Characters Behaving Stupidly In Science Fiction , Fantasy Horror Movies and TV Shows.

[BAYLOR]

I really like Superman. More specifically, I really like the 'Christopher Reeve' Superman movies. I think he's the definitive Man of Steel, and I think that Gene Hackman is the definitive Lex Luthor. However... why does no-one realise that Clark Kent is Superman with glasses, and Superman is Clark Kent without glasses? Glasses on their own are no kind of a disguise, no matter how clumsily you act!

What makes it even worse is that he works for a newspaper, surrounded by people who by their very nature are inquisitive and observant. Lois Lane even goes flying with Superman and snogs him, works closely with Clark - yet it's only half way through the second movie (presumably months/years after they knew each other) before she even begins to suspect that something funny may be going on.

Lois Lane is supposed to be savvy , streetwise and observant. Very little get's by her. How could she have not been been able to very quickly connect the dots on the whole secret identity schtick of Clark Kent. It makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I really like Superman. More specifically, I really like the 'Christopher Reeve' Superman movies. I think he's the definitive Man of Steel, and I think that Gene Hackman is the definitive Lex Luthor. However... why does no-one realise that Clark Kent is Superman with glasses, and Superman is Clark Kent without glasses? Glasses on their own are no kind of a disguise, no matter how clumsily you act!

I've drawn an episode for my Legion of Naked Superheroes book - which I will finish one day - in which my main naked superhero protagonist, Fantastoman, sits is his alter-ego's workplace office totally naked apart from his glasses... and no one notices him or pays the slightest attention to him at all... until he takes his glasses off and suddenly everyone sees him as Fantastoman!

 

[Wayne Mack]

How about the captain of a starship, a first office, and a chief medical officer being the ones going to investigate a dangerous situation.

 

[JunkMonkey]

How about the captain of a starship, a first office, and a chief medical officer being the ones going to investigate a dangerous situation.

I have often wondered what the other 397 people on the Enterprise (any of them!) actually DO all day apart from walk up and down corridors.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

I have often wondered what the other 397 other people on the Enterprise

Always figured the episodes were telling the story of the day shift, and the rest of the crew were jealous ...'man the night shift is boring as hell, and nothing ever happens on the evening shift -those fiddlesticksers on the day shift have all the fun.'

 

[AllanR]

I have often wondered what the other 397 people on the Enterprise

Babylon Five had an episode with the PoV of two maintenance workers.

 

[Bramandin]

Babylon Five had an episode with the PoV of two maintenance workers.

StarGate as well.

Y'know, it might be interesting to create a 3-tier series. "This is the story according to the peons" which is released for free or ad-supported. Then there is "the story according to the blue-collar" which you can either watch ad-supported or by subscribing. Then there is "the story according to the officers" which means subscribing to a service where that's the only thing you're interested in.

Star Trek was mostly supported by advertising to people who could let their kid have free-access to an entire bottle of chocolate syrup.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Babylon Five had an episode with the PoV of two maintenance workers.

The View From the Gallery? Loved that episode. "No, you're supposed to say it tastes like chicken. That's the joke."

 

[Bramandin]

The View From the Gallery? Loved that episode. "No, you're supposed to say it tastes like chicken. That's the joke."

I didn't pay attention enough when it was broadcast or since, but it sound like what I'm lovin.

I'd love for stories to run on gags that I don't get rather than it happening through entropy. Swear-now I get it when I'm not hunger-addled.

 

[BAYLOR]

I have often wondered what the other 397 people on the Enterprise (any of them!) actually DO all day apart from walk up and down corridors.

Hm, there must be Starfleet regulation somewhere which requires you to walk the ships corridors when you've got nothing else to do.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Hm, there must be Starfleet regulation somewhere which requires you to walk the ships corridors when you've got nothing else to do.

But you would have though there would have been some sort of requirement to carry something like a clipboard or some piece of equipment about to make yourself look busy.

There does appear to be some sort of requirement by Starfleet that if you aren't walking around in engineering you should stand next to, and point at, the walls from time to time.

 

[Vladd67]

But you would have though there would have been some sort of requirement to carry something like a clipboard or some piece of equipment about to make yourself look busy.

There does appear to be some sort of requirement by Starfleet that if you aren't walking around in engineering you should stand next to, and point at, the walls from time to time.

As someone who was an extra on Longitude, in one scene you can see my arms 'steering' the ship whilst the producer's assistant lay on the floor turning the ships wheel so I had something to fight against, I can tell its actually hard to look busy when there is nothing yo interact with. You can only coil so much rope on a sailing ship.

 

[JunkMonkey]

As someone who was an extra on Longitude, in one scene you can see my arms 'steering' the ship whilst the producer's assistant lay on the floor turning the ships wheel so I had something to fight against, I can tell its actually hard to look busy when there is nothing yo interact with. You can only coil so much rope on a sailing ship.

Being an extra is hard work sometimes. I once held up a BBC costume drama production for five minutes by stupidly asking the second assistant director (?) if us peasants loading a cart were to react in anyway to (or even notice) the sword fight that was taking place behind our backs. He didn't know so went off to find out. The answer, eventually, was 'no'. So we all went back to manfully heaving sacks of grain - that were stuffed with pillow down - and did 'this is heavy' acting for a few takes.

I listened to a program about Kubrick on the radio a while back and there was one moment I really wish I could unhear. Apparently he was very instant that none of the massed extras engaged in 'conversation' in the background do any nodding. "Background action - NO NODDING!" Every time I see a restaurant/bar scene in which couples are sat around in conversation I'm looking for the nodders. It gets really distracting.

 

[Overread]

I really like Superman. More specifically, I really like the 'Christopher Reeve' Superman movies. I think he's the definitive Man of Steel, and I think that Gene Hackman is the definitive Lex Luthor. However... why does no-one realise that Clark Kent is Superman with glasses, and Superman is Clark Kent without glasses? Glasses on their own are no kind of a disguise, no matter how clumsily you act!

What makes it even worse is that he works for a newspaper, surrounded by people who by their very nature are inquisitive and observant. Lois Lane even goes flying with Superman and snogs him, works closely with Clark - yet it's only half way through the second movie (presumably months/years after they knew each other) before she even begins to suspect that something funny may be going on.

I can't excuse Lois, but its actually rather common that you cannot recognise someone if they are dressed differently and if you encounter them in a different situation. Humans have a vast array of looks, but predominantly they fall into categories and groups. Even between different families there are people who look very alike. Heck films use them all the time as stunt doubles.

Take the vast legions of Elvis Impersonators as well.

The key isn't just that Clark Kent wears glasses whilst superman does; its that he also wears a different set of clothes, his bearing of his body shifts (Superman is standing tall and proud, Clark is just standing, sometimes even looking meek and withdrawn); the style of his talking, the conversations and the way he looks at a person, addresses them and engages with them.

One might think Clark looks like Superman a bit here and there, but their behaviour and all are so different that the mind easily identifies them as two separate people.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I can't excuse Lois, but its actually rather common that you cannot recognise someone if they are dressed differently and if you encounter them in a different situation. Humans have a vast array of looks, but predominantly they fall into categories and groups. Even between different families there are people who look very alike. Heck films use them all the time as stunt doubles.

Take the vast legions of Elvis Impersonators as well.

The key isn't just that Clark Kent wears glasses whilst superman does; its that he also wears a different set of clothes, his bearing of his body shifts (Superman is standing tall and proud, Clark is just standing, sometimes even looking meek and withdrawn); the style of his talking, the conversations and the way he looks at a person, addresses them and engages with them.

One might think Clark looks like Superman a bit here and there, but their behaviour and all are so different that the mind easily identifies them as two separate people.

True, the human eye/mind has a way of blanking out things that it thinks don't make sense. But I'm betting that if I walked into work without my spectacles on and wearing a cape, I don't think my work colleagues would think I was Superman!

 

[BAYLOR]

True, the human eye/mind has a way of blanking out things that it thinks don't make sense. But I'm betting that if I walked into work without my spectacles on and wearing a cape, I don't think my work colleagues would think I was Superman!

You just can't hide a secret identity that big behind so small a pair of glasses.

 

[farntfar]

You just can't hide a secret identity that big behind so small a pair of glasses.

But there's also my beer paunch to consider. You can hide an awful lot behind that.

 

[BAYLOR]

Terminator 2 Judgement Day The T 1000 crashes a Semi truck with a trailer full of liquid Nitrogen . Liquid Nitrogen is spilling everywhere , and as we know , it freezes solid everything it touches including the liquefying nano metal of the T 1000 and yet , this Terminator choses to walk though it rather then around it.

 

[Bramandin]

Terminator 2 Judgement Day The T 1000 crashes a Semi truck with a trailer full of liquid Nitrogen . Liquid Nitrogen is spilling everywhere , and as we know , it freezes solid everything it touches including the liquefying nano metal of the T 1000 and yet , this Terminator choses to walk though it rather then around it.

I dunno, maybe its operating temperatures didn't account for liquid gas? I don't normally assume that puddles are dangerous. Actually when I was a kid, I did wade through something that caused open sores.

 

[JT stories]

If we're going to go after stuff that makes fun of typical horror fare, Cabin in the Woods chemically inhibits the common sense of the teenagers involved.

That movie was super great! You know who the "the old ones/gods" were right? The different countries had to play out their own horror sequence to please the old gods and if it didn't go just right...if all the right tropes weren't included--the old gods would rise up in anger!

Well, the old gods were the viewers, the audience. And isn't that how it goes? If a movie doesn't behave the way we want it to, we smear it...but then we also smear it when it behaves too close to how we expect so there really is a fine line when dealing with critics lol