10 Movie Cliches That Need To Die

5. Solving The Problem By Nuking The Town

It's not easy to get rid of a bunch of aliens/Godzilla-like monsters/a killer virus sweeping a city, and consequently a lot of films built around these elements end with the government or military deciding that the only course of action is to strike down with a nuclear bomb, no matter whether the city is evacuated or not (it almost always isn't).

Films like Cloverfield, Alien vs Predator: Requiem and The Avengers all introduced the last-minute threat of the military launching a nuke directly towards the city our heroes are still fighting in, and while it does immediately raise the stakes, the sub-plot almost always follows the same tired old beats.

And yeah it might not always be a nuclear bomb, but it'll still be a bombing run that's guaranteed to wipe out the entire city. Also, it never works, and only ever makes things worse.