20 Idiotic Decisions Made By Characters In The X-Men Franchise

13. Jean Grey Sacrifices Herself For Absolutely No Reason - X2

So here's a doozy of a bad decision; one that makes no sense on a logical level, and was clearly factored into X2 as way to progress the plot. Shame that the screenwriters didn't take much time to come up with a good reason as to why it actually happens. Especially since it involves an event as monumentally important as the death of Jean Grey.

The moment in question, then, is the one where - at the end of X2 - Jean Gray departs from the X-Jet in order to use her psychic abilities to prevent a giant wave from killing everyone on board (a malfunction is preventing it from taking off, because this is a movie). She succeeds in keeping the wave at bay, and uses her powers to activate the X-Jet's engines, allowing the gang to get to safety. Then the wave consumes her.

Thing is, this odd decision results in her death - one that was entirely unnecessarily, given that she could have done the exact same thing from within the confines of the ship. What was stopping her from holding back the wave from inside the cockpit? After all, i's not like she has be right next to something to use her powers on it.