10 Dumbest Decisions In Sci-Fi Movie History

4. Not Putting The Damn Shields Up - Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

Captain Kirk (William Shatner) has never been one to follow procedures by-the-book, but this turned out to majorly bite him - or rather, his crew - in the ass in The Wrath of Khan.

When the USS Reliant is approaching the Enterprise - hijacked by Khan (Ricardo Montalbán), albeit unknown to Kirk - Kirk refuses to raise his shields despite insistence from Saavik (Kirstie Alley) that he follow the Starfleet regulations of raising shields when faced with a non-communicative ship.

Kirk instead decides to trust the silent Reliant even as the situation becomes increasingly suspect, leading to Khan revealing his ruse and firing upon the Enterprise, causing countless (nameless) crew members to be killed in the process.

Given Kirk's well-proven strategic instincts, it doesn't make much sense, and even if you hand-wave it as Kirk simply being over-confident, it makes him look like a total idiot.

At least he had the grace to tell Saavik afterwards, "you go right on quoting regulations."