Most Questionable Calls in Movies, Ever - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

wrongfullyaccuzd · 07-09-2005, 10:56 AM

Last week, for the first and hopefully last time, I saw "Pearl Harbor". The questionable call I want your comments on is not whether or not the movie should have ever been made, although I think that's a very valid question. It's something that happened in the movie.

If you haven't seen it and care to not be spoiled, do not read on.

If you haven't seen it, I will try to explain the situation.

OK so Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett are best friends since childhood. They both join the USAF. Affleck meets Kate Beckinsale and they fall in love. Affleck volunteers to go fight for the British RAF in France. He dies there.

To get over the death of Affleck, Hartnett and Beckinsale fall in love and hook up. Couple months later, it turns out Affleck didn't actually die and he shows up. Beckinsale tells him "Oh, shit, I thought you were dead, I moved on to Hartnett." Hartnett comes over and he and Affleck fight but since they're friends, they both get over it and get themelves assigned to a special mission to Japan. Right before they go, Beckinsale tells Affleck "I'm pregnant with Hartnett's kid, but don't tell him, he doesn't need the distraction right before you go on this big mission."

So they go to Japan, Hartnett gets shot and he's dying on the ground in Affleck's arms. They're doing the whole "I'm sorry," "Don't die," thing, when the Questionable Call occurs. Affleck says "You can't die, Hartnett, you're going to be a daddy." Hartnett's dying words are "No, Affleck, you are."

So he took it pretty graciously. But the question is, should Affleck have told him? The guy is seconds away from dying, do you tell him he's leaving a kid behind? Give him the joy of knowing that? Or making him even sadder that not only is he about to die, but he'll never meet his kid?

I had to think about this for awhile afterwards. What do you guys think?

Also, other questionable calls you can think of from other movies are welcome for discussion.

djflish · 07-09-2005, 11:05 AM

Yeah, I would say that is a pretty questionable call. I would not have told him.
But then, the script is so poorly written it really is direlogue. The writers had to have Affleck say that so Hartnett could come back with his emotional, melodramatic "No, you are."

Other questionable calls:

Sending a group of terra-formers to LV-426 (Aliens)
Making Vic Vega/Mr. White party of your armed robbery gang

spongy · 07-09-2005, 12:36 PM

I would file Aflleck's telling Hartnett under the heading of trying to give any additional incentive to live.. but it was verrrry cheesy how it played out.

feelgood · 07-09-2005, 12:50 PM

Other questionable calls?

I would say in War of the Worlds, the point where the military was in the middle of the battle against the aliens and ordering the troops down the hill, especially when they saw firsthanded that missiles does nothing to their ships, what differences is machine guns or grenade gonna make?

Telluride · 07-10-2005, 03:29 AM

From Saving Private Ryan:

Captain Miller (played by Tom Hanks) choosing to set Steamboat Willie (the German soldier captured at the machine gun bunker) free, rather than executing him on the spot. Willie rejoins the German troops and turns out to be a pretty bad-ass soldier in the battle at the end of the movie. I know he killed Private Mellish, and I think he was also the one who fired the shot that eventually killed Captain Miller.

djflish · 07-10-2005, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galt

From Saving Private Ryan:

Captain Miller (played by Tom Hanks) choosing to set Steamboat Willie (the German soldier captured at the machine gun bunker) free, rather than executing him on the spot. Willie rejoins the German troops and turns out to be a pretty bad-ass soldier in the battle at the end of the movie. I know he killed Private Mellish, and I think he was also the one who fired the shot that eventually killed Captain Miller.

Yeah, he did kill Capt. Miller, but it was a different guy who killed Pvt. Mellish

aberkok · 07-10-2005, 02:51 PM

What about the jedi council letting Anakin be Senator Palpatine's personal bodyguard in Episode III?

Telluride · 07-10-2005, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djflish

Yeah, he did kill Capt. Miller, but it was a different guy who killed Pvt. Mellish

I thought it was the same guy who killed Private Mellish. They were wrestling around in that room and Willie eventually drove a knife into Mellish's chest. Remember that Upham (the wimpy guy who sort of befriended Steamboat Willie after the assault on the machine gun bunker) was slowly making his way up the stairs to the room where Mellish was killed, while the guy who killed Mellish was on his way back down the stairs. If it was a different guy, why did he turn his back on an armed American soldier that he didn't know?

Suave · 07-10-2005, 05:10 PM

I will do Troy just because there are SO MANY. Most bad calls in a single movie plot ever.

#1. Paris boning Helen.
#2. Helen leaving with Paris.
#3. Hector deciding to go back to Troy for his brother's sake instead of dropping him the hell back at Sparta.
#4. The Trojan counter-attack when Achilles was about to leave.
#5. Achilles' cousin going to fight like a dumbass.
#6. Hector offering to fight Achilles.
#7. Achilles letting Versaillus go back to Troy.
#8. Taking the Trojan Horse into Troy instead of burning it (Paris' one good idea in the whole movie).

I'm sure there are a few more, but those are the big ones. Everyone in the movie is so stupid that the movie actually infuriated me more than anything else.

feelgood · 07-10-2005, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aberkok

What about the jedi council letting Anakin be Senator Palpatine's personal bodyguard in Episode III?

Well, for starters, Senator Palpatine isn't a senator, he's the leader of the senate. And it was a way for the Jedi council to get closer to Palpatine without getting him too suspicious in order to learn more about his motive once the clone war ends.

aberkok · 07-10-2005, 06:23 PM

I thought I'd post the following article from the "Best Page in the Universe," which illustrates one of the worst calls in the film with possibly the worst calls ever:

Quote:

The most damning thing about this epic waste of time is the piecemeal plot thatched together with just enough good will and nostalgia to pacify the average idiot (i.e., you). Besides all the jedis in the movie being morons who are unable to detect conspiracies involving the cooperation of thousands of soldiers, Lucas does his best to make this movie extra insulting to our intelligence:

Quote:

Senator Palpatine seduces Anakin to the dark side in about as much time as it takes for you to finish reading this sentence. Nevermind the fact that Anakin knows Palpatine is a Sith lord before accepting his offer, or that Sith lords are known for doing things like, oh.. I don't know, KILLING MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. Anakin is on a mission to save his wife, Padme, from certain death! Or at least likely death. Okay, it was a dream. But it seemed pretty real during the flashback sequence, so Anakin has no reason not to believe this dream will come true, as is the tendency of dreams.

There you have it. Here's the link: Episode III

aberkok · 07-10-2005, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suave

I will do Troy just because there are SO MANY. Most bad calls in a single movie plot ever.

Keep in mind, Suave, that this was based on the epic poem "Iliad." Which is a couple of thousand years old. It features some of the oldest worst calls known to man.

feelgood · 07-10-2005, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suave

I will do Troy just because there are SO MANY. Most bad calls in a single movie plot ever.

#1. Paris boning Helen.
#2. Helen leaving with Paris.
#3. Hector deciding to go back to Troy for his brother's sake instead of dropping him the hell back at Sparta.
#4. The Trojan counter-attack when Achilles was about to leave.
#5. Achilles' cousin going to fight like a dumbass.
#6. Hector offering to fight Achilles.
#7. Achilles letting Versaillus go back to Troy.
#8. Taking the Trojan Horse into Troy instead of burning it (Paris' one good idea in the whole movie).

I'm sure there are a few more, but those are the big ones. Everyone in the movie is so stupid that the movie actually infuriated me more than anything else.

I think you're missing the point. You pointed out bad calls that shouldn't have happened and if it didn't, then the whole point of making the movie just disappeared.

#1 You can't stop love, whatcha gonna do about it? If you did, forget about making the movie.

#2 See above.

#3 I suppose you would like it if your brother/sister/parent dropped you off into a nest of angry killer bees just for the sake of their safety?

#4 How would the Trojans know if Archilles were about to leave? If they did, I'm sure they would've counter-attack after he left. The movie isn't set in the 21st century. Back then, knowing enemy combatant movement was like trying to find water in the middle of a desert while a sandstorm is blowing your ass off.

#5 He's a kid, you saw it early in the movie that he's ambitious and wants to go out and fight like his older cousin. Yeah, it's stupidity but we all went through it, I'm sure you tried a bike stunt or two just to impress your friends.

#6 Yeah, it's stupid, then again, back during the Trojan wars era, honour was above all else and Hector was trying to defend it. Besides, Hector didn't offer it, Archiles showed up at the gate of Troy demanding Hector to duke it out with him, what was he gonna do? Chicken out? That's the best way to lose your honour.

#8 I'm sorry but that's the stupidest complaint about a movie I ever heard. If the Trojans burnt the wooden horse then what's the point of making a movie that's suppose to be historically accurate?

To sum all of your points up, I just don't see how you could have a movie if Hollywood writers or directors realized that those are bad call by the charactors.

Suave · 07-10-2005, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by feelgood

#4 How would the Trojans know if Archilles were about to leave? If they did, I'm sure they would've counter-attack after he left. The movie isn't set in the 21st century. Back then, knowing enemy combatant movement was like trying to find water in the middle of a desert while a sandstorm is blowing your ass off.

Okay most of my other points were completely wrong for this thread, and even though they made me want to kill people (more for the way they were presented in the movie than the basis in the Iliad, as aberkok noted), four was addressed in the movie. Hector tried to convince them to keep defensive, since there was dissent between the other Greeks and Achilles' guys, then the king's priest said something about a hawk and a snake in its talons, so the king decided to attack instead.

feelgood: 7, Suave: 1

feelgood · 07-10-2005, 11:01 PM

I'll give you that one Suave

How bout that one in Hunt for Red October where the skelton crew of the Red October was rolling into a naval base in America (Wherever it was) right at the end of the movie? If all those submarine battle between Red October, one of the Russian attack sub and the los angeles attack sub was engineered to hide that Red October was sunken. Then why for the love of god, surface the submarine for people on the mainland to see or even better yet, for Russian spy satalite to see while heading to a naval base?

djflish · 07-11-2005, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galt

I thought it was the same guy who killed Private Mellish. They were wrestling around in that room and Willie eventually drove a knife into Mellish's chest. Remember that Upham (the wimpy guy who sort of befriended Steamboat Willie after the assault on the machine gun bunker) was slowly making his way up the stairs to the room where Mellish was killed, while the guy who killed Mellish was on his way back down the stairs. If it was a different guy, why did he turn his back on an armed American soldier that he didn't know?

You got me doubting myself, so I just watched it! It was definetely a different guy.

As for why they walk past each other, Upham is scared shitless and the german soldier is in a state of shock after what he's just done. The german probably wasn't thinking straight enough to care. It's another small commentary on the horror and futility of war.
Thats my interpretation anyway

joecool · 07-11-2005, 05:22 AM

If its a thead about bad calls in movies, the biggest would have to be Jaws.....not going back and getting a bigger boat..... I mean he called it right?

t3m3st · 07-12-2005, 10:55 PM

Yes, allowing Anakin to be Palpatines guard was a very bad call, considering they didn't trust either of them. And the seduction of Anakin Skywalker was ever so silly.

How about Padme giving up on life during childbirth? Those kids coulda stayed together with mommy in hiding. It's a miracle Leia and Luke came out to be so strong willed, considering their pansy ass parents.

But considering the fact that Leia knew her birth-mother, and it took less than a few years to build that second death star, I assume that since it will have taken 20 years for the first death star to become operational, and that Leia would never meet her mother, that this is a seperate or alternate Star Wars universe.

t3m3st · 07-12-2005, 10:56 PM

I'd also like to reference every horror movie ever made

wrongfullyaccuzd · 07-16-2005, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joecool

If its a thead about bad calls in movies, the biggest would have to be Jaws.....not going back and getting a bigger boat..... I mean he called it right?

Excellent point, Joe.

Even though I love Indiana Jones with every movie-loving fiber in me, I think it was a pretty bad call when in the Last Crusade, Indy brought his dad's Holy Grail diary back to Germany with him. Come on!!!

Actually, I probably would have too, but after Sean Connery berates him for it, I make myself believe I would have seen the logic, too.

Johnny Pyro · 07-18-2005, 11:50 AM

Another Last Crusade bad call,

The part when they are both in the crate on the motorcycle and they sent off that empty boat to fool the nazis. The nazis see the boat and think they're on it. The nazis get ready to go into the boat and follow the empty one then, Jones and father come riding out of the crate just before the nazis got on the boat! They could of had alot more time to escape if they just waited! AAhhhh! That part drives me crazy! Wait untill they're on the boat then drive out of the crate!

07-09-2005, 10:56 AM	#1 (permalink)
wrongfullyaccuzd Addict Location: NoVA	Most Questionable Calls in Movies, Ever Last week, for the first and hopefully last time, I saw "Pearl Harbor". The questionable call I want your comments on is not whether or not the movie should have ever been made, although I think that's a very valid question. It's something that happened in the movie. If you haven't seen it and care to not be spoiled, do not read on. If you haven't seen it, I will try to explain the situation. OK so Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett are best friends since childhood. They both join the USAF. Affleck meets Kate Beckinsale and they fall in love. Affleck volunteers to go fight for the British RAF in France. He dies there. To get over the death of Affleck, Hartnett and Beckinsale fall in love and hook up. Couple months later, it turns out Affleck didn't actually die and he shows up. Beckinsale tells him "Oh, shit, I thought you were dead, I moved on to Hartnett." Hartnett comes over and he and Affleck fight but since they're friends, they both get over it and get themelves assigned to a special mission to Japan. Right before they go, Beckinsale tells Affleck "I'm pregnant with Hartnett's kid, but don't tell him, he doesn't need the distraction right before you go on this big mission." So they go to Japan, Hartnett gets shot and he's dying on the ground in Affleck's arms. They're doing the whole "I'm sorry," "Don't die," thing, when the Questionable Call occurs. Affleck says "You can't die, Hartnett, you're going to be a daddy." Hartnett's dying words are "No, Affleck, you are." So he took it pretty graciously. But the question is, should Affleck have told him? The guy is seconds away from dying, do you tell him he's leaving a kid behind? Give him the joy of knowing that? Or making him even sadder that not only is he about to die, but he'll never meet his kid? I had to think about this for awhile afterwards. What do you guys think? Also, other questionable calls you can think of from other movies are welcome for discussion.

07-09-2005, 11:05 AM	#2 (permalink)
djflish The Mighty Boosh Location: I mostly come out at night, mostly...	Yeah, I would say that is a pretty questionable call. I would not have told him. But then, the script is so poorly written it really is direlogue. The writers had to have Affleck say that so Hartnett could come back with his emotional, melodramatic "No, you are." Other questionable calls: Sending a group of terra-formers to LV-426 (Aliens) Making Vic Vega/Mr. White party of your armed robbery gang __________________ Europes two great narcotics, Alcohol and Christianity. I know which one I prefer.

07-09-2005, 12:36 PM	#3 (permalink)
spongy Psycho	I would file Aflleck's telling Hartnett under the heading of trying to give any additional incentive to live.. but it was verrrry cheesy how it played out. __________________ The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. Stephen King

07-09-2005, 12:50 PM	#4 (permalink)
feelgood Free Mars! Location: I dunno, there's white people around me saying "eh" all the time	Other questionable calls? I would say in War of the Worlds, the point where the military was in the middle of the battle against the aliens and ordering the troops down the hill, especially when they saw firsthanded that missiles does nothing to their ships, what differences is machine guns or grenade gonna make? __________________ Looking out the window, that's an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that's an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that's an act of war

07-10-2005, 03:29 AM	#5 (permalink)
Telluride Browncoat Location: California	From Saving Private Ryan: Captain Miller (played by Tom Hanks) choosing to set Steamboat Willie (the German soldier captured at the machine gun bunker) free, rather than executing him on the spot. Willie rejoins the German troops and turns out to be a pretty bad-ass soldier in the battle at the end of the movie. I know he killed Private Mellish, and I think he was also the one who fired the shot that eventually killed Captain Miller. __________________ "I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice." - Friedrich Hayek

07-10-2005, 02:51 PM	#7 (permalink)
aberkok “Wrong is right.” Location: toronto	What about the jedi council letting Anakin be Senator Palpatine's personal bodyguard in Episode III? __________________ !check out my new blog! http://arkanamusic.wordpress.com Warden Gentiles: "It? Perfectly innocent. But I can see how, if our roles were reversed, I might have you beaten with a pillowcase full of batteries."

07-10-2005, 05:10 PM	#9 (permalink)
Suave Twitterpated Location: My own little world (also Canada)	I will do Troy just because there are SO MANY. Most bad calls in a single movie plot ever. #1. Paris boning Helen. #2. Helen leaving with Paris. #3. Hector deciding to go back to Troy for his brother's sake instead of dropping him the hell back at Sparta. #4. The Trojan counter-attack when Achilles was about to leave. #5. Achilles' cousin going to fight like a dumbass. #6. Hector offering to fight Achilles. #7. Achilles letting Versaillus go back to Troy. #8. Taking the Trojan Horse into Troy instead of burning it (Paris' one good idea in the whole movie). I'm sure there are a few more, but those are the big ones. Everyone in the movie is so stupid that the movie actually infuriated me more than anything else. __________________ "Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

07-10-2005, 11:01 PM	#15 (permalink)
feelgood Free Mars! Location: I dunno, there's white people around me saying "eh" all the time	I'll give you that one Suave How bout that one in Hunt for Red October where the skelton crew of the Red October was rolling into a naval base in America (Wherever it was) right at the end of the movie? If all those submarine battle between Red October, one of the Russian attack sub and the los angeles attack sub was engineered to hide that Red October was sunken. Then why for the love of god, surface the submarine for people on the mainland to see or even better yet, for Russian spy satalite to see while heading to a naval base? __________________ Looking out the window, that's an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that's an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that's an act of war

07-11-2005, 05:22 AM	#17 (permalink)
joecool Upright	If its a thead about bad calls in movies, the biggest would have to be Jaws.....not going back and getting a bigger boat..... I mean he called it right?

07-12-2005, 10:55 PM	#18 (permalink)
t3m3st Vroom! Location: Toronto	Yes, allowing Anakin to be Palpatines guard was a very bad call, considering they didn't trust either of them. And the seduction of Anakin Skywalker was ever so silly. How about Padme giving up on life during childbirth? Those kids coulda stayed together with mommy in hiding. It's a miracle Leia and Luke came out to be so strong willed, considering their pansy ass parents. But considering the fact that Leia knew her birth-mother, and it took less than a few years to build that second death star, I assume that since it will have taken 20 years for the first death star to become operational, and that Leia would never meet her mother, that this is a seperate or alternate Star Wars universe. __________________ I do it for the rare drops

07-12-2005, 10:56 PM	#19 (permalink)
t3m3st Vroom! Location: Toronto	I'd also like to reference every horror movie ever made __________________ I do it for the rare drops

07-18-2005, 11:50 AM	#21 (permalink)
Johnny Pyro Hey Now! Location: Massachusetts (Redneck, white boy town. I hate it here.)	Another Last Crusade bad call, The part when they are both in the crate on the motorcycle and they sent off that empty boat to fool the nazis. The nazis see the boat and think they're on it. The nazis get ready to go into the boat and follow the empty one then, Jones and father come riding out of the crate just before the nazis got on the boat! They could of had alot more time to escape if they just waited! AAhhhh! That part drives me crazy! Wait untill they're on the boat then drive out of the crate! __________________ "From delusion lead me to truth, from darkness lead me to light, from death lead me to eternal life. - Sheriff John Wydell