10 Dumbest Characters In Disaster Movies
7. The Animal Rights Activists - 28 Days Later
Danny Boyle's masterfully intense post-apocalyptic horror film begins with a stultifyingly stupid act which effectively causes the rest of the movie to unfold.
A group of well-meaning but idiotic animal rights activists break into a lab to free the chimpanzees imprisoned within, only to be warned by the doctor on duty that the monkeys are infected with the highly contagious Rage virus, which can be easily transmitted through blood or saliva contact.
The activists of course don't listen, and upon opening up one of the cages, one of them is quickly mauled and infected by a rabid chimp.
She then violently transmits the Rage virus to everyone in the vicinity, in turn causing it to spread throughout the UK, bringing the country to its knees in a matter of weeks.
While you can argue that the scientist probably should've used a word other than "Rage" - after all, it does sound a bit silly - he pretty blatantly lays out that it's highly contagious, so this is mostly on the activists.