5 Shockingly Senseless Movie/TV Character Betrayals

5 The Villain's Plan In The Incredibles 2 Is Pointless

Superheroes are illegal in the world of the The Incredibles, but in the sequel, pro-superhero rich guy Winston Deavor tries to change this, dedicating generous resources to improving superhero PR. He and his sister Evelyn thus team up with Elastigirl to carry out their campaign, and in the process, Elastigirl is pitted against Screenslaver, a faceless villain who threatens people's lives while chiding them for watching too much TV (OK, the franchise is kind of heavy-handed with its symbolism).

Elastigirl ends up befriending Evelyn, who handles the company's tech while Winston manages the business side. So when it turns out that (TWIST!) Evelyn was actually Screenslaver all along, Elastigirl is shocked (she should have said the woman's name aloud slowly a few times). Evelyn reveals that she blames supers for the death of her father, whom heroes failed to save during a burglary. She reasons that her dad should have saved himself instead of relying on superheroes, so her plan is to destroy all supers' reputation in revenge. The world needs to stop relying on these masked jerks!

But ... wait. Supers have been illegal for years. Pretty much everyone already distrusts them, which is the whole reason the Deavors were supposedly trying to improve their reputation in the first place. And now her problem is that people are too reliant on superheroes? What the hell is she talking about? She already won! Society already agrees with her! She is literally creating the problem she claims to be dedicated to solving.

Even more baffling, Evelyn chooses a scary, faceless entity to communicate her message, thereby creating a way for supers to unite with the community against her. The whole thing makes it look like she got confused and forgot her plan half way through. Or like her actions are based entirely around making sure the standard blockbuster plot twist shows up on the right page of the screenplay.

Related: 16 Famous Plot Twists That Make No Sense (Diagrammed)

4 Solo Features A Parade Of Useless Betrayals

Solo was created to answer pressing questions like "Why does Han shorten Chewbacca's name to Chewie?" In the film, Han Solo participates in a failed heist with a thief named Tobias Beckett, who needs to deliver a valuable resource called coaxium to the sinister Dryden Vos (a member of the criminal organization Crimson Dawn). But this is a heist movie, so you know before you even buy a ticket that it's going to end in a serious of double- and triple-crosses. This will take a bit of explaining.

To get Vos his coaxium, the team steals more on a separate mission. But then Han comes up with a plan: They'll give Vos some fake coaxium so the good guys can keep the real stuff. When they actually try to carry this out, though, Vos reveals he already knows about the ruse. Beckett had informed him of the plan, wanting to avoid making an enemy out of Crimson Dawn. To be honest, "Weird older mentor type actually betrays you" is like Standard Blockbuster Twist Trope #2, but at least it shakes up the plot.

But then Han reveals he actually knew Beckett would betray him, so he fed him a fake plan! The coaxium they have is the real deal, and Vos' goons have been drawn away to check out the fakes. This new piece of info convinces Beckett to then double-cross Vos, killing the remaining guards to steal the coaxium for himself. It's meant to be shocking, but it's only surprising since it's totally contradictory to everything Beckett's done so far.

The whole point of betraying Han was that Beckett didn't want a "target on his back" (his wife even died earlier for this exact reason). But now, for some reason, Beckett no longer cares. He says he'll just "take his chances," and takes off. And how far did he actually expect to get with the coaxium? He isn't even able to get away from Han, who catches up with him on foot shortly after the twist. If you can't escape some lone dude trudging after you through sand, maybe you're not ready to try to betray a criminal empire.

Even more annoying is that Han's double-cross of the double-cross also doesn't make sense. Like, what if Beckett didn't betray him? Then Vos would get the real goods, while everyone else would get killed. And what makes Han so sure Vos would send all of his guards away? It stands to reason that a powerful member of Crimson Dawn would probably keep tons of people around him at all times. Maybe Chewie should be captain instead.

Related: 7 Movies That Made You Ignore That Their Plots Make No Sense

3 Fantastic Beasts: A Mind Reader Gets Tricked, Somehow

The Harry Potter spinoff/prequel film series Fantastic Beasts follows Newt Scamander, a magi-zoologist who gets wrapped up in the rise of the dark wizard Grindelwald and his fellow wizard Nazis. (Yeah, this series is mostly about wizard Nazis. Bet you thought Fantastic Beasts was going to be about unicorns, like a chump.) In the second film, The Crimes Of Grindelwald, the titular villain throws an evil rally where he preaches that he's only killing non-magical people because wizards should be in charge of everything. After all, he's foreseen that Muggles will soon do World War II, the Holocaust, atomic bombs, etc. I'm not sure why no one points out that he could just kill the actual Nazis to stop things like this, but in any case, one person he ends up swaying to his side is Queenie, one of Newt's friends and the girlfriend of his non-magical sidekick, Jacob.

It's supposed to be an emotional moment when Queenie joins Grindelwald, complete with swells of sad music. Oh no, she's been manipulated! How tragic that even someone like her could get drawn into his cause. Especially since, and this seems important, she's a mind reader. She ... couldn't read his thoughts? Or the thoughts of some of his associates or followers? Seems like it'd actually be pretty hard to manipulate somebody like that.

Even if we write off magic completely, Queenie literally watches Grindelwald disintegrate people, as her own friends and family narrowly avoid the flames. That doesn't clue her in that the guy's up to no good? Obviously the whole thing is supposed to parallel how real-world destructive movements draw "good" people in, but this is another example of how such metaphors get messy when magic and/or magical creatures get mixed in. The result is that one of only a few prominent female characters in this series hears a genocidal monster talk and says, "WELL MAYBE HE HAS A POINT ..."

Related: 6 Huge Movie Plot Twists That Caused Even Bigger Plot Twists

2 The Villain In Ghost Makes Things Way Too Hard For Himself

When banker Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) is killed during a mugging, he chooses to watch over his girlfriend Molly (Demi Moore) instead of going to heaven. But during his stint as Casper the Sexy Pottery Ghost, Sam learns that his mugging was actually more sinister than he'd thought. His killer, Willy, had been trying to steal his banking passwords. Even worse, it's revealed that Willy was partners with Sam's friend Carl, who was trying to cover up his involvement in a money laundering scheme. It's a heartbreaking betrayal, as the two were good buddies in life, even enjoying the occasional genital rash joke together.

But that's just the thing. If the pair were such good friends, why in the world would this be how Carl chose to get the codes? It's established that he had no intention for Sam to die, and Sam had only just started noticing the account problems. A mugging would have traumatized both Sam and Molly even if no one had died, and might even have drawn more attention to Carl's laundering. Carl basically thought, "Oh damn, I might get caught for my crimes! Better cover things up with even more conspicuous crimes."

Keep in mind, Carl is close enough to the couple that he's the only friend Molly takes comfort in after Sam's death. He's shown to frequent their apartment, so surely he could have found a moment when Sam would be distracted to swipe the codes. I mean, he wouldn't bring them with him to take a dump, for instance, unless he's the most dedicated employee in the world. If Carl wants to hire a criminal so he doesn't get his hands dirty, fine. Simply lure the couple out of their home for a fancy dinner, then have Willy steal the codes from their apartment while everyone is safely away. There are so many options here! But instead he gets his friend killed, and he himself later winds up getting jumped by a demon gang.

Which, by the way, is a bizarrely horrific scene that seems to come from an entirely different movie about ghosts.

Related: 6 Movie Plots Solved In Minutes With Common Sense

1 In Game Of Thrones' Last Two Seasons, Everyone Sucks At Betrayal

Come on, you knew this was coming. In the course of Game Of Thrones' eight seasons, it offers a textbook contrast in how twists like this can be handled. In the first few years, we got betrayals that actually stemmed from characters' logical motivations. In the final couple of seasons, they occur purely because there was a blank spot in script that said "PUT SHOCKING TWIST HERE."

Let's start with master manipulator and sexposition expert Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish. The show's entire plot really kicks in once he betrays Ned Stark (which will ultimately lead to his shocking execution and, well, everything else that happens). He then spends the next few seasons acquiring power purely through the art of playing mind games and pulling strings. At every step, we know what he's doing and why he's doing it. Then comes Season 7.

Purely because the show seemed to not know what to do with a certain trio of characters, Baelish hatches a plan to drive a wedge between the Stark sisters, Sansa and Arya. One of them commands an army and the other is the world's deadliest assassin, but really, what can go wrong? Oh right, the sisters quickly discover his plan and have him killed. (In a scene which itself is played as a shocking twist.)

And then there's Varys, the show's other alleged expert manipulator (there were a lot of characters who were kind of the same guy). His whole thing is using information as a weapon, always keeping people guessing which side he's on. But by Season 8, years after the writers realized they had run out of things for him to do, they threw in a clumsy failed betrayal. He blabs all of his treasonous plans to a guy who is well-known to be honorable, and who is also dating the subject of the betrayal. It's like he forgot "Master of Whisperers" insinuates that you're supposed to be quiet about your mastery. He then gets cooked by a dragon.

But if we're going to talk about stupid Game Of Thrones treachery, we have to talk about Jon and Daenerys. After spending the first 70 or so episodes freeing slaves and being a stern but pure-hearted leader, the show threw in one final shocking twist in which Daenerys betrays, well, everyone, going on a citywide murder-spree for no reason whatsoever. Wait, did I say that was the final shocking twist? Hold onto your butts, because the series is actually capped with one last one -- John waltzing into the throne room, embracing Daenerys, and (TWIST!) stabbing her to death. But see, he didn't have any other choice, and neither did Dany, as both were acting on the oldest and most powerful motive there is: the knowledge that these were the final episodes, and they had to wrap this thing up.

For more, check out 5 'Jurassic Park' Plot Holes With Horrifying Implications - After Hours:

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