Top 20 Dumbest Decisions in Sci-Fi Movies

- Not Guarding the Crazy Terrorist
- Not Sending All Data
- Yona Blowing up a Bomb on a Train in Frozen Wasteland
- Trusting HAL Fully
- Running Straight Ahead
- Underestimating the Bugs
- Not Telling Everyone About Limbo
- Going Against the Council
- Releasing the Dinosaurs
- Not Memorizing the Time Loop
- Training Drillers as Astronauts
- Unleashing the Titans to Save Earth
- Falling in Love with a Humanoid Robot
- Testing the Drug ALZ-113
- Bringing the Sports Almanac Back in Time
- Not Quarantining Kane
- Kissing the Infected
- Trusting Robots
- Putting the Exhaust Port on the Death Star
- Creating Dinosaurs in the First Place
#20: Not Guarding the Crazy Terrorist
Face/Off (1997)
John Woos face-swapping thriller is a wild ride that pits Nicolas Cage and John Travolta in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game. While the films high-octane energy is undeniable, some moments are just plain ridiculous. A glaring example? A known terrorist like Castor is left in a coma without heavy security. He wakes up, realizes his face is gone, forces the doctor to change his face, torches the lab, and just strolls out with his gang. How does a dangerous criminal, supposedly under the FBIs watch, manage to escape so easily? The only answer is that logic had to take a backseat for the face-swapping twist to unfold. While it makes the story work, its still one of the films massive plot holes.
#19: Not Sending All Data
Interstellar (2014)
This thought-provoking gem blew our minds, but it also made some questionable choices. Now, the whole mission boiled down to sending the quantum data to save humanity, right? Cooper ends up in a dimension where he can somehow communicate with his daughter, Murph, through time. With the data within his grasp, all he had to do was send it instantly. Problem solved. But nope - Cooper uses Morse code to send it bit by bit through Murphs old watch. Wasnt there a more efficient method to transmit it all at once? What if Murph never looked for this watch? Humanitys fate resting on a forgotten timepiece feels insane. But, hey, a fathers love for his daughter transcends all, even logic.
#18: Yona Blowing up a Bomb on a Train in Frozen Wasteland
Snowpiercer (2013)
In this post-apocalyptic tale, most of Earth is an icy wasteland. The only way to survive is to stay on a constantly moving train. Step outside? And youre toast well, more like a popsicle. Its wild that Yona, Namgoong Minsoos daughter, decides to light a bomb inside the very thing keeping everyone alive. Lets rewind a bit. When a rebellion breaks out, Yona and her father are all in. Their brilliant plan to escape Wilfords unfair system? Blow a hole in the train using Kronole, and take their chances outside. So, theyd rather gamble with the frozen death trap that is Earth than deal with Snowpiercers harsh reality? Risking everyones life for a maybe? Yeah, thats not just bold - its borderline dumb.
#17: Trusting HAL Fully
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
In Stanley Kubricks classic sci-fi, Man evolves from using crude tools to building high-tech AIs. Fast-forward to space exploration, and the big idea is to hand the mission over to an intelligent, human-like computer named HAL. Yeah, what could go wrong? HAL isnt just a helpful assistant, hes the brain of the ship, chatting with the crew like hes one of them. But heres the kicker: HAL was trusted with classified info that the astronauts werent even allowed to know. Since he was programmed to never lie but also conceal the missions true nature, HAL decides to murder the crew. Oof! This is what scientists trusted completely? He may have been smart, but he certainly wasnt as wise as humans.
#16: Running Straight Ahead
Prometheus (2012)
When Indiana Jones runs away from the rolling boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark, theres only one way to run forward. Viewers slapped their foreheads in unison when archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw and mission director Meredith Vickers took the same approach to escape the thin disk of a falling alien spacecraft, running straight ahead in an open area that offers them a pretty simple solution to their problem: Just turn left! Or right! Anything! Shaw, at least, eventually thinks things through, diving sideways and out of the way. Vickers... not so much.
#15: Underestimating the Bugs
Starship Troopers (1997)
In this alien flick, humans arent the good guys, theyre more like the problem. Driven by a thirst for galactic domination, the United Citizen Federation picks a fight with a colony of giant arachnids. Believing these insects are nothing less than mindless beasts, humans grossly underestimate them. Big mistake. Rico and his team are deployed to invade the bugs home planet, only to painfully discover that these so-called beasts are way more advanced than anyone thought. So, while humans arrogantly assumed they had the upper hand, their error in judgment led to devastating losses. What a huge reality check! This oversight will make more sense when you understand the symbolic meaning behind Paul Verhoeven satire.
#14: Not Telling Everyone About Limbo
Inception (2010)
Christopher Nolans mind-bending movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Dominic Cobb, an extractor hired to implant an idea into a targets subconscious. Its essentially a heist movie, which means every aspect of the mission has to be meticulously planned. Along the line, Cobb makes a poor decision. He fails to inform his team that dying in a dream while under Yusufs sedative sends you into a limbo. The limbo isnt a place anyone wants to be because you lose all sense of reality. So why wait until theyre already in Fischers dream and Saitos been shot to drop that bombshell? Whether its a strategic or careless choice, it paints Cobb as less of a genius and more of a reckless gambler.
#13: Going Against the Council
Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999)
Anakin Skywalker started as a talented child slave dreaming of freedom and helping others. But hed go on to become Darth Vader, the terrifying enforcer who hunted Jedi and butchered younglings. Who knew this was bound to happen? Qui-Gon Jinn and the Jedi Council. While Qui-Gon thought Anakin was the chosen one, the Council sensed the darkness in him and rejected the idea of training him as a Jedi. Qui-Gon, ever the rebel, went ahead anyway. We all know how that not-so-very-smart decision changed everything for the worse. Of course, many factors fueled Anakins descent, but maybe, just maybe, if Qui-Gon had listened to the council, things wouldnt have gone so epically wrong.
#12: Releasing the Dinosaurs
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
For the sake of sequels and more sequels, many questionable ideas have made it to the big screen. Anyone whos seen the 2018 installment of Jurassic Park already knows where this is going. The films packed with some ridiculous concepts, like dinosaurs being weaponized by hostile nations. The moment that takes the cake is Maisie releasing the caged dinosaurs to spare them from a gas leak. Its just nuts. Choosing to prevent a dino genocide so that more humans can die? Talk about screwing the entire ecosystem for a noble cause. Its more than just Maisies bleeding heart at play here. With the dinosaurs roaming wild, one things bound to happen - a sequel no one asked for.
#11: Not Memorizing the Time Loop
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
This Tom Cruise-led action movie begins like your typical alien-invasion flick with soldiers battling creepy extraterrestrials. Except this time, a time loop comes into play and changes everything. Now, this is where the films dumbest mistake also lies. Cage gets the ability to relive the same day like the mimics, which shouldve been an advantage for humans. Sure, he learns something new with each reset, but he was forgetting one thing - documenting them. Without some sort of map or detailed plan, he was relying purely on his memory. A simple record couldve led to an early victory. Gamers totally get this - its like playing a game with no save points. One mistake and its back to square one.
#10: Training Drillers as Astronauts
Armageddon (1998)
When an asteroid the size of Texas hurtles toward Earth, who does NASA send into space to blow it up? Astronauts? Or deep-sea drill operators? Well, to be fair, one of the drillers is Bruce Willis. While it wouldve been way easier to teach astronauts to drill than teach drillers to navigate space, this premise does allow for a pretty entertaining training montage which includes a Michael Clarke Duncan dance-and-strip scene. Nonetheless, even Ben Affleck questioned the films logic. Michael Bays answer? Shut up. But how about this: why does the grumpy colonel character bring a gun on board? On the plus side, NASA actually screens the movie in their management-training program because it contains 168 errors about space.
#9: Unleashing the Titans to Save Earth
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Lets be honest, Emma Russell is easily one of the most annoying characters in the Godzilla franchise. The film begins with her and her daughter getting kidnapped by an eco-terrorist to unleash the Titans. At this point, you might think shes doing what she must to survive - until you learn shes secretly working with this terrorist. Her motivation for this? Completely bonkers! According to Emmas ideology, humans are the infection, and her brilliant solution is to unleash giant monsters that will wipe us out. To heal the world, shes bringing an even bigger plague? Its baffling, especially since she lost her son in a Titan attack. For such a smart scientist, Emmas logic is painfully flawed.
#8: Falling in Love with a Humanoid Robot
Ex Machina (2015)
Robots fascinate, enchant, and seduce? In Alex Garlands debut indie hit, computer programmer Caleb Smith wins a competition to evaluate a humanoid artificial intelligence who happens to look pretty good in mesh. Ava isnt the first sexy robot to hit the screen remember Zhora from Blade Runner, or Gigolo Joe from A.I.? However, Ava might be the most dangerous. When Caleb falls for her, he finds himself in a battle of wits with her creator. But whos really testing whom? And how smart is it to fall in love with a super-intelligent machine that can predict your every move? Spoiler alert: not very.
#7: Testing the Drug ALZ-113
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
When it comes to dangerous experiments in movies that warning light or slip-up probably means something pretty bad. Seeking to cure his fathers Alzheimers, scientist Will Rodman discovers a viral drug that inadvertently increases the intelligence of chimpanzees. When Will adopts orphaned chimp Caesar as his own, everything is hunky-dory until Caesar begins to realize how humans treat animals. But the real mistake here isnt boosting Caesars intelligence; its when the team doesnt make a big enough deal of the fact that Franklins mask was knocked off during the ALZ-113 experiment, leading to an infection that ultimately destroys human civilization and paves the way for Caesars takeover.
#6: Bringing the Sports Almanac Back in Time
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Time travels tricky; change one little thing, and the whole future could unravel. Marty McFly learns that lesson the hard way when hes almost erased from existence in the original movie. Yet, when he and Doc Brown travel to the distant future of 2015, Marty recklessly purchases a sports almanac to get-rich-quick upon his return to 1985. Of course, the time-travelers fail to notice Martys arch-nemesis Biff Tannen listening in then fail to notice him following them, then fail to close the damn doors on the DeLorean, giving Old Biff the chance to give the almanac to his younger self. The result is alternate 1985 Hell Valley, where Biff is not only powerful but also married to Martys mother. Heavy!
#5: Not Quarantining Kane
Alien (1979)
Ridley Scott has earned his reputation as a legendary director, but he receives a second mention here for his horror masterpiece, Alien. The crew of the Nostromo makes a fatal mistake when crewmember Kane returns from exploring a mysterious planetoid with an alien organism attached to his face. Warrant Officer and general badass Ellen Ripley refuses to let him inside, citing quarantine laws. She is overruled, however, and then apparently forgets her concerns when the organism falls off of its own accord, leading to one of the most famous mealtimes in movie history. What comes next is... well, someone ruins his dinner.
#4: Kissing the Infected
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Sometimes, a kiss is just a kiss. And sometimes, it involves an apocalyptic rage virus that will end human life as we know it. When zombies attack, Don Harris, a survivor of the original outbreak seen in 28 Days Later, abandons his wife and runs for the hills. Hey, its until death do us part, not undeath. Still, his betrayal is pretty crappy, and in order to ease his guilt, he sneaks into his now-infected wifes isolation cell to beg for forgiveness. They seal their love with a kiss. Couldnt they have just, oh we dont know, shaken hands? This gives Don the worst STI ever, and, now a rage-filled zombie, he goes on a murderous rampage through the former safe zone of District One.
#3: Trusting Robots
The Terminator (1984)
If science fiction has taught us anything, its not to trust super-intelligent computers. In addition to HAL, remember the Master Control Program in Tron? And then, there was Skynet. The primary antagonist of the Terminator franchise, Skynet is an artificial intelligence developed by the US military and given control of military defense systems, including nuclear weapons. What a great idea. But surprise some time in the future, Skynet becomes too smart, and in order to preserve itself and the world, decides to wipe out humanity. Then a bunch of stuff happens and Arnold Schwarzenegger arrives naked at a biker bar. But take our word for it: trusting the robots was a bad plan.
#2: Putting the Exhaust Port on the Death Star
Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (1977)
The Death Star is a megastructure of death and destruction the size of a small moon with one fatal flaw. The Empire rules millions of civilized planets, has unlimited resources, and access to the greatest minds in the galaxy. Drawing on these assets, the Emperor decides to construct the most powerful weapon of mass destruction the universe has ever known. Theres just one problem. This massive, armored space station has a little hole on its surface that leads straight down to a reactor core. Shoot a torpedo in there and boom. So how could such a methodical organization make such a dumb decision? This was such a big boo-boo that they basically devoted an entire movie to explaining why it happened - but hey, at least it meant that it gave us Rogue One.
#1: Creating Dinosaurs in the First Place
Jurassic Park (1993)
This 90s blockbuster delivers a memorable, gripping adventure - but lets be real, none of it would have worked if dinosaurs werent in the mix. John Hammond builds a theme park full of them. Things go awry when the disgruntled Nedry steals embryos. Shutting down security in a park full of such dangerous creatures? Thats reckless beyond belief. But the whole idea of cloning dinosaurs was doomed from the start. Hammond, too busy playing God, chose not to notice how huge a risk it was. It pretty much opened the floodgates for other dumb decisions in this franchise they never learn! Even in the 1997 sequel, they actually bring rampaging dinos from a remote island into mainland America. When does it end?
What is the dumbest decision youve ever come across in a science fiction movie? Let us know in the comments section.
