Innocence is an admirable attribute, but when it’s combined with naivety, things sometimes go wrong. In Hollywood, there are several examples of characters who are not only unaware of most things that are happening around them but also make a number of questionable choices. These individuals aren’t necessarily cowardly. They just believe everyone around them is as good-hearted as them and that all is well in the world.
Such characters thus find themselves walking into danger many times, and in some instances, they pay dearly for their failure to notice the cracks. On other occasions the naivety only leads to comical and awkward moments that are great for audiences, but embarrassing for the characters themselves. For now, these are our favorite of the most innocent and naïve people in movies.
20 Cal Weaver in Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)
In Crazy, Stupid, Love, Cal is introduced as a blissfully ignorant dad. He has no clue his wife is unhappy, so it comes as a huge surprise when she tells him she is having an affair with a co-worker and wants a divorce. He also has no idea the nanny has a crush on him and that his 13-year-old son has a crush on the same nanny.
After the divorce, Cal is forced to hit the night spots and pick up women, but he has no clue how to do that either. Luckily for him, he draws the sympathy of a womanizer who teaches him all the skills required for effective seduction. Still, his naivety remains, resulting in some hilariously awkward situations.
19 Navin Johnson in The Jerk (1979)
Navin from The Jerk is the kind of person who walks around doing random acts of kindness to strangers. For example, while briefly working as a gas station attendant, he spots a customer’s spectacles almost falling off and helps him by attaching a tiny device above the nose. The man happens to be an inventor, so he promises to patent the idea and share the profits with Navin.
Because he isn’t concerned with the running of businesses or any other complex things in the world, he lets the inventor do as he pleases. As expected, his lack of curiosity ultimately costs him. Soon, he begins getting checks of up to $250,000, making him very wealthy. Sadly, users of the device, now branded Opti-Grab, become cross-eyed and sue both the inventor and Nash. He is ordered to pay over $10 million, leaving him as broke as he was before.
18 Nashawn Wade in Soul Plane (2004)
Passengers buttocks don't usually get stuck in a plane's toilet, but Soul Plane is an absurd movie in many ways, so such things happen. It all starts with Nashawn getting served a stale in-flight meal (hardly the worst part). Moments later, his dog, which had been incorrectly labeled as checked baggage, gets sucked into the engine when a stewardess accidentally opens the plane’s cargo door.
Unwilling to let it all pass, Nashawn sues, and to his surprise, he is awarded $100 million for all the pain. Interestingly, he chooses to start a hipihop-themed airline with the money. While Nashawn is happy to be wealthy, he has no clue how his plane is being run by his employees. His cousin even employs a hilarious quack pilot who happens to be a former convict and is actually afraid of heights. The TSA agents at the terminal rarely do thorough inspections either. Eventually, Nashawn is forced to perform an emergency landing himself after the pilot becomes too high on drugs and gets a heart attack.
17 Chance the Gardener in Being There (1979)
Chance from Being There takes minimalism to a new level. He only owns a few tailor-made clothes from the ‘20s and for most of his adult life, he never steps out of the townhouse where he works as a gardener. When his employer dies, he doesn’t lay claim to the property, so he gets evicted and wanders off into the city.
The character’s lack of knowledge about the outside world ends up being a blessing rather than a curse. When the wife of a presidential advisor bumps into him in the streets, she mishears “Chance the Gardener” as “Chauncey Gardiner" and mistakes him for a sophisticated aristocrat. She then introduces him to her husband, who in turn introduces him to the President. Interestingly, Chance’s innocent gardening terms such as “stimulating growth” and “pruning branches” get misinterpreted as poetic analyses of the economy, so he gets credit as a financial advisor. Still, he remains innocent, oblivious to the fact that he is being considered as a candidate for the next election.
16 Paulie Cicero in Goodfellas (1990)
For a mob boss, Paulie from Goodfellas is a little too magnanimous. He is especially lenient to Henry Hill, who goes on to become an FBI informant at the end of the movie. It takes Paulie a very long time to find out that Henry has been dealing drugs without his approval and when he makes the discovery, he only ends their association instead of whacking him the traditional Cosa Nostra way.
Given the erratic way in which mobsters behave, it’s clear that any boss needs to micromanage, yet Paulie hardly ever does that. He also trusts people too much and as such, Henry acquires too much information about him. When he finally becomes a turncoat, the young mobster hands over this info to the authorities, resulting in the conviction of various high-profile Lucchese crime family figures.
15 President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove (1964)
A POTUS is required to be charming, observant, stern, and immune to manipulation. Interestingly, Muffley from Dr. Strangelove doesn’t fit any of the above descriptions. He is a good person who would rather avoid trouble, so the threat of nuclear war becomes a headache for him. So timid is he that he allows U.S. planes to be shot down in order to make the Soviets happy.
Muffley also doesn't know that his scientific advisor, Dr. Strangelove, is actually a Nazi hiding in America. As such, he considers some of his weird bits of advice such as moving every high-ranking government official into a bunker and giving them 10 women each, so they can repopulate the world at the end of the nuclear war.
14 Wade Gustafson in Fargo (1996)
Some fathers do everything in their power to make their daughters happy and in Fargo, the tycoon Wade Gustafson goes as far as employing his son-in-law Jerry as the executive sales manager of his car dealership to ensure he doesn’t end up a loser. Sadly, he never realizes that Jerry is a sinister money-hungry character.
Jerry gets his own wife kidnapped and then lies to Wade that the kidnappers want $1 million and that they will only deal with him. Wade never notices that Jerry's behavior is off and when it comes time to give the ransom, he opts to do it himself (something he thinks is smart), only for him to get killed by one of the kidnappers.
13 Dong-ik in Parasite (2019)
Parasite brilliantly blends horror, drama, and comedy, but what’s more fascinating about the Best Picture-winning film is how naïve the wealthy Park family is. And as the patriarch, Dong-ik deserves all the blame for everything that happens. Unknown to him, his chauffeur, the nanny, and the two tutors for his children all come from one family known as the Kims. After one of them was hired, the Kims conspired to have Dong-ik’s other employees fired so that they could take over.
By allowing all this to happen under his watch, Dong-ik ends up paying dearly. Later in the film, it’s revealed that he also had no idea that the former nanny had her husband living in the basement so that she could protect him from loan sharks and feed him every day. How such a bright and successful man would fail to notice all these things is a mystery, but the movie wouldn’t have worked if not for his ignorance.
12 Bobby in The Waterboy (1998)
Kathy Bates sure knows how to portray manipulative caregivers and guardians. Mama from The Waterboy remains one of her iconic roles and in the movie, she fools her son Bobby in many ways. First, she lies to him that his father died in the Sahara while working for the Peace Corps. She then feigns a coma in order to get more attention from him.
Because he is nice and trustful of everyone, Bobby rarely sees through the manipulation. The more he allows it, the worse things become and soon, his mother attempts to influence his dating choices and dissuades him from playing football. Luckily, Bobby ultimately sees through all the lies and stands up for himself.
11 Norville Barnes in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Naïve people normally end up getting used as pawns and that’s the case for Norville in The Hudsucker Proxy. Aiming to take control of Hudsucker Industries, board member Sidney J. Mussburger comes up with a plan to devalue the stock to make a takeover cheaper. In order to achieve his mission, he hires Norville to be CEO, knowing that his lack of knowledge will cause the share values to tank.
Norville is never smart enough to see that he is being used. He believes he has earned the promotion and goes on to act like a tough boss. In addition to that, he never suspects one of the employees working in the company, who is secretly an undercover Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Fortunately, he redeems himself by driving the company to profitability, hence thwarting Mussburger’s plans.
10 Marion Crane in Psycho (1960)
There are a number of reasons why Psycho is so controversial and one of those, and one of those is the notorious shower murder scene. The victim is the real estate secretary, Marion Crane, and while the murder isn’t her fault, she is to blame for the events that lead to it. Because she is a caring hopeless romantic, Marion decides to embezzle $40,000 from her employer so that she can clear her husband’s debts in order for them to be legally married.
How Marion expects to survive with her husband after spending all the money is a mystery. After all, her action means she will no longer have a job. Still, one cannot help but admire her dedication and spirited effort to ensure her union becomes formalized. Regrettably, while on the run, she stops at the Bates Motel where the proprietor murders her.
9 Dr. Nicholas Garrigan in The Last King of Scotland (2006)
The desire for success can lead many into getting into signing deals with the devil. In The Last King of Scotland, the recently graduated Scottish physician, Dr. Nicholas Garrigan heads to Uganda to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that are present for foreign doctors. There he catches the eye of new dictator Idi Amin, who promotes him to the position of personal physician and then to chief advisor.
Dr. Garrigan is initially happy about his newfound success, unaware that Amin is murdering thousands of people and violating all human rights. And even after discovering his employer’s atrocities, he still risks falling in love with one of the dictator’s wives and sleeping with her. Only luck prevents Dr. Garrigan from paying for all the terrible choices he makes in the movie.
8 Delmar in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
It takes a special kind of naïve for one to not know they are famous and that’s the category Delmar falls under. In his defense, he is a fugitive too, so he is more concerned about where lawmen are at than whether a song he recently recorded with a stranger is playing on the radio.
Overall, O Brother, Where Art Thou? is filled with misfortunes that Delmar and his two buddies are forced to endure because they are guileless. At one point, they gladly accept wine from strangers, only to get drugged. And when Delmar realizes one of his friends is missing, he hilariously wonders whether the women have turned him into a road that’s hopping around them.
7 Chris Washington in Get Out (2017)
According to Jordan Peele, a Get Out sequel might happen, and fans will be hoping that Chris will have a greater sense of awareness this time. In the original, he agrees to meet his girlfriend’s family in Upstate New York, unaware that they are White supremacists who kidnapped all her previous Black boyfriends and used them for both scientific and occult-like experiments. Ever innocent, he believes her when she tells him he is the first Black person she has ever dated.
Because he doesn’t know what he is getting himself into, Chris expects the usual meet-the-family challenges such as breaking down what he does for a living and explaining to the father why he is the right man for her daughter. His eventual challenge ends up being figuring out how to ‘get out’ in order to avoid being subjected to the same fate as the other boyfriends.
6 Simba in The Lion King (1994)
It’s normal to assume that close relatives bear no ill motives, so Simba doesn’t even suspect his uncle, Scar, when his father Mufasa suddenly dies in The Lion King. In fact, Scar makes Simba believe that he was partially responsible for the ‘accident’ that caused Daddy's death.
Simba thus spends years of his life beating himself up and oblivious to the atrocities his uncle is committing as the new ruler. It’s not until later in the movie that Simba finds out the truth, allowing him to get revenge. In spite of that, it's hard to argue that the kingdom would have been better off if he had made the discovery earlier.
5 Cassius "Cash" Green in Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Sorry to Bother You initially seems like a typical grass-to-grace tale. At first, life is initially tough for the hardworking Cash. He lives in his uncle’s garage and performs poorly in his new job as a telemarketer for RegalView, despite being relentless and disciplined. Noticing his woes, an older colleague advises him to use a “White Voice” during calls, a strategy that brings him instant success once adopted. Consequently, he gets promoted and starts living a life of luxury.
All is not as seems in RegalView, but Cash only finds out halfway into the movie when he attends a company party. It turns out the executives are developing half-human, half-horse hybrids that are stronger and more obedient. They figure that this will drive profitability. Though he establishes a campaign to stop them, he soon turns into a hybrid himself.
4 Lefty Ruggiero in Donnie Brasco (1997)
Mobsters are generally mean and brutal, but the Bonanno crime family’s Lefty Ruggerio doesn’t fit such adjectives. He rarely causes trouble and never throws tantrums when he doesn’t receive the promotions he thinks he deserves. He is also too trusting, a trait that makes him a target for the undercover FBI agent, Joseph Pistone.
Throughout the proceedings of Donnie Brasco, Lefty keeps Pistone close to him and does his best to mentor him, unaware that the young man is working for law enforcement. Because of his inability to see through some of Pistone’s weird behaviors, the mob gets over 200 indictments and over 150 convictions.
3 Derek Zoolander in Zoolander (2001)
The odds that one of the most influential figures in your industry will develop a desire to work with you just as your career is tumbling are minimal, but Derek from Zoolander doesn’t see things that way. The fashion model, who has fallen out of favor, sees it as a big opportunity when industry titan Jacobim Mugatu offers him a contract.
Unknown to Derek, Mugaru intends to brainwash him and make him assassinate the new Prime Minister of Malaysia, who is against the tendency of fashion companies to rely on cheap labor from his country. It takes Derek a lot of time to figure out what is going on him but he does so nonetheless, hence preventing himself from doing something he might have regretted.
2 Ricky in Boyz n the Hood (1991)
“Avoid bad company” is one of the most common bits of advice, yet the talented Rickey doesn’t adhere to it in Boyz n the Hood. The youngster is a disciplined and talented football player whose only crime is having the wrong friends. Because he is focused on his budding career as an athlete, he remains unaware of the deadly gang feuds that his half-brother and associates are involved in.
Unfortunately for Ricky, no one gives him the right advice early enough. He continues hanging out with the wrong crowd, something that causes him to get killed. The worst part about his fate is that he was just about to get a university quality because of his skills.
1 Adam Webber in Blast from the Past (1999)
One is bound to be clueless if they have a father who forced them to spend years in a bunker, believing a nuclear war was about to start. In Blast from the Past, an adult Adam leaves the shelter for the first time in his life in order to look for supplies. On his way back, he gets lots and encounters both nice and malicious individuals.
Among the most fascinating thing about Adam is that he doesn’t know that money is valuable. This makes him willing to give away large sums that his family has saved, without knowing it could lead them to bankruptcy. He doesn’t know much about religion either, and when a stranger forms a cult to worship him (thinking he is a god), he mistakes it for mere admiration.
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