Movie conventions that don't reflect the real world

[Kodos]

Example 1: The W.O.P.R. trying to crack the launch code for the nuclear missiles. They show the W.O.P.R. slowly getting the code digit by digit for dramatic effect. In real life, it's pretty much all or nothing with each attempt to guess the password.

Here's a Wikipedia article on cracking:
Password cracking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[cuervo72]

Don't they have an entire site for tropes like this?

[panerd]

Ben Affleck having a picnic in downtown D.C. right after a nuke went off. Basically any situation where a bomb goes off and people are able to return to the scene later without like 10,000 cops and reporters swarming all over the place. (Especially a nuke that killed about 100,000)

[Autumn]

Doing absolutely everything on a computer by typing prolifically at a high speed. I mean sure, there are keyboard shortcuts, but you don't edit photos by typing really fast. Nobody ever uses a mouse on a computer.

[Izulde]

The meet-cute and the grand dramatic gesture of romantic comedies. (particularly the success of the latter).

[Kodos]

The way people use game pads on TV and in movies is pathetic. Apparently, you just smash buttons and jack the sticks around in random fashion.

[stevew]

Watch the ending scene of Liar Liar where Jim Carrey basically tries to Hijack an airplane to proclaim his love. In 2012, he gets shot in the face by security for at least 4-5 different things he does.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

I would pay to see Jim Carrey shot in the face.

[JediKooter]

How quickly we forget that fictional movies are...fictional.

[Cap Ologist]

I always loved how in every western, they always had to build a new gallows. Was it too much trouble to leave the old one up? Were they trying to boost tourism by tearing them down between hangings?

[Peregrine]

In every action scene car chase in a city, it's daytime but the streets are almost empty - is it always Christmas?

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Kodos

The way people use game pads on TV and in movies is pathetic. Apparently, you just smash buttons and jack the sticks around in random fashion.

They must all be playing a fighting game like Marvel vs capcom or tekken.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Cap Ologist

I always loved how in every western, they always had to build a new gallows. Was it too much trouble to leave the old one up? Were they trying to boost tourism by tearing them down between hangings?

LOL That is awesome!

[BrianD]

Every night has a full moon.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Don't they have an entire site for tropes like this?

You mean like this?

Home Page - Television Tropes & Idioms

[CrimsonFox]

that's cause werewolves are everywhere.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

You mean like this?

Home Page - Television Tropes & Idioms

Well look at that.

(yeah, that one.)

[albionmoonlight]

One of my favorites:

The audience always has to know to whom the guy on the phone is speaking, so he always calls and says something like, "Hello, American Express? This is John Smith, and I . . ."

Which means that, apparently, American Express (and every other multinational corporation) does not identify itself to callers, but simply answers the phone "Hi."

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

How quickly we forget that fictional movies are...fictional.

So? Would it hurt them to have the actor click a mouse? Certainly some conventions make for a better dramatic story. I'm not going to complain about how they zoom in on pictures and suddenly in high resolution have some ridiculous detail. But it's stuff like the keyboard which I never quite get. Everybody involved in making a movie must use a computer sometimes. Why are they incapable of reproducing that activity on the screen?

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

One of my favorites:

The audience always has to know to whom the guy on the phone is speaking, so he always calls and says something like, "Hello, American Express? This is John Smith, and I . . ."

Which means that, apparently, American Express (and every other multinational corporation) does not identify itself to callers, but simply answers the phone "Hi."

Or how everybody just hangs up the phone without saying goodbye.

[Autumn]

Oh, also how people stop by someone's house to visit, spend about 30 seconds talking and then say they have to get going once the plot point is delivered.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Autumn

So? Would it hurt them to have the actor click a mouse? Certainly some conventions make for a better dramatic story. I'm not going to complain about how they zoom in on pictures and suddenly in high resolution have some ridiculous detail. But it's stuff like the keyboard which I never quite get. Everybody involved in making a movie must use a computer sometimes. Why are they incapable of reproducing that activity on the screen?

ENHANCE!

[albionmoonlight]

dola:

Oh, and no one ever finishes a drink in a movie. The detective comes to the bar, orders a drink, sits next to the criminal, and has a 45 second conversation along the lines of "We're watching you, and when you screw up, I'm gonna be there to make sure that you go down. Count on it." Then he leaves. And the drink is either totally ignored, or he's gotten, like, one sip.

Just don't order the drink, man.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by Autumn

So? Would it hurt them to have the actor click a mouse? Certainly some conventions make for a better dramatic story. I'm not going to complain about how they zoom in on pictures and suddenly in high resolution have some ridiculous detail. But it's stuff like the keyboard which I never quite get. Everybody involved in making a movie must use a computer sometimes. Why are they incapable of reproducing that activity on the screen?

This is like reading the Goofs section for a movie on IMDB. Some are actual 'tropes/goofs' while others are just complaints. However, I think you give too much credit to directors being computer savvy. You'd be surprised.

Star Trek IV The Voyage Home
Jurassic Park

Are two that I can name off the top of my head where people use a mouse. I'm sure there's more.

Ok how about this one? Why is it whenever (well a lot of the time) when they show someone using a computer (no matter what kind of computer), when they have a shot of the screen, it is clearly some form of the Mac OS?

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Autumn

Or how everybody just hangs up the phone without saying goodbye.

This is actually standard in a lot of fiction. It's not essential dialogue, so you just cut it.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Star Trek IV The Voyage Home
Jurassic Park

Are two that I can name off the top of my head where people use a mouse. I'm sure there's more.

I love that whole bit in Star Trek IV. Scotty tries to talk to the computer, gets weird looks and someone hands him a mouse. He then tries to talk into the mouse. They suggest he use the keyboard. Then what makes the entire scene is they subvert expectations of how this scene will go by actually having Scotty being able to type super fast on a keyboard.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

I love that whole bit in Star Trek IV. Scotty tries to talk to the computer, gets weird looks and someone hands him a mouse. He then tries to talk into the mouse. They suggest he use the keyboard. Then what makes the entire scene is they subvert expectations of how this scene will go by actually having Scotty being able to type super fast on a keyboard.

Haha yes! Bones hands him the mouse and Scotty tries to talk into it. And then his blindingly fast typing for the formula for transparent aluminum, which is done on a...Apple computer.

And now we have: HowStuffWorks "ALON: Transparent Aluminum Armor"

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by Izulde

This is actually standard in a lot of fiction. It's not essential dialogue, so you just cut it.

But fiction is a different animal. If you cut dialogue in fiction, I fill in the rest with my mind. But if I watch, in real time, a real human being (or a cartoon) talk on the phone and then immediately hang it up, I can't fill that in. You need to edit differently if you want to simulate that fiction experience.

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

dola:

Oh, and no one ever finishes a drink in a movie. The detective comes to the bar, orders a drink, sits next to the criminal, and has a 45 second conversation along the lines of "We're watching you, and when you screw up, I'm gonna be there to make sure that you go down. Count on it." Then he leaves. And the drink is either totally ignored, or he's gotten, like, one sip.

Just don't order the drink, man.

Yes, exactly.

Oh and worse dola ever.

[larrymcg421]

"Hey, wanna go on a date?"
"Sure"
"Okay, I'll see you at 8".

Scene ends. Phone numbers have not been exchanged. Address has not been given.

[NorvTurnerOverdrive]

everything to do with guns.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by NorvTurnerOverdrive

everything to do with guns.

or outerspace.
or computers (as has been amply pointed out)

[Draft Dodger]

or glass windows

[NorvTurnerOverdrive]

getting konked in the head and waking up 12 hours later

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Autumn

I'm not going to complain about how they zoom in on pictures and suddenly in high resolution have some ridiculous detail.

If it's an action movie and the picture doesn't matter that much, then no, I don't care much either. Bit if it's a crime or political drama and the picture is key evidence, then that's just exceptionally lazy writing.

One that sticks out to me is how classes in college seem to last about 30 seconds.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by NorvTurnerOverdrive

getting konked in the head and waking up 12 hours later

...without a concussion.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Ok how about this one? Why is it whenever (well a lot of the time) when they show someone using a computer (no matter what kind of computer), when they have a shot of the screen, it is clearly some form of the Mac OS?

Apple owns Hollywood. PC's are 85-90% of the market, and yet 90% of offices in tv/movies are Apple-based.

[gstelmack]

My favorite has always been that the A-Team could never hit the broadside of a barn, unless they were shooting at the tires of the police cars chasing them while hanging off the side of the van...

Or any John Woo movie, where the stars have deadly accuracy while shooting everyone else, but can't come anywhere near each other, as exemplified best in the movie Faceoff.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Apple owns Hollywood. PC's are 85-90% of the market, and yet 90% of offices in tv/movies are Apple-based.

Apple doesn't own Hollywood, trust me. We would have loved to though, but, they were about 10% of our user base. I don't know what it is now, but, I can't imagine it being above 10% with the FCP X fiasco. I'm now at ILM...we use Linux.

But that's what I find very funny. Most show PCs, but the screen displays, especially when they are playing back video on a computer, seems to be always Apple.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Apple doesn't own Hollywood, trust me. We would have loved to though, but, they were about 10% of our user base. I don't know what it is now, but, I can't imagine it being above 10% with the FCP X fiasco. I'm now at ILM...we use Linux.

But that's what I find very funny. Most show PCs, but the screen displays, especially when they are playing back video on a computer, seems to be always Apple.

Misinterpreted. I'm saying that Apple must literally be buying Hollywood. Their market share of TV/Movie offices on screen is much higher than reality.

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by sabotai

One that sticks out to me is how classes in college seem to last about 30 seconds.

Saved by the bell - the college years?

[GrantDawg]

And for my real reason behind it: Apple gives permission when Microsoft demands payment. Apple probably feels like any screen time is free advertising.

[RomaGoth]

The one I like is how people always just enter someone's house or room. Does nobody ever knock on a door before entering? Kramer (Seinfeld) made it famous, but I can't remember the last sitcom I watched that actually included people knocking on the door prior to entering the room. They all seem to live in some weird community-type apartment (How I met your mother is good at this too).

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Misinterpreted. I'm saying that Apple must literally be buying Hollywood. Their market share of TV/Movie offices on screen is much higher than reality.

Ah yes. Sorry about that. Yes, that is very true indeed. What's funny was, before I was a Mac user, I noticed this and never understood why, that even after working there, I still don't. Maybe they are paying studios to do it?



One of my favorite movie tropes is the spontaneous car explosion. One bullet is all it takes.

[Bad-example]

Person enters darkened room and suspects there is someone else there. Suspense builds until someone off camera breaks the tension by throwing a cat into frame. Boo!

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

One of my favorite movie tropes is the spontaneous car explosion. One bullet is all it takes.

I've gotten to where I can't even watch action films because of this. But even non-action tv or movies follow this convention. If there is a car accident, there is going to be a fire. And if there is a fire, the car is going to explode. I very tiny fraction of car accidents cause fires, and cars don't explode unless they are filled with explosives.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I've gotten to where I can't even watch action films because of this. But even non-action tv or movies follow this convention. If there is a car accident, there is going to be a fire. And if there is a fire, the car is going to explode. I very tiny fraction of car accidents cause fires, and cars don't explode unless they are filled with explosives.

I definitely hear you on that. It doesn't bother me too much though, depending on the context of the movie.

This is my favorite from Top Secret: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT0J0rcJTLo

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

I definitely hear you on that. It doesn't bother me too much though, depending on the context of the movie.

This is my favorite from Top Secret: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT0J0rcJTLo

The first one I thought of as well.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by NorvTurnerOverdrive

everything to do with guns.

Yeah, definitely.

My favorite "what the hell" with guns in movies is when the petite, small-armed damsel in distress has to do the unthinkable to save the hero and has to pick up his discarded gun (see corollary to this, below, BTW) to kill a bad guy, she can fire that big 9 mil gun evenly and accurately with no kick at all.

It's the no kick that gets me. Anyone who has fired a large handgun can tell you how hard it is to keep the gun still after firing (as in, it doesn't happen).

Corollary: if two people struggle for a gun, one of two things will happen; 1) They will fight over it between them, get close enough to hide the gun, and then a shot will go off, leaving us with that "who just got shot!!!" moment for a bit; or 2) (as related to above) they will fall to the floor in the struggle and said gun with slide scross the room, usually in the general direction of the heroine.

[spleen1015]

Reading this thread, I realize that real life is really fucking boring.

I want more car explosions on the way to work.