The secret to success for any movie hero or villain is usually a plan that is so cunning/dastardly, that there should be almost zero chance of failure. There have been some truly spectacular plans in the history of film, such as the Rebels spectacular attack on the first Death Star, Danny Ocean's daring raid on three Vegas casinos and, perhaps most famously, Harrison Ford's plan to avoid the police in The Fugitive by dyeing his hair. Ahem. However sometimes these geniuses come up with plans that, while somehow still effective, are so ridiculous you can't help but wonder if they actually secretly want to make things harder for themselves. Plans that are so ludicrously complicated or so remarkably short sighted that any subsequent success must surely come down to blind luck rather than having remarkable tactical nous. Here are ten of cinema's most ridiculous offerings.
10. Skynet's Plan To Kill John Connor - The Terminator
THE PLAN: With the war against the humans not going quite as they had planned, Skynet decide that rather than try and take out resistance leader John Connor using conventional means like tanks or bombs, they will send an unstoppable Terminator back through time and kill his mother, Sarah Connor, thus destroying their enemy before he had even been born and dealing the resistance a fatal blow.
WHY IT'S STUPID: Except it wouldn't have dealt them a fatal blow at all. Yes, there might have been a slightly less charismatic and inspiring leader in charge of the resistance, but if John Connor was killed before he was born or even while he was an annoying teenager, then someone else would have ended up being in charge of the resistance. None of his fellow generals would have known who he was and therefore there would be no loss of morale or direction in their military campaign. Come to think of it, had the Terminator killed him how would Skynet even know that he existed and their mission was a success? My brain hurts.