10 Smart Movies With Incredibly Dumb Twists

In many ways, Skyfall represents the Bond franchise's best attempt to reconcile the classically suave Bond with the "realistic" Bond of the Craig era.

On one hand Craig's 007 is a little less of a thug than he was in the two prior films, and the expected Bond tropes are all there in spades, but it also actively engages with the concept of Bond as a relic in a modern world, while shot with the unprecedented operatic bombast of a Christopher Nolan film.

Though Skyfall is full of riveting twists and turns, it temporarily devolves into mustache-twirling territory when it's revealed that villain Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) intentionally had himself captured so he could hack into MI6's computers, escape his cell, travel through the London Underground, and then attempt to assassinate M (Judi Dench) at a Parliament hearing. Right.

For starters, the whole "villain gets capture on purpose" shtick had become so overdone by the early 2010s, what with The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, and Star Trek Into Darkness all utilising the same tired trope.

And secondly, what exactly did Silva gain by letting himself get caught instead of just...going straight to the hearing and trying to kill M?

Sure, it's a movie and almost every Bond villain is at the mercy of their own hubris, but even accepting that, this was a staggeringly stupid plan - a plot twist that's neat in the moment but doesn't at all hold up to basic scrutiny.