Marty McFly Complex

A character flaw of pride, in which a individual will take unnecessary risks or do dangerous acts if their courage is questioned, such as being called a chicken or a coward.

Marty McFly in Back To The Future
Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause

Jim said that he won't enter the race because he was afraid of getting hurt, but then Tim called him a coward and he had to prove him wrong because of his Marty McFly Complex

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Tom Sawyer Plan

A needlessly complicated plan to accomplish a simple task.

Creating an elaborate scheme involving things like lasers, explosions, rope ladders, poisoning and painstakingly crafted lies to make things more cool, interesting and exciting when all could be solved simply by telling the truth, getting the key or using the back exit, etc.

Cool for the sake of cool in effect (often used in movie plot explanations or sitcom plots).

The name Tom Sawyer Plan comes from Huckleberry Finn where Tom makes an elaborate scheme to free Jim from the plantation when they could have just gotten he key the whole time.

Sheldon Cooper on the Big Bang Theory's web of lies to avoid seeing Penny in RENT, which build on each other until he has to go on a weekend trip, hire an actor and keep up an elaborate fake back story to get out of seeing one play.

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