10 Insane Character Decisions That Totally Ruined Movies

6. Leonidas Pisses Off A Vindictive Hunchback - 300

Zack Snyder's visually stunning historical epic was never going to be a paragon of smart storytelling or deep character work, yet it ultimately ends up depicting Sparta's King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) as basically entirely responsible for the demise of himself and his brave 300 soldiers.

Early in the film, Leonidas meets with deformed Spartan Ephialtes (Andrew Tiernan), who wishes to join Leonidas' ranks and even provides intel of a secret path the Persians may use to flank them.

Leonidas rather curtly rejects his request, due to Ephialtes' inability to hold up a shield as a result of his hunchback.

Ephialtes consequently defects to Persia, telling Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) about the secret passageway and more-or-less handing the Persians an (admittedly Pyrrhic) victory.

This all could've been easily avoided had Leonidas simply given Ephialtes something else to do that made him feel vaguely part of the action - have him work intel, send him off to fight with another army, or even just place him behind the Spartans' precious phalanx.

Letting the man who knows your army's only weakness walk into the enemy camp is mind-bogglingly stupid from a military strategy perspective. Leonidas basically played himself, which sucks a lot of the epic majesty out of his "heroic" final moments.