10 Movie Heroes Who Won By Dumb Luck

In Ghostbusters, Egon (Harold Ramis) memorably instructs his fellow ghost-busting heroes not to cross the streams on their proton packs because "something bad" will happen.

When Peter (Bill Murray) presses him to elaborate, he tells him thus:

"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."

But at the very end of the movie, when Gozer (Slavitza Jovan) has assumed the Godzilla-like form of the Stay Pufy Marshmallow Man, Egon surmises they've got no choice but to try and destroy Gozer's dimensional gate by crossing the streams.

Given that they will definitely die if they don't do anything, it's a total Hail Mary pass rooted not so much in informed science but a desperate prayer, with Egon adding that there's only a "very slim chance" they'll survive.

But as it turns out, the last ditch ploy works, with Gozer being defeated, the gate closing, and New York City being saved, while the Ghostbusters are hailed as heroes.

As undeniably smart as they are - or rather, Egon is - this was a ridiculous moonshot of a plan that just so happened to pay off.