Top 10 Dumb Decisions Made In Superhero Movies

“The Avengers” (2012)
Much of the saga thus far in the MCU involves the Infinity Stones, and Thanos’ pursuit of them. This makes it all the more baffling when you realize that early on he…gave one away! In “The Avengers,” Loki is given a powerful scepter by the Mad Titan to aid in the Asgardian’s battle on Earth and in acquiring the Space Stone. Ultron later reveals that the Mind Stone was hidden inside this scepter. So why would Thanos give one of the things crucial to his goal to someone who could, and did, lose it? The Mind Stone ends up being the last one he acquires, and he would’ve had them all sooner if he never gave it up!

“Man of Steel” (2013)
Like most of the DCEU, the movie that kicked it off is a bit of a mixed bag. One of more notable nuggets of dumbness comes with Jonathan Kent’s vehement opinion that Clark should keep his superpowers a secret, even if it costs others their lives. True to this philosophy, when Jonathan is about to die in a tornado, he tells his son not to save him. While the idea that he would sacrifice himself to keep Clark safe from exposure has potential, the execution doesn’t work, not only because it flies in the face of Clark’s character for him to allow his father to die, but also because with his super-speed he could easily save him before anyone noticed.

“The Dark Knight Rises” (2012)
With the masked terrorist Bane threatening Gotham, Commissioner Gordon, who is still recovering from his encounter with the villain, makes the idiotic decision to send all the police into the sewers to smoke out Bane and his men. Naturally, this leads to all the police getting trapped underground; letting Bane and the criminals he frees have free reign in the city. No matter how much of a threat Bane is, putting most of the police in a confined space is just a bad idea! Why not block the entrances and send in a strike team? For that matter, why isn’t someone else making the decisions instead of the commissioner? Is allowing trauma victims to make strategic decisions standard police procedure?

“The Avengers” (2012)
Loki makes a number of questionable choices throughout this film, but this is easily the dumbest and probably the one he regrets the most. During the battle of New York, Loki is knocked back onto the Avengers tower and is pursued by the Hulk, who knocks him inside. Frustrated that things aren’t going his way, Loki yells at the Hulk, proclaiming his godhood and insulting the Hulk. The angry green giant then proceeds to smash him into the ground repeatedly, leaving Loki groaning in high-pitched pain. We don’t know what Loki was thinking, but we think Tony Stark said it best.

“Iron Man 3” (2013)
Tony Stark may be a genius inventor, scientist, and engineer, but even he’s not immune to being an idiot. After his friend Happy is severely injured by terrorists in the employ of the mastermind known as the Mandarin, Tony calls out the baddie on TV, inviting him to his house to settle the score. Not only is it a stupid idea to invite a terrorist to where you live to fight, but Tony also puts on his only unfinished Iron Man suit and doesn’t activate the dozens of remote-controlled suits we know he has. Oh, and he doesn’t get his girlfriend out in time either. It’s like Tony handicapped himself on purpose, for no reason!

“Justice League” (2017)
In order to combat the coming threat, Bruce Wayne decides to gather a group of powerful people together. To that end, he meets up with several potential team members and attempts to convince them to join him. However, while doing so, he’s very cavalier with his secret identity as Batman. You’d think the world’s greatest detective would be more cautious than to reveal who he is to complete strangers before he’s confirmed whether they’re joining him or not. This might have been excusable if he were just starting out, but it’s clear that he’s a veteran hero at this point, so what gives Bruce?

“The Incredibles” (2004)
Bob Parr, the once Mr. Incredible, longs for his glory days as a superhero. However, not everything about his past is glorious. When his number one fan, Buddy, sought to become his sidekick, Mr. Incredible rejected his aid, turning the young boy bitter and vengeful. Eventually, Buddy grows up to become the villain Syndrome, who is responsible for killing dozens of superheroes and nearly doing the same to Mr. Incredible and his family. As stupid as Mr. Incredible was for not being more understanding to his fan, it works well within the story. In fact, it’s such a “good” bad decision, that “Iron Man 3” basically copied it with the same results!

“Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017)
For as much as Peter Parker needs to learn about powers and responsibilities, the dumbest decision in Homecoming isn’t actually one of his. After selling Avengers tower in New York, Tony Stark and Happy Hogan pack up all of the Avengers’ advanced gear an equipment from the location to be moved to a new location. To move it safely, they do so by loading it all onto an invisible plane, and send it all on auto pilot with no one on board to its destination. The fact that no one is onboard means it’s an easy target for the Vulture to try to hijack it, which he nearly did, with only Spider-Man’s intervention foiling him.

“Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015)
You’d think a guy who makes as many pop culture references as Tony Stark does would know that mixing A.I. and weapons rarely turns out well for anyone. However, the temptation to put a suit of armor around the world is too tempting an opportunity and when Tony discovers an artificial intelligence inside Loki’s scepter, he decides to use it, with Bruce Banner’s help, to create Ultron, a defense initiative that soon gains sentience and concludes that humans are the biggest threat to the planet and must be eliminated. For as much as we love Tony, he really has a terrible record of dumb decisions and this is one of the worst.

Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

Eddie Looking at Anne’s Emails

Testing a Teleportation Machine While Drunk

Abandoning a Child

Taking a Stressful Job in a Highly Populated City

Leaving the Thumb Drive in a Vending Machine

“Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)
The responsibility of who could have stopped “The Snap” falls on many shoulders, and while it was tempting to call out Thor for not going for the head… or the arm for that matter, we have to point a finger at Star-Lord. On Titan, a disparate group of heroes fight desperately together and finally manage to briefly subdue Thanos, while he’s wearing the Infinity Gauntlet, no less! However, before they manage to get it off of him, Thanos annouces he killed his daughter, Gamora, whom Quill loves. While we’d certainly be devastated and angry if we were in his situation, we like to think we could have held on to our rage until after the Infinity Stones had been secured.