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30 Movies That Could’ve Ended In 10 Minutes If The Characters Had Just Used Their Brains For A Bit
Interview With Author
In order to enjoy a film, you need two things. A big bag of popcorn (with salt or caramel, your choice) and willingly suspending your disbelief for a couple of hours. That way, you can kick back, relax, and enjoy the show without illogical things making you irritated every few minutes.
However, quite a lot of movies and TV shows could end before the end of the first act if some of the characters were a bit smarter or relied on common sense. That’s what redditor RedstonekPL showed us with their viral thread where they asked people to share what movies could be resolved in 10 minutes if the main characters weren’t such fools.
Scroll down for Bored Panda's insightful interview with the author of the thread about why filmmakers make some characters very foolish, upvote your fave pics, and let us know in the comments if you know of any other films that would end quickly if the characters were a tad more rational. Oh, and a small note of warning: you might not be able to enjoy some of these movies on repeat viewings afterward.
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#1
The Little Mermaid.
Ariel: Daddy I love him!
King Triton: You don’t even know him!
Ariel: Good point.
postboredom 4 years ago
this could have worked for 50 shades too and twilight too and every single movie which is like them too..
RELATED:
#2
"50 Shades of Gray."
Ana - "You're an abusive stalker with serious emotional trauma. Seek help."
#3
The ring
Girl 1: “Hey do you wanna watch the tape that kills you in 7 days”
Girl 2: “No thanks”
Richard Brown 4 years ago
Picks up tape. Puts it in VCR. Records favourite program over it. The end.
Redditor RedstonekPL, whose real name is Timothy, told us all about what inspired them to create the thread and why some characters act really dumb.
“Pretty often in movies, the main character (or main characters) does something dumb. When that happens, I think to myself, ‘Man, if only they were a little bit smarter this would be a lot shorter.’ I wanted to spark some discussion about it on the internet, see other people's opinions and examples, and r/AskReddit is the best place for questions like that.”
According to Timothy, asking a question on the sub is like a lottery: you never know when your thread might go viral. “You can get nothing, get a lot, and anything in between. Although questions like this usually are more popular in the community, people there like to discuss stuff,” he said, adding that the awards he got were a total surprise to him.
#4
Sleeping Beauty
"Honey, we should invite Maleficent to our daughter's christening. I know she's the Mistress of All Evil, but it'd probably end up worse for us if we don't invite her."
#5
All the crew had to do was listen to Ripley and not break quarantine
#6
Literally not picking Anakin to be Padme bodyguard when the sexual tension between them is thicker than Jabba.
Timothy pondered that filmmakers make some characters intentionally foolish for a variety of reasons. “In my opinion, there are 3 types of foolish characters. Some characters are foolish because without them the movie wouldn't exist. Some characters' foolishness is a part of their personality. And some characters sometimes do stupid things once or twice to make the viewer laugh.”
He continued: “There are some movies where not being dumb wouldn't be boring, but there are some films, where one or two foolish actions are required to even start it. A good example for the former is a stereotypical horror film where some characters enter some kind of an abandoned house and then read out loud some kind of ancient curse or whatever from a book with a note saying, "Do not open," and then get attacked.”
#7
Twilight. "Stop staring at me you vitamin D deficient creep" DONE
#8
Well, if Voldemort had conjured a shotgun to kill Harry Potter, not even a mother's love would have saved him from that. But noooo, he had to be all melodramatic and Avada Kedavra the little Chosen One...
#9
"Huh. I can't see the indominus rex. Let me just take a look at the GPS tracking device. Oh. It's in the cage but invisible. Better not open any doors or go inside."
Richard Brown 4 years ago
Walks perimeter checking for footprints made by a 10 tonne dinosaur. Sees none "It's still in there"
The redditor said that another stereotypical example of this would be a horror movie where the characters get warned by the locals not to enter an abandoned, haunted house, but they do it anyway. If the characters didn’t do this, there would be no need for the movie in the first place.
Bored Panda also wanted to learn more about Timothy’s viewing preferences. “To be honest, I'm a person who would rather watch a TV series rather than a movie. When I do watch one, it's a comedy, so being stupid is basically required.”
They added: “I just want to tell everyone, that y'all should watch anything you want, don't let anyone insult you for what you watch.”
#11
Willy Wonka & the chocolate factory: The kid finds the golden ticket and sells it to another rich, spoiled kid. Easy millions, they are not poor anymore and he wouldn't have a trauma because of the dying kids in the factory
postboredom 4 years ago
by the way, i love the word scrumdidilyumptious. Thats what im gonna call chocolate ice cream now
#12
If Mr. and Mrs. Bueller were anything like my parents, the movie would have been called “Ferris Bueller’s Day at School”
Some Cool Guy 4 years ago
Charlie Sheen's best part. He pulled off smooth druggy so well somehow.
RedstonekPL’s thread got over 73.5k upvotes, more than 23k comments, and got 112 awards (which had us thinking whether Christmas has come early since everyone’s in such a giving mood).
If everyone were perfect and behaved rationally, movies would end very quickly because problems would get solved or avoided almost immediately. However, this would make for incredibly boring movies.
In fact, you could argue that the essence of any film (or any story, to be honest) is that there are challenges and issues to overcome and that things don’t go according to plan.
#14
Lion King- “don’t listen to Scar, Simba. He wants to be king through any means necessary. And nobody goes to that gorge to practice their roars.”
Dragonfruit'nrollerskates 4 years ago
"I just can't wait to be King" is basically "can't wait for Dad to die," so I mean the whole movie would've gone that route eventually
#15
Tangled, if Mother Gothel had simply given Rapunzel a different birthday in the first place, she never would have thought the lanterns were "for her"
Science fiction author James Blish coined and film critic Roger Ebert popularized the term ‘idiot plot’ where everything could be resolved in the blink of an eye if the characters weren’t, well, ‘idiots.’
Idiot plots don’t allow thinking, asking the right questions, or behaving like a normal human being, otherwise, the plot would fall apart. No plot. No movie. No big blockbuster and millions of dollars in revenue.
However, keep in mind that far from everyone behaves rationally all the time in real life: we don’t magically solve all of our problems even though we could. If we suddenly found out that we’re the protagonists in our own movies, is there something that we’d do differently? Would our movies end in 10 minutes or 10 hours?
#16
Batman Begins
The Waynes shouldn't have left through the side exit of the theater. Just call Alfred and wait out front.
#17
Aladdin. If Jafar would have just paid Aladdin what he promised him instead of betraying him at the cave, he would have had the lamp and become king be mighty powerful. Aladdin just wanted his money in return for the lamp.
postboredom 4 years ago
but he wouldnt meet jasmine, then he wouldnt sing a whole new world and he wouldnt get a true happily-ever-after..
#18
Frozen.
The parents completely isolated Elsa from the world, leaving her with insecurity and anxiety. They also seemingly neglected Anna as her behavior was never in check, which is why she continuously butted her way into Elsa's space when she CLEARLY needed some time alone to clear her head. Maybe if they two actually talked instead of Anna's near assault on Elsa, something could've been worked out that didn't include running away and getting hypothermia in a semi-frozen river.
Jaded Queen 4 years ago
U mean they should have let it all go. Let it go. The cold never bothers me anyway
#19
Cars.
If Lighting McQueen listened to his crew and changed his tires as ordered, he could have won the race.
#20
Not a movie, but breaking bad would have worked out much better for Walt if he had just swallowed his pride and allowed his old friend to pay for his cancer treatment.
Laetitia Astolfi 4 years ago
Or if he lived in a country with proper healthcare where he wouldn't have had to pay in the first place...
#21
The Matrix. If Neo had just taken the blue pill and lived out his miserable days like the rest of us
#22
School of rock - Mrs Mullins: Can I see your ID mr Sheebly? Dewey: Uh sorry I don’t have it Mrs Mullins: Sorry you won’t be able to teach the kids unless you have proof you’re a teacher/who you are! CREDITS
#23
Star Wars Episode 1. Not exactly 10 minutes, but, Padme could have bought Anakin's mom and he would have probably never turned to the Dark Side.
Republic credits may not be worth much on Tatooine, but im sure one of her jewel encrusted headdresses is.
#24
The Visit:
Kids: "We're going to visit our grandparents."
Mom: "I don't want you to go, but if you feel like you really want to go, I'll drive you to their house."
Mom: "Hey, y'all ain't my parents. I'm calling the police."
The end.
François Carré 4 years ago
I actually found the whole plot of this movie pretty stupid. And in the end the kid still finds the guts to throw a funny rap song about the creepy old man who spread his own s**t on his face before trying to kill him. Come on.
#25
Back to the Future. The man stored plutonium in his garage. Anyone willing to do that should be throwing off red flags like candy at a parade.
Marty: "I'm sorry Crazy Old Man with tons of potentially dangerous and toxic crap in your garage, you want me to do what? At 1am? On a school night? Yeah, no can do, got a test tomorrow."
Headline the next morning: "Local Crazy Person Gunned Down By Terrorists at Hill Valley Mall. Police Reportedly Not Surprised As He Was Really Crazy and Into Weird Stuff."
Marty: "Well huh, glad I didn't go to the mall."
The end.
#26
Gremlins, if the idiot had only followed the rules!
Nagawa (Cofa) Kishiki 4 years ago
You can just buy the furby that give the kids same kind of nightmare without all the mess.
#27
Forget movies, How I Met Your Mother took 9 years, a 5 min story....
#28
The Blair Witch Project, just walk downstream
Richard Brown 4 years ago
"Wanna go look for a witch in some creepy woods or stay at home in the warm and play xbox/playstation?" "Let's stay at home. I'll put the kettle on"
#29
Emperor’s New Groove
Yzma originally says that she could just turn him into a flea, put that flea in a box, put that box into another box, and eventually send it to herself so she could smash it with a hammer.
Then she says to save on postage, she’ll just use poison which ends up not being poison. Even if she went with the original plan he’d be a flea, and, for all intents and purposes, out of the picture pretty instantly. Yzma screwed herself trying to save like a quarter.
#30
Avatar the Last Airbender movie. It could have been 0 mins long if M. Night Shyamalan had been smart.
What do you think ?
Gene Perry 4 years ago
Big Bang Theory ... when Leonard meets Sheldon to sublet a room, realizes the Sheldon is a nutjob, leaves and finds another apartment w/o a roommate.
earringnut 4 years ago
It takes place in LA... So he finds another way to find an apartment w/ a roommate.
Load More Replies... Blarrg 4 years ago
Just wanted to thank everyone for not mentioning the hyper-cliched "Just have the giant eagles fly you straight to Mount Doom instead of walking there."
William Teach 4 years ago
Not a movie, but, Game of Thrones, where everyone tells Jon Snow that there's a reason for that big freaking wall, namely, stopping the white walkers, which had worked for thousands of years, so, stop trying to build an army, stop trying to capture one, just let the wall do its job.
Monday 4 years ago
Or if Ned's wife (I forgot her name) had just asked Ned to give Jon the Stark name like she was going to if he survived his sickness and hadn't changed her mind about it. He would never have gone to the wall in the first place. He would have lived blissfully as Jon Stark.
Load More Replies...
Gene Perry 4 years ago
Big Bang Theory ... when Leonard meets Sheldon to sublet a room, realizes the Sheldon is a nutjob, leaves and finds another apartment w/o a roommate.
earringnut 4 years ago
It takes place in LA... So he finds another way to find an apartment w/ a roommate.
Load More Replies... Blarrg 4 years ago
Just wanted to thank everyone for not mentioning the hyper-cliched "Just have the giant eagles fly you straight to Mount Doom instead of walking there."
William Teach 4 years ago
Not a movie, but, Game of Thrones, where everyone tells Jon Snow that there's a reason for that big freaking wall, namely, stopping the white walkers, which had worked for thousands of years, so, stop trying to build an army, stop trying to capture one, just let the wall do its job.
Monday 4 years ago
Or if Ned's wife (I forgot her name) had just asked Ned to give Jon the Stark name like she was going to if he survived his sickness and hadn't changed her mind about it. He would never have gone to the wall in the first place. He would have lived blissfully as Jon Stark.
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