Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

(1) The bad guy who has a gun aimed at a captive but gets withing arm's length in order to be disarmed.

(2) The bad guys who run out from behind cover in order to present themselves as better targets.

(3) The aforementioned bad guys who cannot hit the broad side of a barn door with automatic weapons (however, they are excellent at hitting pillars, two-by-fours, etc. as their targets run between those objects; their problem is they cannot hit the spaces between the solid objects). The same guys can't hit a person riding on a motorcycle even while firing an automatic weapon from a few feet away.

Keep seeing these 'devices' used repeatedly; realize that they are used to further the "plot", but doesn't it make the 'good guys' seem less heroic when the opposition is so incompetent?

Evidently, good henchmen are truly hard to find.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

The normal person we start following at the beginning of a superhero origin movie just happens to be the same guy who later gets super powers. Yeah, that's likely! -rolleyes-

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

when the bad guy is seconds away from killing someone, all of a sudden a secondary character from a distance saves the day & kills said bad guy. Happened on 24 so much that it became annoying

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

90% of the things that happened in every episode of 24 ever.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Why does everybody land on a car when falling from high building?
Why do crooked cops always get together with their families for a cookout on weekends?
Howcome there's always a doctor's/orderly's coat laying around hospital for killer to disguise themselves?

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

I think the only alternative to this is another obvious cliche where you have designated "red shirts" to take the bullets and die. Or have the main characters die every few episodes.

Still better than the stupid plot device in most dramas/sitcoms: the misunderstanding that can be solved within minutes if people just talked to each other directly, but instead causes a ton of conflict.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

The villain is about to kill the hero, but instead decides to ramble on for minutes about his masterplan, only for the hero to figure out a way to escape.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

- Agents assigned to watch over a key witness/important person in a safehouse are always incompetent and easily killed.

- The bad guy has the good guy captured and is seconds from killing him when there is a disturbance (gunfire/explosion) somewhere nearby. He sends his buddies to investigate, but for whatever reason doesn't hurry and up and kill the good guy, even though he was about to just before the distraction.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Bad guys in a helicopter chasing good guys running on the ground. Helicopter will fly past the good guys, missing them with gunfire/missiles. Copter will fly a ways then turn around, giving good guys a chance to either escape or ready a weapon that takes down the copter.

Uhm, helicopters are designed to HOVER. Why not hover over the good guys and pound them with gunfire?

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

In Cinemax's Strike Back,

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

people cocking or racking the action of a gun after they have had the person at gunpoint for a while
so they really were running around with an un-ready gun?

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

"Do you expect me to talk?"

"No, I expect you to die, Mr Bond."

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

These ones bother me the most. A variation of the safe house is when they post one cop at the hospital door of like the most important person. Or when they don't bother vetting the people that guard witnesses and they always turn out to be bad guys in disguise.

One of my other ones is when the detectives/cops/agents don't bother to wait for backup before charging head-on into a situation where they are probably far outnumbered.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

The one I'm sick of is when the "hero" is seemingly about to die, somebody points a gun right at him, shoots and then some unseen guy falls dead behind the "hero."

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Villains who always leave a countdown clock on their bombs. You could have it programmed and removed, why give the hero a heads up to time remaining?

Also why do they argue over which color wire to cut? Is there a rulebook that says the villain must build the bomb to spec? Maybe he didn't have any red wire left so he used yellow instead? Boom.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

The one where they threaten to kill the star of the show
The one where the cops identify themselves an the criminals run

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

The guy on the phone who says, "I don't have time to talk now," and then gets killed later before being able to talk. Of course he could have talked then. It would have only taken 10 seconds.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

In/convenient gun jam. Lame.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

I've always had a soft spot for the "bad guys just my size" cliche.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

:lol:
"meet me downtown in an hour" really means "come find my dead body downtown in an hour"

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

:lol: That's a great one.

Exactly. Important witness, here's Deputy Fife to guard the door. :lol: No, if the witness is that important you have 5 guys at that door, a couple at the nurses station, a couple by the elevator and a few more at the entrance/exits.

Another hospital variation is when the villain tosses on any ol scrubs and/or lab coat and waltzes into patient's room and kills vic, and just strolls out. Especially when some of these victims are tied to all kinds of monitors that would be going off at the nurses station as soon as the vitals started dropping.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Where the hero infiltrates an illegal underground MMA fighting ring.

That depends on who the fight choreographer is. If it's someone talented, this cliche isn't so bad.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Easily the lamest storyline possible on a long-running television show. The star of a network television series is not going to be killed off unless it is the series finale, so threatening his life means nothing. Threatening secondary characters always works better, since a few of them do get killed off on occasion.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

"Hmmm... I've never seen this guy before, but he's wearing a nurse's uniform so he must be legit."

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

A cliché that sort of bugs me is the "resident hacker/computer expert" that seems to be a part of every action movie or procedural, -they have the ability to get into any system and retrieve any information with very little trouble, working at blazing speed. The most ridiculous is "Angela" on "Bones", who works with a program that can create highly detailed, animated scenarios on how a person was killed with the click of a mouse (I guess), then when she's given a "But what if..." she can show you a new animated scenario on the spot.
Another show I have to laugh at is "Hawaii Five-O", where the team does an exposition scene where every member of the team briskly, expertly uses this fancy computer interface as if they were doing it all their life. At my job if we have change the e-mail system, half the people freak out and we have the IT guy take them through it step-by-step. There's never a glitch and no one puts anything in the wrong file (unless its a comedy).

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Crazy thing happens in the first 3 minutes. Then: "2 Days Earlier" and we see all the lead-up to the crazy thing that is bound to happen.

I am getting so tired of this cliche.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

2 cops coming to question a suspect and then he or she runs.

Such an old and tired plot device used in most procedurals. Chase scenes are just tired plot devices overall.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

And it turns out they were running for unrelated reasons, not because they committed the murder.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Preceded by the Absolutely Silent Helicopter.

Two guys are parked at a scenic overlook discussing what to do next. Suddenly, a helicopter rises into sight twenty feet away. They had no idea that it was just below the edge of the cliff. But now they have to shout to be heard over the WHOP WHOP WHOP WHOP sound.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Good one.

"We have a mole" story lines are a bit played out.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

That's what makes 5-0 so great - it's sheer utter stupidity. I think every post in this thread has happened in 5-0. rotfl

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Everybody, -hero, villain or side-kick, -knows how to jump-tart any car and they do it so easily.

Then there's the cliché where one of the leads is going to get into a car or perhaps a building that they're locked out of using some sort of tech or trick and the "unconventional" partner throws a rock through the glass or something equally low-tech and then shrugs.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Fuel leak = explosion. Every time.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

Unfortunately, that tired storytelling device will continue. Networks have good research that 50% of the casual television audience will decide to watch an entire episode or change the channel within the first five minutes. A crazy opening is meant to ensure the mindless channel-hoppers stay tuned in.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

basically every episode of Southland, or every pilot episode of an action show.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

When a henchman with a huge size advantage gets the good guy in his grip and throws him across the room in a fight, instead of just squeezing the life out of him. The good guy gets time to regroup and grab a weapon.

Bad Guy is on top of Good Guy, choking the life out of him. Good Guy fixates his eyes on a weapon nearby, and makes an incredibly obvious struggle to grab it. Bad Guy doesn't even notice until he gets stabbed in the temple with a screwdriver.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

I had to stop watching Bones for just that reason. In the first season Angela was clearly not the smartest person in the team; every line was about how she was all "art" and they were all "logic" and such. Her back-story went from community college drop-out to one of the world's best programmers. Just lame.

This season Castle even got upgraded with their own super-computer wiz. Every police station I know has certain computers still attached to dot-matrix printers.

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

- anytime it's required to go to an abandoned warehouse or Pier 43
- flesh wounds from gunshots that only merit a good "wince" from the person shot
- car chases on empty streets where you can see the skid/tire marks of rehearsals that nearly match the trajectory of the cars involved
- any character who demands a techie to "zoom in on that!"

Agreed x 100

Re: Stupid Plot Devices in "Action" Shows
 

rotfl Thanks for the hilarious scenarios...all so true! I was just venting while watching yet another parade of stupidity.

Don't think I saw this one posted...the one where the elite squad forgets to post somebody at the back exit.