I recently discovered this common movie fuckup--not a problem with movies, but rather a common mistake that people always make in movies.

The mistake is this: The bad guys tell the main character that if he/she blabs anything (to the wife, the sidekick, whoever), then the bad guys will kill that person.
Inevitably, the main character keeps their mouth shut, and nine times out of ten the bad guys end up sneaking up on the threatened character and either kidnapping or killing them anyway. Writers often set things up this way on purpose, to give the bad guys something bad to do and a foreshadowing that they'll probably do it.

Think about that in real life--somebody tells you that if you warn your friend about a situation, they'll kill your friend. Do you tell him?

Absolutely! You ALWAYS tell someone if their life is in potential danger, for one reason: It's much harder to kill or kidnap someone whose guard is up. In the movies, the bad guys are always easily trapping the unsuspecting woman as she walks calmly down the alley. But would that go off as flawlessly if the woman had been told that her life might be in danger? Hell no! Now she's sneaking through the alleys, taking a different route than she normally would, and chances are she's packing. I know I would be.

I've already had a discussion with my husband, wherein we both agreed that any potentially life-threatening issue must be clearly stated to the party in danger, EVEN if knowing itself puts them, technically, in more danger. I urge you all to make the same agreement with your friends and family, otherwise, how do you know you're not being stalked right now?