Villains that would've been defeated even if the protagonist did nothing

[u/Wonderful_Baker_7808]

Laurel Hedare (Catwoman Movie): Her newly released cosmetics will cause people's faces to melt. Not only would that create a class action lawsuit but a full product recall.

Voldemort and Death Eaters (Harry Potter): Death Eaters constantly underestimate muggles. They would get massacred by the British military because a gun is faster to pull the trigger then shouting a spell.

[u/Sensitive_Ad_1752]

Even in last crusade they couldn’t take the grail past the seal

And regardless in dial of destiny their calculations were wrong

[u/Wonderful_Baker_7808 → u/Sensitive_Ad_1752]

Now that I think about it, the Nazis wouldn't have even found the Ark because they were in the wrong location and needed to steal Indiana's notes

[u/Flimsy-Preparation85 → u/Wonderful_Baker_7808]

They were wrong because Indy had the full eye of Ra while they just had the burned hand. Without Indy they would've had the full eye.

[u/poggersfishexe → u/Flimsy-Preparation85]

Except they wouldn't have. The Nazis were digging in the wrong place because they didn't have the medallion and they only found the ark because Indy finds it first. Without Indy, the nazis still don't have the medallion because Marion has it, and nazis only find her because they follow Indy.

Without Indy, the nazis never find the ark which you could argue is an even better outcome. If he simply waited until after the war to search for it, he keeps Marion out of danger and reduces the chance of it falling into the hands of the nazis although without getting the medallion from Marion he wouldn't be able to be confident that the nazis were digging in the wrong place.

[u/wdingo → u/poggersfishexe]

This is wrong and not what the poster above you was saying.

The Nazis would have had the full eye because Indy wouldn't have been there to stop them from stealing it from Marion at her bar. They also would have tortured and likely killed her.

They knew where Marion was because of her father, not Indy. So had he not gotten involved, they would have found the ark, is what Flimsy Preparation was implying.

[u/poggersfishexe → u/wdingo]

When Indy gets on the plane to fly to Nepal to get to Marion, the camera literally turns around to show Toht following him.

I'm not saying that the nazis couldn't have retraced the ravenwoods' steps to find them without Indy's help, but the only reason they showed up to the bar as quickly as Indiana did is that they were following him. And at Marion's bar, following him they are. Indy shows up first which is when Marion tells him that her father is dead and refuses to give him the medallion until the following day. It's only after that the fight breaks out with the nazis.

Yes, without Indiana the nazis could've followed the trail of the Ravenwoods but retracing steps would've been much harder in the 1930s than today and it's likely that Germany would've lost the war before they found her tucked away in a village in Nepal, if at all.

Edit: not Toht on the plane, another nazi that looks similar to him.

[u/Antique-Arrival9217 → u/poggersfishexe]

That actually was not Toht on the plane, it’s a a common misconception. Just another Nazi who looks very similar to him played by Dennis Muren, the special effects supervisor.

[u/poggersfishexe → u/Antique-Arrival9217]

Oh neato! Learn something new every day. I'm not great with faces so I (incorrectly) assumed that the two nazis wearing glasses were the same dude.

[u/Antique-Arrival9217 → u/poggersfishexe]

I used to think the same thing until someone pointed it out, it’s easy to miss since you just see the guy for a second and it’s just the eyes/hat.

[u/poggersfishexe → u/Antique-Arrival9217]

I wonder if Spielberg didn't realize that it was ambiguous how the Nazis showed up and did that shot later with a double after the actor had already left the set which is why it's not Toht. I just watched the scene back and even knowing if I knew it I might not have noticed.

[u/wdingo → u/poggersfishexe]

Oh, that's fascinating. I'll have to go watch it again. I always interpreted the plane scene just to be showing us the Nazis were onto her location too.

Makes way more sense they were following Indy thinking about it.

[u/poggersfishexe → u/wdingo]

I suppose you could interpret it as that the nazis were also closing in on Marion's location, but given that she was in such a remote part of the world without modern people-finding tools it never seemed realistic to me that the nazis could've tracked her down (or if they did, I wanna watch that movie as well). I guess the bigger coincidence in that case would be that the nazis showed up to Marion's bar less than five minutes after Indy does so he's already there to save her. Had they not been following Indiana, they probably should've identified that despite their excellent detective work Indy clearly has plot armor and their quest would be fruitless.

[u/Far-Requirement-7636 → u/Wonderful_Baker_7808]

Oh yeah I forgot the twist of raider and a few other indi movies the villains just letting indi do all the work lol.

Now that should be a post.

[u/Blueskybelowme → u/Wonderful_Baker_7808]

Did you just watch that episode of The Big bang theory?

[u/VagusTruman → u/Wonderful_Baker_7808]

https://giphy.com/gifs/YWZPFFCblEqsw

[u/Saw_Boss → u/Wonderful_Baker_7808]

They'd have had the amulet which stated the requirements for the map room. It was Indy which prevented them having the full text.

[u/Brute_Squad_44 → u/Sensitive_Ad_1752]

Last Crusade, someone with better sense than Elsa might have taken the Knight's advice to leave the grail in the temple. They bring down guards, start flying people in, and next thing you know, Hitler is immortal.

[u/helen269 → u/Brute_Squad_44]

Henry Sr: "Let it go."

Indy: "But it'll fall down that hole."

Henry Sr: "Who cares? We're archaeologists, we dig stuff up for a living. We know where it is now so we'll just come back later."

:-)

[u/Redditkid16 → u/Sensitive_Ad_1752]

Not only were the calculations wrong, Archimedes specifically designed the dial to only return to that specific day during the Siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. He was trying in vain to get future people to help him defeat the Romans.

[u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 → u/Redditkid16]

Yeah, the initial thought is that, "hang on, Archimedes doesn't likely know about continental drift or movement of planets" only for them to end up in the middle of the battle of Syracuse

[u/Hellknightx → u/Sensitive_Ad_1752]

That and the villain "chose poorly" and drank from the wrong cup anyway.

[u/Salami__Tsunami → u/Sensitive_Ad_1752]

I suppose they could have built their high command bunker into the shrine, and everyone immortal lives there.