In Aliens just after the heroes escape the first attack with the Xenomorphs then the dropship crashed and explodes leaving the characters up shit creek wandering around in the dark with wind blowing and they know it's all Apocalypse time and they are all gonna die and they're all shitting themselves Hudson asks "What are we gonna do now?" like a typical US Marine weakling.
When Burke replies "Maybe we can all build a fire. Sing a couple of songs" I think is just SO wrong and totally the opposite of how he would react. When you are terrified that you're gonna die you don't come out with something that stupid and badly attempted at humour that you know is just gonna get you a slap. Say all you want about the actor being a comedian but Burke is not like that, he doesn't try to be funny or lighten a situation, he's a weasely American coward.
That response for me is the most shocking out of character moment I can think of in a film, and just really pulls me out of Aliens.
Another is in Jaws 2, which even as a kid had me questioning the moment. When a young blonde teenage bit of US slutty stuff is running along the beach playing kisschase she comes across a gory site of a massive Killer Whale with a huge chunk bitten out of it by a White Shark, and there is blood and guts to be seen. But she doesn't scream. She just stops and says "Yugh" like a "Eeew typical American dumb teenage girl. Again, out of character.
1. In real life you would scream, and 2. for dramatic purposes in a film this girl would scream, especially as she screamed in hysterics later in the film when that same shark killed her partner on the boat like all teenage American girls do in films.
So for her not to scream in that Killer Whale scene I think is out of character for her and like with Burke, a miscalculation on behalf of the actor and director.
So you get how this game is played now don't you? Chime in with out of character moments you've seen in a film or tv show and discuss the significance of this and why you think this is a mistake.
Cue people instead disagreeing with what I wrote here or this thread being buried in 3...2... oh hi TheButcher!