10 Dumbest Decisions In Disaster Movies
If you were in a disaster movie, which of these things would you avoid doing?
Part of the grim entertainment value of disaster movies is in the shock of seeing characters being sacrificed in increasingly startling ways. Typically, the more developed a character feels to the audience, the more shocking it is when they suddenly perish, but that is not always the case.
That's because the genre is filled with leading actors diving into flooding sewers to save their onscreen spouses or handing over imperilled children before taking a swan dive out of a precariously dangling lift. What I'm saying is these films are also filled with characters who make the most blatantly stupid decisions imaginable.
Whilst some of these choices may be quite entertaining at times, at others they can challenge the realms of believability and be more annoying than diverting. Moreover, as disaster films are frequently based on real-life events - from the sinking of grand ocean liners to aeroplanes becoming stranded on snowy peaks - the fact that the protagonists often take the worst route possible in trying to resolve their dilemma is all the more worrying.
Take a look at some of the dumbest decisions ever made in disaster films.
10. The Day After Tomorrow (2004) - Going Outside Despite Warnings
In Roland Emmerich's most notable film since Independence Day (1996), Earth is exposed to extreme weather conditions culminating in a new ice age, which is ushered in through a storm system that freezes everything within its eye.
This is all predicted by American paleoclimatologist, Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), but surprisingly few people (even in scientific circles) believe him. After a storm surge floods New York City, his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is faced with a similar problem when the majority of the survivors sheltering with him in the New York Public Library decide to go it alone, despite Sam's warnings that the weather will get colder, killing those outside.
Unfortunately, Sam is later proven right when Jack and his colleague, Jason Evans (Dash Mihok) discovers that those survivors have frozen to death, underlining just how dumb it was not to follow a little friendly (and professional) advice.