10 Heroic Movie Characters Who Actually Didn't Affect The Plot

4. The Inglourious Basterds

Tarantino's World War II fantasy is crowned by a catarthic shot of Hitler's face being stomped into smithereens as the rest of his high-leveol Nazi cronies are killed by the Basterds' carefully placed bombs in the cinema. The world rejoices at the end of the worst person in history and the Basterds are proclaimed the heroes of the piece.

But, they didn't even need to be there. Their flashy interference serves only to get in the way of a pre-existing plan (which is far better planned) by Shoshanna to trap the Nazis and burn them to the ground, including Herr Hitler.

Had the Basterds not bowled in and threatened to sabotage everything by drawing the attentions of Hans Landa, Shoshanna's plan would have gone off without a hitch, the Nazis would have perished and the credits would have rolled on a world without Hitler and his most valuable chums, including Landa himself, who is given a reprieve thanks to the idiotic, inept charade that Brad Pitt attempts to pull off in the foyer.

All the Basterds actually add are a hail of bullets and more unnecessary dead bodies - two of their own, and that of Bridget Von Hammersmark.