10 Weird Movie Plot Twists That Just Don't Work
6. Maya's A Villain! Oh Wait, No She Isn't - Iron Man 3
The Set-Up: When Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr, obviously) threatens terrorist leader The Mandarin, he is suddenly visited by old flame Maya (Rebecca Hall), a scientist who has been working with Stark rival Killian (Guy Pearce) on the deadly Extremis project.
The Twist: Maya and Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) escape, and Maya seems regretful for working on Extremis: but then, she hands Pepper directly over to Killian, revealing that she's one of the bad guys after all. However, just as Killian moves to use Extremis on Pepper, Maya has a sudden change of heart - and not long thereafter, Killian just shoots her.
Why It Doesn't Work: The fumbling of Maya is one of the biggest black marks on Marvel's record. Infamously, she was at one point intended to be the principle villain of Iron Man 3, but the studio caved over concerns about (sigh) toy sales, and so the focus shifted to Pearce's Killian.
As such, Maya's whole character arc is a futile dead end, wasting a potentially interesting character and a fine actress in Rebecca Hall. Her ultimate demise just feels like an afterthought - which, no doubt, it really was.