptomatic
09:04carrier of the virus.
09:05Don, overcome with shock at Alice's survival, begs her forgiveness, which she does grant
09:10him.
09:11Don then passionately kisses her, transmitting the rage virus to him, at which point he immediately
09:15turns violent and murders Alice by driving his thumbs into her eye sockets.
09:19Now, while you could argue that Don didn't know about his wife being a rage carrier,
09:23and you can maybe cut him some slack because he assumed his wife was dead, you also don't
09:27need to be a scientist to appreciate that you might not want to slobber over your partner's
09:31lips when they've been missing for ages and aren't looking too healthy.
09:34Even if you're unaware of the concept of asymptomatic infection, it's definitely sensible
09:38to err on the side of caution.
09:40A hug probably would have been fine, to be honest.
09:432.
09:44Evelyn Gets Pregnant During An Alien Invasion – A Quiet Place
09:48A Quiet Place is a terrifically well-crafted thriller about a family trying to survive
09:52an invasion by a blind alien species with supernatural hearing abilities.
09:57But sitting back and enjoying the movie requires audiences to leap over one significant dramatic
10:02hurdle.
10:03It turns out that Evelyn Abbott and her husband Lee decided to conceive a child well aware
10:07that they're in the midst of an alien apocalypse.
10:10The movie's defenders will argue that they did so to replace the child they lost in the
10:13film's opening sequence, but maybe it's a smarter decision to focus on saving the two
10:18children you've got left, and yourselves, rather than bringing a screaming banshee into
10:22the world.
10:23Okay, sure, the conception could have been an accident, what they do in their spare time
10:27is entirely up to them, but the pregnancy plot ultimately just feels like sentimental
10:31baggage intended to artificially up the tension in a movie where it's already thoroughly
10:36palpable.
10:37No matter how well-directed and sharply acted the film otherwise is, it's incredibly tough
10:41to reconcile this character logic when everything else is so tight.
10:461.
10:47Basically Everything Charlie Does – The Purge
10:49It's the characterization of the Sandin family's son, Charlie, that effectively sets the movie's
10:54primary conflict in motion, through his multifaceted idiocy, ultimately getting his own father
11:00James killed.
11:01Good going, Charlie.
11:02After the Purge has begun and the Sandins are safely locked down in their fancy home,
11:07Charlie notices a wounded man calling for help outside, and rather than maintain the
11:11safety of their family fortress, he disables the security system and lets the man inside.
11:16Remember, this is the Purge night, and he has no idea who this man is.
11:20Now there's compassion, and then there's blindly doing something without even remotely thinking
11:24about the consequences to yourself or others.
11:27It's just not very believable, and underlines the film's general dramatic disappointment.