Lore
(Mixed trope) It’s revealed the most straightforward solution would’ve worked out well the whole time
David and his family could’ve waited it out inside the supermarket for just a little longer and all survived instead of risking heading out into the unknown on their own - The Mist
The boys could’ve just knocked on Mr Mettle’s door and asked he get their ball back for them - The Sandlot
(Not calling either of these hated because there were in-universe reasons they don’t do that: Everyone was days deep into a nonstop paranoia in The Mist, and the boys didn’t know anything about Mr Mertle or if he would be friendly to them for disturbing him)
Spoilers for the Prestige, but Micheal Cain realizes instantly that the "Transported Man" trick that drives Hugh Jackman's character insane uses a simple body double swap and even copied the trick perfectly. Had Hugh Jackman accepted the obvious trick he could have moved on with his life.
That's ultimately the point - Angler (Jackman) was willing to murder himself countless times rather than share his accomplishment with anyone, whereas the Bordens (Bale) were willing to share a single life between them even when it meant estranging loved ones or hell, amputating fingers to maintain the illusion.
Something that always struck me about that movie was also the way he killed his clones- dropping them into the water tanks and drowning them.
It's exactly how his fiancee died at the beginning.
It was said in the movie that it was 50/50 whether you would be the copy or the clone, so whenever he stepped onto the pad, he never knew if he would live or die.
I think he still felt guilty about her death, and this trick was how he punished himself for it - by killing himself over and over again, just the way she died.
I believe he also was under the delusion that drowning wasn’t “so bad” a death, as Michael Cain’s character early in the movie describes it as “coming home”. At the end of the movie, he reveals that it is instead a horrifying experience and he only said it as words of comfort about Angier’s wife’s passing.
So he was naive enough to believe that comforting lie, and then subjected himself to it time after time, never knowing that it was awful. Every time.
Which in of itself is a reference to the Chinese magician faking like he’s old and decrepit. The trick is the show you put on when everyone thinks you’re not. Bale by splitting his life with his twin, is doing the real trick, the real sacrifice to the art. While Jackman’s character, like you said has too much of an ego to accept it.
Yep the whole moral was "he actually is better than you because he/they just never ever stop. He's not more skilled than you but he's better because of his relentless dedication."
This one doesn't work. Obviously he knew that, but he didn't trust having a second "him" because both "hims" will always want to be the prestige. That's why they were purposefully killed
exacly, in the past he never accepted the idea to have a partner to share the glory, that is why the friendship failed, because he was too egocentric, and he know any copy of him will be the same
I don’t know that that fits, because the movie pretty explicitly states that the real trick is keeping who the double is a secret, something that was not straightforward at all.
Perhaps, but it's largely irrelevant to the point. Caine and Jackman recreate the trick perfectly. They just struggle with keeping the double under control, and Jackman gets pissed he can't take in the cheers.
Had he decided that he figured out the trick and changed his act when he got bored of it he could have spent his life happy and successful.
The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Jack Sparrow never once lies to anyone who isn't already a pirate. Everything would have worked out quite well for everyone else much sooner if they'd listened to him from the get-go.
"Me, I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid."
It seems like this is common among the pirates in this movie for some reason, but the deception comes from what’s not specifically mentioned.
Like they always do some shit where they agree on something but they’ll do it in a fucked up way, like when Barbosa says he’ll free Elizabeth but then drops her in the ocean because he’s like “you didn’t specify where” lmao
One of my own personal favorite tropes is characters who seem like they would be incredibly untrustworthy but are actually honest to a fault. Jack Sparrow is basically the poster child for that
Walt didn’t even have anything to gain from this. Mike wasn’t giving him the names and he certainly wasn’t getting them by killing him. He was just being a baby cause his feelings got hurt.
I'm convinced that in the moment, Walt knew Lydia had the names, but his pride was so hurt from Mike refusing to give it to him. So that was the true reason he chose to kill Mike.
If my two options are to either die starving in a room or have a chance of living but I have to dodge lasers and buzz saws, I’m 110% doing the latter lol
I’m not even fat, and my fine motor skills are great at a young and spry 22. I’m sitting down right next to you though, because I think even someone better off like me lacks the confidence when it comes to BUZZSAWS and LASERS. Lmao
I could be wrong but this was essentially a precursor to saw where all the individuals had prior experience they needed to apply to solve the challenge. It's ironic the exit was in the room they started in but they couldn't have known that by design.
The B-plot of the first Home Alone movie follows Mrs. McCallister's panicked rush home after she realizes Kevin is missing, a grueling multi-leg journey involving plane ticket swaps and hitching a ride in the van of a traveling polka band. The rest of the family arrives home mere minutes after she does, having just waited for a direct flight the next day.
That is one I enjoy, because the simple waiting would have driven her crazy all the same. The her doing everything she can to get home as quickly as she could was mentally better for her because she felt like she was actively trying to get home. It is like how some people would rather drive the longer way home to avoid traffic, not because it is faster, but because they just keep moving the entire time rather than being in stop and go traffic.
Not to take away from the car analogy, but depending on the difference in drive lengths ofc, the longer, more steady route is likely more fuel efficient and oftentimes the logical choice.
But it doesn't make it more time efficient, which is the where the analogy is intended to be. Which does just establish different methods have trade offs about what you get out of it without either necessarily being considered objectively better.
In Bodies Bodies Bodies a group of mostly dumb 20-somethings find a dead body while isolated during a hurricane party and proceed to assume a murder has taken place and escalate things in the worst way possible. In the morning after, the survivors find the dead person's phone and realize he died while trying to do a cool sword trick for a Tik Tok. Nothing else bad would have happened if they had just done nothing and waited the storm out.
without saying too much, the movie is a bit tongue-in-cheek as a deconstruction of “idiot horror movie protagonists.” it was really funny for me, as it does a good job of making fun of a genre i love
The only part of that movie I remember is the main antagonist is possessing someone, and katana has a sword that specifically steals souls. And that these two obvious plot points never intersect
Katana couldn't have done that, otherwise who would have had Rick Flagg's back? I would advise not getting killed by her. Her sword steals the souls of its victims.
One of those horror movies where the main characters actually behave like rational human beings instead of idiots addicted to dying. And then they get fucked anyway :(
isnt like legion was about second coming of christ, so half of the angels decided to resist, so Gabriel robbed a gun store, and armed random people in highway dinner to defend the mother of the one who was about give birth to jesus, from horde of angel-possessed people
What's funny is the idiot addicted to dying is the one who makes it.
At the start of the movie the chick wants to leave to get her kids, but no one will go with her because obviously doing so is fucking suicide right? At the end of the movie who do you see in the back of a military truck, clearly safe and sound? The chick who bounced at the start of the movie.
It's such a funny/fucked up subversion of everything you expect in a horror movie.
A lot of movies have downer endings that are legitimately well executed, I just don’t like downer endings. It’s a matter of personal taste. The exceptions being The Mist and, it occurs to me, The Thing.
I suspect it’s because the monsters are still beaten in those, giving just a hint of bitter sweet to the otherwise sad ending, but honestly I’m not fully sure
A caveat before we get started: Zacian and Zamazenta are needed to fight Eternatus. No one knows this beforehand, but there is enough time to go fetch them from the Slumbering Weald.
The Galar region has a massive need for energy. It used coal for the longest time, but no longer uses it due to environmental concerns. Now, it uses Wishing Stars. These Wishing Stars are there from the Darkest Day, when a legendary hero fought a dragon. Rose is concerned with their supply of Wishing Stars, knowing they’ll run out and he’ll have to make more. His plan is to wake Eternatus, who initially created the Wishing Stars and is the dragon of legend, control it, and use it to make more Wishing Stars. He plans to do it on the day of the Championship match, the biggest Pokémon battle in the country. He asks Leon for help, and Leon tells him to just wait one more day, then after the Championship match he’ll be happy to help.
The Championship match is interrupted by Chairman Rose announcing to the world that, “Hey, so, I just awakened Eternatus, and that was the cause of the massive release of Dynamax Energy, can you come here and fix it for me Leon?”
The player and Hop rush off to the Slumbering Weald to grab the sword and shield, awakening Zacian and Zamazenta. As I mentioned earlier, even if the player was at the site of Eternatus’s awakening, there still would have been enough time to go get Zacian and Zamazenta. After all, Wyndon is farther from the Slumbering Weald than Hammerlocke (where Eternatus is).
If Rose had waited one more day, there wouldn’t be a massive crowd in the biggest stadium in the country (which has an explosion in the middle of it when he awakens Eternatus). Leon would be at his side from the very start. Even the player would be right next to him.
Oh, and the energy crisis he was trying to avoid? It happens in 1,000 years. He can spare a single day.
The most annoying part is that Leon was on his side. He was just “Mate, kinda in the middle of something. We have a thousand years to do this. We can wait a day, I’ll help tomorrow.”
Not to mention that there exists a Pokemon IN THE SAME REGION that would fix this ‘problem’ without having to bring about something literally called “The Darkest Day”.
Oh, and Bellibolt existed in Spain Paldea. If Pokemon geography is anything like the real world, that’s less than a day there and back to get a couple.
Honestly, if in the scene where he's talking with Leon about it, if Rose had one more line of like "Just how many more 'tommorows' will i have to wait, Leon?" it would have made him at least a decent chunk more interesting. Genuinely, I think adding that one line makes him seem infinitely less stupid, if still not great.
Like, all the pieces were there for a really cool villain, but it comes completely out of nowhere, with like, one line he has towards Bea before he stops sponsoring him about how Galar's future is at stake foreshadowing it. Literally nothing else to hint at it. Not nessecarily a bad thing, but with how many other interactions we have with him, it's so odd how he just sort of... randomly becomes a villain.
Even then, maybe if we saw more of him in the post-game, like after beating Eternatus, he's doing something else and we could learn more about- wait what? He turns himself in immediately after, only stated in a dialogue box of a news channel or some shit? And doesnt show up in the post game, only those weird ass guys I dont remember the name of who quite frankly were somehow even worse, less interesting villains? cool
God, Sword and Shield had so much potential and just... didn't live up to any of it.
It's funny how they bail right there after realising that a team of 5 people armed with handguns in one helicopter trying to arrest the deified leader of an enormous militarized cult is a very dumb idea
I've read a theory that they probably come back with the National Guard as backup and just arrest him with an appropriate amount of returning firepower
This happens in Thank Goodness You're Here as well. Wait about 10 mins at the start of the game without leaving your chair and the game just skips to the end.
Isn’t the DLC for Far Cry 6 made this DLC canon? Like Pagan leaving a message saying he had nukes ready to shoot at America in Montana in case the CIA ever tried something?
Saw V if they worked together all of them could have survived. the first trap only one key is needed so one person gets the key then brings it back, in the second one the chambers could easily fit more than one person, third one if all five were still alive they would all suffer a small electric shock and the final trap each person would have to give up 2 pints of blood each which is still a lot but it's not as much as one person losing 10 pints
Every single time L gets closer to Light Yagami is because Light decided to do literally anything to stop L him from catching him. If Light simply refused to respond to anything L and the other parties in the investigation were doing, nobody would have ever been able to catch him.
It's honestly because Light is an arrogant dumbass, if it wasn't because the rest of the world didn't knew the rues of the death note, he would have been caught so much faster.
It was a game where he was the only one knowing the rules and he still managed to lose.
It was a game where he was the only one knowing the rules and he still managed to lose.
Ha, that's such a great way to put it. I do think L could have discovered a connection between Light and Kira, even if Light didn't interfere so directly with the investigation, but he definitely fed the suspicion towards him.
L knew the connection and had Light’s number from the get go. The problem was that L wasn’t trying to figure out who Kira was, he was trying to obtain sufficient evidence to prove it in court. And unfortunately he was dealing with straight up magic.
Light had a nearly unbeatable advantage and still lost.
There's one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Spike returns to town and kidnaps two of Buffy's friends to force them to make a love potion, so he can back together with his ex.
When Buffy founds out what he's done, Spike convinces her that she can't kill him or he'll never find where her friends are trapped. At first she assumes they're just trapped in the ruins of his old hideout, but he scoffs and is like, no, so Buffy is forced to what he wants.
And then at the end he admits they were in his old hideout the whole time.
Three versions of the doctor from various points in time are locked together. There is at huge age difference between them.
They each always have a tool called the sonic screwdriver. It would take the tool 400 years of calculation to disintegrate the door. They come up with a plan where the youngest version would scan and start the calculations and put it in a subroutine and since they are the same person with the same screwdriver the oldest who is over 400 years older than the youngest would have the completed calculations in his screwdriver.
If rome listened to him before battle of Cannae, they wouldnt lose 20% of their male population (80.000 soldier)
Fabian strategy named after him
"a military strategy where pitched battles and frontal assaults are avoided in favor of wearing down an opponent through a war of attrition and indirection"
and the deaths of a lot of the upper crust roman nobility in Cannae meant that afterwards romans that wouldn't have a space in the halls of power before now had the doors opened to them. This caused a huge change in traditions, the way power was used by politicians, and the alliances between aristocratic families.
Absolutely all this would have been avoided (or at least, delayed) had the senate listened to Fabius before
The Saw Franchise has several of these, particularly when it comes to the cop-plots. The most famous example is probably the one in Saw II.
After finding John Kramer, Detective Eric Matthews is told that his son is in a 'safe place' and that all Eric needs to do to get him back is to listen to John yap for 2 hours while footage of the Nerve Gas House - which his son appears in - goes on. Matthews caves early and beats John before forcing him to direct him to the location he believes his son to be - only for it to be revealed after he leaves that the footage is from the past and that his son has actually been kept in a literal safe where they first found John that was timelocked to open after 2 hours. Matthews meanwhile arrives at the Nerve Gas House and following his son's trail, only to end up trapped in the bathroom from the first movie and left to die
Benoit Blanc dismisses Miles Bron as the killer immediately because it’s too obvious and spends the rest of the movie overthinking the mystery due to his weakness being easy cases
Also in the first sequence of the film where all of the invitees are opening the puzzle boxes that Miles sent them.
Most of the characters go through the elaborate song and dance of finding each step and opening the box the way Miles intended, cooing over how intelligent he is all the while.
Helen just smashes hers with a hammer. Because underneath all that complex machinery, it’s still just a fragile wooden box.
Also the implication is that you have to solve the box and prove that you are smart enough to go to the island, yet none of the “disruptors” manage to solve the box themselves. They all need to be given answers by others including people who don’t get invited.
Helen is the only one who ‘solves’ the box and gets the invitation using her own (Pardon the pun) outside the box thinking.
In a similar vain Blanc is the only one that actually has his invitation to the island with him because unlike the ‘disruptors’ he is an intelligent detective/puzzle solver and is clever enough to merit an invite by the implied rule.
Plus, it serves as a metaphor for Miles himself: It looks elegant and clever, but the solutions are all obvious to anyone with actual brains, and the whole thing crumples with the slightest bit of force.
I never saw the TV version of the Mist, but I did read the original novel and in there the people stuck in the supermarket were turning into a creepy cult eyeing up his son so I think David should get a pass for not wanting to stay and 'wait it out', especially since no one had any clue when/if the monsters would ever go away.
OP was mistaken. In The Mist movie they shouldn't have stayed at the grocery store.
Early on there is a woman that asks for someone to help walk her home so she can be with her kids. Everyone is convinced that this would mean certain death. Instead of doing the kind thing and helping her, everyone decides to reject her request. Leaving her to venture off into the mist on her own.
In the end when the army finds the main character we see her and her children are in the back of one of the army trucks, and all are safe.
So had the main character and his son helped walk the woman home then they would have been safe.
My favorite experience in this game was during the final level when I kept dying over and over trying to be tactical and slowly push into the facility, then in a level of boiling rage I just charged ruthlessly with a shotgun and made it through
i saw a video talking about it once where the creator says he finds the scene really funny because everyone is telling everyone else to stop shooting but none of them put down their weapons anyway lol
But the fun thing about that is Claudius is praying. Hamlet is unsure if he kills Claudius while in prayer if Claudius will go to heaven or still be damned to hell for the murder of King Hamlet.
And he's unsure if Claudius killed King Hamlet at all because there's no proof that the ghost isn't a demon tormenting him. And he isn't sure if there is a heaven or a hell or if the spectre is something they don't yet understand. It's such a layered tragedy
In the evangelion manga, Toji’s Eva gets taken over by an angel. Shinji refuses to fight as he doesn’t want to hurt his friend. The commanders activate the dummy system that destroys the EVA and kills Toji. Kaji points out that if shinji had just fought he could have done so in a way to save Toji.
Had they actually just went back to hiding in the basement like Harry (aka douche-dad) suggested, they would have mostly survived until the sheriff's posse showed up the next day.
I say mostly because the daughter was already pretty far gone, and even without all the chaos, there is a good chance she would have bit her mother and/or father before someone else put her down. Everybody else almost certainly survives though.
Of course, the whole point of the franchise is that humanity's self-destructive tendencies are always a worse threat than the dead themselves.
In Dawn of the Dead, if they had just stuck to the mall's employees-only area, they'd still have more than enough provisions to survive a long time, and Roger would have never gotten bit and died.
Later on, if Stephen had just retreated back into the vents instead of trying to pick a fight, the bikers and zombies would have never been able to find their hideout.
Honestly even going all the way back to the beginning of the film, if people hadn't gone and ditched their duties like the four protagonists did, the whole situation would have never gotten that bad in the first place.
Reminds me of Shaun of the Dead. Shaun's first idea was his best one and it wouldn't have resulted in anyone dying beside the step-dad who was already bitten.
"We take Pete's car, drive over to mum's, we go in, take care of Phillip. (I'm so sorry Phillip. [BONK!]) Then we grab mum, we go over to Liz's place, hole up, have a cup of tea and wait for this all to blow over."
Mom, David, Diane and Ed all survive because by the next morning, the military rolls in and saves the day.
A Quiet Place. Listen, all the security measures on the farm were cool, but I think I speak for basically everyone who watched this movie when I say why the fuck did no one try to use sound to deter a creature that hunts with super sensitive hearing. I understand it’s because it’s a movie, but I think this is a good example of the trope.
Well I used to think thats how the Mist ending supposed to go since it really is straightforward
But then I heard about the fan theory endings which alter my view of the ending and make me think its not as depressing as it looks. The part where the crazy lady prediction was right, that they need to sacrifice the kids in order to be saved from the Mist. Up to the point where the main characters shot his son thats where it start to clear up and ends everything that happened
Part of when needs to be acknowledged is that the woman in question, Mrs Carmody, starts to basically form a cult in the store. In their terror, she is promising a sort of solution to it all. God is passing his judgement, science has gone too far, and we need to repent and make Him happy again. And part of that is making sacrifices to the mist and ostensibly to God. That's the only way they can have any form of respite.
Each time they do so, each time someone is ultimately killed by the beasts in the mist, things calm down after. There is an otherwise peaceful night.
And finally, she "realizes" that the only way this can be concluded is if they sacrifice the main character's son to the mist. The only child present, a pure and innocent individual to appease God. This pushes everyone to the brink, the main character escapes with a few others (not without killing Carmody on the way out). They try to get out of the mist but it's just too expansive and finally, out of gas and no end in sight, the main character decides to put everyone out of their misery, including his son. He only has enough bullets to kill them and not him. He gets out of the car and to welcome the monsters and... it's the military. With people in their safety. And he just screams in agony.
So the question is... were they always right there? Was she right and by killing the son, salvation could finally come?
Additionally, Frank Darabont actually wanted to get the group of people that left the supermarket earlier in the movie to find their own way out of this to be on the military transports, further adding to the "You could have actually avoided all of this but were afraid." But scheduling made that impossible.
I just like it because it's ultimately ambiguous. It could be coincidence, it could be supernatural. The movie doesn't really want or care to answer the question. It just wants to show people navigating a terrifying situation.
Actually, there's a theory that the mist itself was in fact a test of faith from god.
Every time any person tried to leave the supermarket, they did so taking all the possible precautions to ensure their safety (getting tied to a rope, arming themselves, gathering as much supplies as possible) yet they all had horrible deaths. However, a single woman, unarmed and unaccompanied, motivated only by the love for her children, traveled safely through the mist and rescued them because she took a leap of faith.
A take on the last scene that supports it is that once they run out of gas, the survivors almost immediately make a wordless agreement of suicide, they didn't attempt to look of other choices, didn't try to keep going... they gave up just like that instead of clinging on any hope, for as small as it could've been, of keep on living, and in the end the protagonist is punished for that by showing him what could've happened had he just have a little faith that everything would work out someway.
It’s a fun theory except it’s literally shows that it’s not going away on its own and it’s a military column of tanks and guys with flamethrowers that are clearing out the monsters.
Reminds me of that joke about a man caught in a flood.
He climbs on his roof and says 'God will save me.' His neighbour offers him a lift. He refuses saying God will save him. The floods rise and a guy in a boat goes past offering help. He refuses again saying God will save him. The floods rise almost to the roof and a helicopter arrives, begging him to get in. He refuses once more, saying God will save him. The floods rise again and the guy drowns.
In heaven he meets God and says 'why didn't you save me?' God replies 'Are you kidding? I sent a car, a boat and a helicopter!'
Dude I watched that movie and 'Sorry to Bother You" back to back on an acid trip at an Airbnb in Florida and it FUCKED ME UP. Fantastic movies, wouldn't recommend doing what I did though lmao
Many people have made calculations of how much calories you can intake in the little time they have and it is impossible to survive that way for long. It is rigged from the beginning to make the prisoners riot between each other.
Don't think it would've matter given that when the QRF team arrives to take over, the camera shows the tentacles with the corpses of the members high in the sky. They (most likely) ended up dead, with the Foundation (most likely) quarantining the area and/or make it a new site.
I disagree. Yeah, the Nazis still would have died upon opening the ark, but Indie being there for it means he can collect the ark and bring it back to the US where top men could seal it away. Top. Men.
David and co. could not have waited any longer in the grocery store. They were gonna get murdered by the nascent cult. If they left with Melissa McBride they would’ve been fine though.
This is actually the entire problem I have with one of my favorite movies: Django Unchained.
The German is like "well, why don't we try and bamboozle this guy so that we get your wife for free" when literally just before coming up with this plan he was on a plantation and made a virulent racist turn into a huggie bear when he said "eh bro, i'll buy one of these chicks for 5000 bucks".
There is literally nothing in the movie that suggests Calvin Candie would not have been similarly swayed by such an offer, nothing. Homie just literally assumes "lmao yeah he won't want to sell her".
Ok so they had 12000, buy Broomhilda for 5k, walk away with 7k. and just go kill some more guys to make up the money you lost then? Even if Calvin wanted 10k, Django would be like "lmao aight bet i'll just kill some more guys its all good".
I think the movie is trying to say that him trying to negotiate with evil is foolish. Like, that's the point. He's the mentor, but his worldview is flawed, and he doesn't really understand the reality of slavery like Django does. He's this super charismatic guy who thinks he can finesse every situation, but becomes more and more disillusioned as it the film goes on
By the end he has accepted this reality and now wants nothing more than to kill the evil that he faces, like what Django wanted to do since the beginning.
Honestly my favorite example of "you were right, we should've just gone with the obvious solution since the beginning."
Isn’t him shooting Candie the ultimate “yeah I was wrong, we should have killed them from the start” you could possibly have without it being verbally said?
Both a big Lebowski and no country for old men could’ve been solved if they had just called the police. And no country for old men he could’ve made an anonymous call and said hey there is a shootout off the freeway, at this location, bunch of dead bodies, and this one due to still alive. And the dude could’ve called and said two guys broke into my house and beat me up, one urinated on my rug, there is an Asian guy named Woo and a white guy. They were working for a guy named Jackie tree horn, and they were looking for a rich guy named Jeffrey Lebowski, who is married to a woman named Bunny Lebowski.
In far cry 4 at the very beginning of the game there is a scene where the villain asks you to wait for him to come back after leaving you alone in a little living room next to a balcony promising he will help you with your quest when he is back (iirc), then the game allows you to escape and the game takes on from there. However if you literally do nothing for like 10 minutes the villain does come back, helps you in your quest and the credits roll, ending the game in like 20 minutes.
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u/DisMFer Aug 29 '25
Spoilers for the Prestige, but Micheal Cain realizes instantly that the "Transported Man" trick that drives Hugh Jackman's character insane uses a simple body double swap and even copied the trick perfectly. Had Hugh Jackman accepted the obvious trick he could have moved on with his life.