This answer has been taken and republished with permission by the author Dylan James and Quora.
We often compare Bollywood and Hollywood movies in their style of approach and production value. We also point out and diligently poke fun at the illogical and physics-defying scenes (*cough* Looking at you, Rohit Shetty *cough*). But what we fail to notice is that many movies, regardless of place of origin, will have some illogical scene put in for fact/plot support.
Car chases, blast scenes blown out of proportions (*cough* Looking at you this time, Michael Bay *cough*), women waking up from sleep looking fabulous… the list is endless. But the one thing that always confuses the hell out of me is this:
Put Down Your Guns and Step Away
It seems that virtually a requirement of modern action movies is for there to be at least one prolonged gun standoff per film.
Typically, a villain has a gun pointed at his hostage and directs the heroes to drop their guns or the hostage will die. The heroes then immediately and without much thought drop their guns. This is such a common scene in movies today that I can’t be the only one who is tired of this taking place.
In fact, Quora writers on another question debunked this idea:
– Tim Dees
Highly specialized and equipped heroes would never drop their weapons on the command of a bad guy just because he has a hostage. Not only does it not make any sense, it goes against every principle of game theory that we know. The situation is transformed from one where the bad guy is incentivized not to kill his hostage (because he would then immediately be shot) and the heroes aren’t in danger, to one where the hostage can be killed at will and the heroes could likewise be shot dead with no repercussions.