Top 20 Worst Movie Plots of All Time

#20: “The Box” (2009)

Despite its aggressively generic title, this Cameron Diaz-led thriller actually has some interesting ideas. Unfortunately, they’re buried beneath a series of twists that range from preposterous to outright laughable. The premise is a simple moral dilemma; if they press the button on the box, they win a million bucks. But, a stranger will die. If you think that’s ridiculous, wait till the second half of “The Box,” where the film loses all semblance of reality. We’re talking about portals, morality experiments, and yet another button-press. This one sacrifices Cameron Diaz for the good of her son, ending this absurd wannabe thriller on a truly headscratching note.

#19: “Madame Web” (2024)

By 2024, superhero origin stories were completely played out. So, we have to wonder what Sony was thinking when they decided to make “Madame Web” a prequel to an origin story. You heard that right. The movie sees Dakota Johnson save a trio of teenage girls who are destined to become web-based superheroes. The issue is that, outside of a few flash-forwards, we don’t actually see any of them as the heroes they’re meant to be. “Madame Web” fails to deliver the bare-minimum of what people wanted from a superhero movie. At least it gave us some good memes!

#18: “The Master of Disguise” (2002)

While Dana Carvey has an unparalleled knack for impressions, the story and jokes around him fail to amount to anything resembling entertainment. There is a compelling idea in someone embracing their family lineage to save their parents from their past. But, when said past is becoming the so-called “Master of Disguise,” the whole thing comes off as a bad joke that’s been stretched way too far. That’s really the best way to describe this turn of events - a bad, unfunny, ill-conceived joke. You can put on all the funky hats and goofy masks you want, there’s just no hiding how bad “The Master of Disguise" is.

#17: “Catwoman” (2004)

For the record, a movie centered on Batman’s feline femme fatale could be amazing. But, sadly, that’s not the movie we got. In fact, we didn’t even get that version of Catwoman. Instead of borrowing from decades of acclaimed comic book history, this maligned 2004 film took Catwoman’s alter ego, and crafted an original story that belongs in the litter box. Gone is Selina Kyle, thief extraordinaire. In her place is Patience Phillips, a wronged employee who’s resurrected by an Egyptian deity to take down her former company. In between meals of catnip, of course. It’s silly, boring, and a complete disservice to the Catwoman people know and love.

#16: “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” (1964)

When some alien children discover the joy of Christmas through Earth TV, their martian parents only have one option: kidnap Santa for themselves. We aren’t kidding. Somehow delivering on the bizarre promise of its title, “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” starts with a yuletide abduction, and doesn’t let off the gas from there. At one point, a dissenting alien tries to kill Santa, and when that fails, they try to sabotage his makeshift toy factory. If you can believe it, it’s so much weirder in execution, and not even in a “so-bad-it’s-good” way. Suffice it to say, this absurdist comedy is the equivalent of coal under the tree.

#15: “Troll 2” (1990)

Nevermind the bad acting. Nevermind the low-budget effects. Heck, nevermind the fact that this was a completely separate film added to the “Troll” franchise afterwards. The real issue is, at a fundamental level, this story is simply unbelievable. The goblins - because they aren’t even trolls, by the way - don’t just eat their victims. First, they turn them into ridiculous living plants, a creative decision so baffling, it makes you wonder what was going on during shooting. We can tell you - chaos! The script was allegedly given out day-by-day, which makes you wonder if they had any direction in the first place. All together, our reaction is a lot like this: “oh my gooood!” [use the arnold clip here].

#14: “Super Mario Bros.” (1993)

Calling this one a “loose adaptation” would be putting it nicely. After all, it’s freaking Mario. How do you mess it up so badly? The answer is simple; remove everything people love about the franchise, and ship it to theaters without a care in the world. The colorful Mushroom Kingdom is a dystopian parallel world, Princess Peach is replaced with Daisy for some reason, and Bowser is reduced to a mindless monster. Oh, and don’t even get us started on what they did to poor Toad. But, the worst part is this isn’t just a bad “Mario Bros.” movie, it’s a bad movie, period. It’s-a-me? No, it’s-a-not.

#13: “The Last Airbender” (2010)

How do you butcher a beloved animated series? The first step is making it live-action, and the second is cramming twenty episodes of worldbuilding and character growth into a frantic hour and a half. The resulting film - and we use that word tenuously - feels more like a feature length montage than a true adaptation of “Avatar.” We hope you like voiceover, because that’s how 90% of the plot unfolds! The scenes we do get are rushed, hollow, and stitched into a narrative that’s fraying right before our eyes. Aang and the others deserved much, much better.

#12: “Freddy Got Fingered” (2001)

We don’t like being too mean. But, seriously, did this movie have a script? At times, it feels like “Freddy Got Fingered” is being made up as it goes along. And that’s not a good thing. We start with a young man trying to earn a career in animation, then switch to him proving his worth to his Dad, and somehow end up with international kidnapping? Yeah, we don’t get it either. Along the way, there’s a load of pointless scenes and an elopement with Shaquille O'Neal. We have no idea what “Freddy Got Fingered” was trying to be, and quite frankly, we don’t think the movie knows, either.

#11: “Howard the Duck” (1986)

Is this supposed to be a superhero film? Or is it an off-kilter romance? Maybe a farce comedy? Or a martial arts demonstration? Those are all genuine questions, because we spent all of “Howard the Duck” trying to figure out what the heck was going on. The movie swaps between genres and tones at such an electric pace, you’re probably leaving the theater with whiplash. For example, one minute Howard is getting a job at a spa, and the next, he’s saving his love interest from a villain quite literally named the “Dark Overlord of the Universe.” Outside of some ruffled feathers, this movie is a mess.

#10: “Saving Christmas” (2014)

No matter how you feel about Kirk Cameron’s religious beliefs, you have to admit this movie isn’t exactly winning any Oscars. No, for that, it would need an actual plot. What, then, is he “Saving Christmas” from, you may ask? The question is materialistic atheists. To make his point, Cameron spends an overwhelming majority of the 80-minute runtime preaching about the origins of the holiday. As a result, “Saving Christmas” plays more like a boring history lesson than an actual movie. That’s probably why it scored a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and is considered one of the worst films ever made.

#9: “The Happening” (2008)

M. Night Shyamalan has a career of dizzying heights and devastating lows. “The Happening” is, unfortunately, on the bottom end of his work. You’d think a global epidemic of violence would be handled with an appropriate degree of urgency. Instead, the characters limp along through boring locales until we hit the twist. The virus isn’t a bio-weapon; it’s a neurotoxin released by plants to defend against human industrialization. That’s right, the big, bad villain of this ambitious sci-fi thriller… is a flower field. Until it isn’t. Because at the end, the outbreak just sort of stops. Don’t ask us how or why.

#8: “Soul Man” (1986)

The 80s were a very different time, both culturally and in Hollywood. But, even viewed through a contemporary lens, there’s no excuse for a movie with such a strong focus on blackface. Mark Watson is a law student who, in a bout of utter insanity, decides to pose as a black man to earn a scholarship. Yeah, “offensive” doesn’t even begin to cover it. We wish we could say the movie admonishes Mark’s actions, but the racial issues are watered-down in favor of low-brow humor. Because of that, “Soul Man” drew protests upon its release, and is now only remembered for being one of the most ill-conceived movies ever made.

#7: “Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2” (2004)

Strap in, because this movie has to be seen to be believed. We open on the story of Kahuna, a superpowered kid who saves a group of orphans from Jon Voight in a bad German accent. Then we fast-forward to a new generation of so-called “Superbabies,” who are tasked with stopping the same villain from brainwashing the world through television. How do they beat him? By getting superpowers of course. Kahuna’s there, too, and plot twist, Jon Voight is his non-powered older brother who decided world domination was a constructive outlet for his childhood trauma. It’s absolutely unhinged, and stinks as much as an actual dirty diaper.

#6: “Remember Me” (2010)

For the first hour and a half of this movie, it’s a passably decent, if by-the-numbers romantic drama. Tyler and Ally endure a lot of needless suffering before finally confessing their feelings, and we roll credits. Not. Instead, the movie continues for another fifteen minutes, showing Tyler enter his office at the World Trade Center. And the date? September 11th, 2001. All at once, “Remember Me” went from an average drama into an exploitative misfire. It flushes all of its story down the drain in favor of a twist ending that offends more than it inspires. Clearly, this movie never heard of the phrase, “less is more.”

#5: “I Know Who Killed Me” (2007)

Confusing. Messy. Utterly implausible. You could say it all about this movie, which throws so many wild plot twists at you, it’s genuinely difficult to figure out what’s even happening. You have Lindsay Lohan playing twins, except maybe not, and one is kidnapped, and the other may be a hallucination? It’s like whoever wrote the script decided that, rather than filling plot holes, they’d throw more twists at you and hope you’d forget about all the massive gaps in logic. We didn’t. But, at the very least, we solved the mystery of what killed Lindsay Lohan’s acting career - and the answer is this movie right here.

#4: “Plan 9 from Outer Space” (1957)

Aliens resurrect the dead to stop humanity from destroying the universe. That’s literally the movie, and yes, it’s as off-the-walls as it seems. The aliens think a zombie apocalypse will make the government listen. And if not, there won’t be an Earth left to worry about, anyways. It’s an outrageous leap of logic that feels like it only exists to shoehorn both zombies and aliens into the same film. But, hey, at least it's creative? “Plan 9” doesn’t come to any kind of conclusion about humans meddling with weapons beyond their means. Instead, it’s content to skip along, indulge a few tropes, and live as one of the weirdest movies of all time.

#3: “Jaws: The Revenge” (1987)

Hell hath no fury like a shark scorned. That’s right, if you thought teens were petty, wait till you meet the star of this movie! Apparently, this great white remembers Ellen Brody, and wants revenge on her family. Forget the fact it’s a shark, and that this is following up two of the most iconic blockbusters of all time. In actuality, “Jaws: The Revenge” sounds like a parody of the original films, and its laughable execution doesn’t help matters, either. The whole movie is just utter nonsense from start to finish, and if you have any reverence for the series, you’re best staying out of the water for this one.

#2: “Highlander II: The Quickening” (1991)

Some films don’t need a sequel. And by “some films,” we mean “Highlander.” Money talks, though, and so we got “The Quickening,” which is certainly a movie. Legally, at least. In reality, “Highlander II” is a disjointed dumpster-fire masquerading as a film. There is so little scene-to-scene continuity, watching it makes you think they forgot to shoot half the movie. But they didn’t. The thing is just that poorly edited. You go from fantastical flashbacks to sci-fi revolutions to the de-aging of Christopher Lambert in such rapid succession, there’s no time to digest any of it. Let alone find enjoyment. There’s a reason “Highlander III” pretends this movie didn’t happen.

#1: “The Room” (2003)

There’s an eternal question at the center of this film; is it an intentional farce, or a horribly misguided attempt at filmmaking? Either way, the fact of the matter is nothing makes a lick of sense, anyways. Plot threads are introduced and promptly discarded within a single scene. Character motivations are basically nonexistent. Though, admittedly, that might be the acting. Then there’s the dialogue itself, which lives on for all the wrong reasons. We really struggle to even call “The Room” a story. But, hey, it’s certainly memorable, and that’s more than a lot of other movies can say.

What’s the worst movie you’ve ever sat through? Commiserate with us in the comments below!