‘What’s the worst case of someone misunderstanding the plot of a movie you’ve ever seen?’ – 23 unbelievable cognitive fails

We’re all meant to be very culturally literate nowadays, able to grasp narrative nuance, enjoy plot ambiguities and not fall asleep if a film has subtitles.

However, some people still can’t even grasp the most basic story, to the extent that you wonder if they had their eyes closed the whole time. Over on Reddit, user FinalDemise asked:

‘What’s the worst case of someone misunderstanding the plot of a movie you’ve ever seen?’

Here are some of the most brain-crushingly dim occurrences of a person not being able to keep up with what is happening on screen.

1.

‘I watched Les Miserables in the theatre with my parents. At the very end of the movie my dad whispered ‘Wait, Hugh Jackman was the prisoner at the beginning?’.

‘He had no idea the whole movie why Javert had beef with this apparent random character.’
–agentbauer

2.

‘My mom thought Rogue One had a happy ending because ‘they were hugging in front of a sunset’ at the end of the movie.’
–reality72

3.

‘Watching Titanic in a cinema in the West End of Glasgow. Ship hits the iceberg, girl behind me says ‘Aw, it’s gonny sink.’ To which her date replied with absolute confidence ‘Na, it willnae’.’
–ShakeUpWeeple1800

4.

‘I watched Elvis in the theatre and when the paper showed his death, an older woman behind me gasped and sadly whispered ‘Oh no, he died’.’
–LadyCordeliaStuart

5.

‘I once, as a kid, watched nearly all of The Wedding Planner, having gotten it confused with The Wedding Singer. Spent the whole time waiting for the rapping granny to show up, thinking it was a lot less funny than the trailer had made it seem.’
–SatNav

6.

‘Me and some friends were watching the James Bond film Spectre while extremely drunk and got really confused by the repeated and overlapping sections.

‘We were talking about how great the Memento style use of non-linear time was a great addition to the Bond films only to realise I had been sitting on the remote and rewinding it all night. I think we were watching it for about 4 hours.’
–cowboysted

7.

‘My sister in law asked if ‘The Martian’ is based on a true story…’
–hpw84

8.

‘My wife is a big history buff, especially US history. She also doesn’t like campy vampire/zombie/monster movies. I made her watch Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Ten minutes into the movie she turned to me and said ‘I don’t think this actually happened’.’
–platypus_farmer42

9.

‘I knew someone that thought Thanos snapping his fingers just sent a bunch of people back to their home planet.’
–xqlfg

10.

‘My Dad thought Spinal Tap was a documentary. He couldn’t see why they’d been successful.’
–SkolemsParadox

11.

‘Someone once told me they thought The Matrix was about a guy learning to code and getting really good at VR.’
–GreerKathi

12.

‘My friend’s grandad saw that Beethoven was playing in theatres whilst reading the newspaper. He thought it was a film about the composer. Well, he bought tickets to see it, and if you don’t know, it’s a movie about a dog. He was like the only adult there without a kid.’
–mackedeli