10 Dumbest Decisions In Action Movie History
Intellect, power, or money don't necessarily always translate to good decision-making.
Action movies are basically like cotton candy for your mind. They're movies you can put on when you don't really feel like psychoanalyzing what you're watching and you just want to let your lizard brain go 'Ooh' and 'Ah' at big explosions, great set pieces, and sound effects that push your surround system to its limit.
But just because the movies are at times mindless, doesn't mean the characters in them should be the same.
We're talking today about those moments when you yell at the screen; those moments that you know someone is about to make a mistake that is going to come back to bite them (or someone else) in the ass. They're decisions that may be necessary to drive the plot of these films forward, but it doesn't mean they're good ones.
There have been countless poor decisions on the silver screen - think of how many final girls go into the basement despite knowing the killer is probably down there - but we'll be focusing on poor decisions made in the action genre. In between those pretty explosions and wicked car chases there still has to be some semblance of common sense.
The following list highlights ten times that common sense in the action movie world wasn't so common.
10. Letting Pride Overcome Sensibility - Alien Vs. Predator
Alien vs. Predator did its best to include lore of both worlds, managing to tie together the franchises to some extent. One of these bits was the inclusion of Charles Weyland, the founder of the Weyland Corporation. In a neat twist, Weyland is played by Lance Henriksen, who also played the android Bishop in Aliens.
Weyland is your typical movie portrayal of a rich, eccentric tech billionaire, one with an ego so big that he was willing to travel to the frozen ends of the Earth to recover technology and make a discovery that would mark his place in history, no matter the cost.
His pride and single-mindedness, however, would backfire in a spectacular fashion.
As he and the only other surviving members of the expedition attempt to escape both Predators and Aliens, Weyland plants himself in the path of Predator Scar, intending to delay him. Following the Predator hunter's code, though, Scar views Weyland as unfit prey due to the lung cancer that is killing him.
Alive but cast aside, Weyland becomes enraged at being ignored and creates a makeshift flamethrower to torch the Predator. It is, unfortunately, ineffective, and a few seconds later Scar impales him.
Weyland does indeed secure his place in history, as one of the relatively few people on Earth killed by a Predator.