Top 10 Ways Movie Heroes Could Have Won Faster

“X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014)
The plot of this time travel superhero movie revolves around averting the creation of robotic sentinels who destroy humanity and mutants. To stop the shapeshifting Mystique from trying to kill their creator, Professor X and the gang break Magneto out of prison with help from Quicksilver, who can move incredibly fast. Except...instead of bringing the guy who can move faster than a speeding bullet with them, they just…leave him. Literally everything in the movie would have been easier with Quicksilver around! Sure, he couldn’t “reach” Mystique like Charles could, but he could capture her in seconds! Better yet, they could’ve just taken Quicksilver and skipped breaking out Magneto altogether, since he ended up trying to kill the president.

“Face/Off” (1997)
FBI agent Sean Archer relentlessly pursues terrorist Castor Troy after Troy kills the agent’s son. However, just as Archer captures Troy, the maniac tells him that a bomb will go off in the city soon. Before Troy can tell him where, he falls into a coma. In a ludicrous scheme, Archer gets a face transplant to discover where Troy planted the bomb by speaking to his associates as him. Unfortunately, Troy wakes up and threatens his surgeon into giving him Archer’s face. Except, this wouldn’t have been a problem if there were any men guarding the dangerous terrorist in his sleep! We know the ‘90s were a simpler time, but simple doesn’t mean stupid! Still, at least we got some great action out of this blunder…

“The Sandlot” (1993)
A seminal coming of age movie, “The Sandlot” follows a group of boys who play baseball at a sandlot. Much of the film sees them in fear of a dog chained up in a nearby yard where they frequently hit balls, even nicknaming it “the Beast.” However, despite going to elaborate means to get their balls back, especially when one of them proves to be a valuable signed one, none of the boys ever thinks to ask the dog’s owner, Mr. Mertle, if they can retrieve the balls from his yard. It certainly would’ve saved them a lot of trouble, but then the easiest solutions don’t always occur to you when you’re a kid…

“Jurassic World” (2015)
After an experimental dinosaur escapes its enclosure at the titular prehistoric creature zoo, many guests are killed and widespread mayhem ensues. However, it could all have been avoided with a little common sense! While viewing the Indominus Rex, Owen theorizes that it escaped based on claw marks. Claire claims that it can be tracked via the control room, which she calls while driving to it. Meanwhile, Owen and some guards go inside the enclosure, leading to the guards being eaten and the dinosaur getting out. If Claire had just called the control room immediately, she’d have learned it was still in the enclosure and none of it would have happened. Likewise, Owen and the guards didn’t need to go in the paddock.

“Home Alone” (1990)
Kevin McCallister’s time spent by himself veers between joy at being free of his awful family, melancholy that they’re gone, and fear at the two burglars who attempt to rob his house. Although he sets up a variety of traps that would probably be lethal in real life, he only escapes their attempts to get him after calling the police. What’s strange is that he didn’t do this sooner! He overhears them planning to break into his house early on, and could easily dial 911 on them at any point after that. Sure, he thinks he “wished his family away,” and might be scared of the cops, but c’mon!

“Alien” (1979)
This sci-fi horror classic sees the crew of the Nostromo come under attack by a deadly alien organism. Every one of them is killed, with the exception of Ellen Ripley. It’s a little bit karmic, since if the crew had listened to Ripley in the first place, only one of them would’ve died. After a facehugger alien attaches itself to Kane, the crew try to bring him back aboard, only to be shot down by Ripley, who’s ranking officer and who brings up quarantine regulations. Sure, Ash, who let them back aboard, had ulterior motives, but if the rest of the crew had followed procedure, they’d have lived to mourn Kane’s death instead of joining him!

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981)
Indiana Jones’ first film outing is an unforgettable adventure movie and beloved by many. There’s just a small problem with Indy’s approach to stopping the Nazis from getting the Ark of the Covenant – he didn’t really need to bother. If Indy had done nothing at all, the Nazis would have found the Ark, opened it, and had their faces melted just like what happens in the movie. And sure, you could argue that because of Indy’s involvement, Marion might have been saved, and the Ark got to be “studied” by “top men,” but he still doesn’t need to do anything to stop the bad guys. And we all know how much he loves easy solutions…

“Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi” (1983)
The final battle of the original “Star Wars” trilogy sees the rebels attack the second Death Star. However, to destroy the new superweapon, a shield generator on the forest moon of Endor needs to be destroyed. Han and company land on the moon and infiltrate the bunker, eventually blowing it up. But, wouldn’t it have been simpler to blow up the generator from the air? Since they have spaceships and all? We’ll grant that the generator itself may have had a shield above it, since it extended into orbit. But even if it did, they had an Imperial shuttle! That got them inside the shield, so they could’ve just dropped a bomb. They could have skipped their Ewok detour, and ended the Empire sooner!

“Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)
There were a lot of ways the Avengers could have ended Thanos’ quest to acquire the Infinity Stones sooner. As tempted as we were to discuss how they could have just calmed Star Lord down during his meltdown, we went with a more climatic moment. During the battle in Wakanda, Thor finally catches up to Thanos and throws his spiffy new axe into the conqueror’s chest. Thanos tells him that he “should’ve gone for the head.” Although that certainly would’ve worked, Thor could’ve also gone for the big purple baddy’s hand. After all, you can’t snap your fingers and wipe out half of the universe if you don’t have fingers.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001)
You thought we were going to say “the eagles” didn’t you? Ha! That’s three thousand years too late! “I was there Gandalf, I was there 3000 years ago…” Also inaccurate for various reasons, but moving on…Back when Sauron is first defeated and the One Ring is cut off his hand, Gondor’s king Isildur takes up the Ring. Although he and Elrond the Elf Lord take the Ring all the way up Mount Doom to throw it into the fire, Isildur changes his mind and doesn’t throw it in. And while Elrond claims that it’s “because of Men the Ring survived,” he could have just slapped the Ring out of Isildur’s hand and into the Pit! “The courage of Men failed,” huh? How about your courage Elrond? Why do Hobbits have to suffer for your mistake?