10 Best Movie Clues You Totally Missed

A plot twist is an effective way of keeping audiences on the edge of their seats, but not every surprise comes completely out of the blue. Filmmakers just can’t help leaving a hint or two for all to see – even if it’s just the viewers paying the closest attention who catch them. Here are Screen Rant’s  Best Movie Clues You Missed.

1. Back to the Future – Twin Pines Mall

The first Back to the Future ends with a bit of a twist, revealing that the life Marty McFly leaves behind in  is not the same he returns to. His actions in the past have caused his entire family history to change for the better - but you don’t have to wait until the final sequence for that surprise. When Marty rushes to the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall to save Doc before he’s killed, it’s revealed to have changed its name to Lone Pine Mall, a result of Marty running over one of Farmer Peabody’s prized pines when he first arrived in , and the first clue that he altered the timeline, instead of preserving it.

2. Jump Street – A Familiar Flavor

Undercover officers Schmidt and Jenko are given a simple mission infiltrate and bring down a high school designer drug ring. Finding the dealer is simple enough, but finding his supplier and kingpin proves more challenging. But it didn’t have to be. After the two first take the drug while at school, Jenko notes that “it tastes like cool ranch”. Just a few moments later, Coach Walters appears snacking on – you guessed it - Cool Ranch Doritos. Walters is revealed to be the operation’s mastermind, explaining where that flavor came from. The officers may have spotted the clue, if they weren’t too distracted by their own tongues.

3. Reservoir Dogs – Big Tippers

After a jewel heist goes horribly wrong, Quentin Tarantino’s cast of thieves are convinced that there’s a rat in their midst, with the survivors left to find out which one of their team may be working with the police.

A collection of bottles hints that Mr. Orange isn’t on the same side as Mr. White or Pink, but the undercover LAPD officer actually lets his secret slip in the very first scene. First, he changes his mind to fit in with his colleague.

Then when the group is asked who didn’t tip for their breakfast, Orange immediately squeals, showing he doesn’t subscribe to the same code as his partners. If only they’d caught it, the movie’s ending might have been a lot less messy.

4. Fight Club – Flashes of Tyler

When the Narrator learns that he and Tyler Durden are actually the same person, it blows his mind - but eagle eyed viewers weren’t caught completely by surprise. In the film’s first act, the Narrator begins to see quick glimpses of Tyler as he battles his insomnia, suggesting he’s simply a figment of his imagination begging to be unleashed.

If that wasn’t enough, Tyler later calls the Narrator on a pay phone that doesn’t accept incoming calls. Saving the big twist from eagle-eyed viewers was obviously not a priority for director David Fincher. “He is Jack’s Spoiler Alert.”

5. The Sixth Sense – An Unfriendly Ghost

Discovering that Bruce Willis’s character was dead the whole time is one of the greatest twists in cinematic history, immediately warranting a second viewing, where viewers learn the twist wasn’t necessarily a total surprise.

It makes sense for Crowe to spend plenty of time with his patient Cole, but it is a little strange that he doesn’t address any other human after the opening scene, at one point arriving late for an anniversary dinner, with his wife not even acknowledging his presence. The clues are subtle enough to go unnoticed the first time, but on repeat viewings, they’re impossible to miss.

6. Shutter Island – A Glass Half Full

The movie’s story of a Federal Marshall pursuing a killer in a remote mental hospital is turned on its head in Shutter Island, when hero Teddy Daniels is revealed to be a patient acting out an elaborate fantasy. It’s a shocking twist, but viewers should have known that Teddy’s experience was less than reliable.

When a patient requests a drink during her interview, the glass she drinks from is non-existent, returning only when it has been completely drained. Teddy’s fear of water may be actively censoring what he does, and doesn’t see, but regardless, it’s just one of the clues that show the investigation is not what it seems.

7. The Usual Suspects – The Truth is Golden

Everyone was floored to learn the unassuming Verbal Kint was really the criminal mastermind Keyser Soze, but hints were sprinkled throughout this mysterious crime drama. In the film’s opening scene, the faceless Keyser lights a cigarette with a gold lighter before setting a fiery blaze.

Later on when Verbal leaves the police station, one of his belongings is a gold cigarette lighter - the same one used in that first sequence. It’s a minor detail before the far larger twists are revealed, meaning deductive viewers realized the truth before the characters in the story.

8. The Big Lebowski – No Strike, He’s Out

Since the film’s starring duo spends most of their time dismissing their fellow bowler, Donnie, viewers might not notice that every time he’s shown bowling, he gets a strike – until his final game.

He seems as confused as anyone when he leaves pins standing, but exits the bowling alley to face off against a group of violent nihilists, where he succumbs to a heart attack and dies. Turns out, his last bowl was an ominous piece of foreshadowing. What would have happened if he’d thrown a gutter ball?

9. The Prestige – Look to The Birds

A single trick lies at the heart of this tale of rival magicians, with Hugh Jackman’s character desperately trying to learn how Christian Bale’s Borden can transport between two points instantly.

He eventually recreates the trick by copying himself, drowning each time as his new copy appears to wow audiences. In the end, Borden’s explanation is a twin brother, not actual magic – a secret discovered early on by a young boy unconvinced by a ‘disappearing bird’ trick. The boy sees what the audience doesn’t, but even his rival’s horrifying loop of suicide is explained using the same dead bird.

10. The Dark Knight Rises - The League’s Mark

The third of Christopher Nolan’s Batman films finds Bruce Wayne surprised and devastated, discovering his corporate ally and lover “Miranda Tate” is actually Talia al Ghul, daughter of Batman Begins villain Ra’s al Ghul.

But her membership in the League of Shadows is foreshadowed long before she confesses it. Bruce makes a note of a triangular scar on her back which is never explained, but are similar to those covering Bane’s head, implying a link between the two.

Some have argued that the scar resembles the brand of the League seen in Batman Begins, but whatever the case, having a villain covered in scars suggested there was more to “Miranda” than met the eye.

Those are our picks for great clues hidden in the background of movies. Are there any we missed? Sound off in the comments section below and don't forget to share!

10 Biggest Movie Mistakes Hidden In Popular Films

Even when a film is deserving of a perfect -star rating, it doesn’t mean they’re flawless. Directors spend so much time making sure the larger picture of their movie is cohesive, that sometimes little things fall through the cracks. These may be highly-paid professionals, but they are human and can let an error or two slip by into the final cut. Here are Screen Rant’s Biggest Movie Mistakes Hidden in Popular Films.

1. Ant-Man

In the opening scene, Dr. Pym punches Mitchell Carson in the face and blood can be seen pouring out of his nose. As the scene progresses, we notice that the blood slowly disappears. It seems Mitchell was slowly cleaning but the real mistake can occurs when his close-up reveals a very clean and white handkerchief!

2. Jurassic World

Chris Pratt is America’s new favorite leading man, and his magic even impacts the props he touches. When Claire and Owen are hiding from the Indominus Rex in Jurassic World, Owen rests his rifle against the driver’s door of an old Jeep. As the dinosaur searches for its prey, it places its head on that side of the vehicle and shakes it around a couple of times. When Owen looks back around to see if the coast is clear, the rifle is in the same exact spot, unmoved. This is one instance where practical and digital effects didn’t mesh well to create a seamless shot.

3. Mad Max Fury Road

Yes, even Best Picture candidates have imperfections. Upon doing an ammunition inventory count, Toast says that the group has four rounds left for the SKS rifle, which she calls Big Boy. A few moments later, Max fires a single shot from that same gun, and Toast informs Max he only has two shots left. If Toast’s initial count was correct, Max should have three remaining. It’s a glaring oversight that creates an unnecessary inconsistency between two scenes close together and it could have easily been avoided with a quick double check. But nobody said the script was awards worthy, right?

4. The Martian

When astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead by his crew, they have no choice but to leave him on Mars so they can escape in time. But as it turns out, Mark wasn’t alone. In the shot where the character regains consciousness after being knocked out, the cameraman is visible in the reflection of Watney’s space helmet. With all the video recordings Watney does in the film, this guy was probably the unsung hero of the story, yet didn’t get any recognition. Either that, or filming reflective surfaces is a little harder than it looks, even when Ridley Scott is involved. There is even a shot a little later that seems to show the whole crew reflected in his helmet since there are not other structures or anything around him, but we’ll let you decide!

5. Avengers Age of Ultron

One of the more entertaining sequences in this superhero sequel is when Earth’s Mightiest all try to lift Thor’s hammer at a party. But the God of Thunder’s weapon isn’t the only magical item in the scene. After all his friends fail at the game, Thor picks the hammer up with a drink in his hand. However, in the very next shot, that same drink is on the table, even though Thor never stopped to put it down. Joss Whedon had a lot to sort through with this film, but he should have been able to see this. Chalk it up to the dangers of splicing takes.

Read Also: Top 10 Hilariously Dumb Things said by Presidential Candidates

6. Inside Out

This modern classic was hailed as Pixar’s glorious return to form, but things got off to a shaky start – in the very first scenes. At the beginning of the movie when baby Riley appears, her mother appears to be wearing glasses. However, when the perspective changes to have Mom visible from Riley’s point of view, she’s not wearing the glasses. It’s always possible she took them off in between shots, but when you’re looking at your baby daughter for the first time, you’d want the clearest view you could get. Something doesn’t add up here.

7. Furious

Fans were disappointed when the character Hobbs was left out of commission for a majority of the film’s running time, but there was good reason. He was recovering from a variety of injuries. Elena tells Dom early on that one of those was a leg broken in two places. A shot of Hobbs in the hospital bed confirms this, as he sports a cast on his leg. But as the film approaches its finale and Hobbs decides he has to jump into the action, there’s no cast on his leg and he walks without a limp. We think we may have found who can play Wolverine after Hugh Jackman.

8. Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation

During one of this movie’s many thrilling action bits, Ethan and Benji are involved in a chase while driving a car. The filmmakers use this as an opportunity for a playful gag, when Ethan asks Benji if he’s wearing his seatbelt before attempting an insane stunt. But it probably would have been funnier if there was some consistency regarding the seatbelt. Throughout the sequence, Benji’s seatbelt alternates between on and off, making things very confusing for the joke. Perhaps this is why Ethan asked him about it? Either way, Benji doesn’t seem to care about his wellbeing even when his life is in danger.

9. Star Wars The Force Awakens

The First Order one-ups the old Galactic Empire with their Starkiller base, a weapon that can blow up entire star systems instead of a single planet. The film reveals that it gets its power from the planet’s sun, draining all of its energy. When that happens, everything should go pitch black, but at the end of the movie, Kylo Ren, Rey and Finn are all visible in the forest during their lightsaber duel. In reality, only man-made light would allow them to see each other, but that wouldn’t make for a very cinematic finale. Sometimes, you have to bend the rules.

10. Kingsman The Secret Service

Typos happen even to the best of us, but during a film production that takes months, there’s no excuse for things to be spelled incorrectly. However, Kingsman never got a proofreader to look over some graphics. During the news broadcast covering the release of the free Valentine SIM cards, the headline spells “worldwide” wrong. It says that the product will be distributed “wordlwide” in big letters for all to see. Modern media is a mad dash to be the first to report a story, but it doesn’t help credibility if there are glaring errors like this.

Those are our picks for mistakes hidden in popular films. Are there any we missed? Sound off in the comments below!

Top 10 Hilariously Dumb Things Said by Presidential Candidates

 Hilariously Dumb Things Said by Presidential Candidates

1. Trump US GDP is

Below Zero Honestly, we could have filled this entire list with nothing but Trump quotes and still had enough left over for a sequel. The bouffant-haired billionaire has turned controversial gaffes into an art form. But sometimes even the Donald comes out with something that’s nothing if not plain dumb. Case in point the time he claimed the US’s GDP had fallen below zero for the first time in history.

Since GDP is a measure of all economic activity within a country during a given time period, the US would have had to become a barren wasteland devoid of human life for this to be true.

Even the post-apocalyptic future of Mad Max has economic activity, for crying out loud. What Trump meant to say is that US GDP had experienced negative growth for the first time in history. But even this statement is hilariously wrong. Negative growth for two consecutive quarters is the hallmark of a recession. Aside from the Great Recession, the US has experienced  smaller ones since WWII alone.

Before that we had the Great Depression. Trump himself has lived through most of them, frequently while running businesses.

2. Carson Prison Turns You Gay

Ben Carson is like the unimaginative Hollywood sequel to Trump’s insanity more of the same, only crazier. Aside from making dubious comments about the Holocaust and blaming the Oregon shooting victims for their tragic fate, he’s made some wildly unscientific claims.

In March , he said “A lot of people who go into prison straight, and when they come out they’re gay.” Being a former neurosurgeon, you might expect Carson to know a thing or two about how science works. You’d be wrong. According to Helen Eigenberg, expert on prison sexuality at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Carson’s statement is “insane.”

Sure, there is a massive problem with male rape in America’s prisons. But that’s not because ‘prison hormones’ or whatever are making straight men gay. It’s because some prisoners use rape as a way of dominating other inmates and getting power over them. That doesn’t make them gay.

According to the , member-strong American Psychological Association, homosexuality isn’t something that can brought on by a change in circumstances. No matter what Ben Carson thinks.

3. Clinton The Benghazi Probe is the Longest in Congressional History

It’s not just GOP outliers who have been talking nonsense recently. The presumptive Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton has been showing her tenuous grasp on history. In September, her official campaign Twitter account tweeted about the Benghazi probe “It’s the longest-running congressional investigation ever. It’s cost taxpayers $ million. And what’s it about?”

Although  months is a pretty long time, a quick Googling would have proven it’s not the longest ever. It’s not even close. The WWII Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program lasted a full months. During the Civil War, the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War lasted a less-showy, but still impressive,  months. But hey, America was at war then, you can’t really compare, right? Well, maybe not, but that still leaves the - Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor-Management Relations ( months) and the - House Select Committee on Assassinations (months).

Expand to include investigations by permanent committees (rather than special panels), and at least three more lasted longer than Benghazi, including two in the last ten years. Sorry, Hills, but you’ve got a long way to go yet.

4. O’Malley Assad Messed Up “Invading Syria”

The Democratic candidate and former governor of Maryland Martin O’Malley might be under most people’s radar, but he can still drop clangers like a pro. During the televised debates in mid-October, the conversation turned to Syria. O’Malley’s take?

“I think Assad’s invasion of Syria will be seen as a blunder.” As gaffes go, this one takes some beating. Assad – for all his faults – is the president of Syria. He could no more invade the country than Obama could ‘invade’ Delaware.

The likelihood is that O’Malley meant to say “Putin.” As president of neighbouring Russia, Putin can indeed invade Syria – although since he’s there at Assad’s request, that might still be a poor choice of words. Nonetheless, it didn’t give us great confidence in O’Malley’s ability to negotiate the fraught world of international politics.

5. Bush The Federal Government Doesn’t Deport Criminals

Compared to the lunacy of Trump or Carson, Jeb Bush is like the voice of sanity in a crowded GOP field. However, even this seasoned pro still finds time to get his figures hilariously wrong. In August, Bush declared “The federal government right now does not deport criminals.”

It’s true that the government routinely opts not to deport violent criminals. But to claim it doesn’t deport any criminals, period, is akin to punching the concept of ‘research’ in the face. In the fiscal year , The Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed and deported over, illegal immigrants. Discount those removed at the border, and those deported for breaking immigration law, and you’re still left with nearly , criminals deported by the government in a single year. That doesn’t sound like “does not deport” to us.

6. Sanders The US Spends Twice as Much on Healthcare as Any Other Nation

bernie The predicted runner-up in the Democrat race, Bernie Sanders is famous for speaking his mind. Sometimes, that means parting company with the truth and sailing off over the horizon of insanity. In August  (and previously in ), the Bern declared

“We spend almost twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country.”

The US definitely spends more than any other OECD nation, but the only way it could spend twice as much is if you secretly blew up half of Europe. In , the US was spending $, per capita, compared to $, for Norway, and $, for Switzerland. Places like Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and Denmark all spent over half of what the US spends, as did Sweden and the Netherlands.

Sanders probably meant to say the US spends twice as much per capita as the OECD average, which is certainly true. But since we didn’t give O’Malley or Trump any leeway for mis-speaking, we won’t be giving any to the Bern either.

7. Huckabee The DC Area Has Never Had a Recession

A long-time fixture on the GOP’s craziest wing, Mike Huckabee has dropped his fair share of clangers. Usually this just amounts to insulting a particular group, but occasionally the former governor of Arkansas also slips up on history. Only in September, he claimed that the DC metropolitan area “never has a recession.”

If Huckabee had said “never suffers as badly as the rest of a country during a recession,” he’d have a point. DC area downturns tend to be shorter and shallower thanks to the presence of the Federal government. But by claiming the capital has never experienced economic difficulties, his statement tilted over the edge of sanity and plunged screaming into cloud cuckoo land.

In the last decade, the DC area has experienced consecutive quarters of negative growth – the standard definition of recession. Unsurprisingly, this came in the - period, when everyone was in trouble. But Washington DC was also hit during the early s and early s. Oddly, it also suffered flat growth (though not recession) during -, when the larger economy was leaping back on its feet. Not quite the unstoppable economic superpower Huckabee makes it out to be.

8. Clinton All My Grandparents Were Immigrants

It’s not just congressional history where Hillary falls down, it’s her own family’s history too. Back in April, Hillary moved to catch the pro-immigrant vote by relating her own personal experiences. In Iowa, she declared “All my grandparents, you know, came over here.” She was  percent wrong.

Let’s start with the bit she got right. Her paternal grandfather, Hugh Rodham Sr. was definitely an immigrant. He was born in England, and made his way over the States. Now let’s move on to the bits she got extremely wrong. Regarding her remaining grandparents, two were born in Illinois, and one was born in Pennsylvania. In other words, they were as American as apple pie.

To be fair, most of Hillary’s great grandparents were immigrants.  of the  were born abroad. But that’s still some lackadaisical record keeping, there.

9. Carson America’s Enemies Were All BFFs in Their Youth

Here’s a brain-tickler for you What do Iran’s Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin all have in common? Answer according to Ben Carson, they all hung out together in  Moscow. The full quote, so you can appreciate its wacko scope runs “In the class of  at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, Mahmoud Abbas was one of the members of that class, and so was Ali Khamenei. And that’s where they first established relationships with the young Vladimir Putin.”

In other words, Carson is implying that three of America’s great villains got together in  to found the real-life equivalent of SPECTRE. Hilariously, this doesn’t even pass the basic logic test. Putin was  at the time, studying in high school, lived  hours away from Moscow, and had nothing about him to indicate he’d ever hold a position of power.

Khamenei had been imprisoned in March nd was rotting in an Iranian cell. Only Abbas may have possibly visited the university, but it’s very unlikely he did so in  ( is a far-more likely date, as that’s when he’s known to have visited Moscow). When challenged on this, Carson claimed the CIA had told him. The CIA, for their part, declined to comment.

10. Trump All Iowans are Brain Damaged

Finally, we end on a quote from the world’s greatest professional troll. After a poll was released in October, showing Ben Carson leading over Trump for the first time in Iowa, the Donald’s official campaign account tweeted “Too much Monsanto in the corn creates issues in the brain.” In other words, Trump had just outrageously, hilariously, insulted every single resident in one of the key states he needs to carry. The resulting blowback was so fierce Trump issued his first apology in (perhaps) living memory, blaming the tweet on a “campaign intern.” Whether or not that’s the case, it still displays stupidity to an award-winning degree. Then again, maybe it’s all part of his master plan to get elected by abusing voters so much they develop Stockholm Syndrome. With someone as openly crazy as Trump, who the hell knows?

Top 10 Worst American Presidents

       

Top Worst US Presidents

      

    Benjamin Harrison,         -      
      
The grandson of the ill-fated ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison, the cold and humorless Benjamin Harrison rode into office largely upon his pledge to keep the government’s promise to compensate his fellow Civil War veterans which his opponent, the incumbent President Grover Cleveland, had obstinately refused to do.

Once in office, Ben was good for his word and coughed up the promised funds, which turned out to be the high-point of his tenure. After that, things went downhill fast — especially economically. By the next election cycle, the country was in a full-blown depression and Cleveland won his old job back, defeating the very man who had defeated him just four years earlier.
      
    William Howard Taft,         -      
      
It would be hard for any man to follow in the footsteps of the larger-than-life Teddy Roosevelt, but the corpulent Taft definitely failed to live up to even lowered expectations, which was curious considering that Taft had been Teddy’s hand-picked successor. The problem was that TR was what one would call a progressive and he thought Taft would continue in that tradition, but it quickly turned out that he was an old school Republican after all, much to Teddy’s chagrin.
      
So disappointed was he in Taft that Teddy challenged him in the primary in and, though he won more states and delegates than the incumbent president, still lost the nomination to Taft at the convention. Never the pragmatist, Teddy then went on to run a third party campaign, splitting the Republican vote and handing the White House to the Democrats for the first time in years.
      
  . Jimmy Carter,         -      

Though he still has his proponents today, the case could be made that Jimmy Carter was the quintessential man in over his head if there ever was one. While a generally genial and compassionate man (later evidenced by his          Nobel Peace Prize), what the country needed was a strong leader willing to face up to the Ayatollahs and tackle the double digit inflation that dogged his administration.
      
To be fair, Carter did have a couple of successes. For example, he did get Israel and Egypt to sign the Camp David Peace Accord, which brought peace to the two antagonists after nearly years of intermittent warfare. Overall, though, if one were to sum up the Carter administration it would probably be “best of intentions but a job too big for the man to handle.” We’ll give him an A for effort, though.
      
  . Millard Fillmore,         -        
      
The period immediately preceding the Civil War produced an unusually large number of weak presidents, one of whom was Millard Fillmore (no, that’s not an immortal Alec Baldwin pictured above). Only the second man to assume the presidency upon the death of his predecessor (in this case, Zachary Taylor, who died just over a year into his administration) Fillmore seemed overwhelmed with the job right from the start.
      
It’s not that he made lots of mistakes, it’s just that he didn’t do much — other than perhaps encourage secessionists by deciding it was be a good idea to make the newest western states slave states in an effort to appease the south. In his own words   “God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil … and we must endure it and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the Constitution.” How’s that for a man of conviction?
      
  . John Tyler,         -      
      
The first sitting vice-president to ascend to the presidency (upon the death of William Henry Harrison, who died just a month after being inaugurated) things did not go well for Mr. Tyler from the beginning. First, it wasn’t entirely clear that the vice-president could simply assume the presidency upon the president’s death, creating a political crisis. Tyler won that debate, but that was the extent of his success.
      
After that, he turned on his former supporters, vetoing their entire agenda, and got himself expelled from the Whig party (which is not surprising considering he was a former states rights Democrat before joining the Whigs). By the time he left office, not even his wife was willing to give him a second term. He eventually won a congressional seat in the Confederate government but died before he could take office, ending a long but decidedly mediocre public service career.
      
  . Herbert Hoover,         -      
      
Hoover, perhaps in the best example of worst timing ever, managed to ride a groundswell of support into office in         , only to see it all come crashing down — both literally and figuratively — just a few months after being sworn in. Of course, he got all the blame for it, even though the dynamics that made the crash inevitable had been enshrined in American financial institutions long before he put his hand on the Bible and took the oath of office.
      
What he was responsible for, however, was helping the country work its way out of the Great Depression, which he proved to be wholly incapable of doing. Hoover tried, to be sure, but by the time the next election cycle came up, unemployment stood at a staggering % and Hoover was toast.
      
  . Ulysses S. Grant,         -      
      
Any man that could command a million-man army and defeat Robert E. Lee should make an ideal president, or so one would think, but Grant proved that assumption to be erroneous. The problem was that the genial and well-meaning Grant, while a man of personal integrity, had absolutely no capacity to discern the same in others.
      
As a result, he surrounded himself with some of the most corrupt men ever to sit on a cabinet. Worse, he was fiercely loyal and so was reluctant to sack anyone once their indiscretions became not only public, but self-evident. Had it not been for his personal popularity (Grant is the most popular president to make the bottom ten) it’s unlikely he would’ve seen more than the one term.
        
  . Warren G. Harding         -      
      
If any man had less capacity to be president of the United States than Warren G. Harding, it’s hard to know who it might be. Harding basically became president because he was considered handsome (by the standards of the time — and remember, this was the first election in which women could vote) and because people were tired of Woodrow Wilson’s shenanigans. Unfortunately, he was somewhat ethically challenged and seemed far more interested in playing poker, drinking, and pursuing women than leading the country. Fortunately, the economy was booming in the twenties or he could well have gone down as the worst president. He also died just three years into his term, supposedly of heart disease, which further insulated him from deserved criticism.
      
  . Andrew Johnson,         -      
      
Old Honest Abe Lincoln was not known for his ability to pick competent generals until he happened upon Grant. The same might be said for his choice of running mate in, when he chose Andrew Johnson — an anti-secessionist Democrat from Tennessee — to be the man entrusted with being a heartbeat away from the presidency. The problem was that once Johnson was handed the keys to the White House upon Lincoln’s death, he and the Republican controlled congress couldn’t seem to agree on much of anything
      
(Johnson holds the record for most presidential vetoes and for having the most presidential vetoes overridden by congress). As a result, he ended up in a four-year-long spat that turned the post-war reconstruction efforts into a nightmare and nearly prematurely cost him his job when he avoided being impeached by a single vote. What was Abe thinking?
      
  . James Buchanan,         -      
      
Okay, so he wasn’t quite as bad as his predecessor in that he didn’t openly support succession and slavery. It’s just that “ol’ Buck”, as he was known, did absolutely nothing to stop or even slow the secessionist train down as it headed towards the country at full speed.

What is sad is that Buchanan had the résumé to be a good president   a popular and experienced politician, Buchanan ably represented Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives and later the Senate, and served as Secretary of State under President James K. Polk.
      
What he lacked was awareness of the dangers the country faced or the courage to do anything about them, which is even more unforgivable than simply making mistakes. Buchanan might have made a passable president at another time, but in          he proved disastrous.
      
  . Franklin Pierce,         -      
      
Ol’ Frank Pierce usually makes it to the bottom of most of these lists, probably because he did more to set the stage for the Civil War than any other president. What did he do? Well, for one thing, he repealed the Missouri Compromise act of         , thereby reopening the question of whether slavery should be permitted in new western states, further fueling the fires of succession — which he also supported, by the way (even becoming the only ex-president to openly support the south during the Civil War). It’s not that Franklin was evil.

In fact, by most accounts he was a fairly genial guy. It’s just that he was badly on the wrong side of history who probably did more than any other president to make the Civil War inevitable. Sadly, he was also the only president to die of alcoholism, succumbing to sclerosis of the liver in, making him about as tragic a figure as one could imagine.

 You might also want to read: Top 10 American Presidents

Top 10 Presidents of the USA

These are the best presidents in American history, ranked by their lasting contributions
 to the country. The tenth best President was John F. Kennedy, an inspiring leader whose key foreign policy accomplishment was confronting the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, Europe and most notably, Latin America, by forcing the Soviet Union to remove their nuclear weapons from Cuba during the tense  -day missile crisis in At home, he promoted the ambitious "New Frontier" domestic program, promising federal funding for education and aid programs for rural America. This also included pushing for medicare, which today is one of the most popular government programs providing healthcare for America’s seniors.

It was passed by congress and signed into law three years after JFK was assassinated in Dallas, ending his presidency after just three years in office.
 
Although James Polk died from cholera  months after he left office after serving only one term, he got a lot done. He believed in Manifest Destiny, that American settlers were destined to move westward, and negotiated possession of the Oregon Territory from the British and purchased New Mexico and California from Mexico after defeating them in the Mexican-American-War. He restored an independent treasury and was able to enact much of the democratic policy agenda.
 
Lyndon Johnson grabs the eighth spot on this list for being the last president to pass a massive domestic policy agenda that favored the people. Many of these achievements were part of his “great society” and are still cornerstones of modern America. As president, LBJ was responsible for signing the Civil and Voting rights acts; declaring a war on poverty; implementing gun control; setting up public broadcasting; enacting medicare and medicaid; appointing Thurgood Marshall as the first African American justice on the Supreme Court; signing an education bill that significantly improved funding to schools;establishing the National Endowments for the Humanities and Arts; protecting  .

Million acres of federal land; signing, developing and enforcing the clean air act; and passing comprehensive immigration reform for non-europeans. Unfortunately, Johnson’s standing takes a hit over the Vietnam war, in which he dramatically escalated American involvement from  ,  to   ,   combat troops. He did not seek a second term.
 
Under President Dwight Eisenhower the United States became the world’s richest country and our final two states, Alaska and Hawaii, were admitted to the union.
 
At home, Eisenhower launched the Interstate Highway System, created NASA along with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which has developed a slew of important technologies, and established strong science education. He was a solid supporter of civil rights and signed the first major civil rights legislation in over   years, since Abroad, Eisenhower used nuclear threats to conclude the Korean War with China and prioritized inexpensive nuclear weapons and a reduction of conventional military forces as a strategy for keeping pressure on the Soviet Union and reducing the federal deficit.
 
Number six is Woodrow Wilson, who led America into WWI, the decisive moment that turned the conflict in the allies’ favor. After commanding the allied victory, he sponsored the league of nations - an early UN. Unfortunately, despite Wilson’s strong support, the US Senate voted not to join the league, a consequential moment that definitely made the body weaker than it should have been and was partially the reason why the Nazi party was able to rise to power in Germany.
 
Thomas Jefferson - the founding father who wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence - became America’s third President in    after serving as Adams’ Vice President and the first US Secretary of State under George Washington. He brilliantly doubled the size of the United States by reaching a deal with Napoleon Bonaparte to purchase the Louisiana territory from France for just $  million dollars. This area encompassed what eventually became all or part of   different states. Though he signed a bill in banning slave importation into the country, his legacy has been tainted by the fact that he owned slaves.
 
Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, taking over after William McKinley was assassinated, was the youngest man to become president. A true progressive, he was the first president to call for environmental conservation and greatly expanded the national parks system.
 
His square deal also focused on an expansion of consumer protection laws and greater control of corporations. A man of his word, he dissolved   monopolistic businesses during his presidency. Teddy’s “speak softly and carry a big stick” policy built up America’s navy, keeping the country militarily strong, but out of wars. After helping Panama win independence, he negotiated US control of the construction of the Panama Canal there. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace prize for ending the first great war of the  th century between the empires of Russia and Japan.
 
George Washington, the first President of the United States, comes in third. His strength as the executive after leading the country to victory in the revolutionary war cemented his status as the “father of the country.” He kept America out of wars between European powers so that America could mature from its infancy, and his leadership style established many customs that are still in place today, like using a cabinet system to delegate responsibilities and delivering an inaugural address.
 
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt’s fifth cousin, is the second-greatest President of all-time. FDR was elected president an unprecedented four times and served for years until his death. He took office at the depths of the Great Depression and in his first    days in office, aggressively implemented the New Deal programs, and the economy improved rapidly. He successfully led the United States and the allies - along with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin - defeating Hitler and the axis powers in World War II.
 
The greatest president of all-time is Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was the glue that held the country together as it unshackled itself from what was always going to be the biggest threat to the continuity of the nation  ending the practice of slavery--a challenge so daunting the founding fathers had to leave it for later generations to solve. Assassinated five days after General Lee’s surrender, Lincoln paid the ultimate price for leading the victorious Union through America’s bloodiest conflict. His victory in the Civil War strengthened the federal government, modernized the economy and set the nation on the prosperous path we are still walking today, nearly    years later.
 
 You might also want to read: Top 10 Worst American Presidents