These 10 action sequences from movies simply don't make sense

Action movies are usually enjoyed for the limits of imagination. Yet occasionally, in the name of thrill, producers abandon high-speed car chases, defying-gravity stunts, and fiery shootouts that test the laws of logic and physics into oblivion. Although viewers will suspend reality to some extent, there are action sequences so unbelievable that they pull you out of the picture completely.

Whether it's an infinite runway, a fridge that has endured a nuclear explosion, or a sports car converted into an underwater vehicle, these movie scenes are more bewildering than breathtaking. Even the most ardent enthusiasts can't help but raise an eyebrow or collapse into laughter. The reality is, certain of these scenes become iconic because they're so outlandish. They go viral, ignite arguments, create memes, and sometimes become legendary for all the wrong reasons.

From the world's most massive Hollywood blockbusters to franchise behemoths, these scenes recall that more isn't necessarily merrier, particularly when common sense gets lost along the way. Here, we take another look at ten over-the-top action movie moments that not only broke the rules of reality but also plainly ignored them. While you may find them funny or infuriating, one thing is certain: they just don't compute.

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These 10 action sequences from movies simply don't make sense

1. The Runway That Never Ends – Fast & Furious 6

The Fast & Furious 6 movie climactic runway scene is so hyperbolic that the fans calculated that the runway would have to be almost 28 miles long in order to accommodate the time that the plane chase takes to play out. Even with bullets, grappling hooks, and automobiles flying down in all directions, the airplane never actually appears to take off or run out of road. Even according to Fast & Furious logic, it's ridiculously unbelievable. The sequence, although filled with exciting stunts, is more of a cartoon than an action movie scene. Logically, at a certain point, reason just comes to a screeching halt while the vehicles continue on.

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2. The Safe Dragging Mayhem – Fast Five

Hauling a giant bank vault down the streets of Rio might be the most exquisitely ridiculous action set-piece in the franchise. Dom and Brian in the Fast Five movie employ two Dodge Chargers to pull a multi-ton steel safe, and use it as a wrecking ball through traffic. Engineers have since refuted this, citing that the weight would turn the cars over or blow out their axles. Still, the chaos is so ridiculously stylized that you forget physics exists. It’s over-the-top fun, sure, but also a logistical nightmare that defies everything from traction to torque, especially at highway speeds.

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3. The Helicopter Leap – Rampage

Dwayne Johnson makes a leap from a collapsing skyscraper into a helicopter as it hovers in confusion in Rampage. The stunt is right off the pages of a comic book, but Rampage takes it as real. Forget about air resistance, human capabilities, or the physics of hovering helicopters during the collapse of a building. Even by The Rock's standards, this moment strains credulity until it breaks. Critics pointed out that the CGI-laden scene was more video game cutscene than action film realism. It's a giant leap, literally and logically, that makes viewers blink twice, then laugh. It's blockbuster bravado, but utterly divorced from real-life physics.

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4. The Motorcycle–Chopper Takedown – Mission: Impossible 2

Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt leaps off a motorcycle, crashes in mid-air into another fellow, and they both land poised to fistfight because why not? In the Mission: Impossible 2 movie, physics is optional and gravity is negotiable. The tire-swapping continuity goof in the scene has become meme material. More precisely, two men ride motorcycles at each other head-on and then jump up unharmed, unleashing fistfights upon landing, is cartoon logic at best. Director John Woo's trademark style provides visual pizzazz, but the end product is more Matrix wanna-be than Mission: Impossible realism. It looks cool, but makes absolutely no sense the moment you consider it.

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5. The Stormtrooper Aim Mystery – Star Wars Saga

Throughout several Star Wars movies, stormtroopers famously can't shoot straight-even at close distance. Although some humorously say it's deliberate (to allow heroes to live), the inconsistency spoils immersion. Clone troopers in the prequels are precision shots with their blasters, but the Empire's stormtroopers in the original trilogy strike everything but what they're aiming at. In Disney media content, the trope is now an in-joke where characters make fun of it. It's become a staple of pop culture that even shows like The Mandalorian quietly ridicule their ineptness. Nevertheless, when an intimidating military presence can't shoot straight, the tension dissipates and credibility falls off the cliff.

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6. The Batplane Gun Rules – The Dark Knight Rises

In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman's Batplane (or "The Bat") pursues Bane's convoy while shooting off advanced weapons… but never manages to capture and kill anyone. Nolan's Batman will not employ lethal force, but the Bat's cannon and missile armaments look a little suspect. At one point in the movie, the Bat shoots down a truck in mid-air no fatalities? It's one of several such moments when the film desires the excitement of military-grade technology but the moral standards of a pacifist. You can't shoot missiles at city cars and hope that nobody gets hurt. The ethical inconsistency of non-lethal war machines renders the scene particularly empty.

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7. The Fridge Nuclear Survival – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones surviving a nuclear explosion by fleeing inside a lead-lined refrigerator got so notorious that it spawned the term "nuking the fridge," Hollywood's kin to "jumping the shark." The notion that Indy survived the blast, the shockwave, and being propelled miles across the air without a bone out of place is a fantasy. Scientists later established that the G-forces alone would reduce an individual to mush. While the movie indulged in pulp ridiculousness, this scene pushed suspension of disbelief to breaking point. It not only defied science, it smashed it, dented it, and threw it out like the refrigerator itself.

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8. The Underwater Drive – F9: The Fast Saga

By the time F9 reaches its underwater sequence, the franchise has gone completely over to sci-fi rationale. Tej and Roman ride around in a Pontiac Fiero, adapted for space travel, underwater. Yes, underwater. The vehicle operates as a submarine no pressurization, no oxygen tanks for the drivers. The sequence tries to top previous over-the-top sequences, but leaves realism gasping for air. Fans were split: some applauded the audacity, some ridiculed the foolishness. Even in a universe where magnets turn over trucks, this moment was particularly egregious for disregarding all of what we understand about water pressure and internal combustion engines. It's brazen but entirely ungrounded in Earth physics.

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9. The Ice Tank Pursuit – The Fate of the Furious

In The Fate of the Furious movie, the team drives a nuclear submarine down an ice-covered lake in a high-speed race with a tank and snowmobiles on their tail. It's every boyhood toy dream blown into one action sequence. But the premise that cars, particularly Lamborghinis, can drift on ice while evading missiles and blasts without shattering the surface is crazy. One vehicle even leaps over a blazing gap as a missile blasts through the ice. The physics is ridiculous, but the sheer spectacle temporarily overcomes it… nearly. Ice does not function in this way. The entire process is CGI chaos intended for applause, not reasoning.

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10. The Flying Bus Escape – Speed

In the Speed movie, Keanu Reeves' character has to maintain a city bus roughly above 50 mph or explode. The most zany part? When the bus clears a 50-foot freeway gap in the air. The catch: that does not happen with real cars. Buses don't fly like stunt motorcycles. MythBusters actually experimented with the stunt and declared it impossible without a ramp, boosters, or extreme CGI. And what's more inexplicable is that the passengers hardly lurch about during the ride. It's a white-knuckle rollercoaster that compromises on realism for the sake of cinematic impact. Cool scene, perhaps. But actually, that bus would have crashed nose-first into oblivion.

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Action movies live and die on adrenaline and spectacle, but when logic is totally discarded, even the most extreme sequences begin to ring hollow. Our ten scenes might have supplied unforgettable images, but they also left heads scratching. Suspension of disbelief is a part of the moviegoing experience, but there's a thin edge between fantasy and farce. These action scenes crossed the line sometimes for comedic effect, sometimes for anger. Yet, they are also reminders of how realism and storytelling need to go hand in hand. Because no matter how large the explosion, it's the believability that makes action scenes effective.