10 Dumb Villain Schemes Even A Child Could Have Stopped

One of the key aspects of making a great film is in establishing a firm conflict, and the easiest way to do that is to present a seemingly unstoppable antagonist, before revealing their flaws and having the protagonist(s) take them down.

Here are 10 films, however, that concocted villainous schemes so brain-dead in their logic that, yes, even a relatively dopey infant could probably have stopped them dead in their tracks. These are all plans that either rely on too much convenience, expose a fatal weakness in the villain or simply make it easy for the plan to be stopped without a whole lot of skill.

10. Lex Luthor - Superman Returns

The Plan: A daft real estate scheme in which Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) aims to use Kryptonite to raise the sea levels. He'll leave in his on his own island and charge any survivors a fee to come aboard, making him super, super rich.

The Flaw: Luthor clearly hasn't thought it out very well, because this private island is a highly irradiated chunk of Kryptonite, so while it might keep Superman away, it's also going to have some pretty adverse effects for not only the other residents, but Luthor himself in the long run (after all, it's not just Superman who is affected by it).

Plus, one can't help but think that drowning the vast majority of the world's population isn't going to have great implications for the global economy. The irony is that even if Luthor wins, he loses.

9. Mason Verger - Hannibal

The Plan: Mutilated child molester Mason Verge (Gary Oldman) wants to use Clarice Starling's (Julianne Moore) impending search for Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to draw the famed cannibal out, so that he can get revenge by capturing Lecter and feeding him to a pen full of man-eating wild boards. The Flaw: There's no one singular flaw as much as a wealth of them. Firstly, explaining his plan to Starling is down-right idiotic; given her reputation as a seasoned idealist, it was reasonably foreseeable that she might not be super-keen about Verger trying to off Lecter (rather than imprison him). Then there's the downright silly means of murder; it's too theatrical and relies on too many variable coming into place. And finally, there's the fact that Verger doesn't seem to pick his friends wisely; with a little coersion from Lecter, his own private physician decides to dump Verge himself into the hog pen, where he is dutifully devoured.