# Dealbreaker screenplay clichés **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [March 14, 2022, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002 "2022-03-14T02:31:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2022, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/201 "2022-04-04T16:35:08Z")
That’s phenomenally stupid: The street she’s walking across is a T intersection. The bus would have to be turning as it hit her. And going slowly, with the driver watching out for the curb and maybe even pedestrians. And more bad physics: after she’s hit, her blood gets flung _sideways,_ and of course there’s enough for every bystander to get sprayed in the face. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2022, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/202 "2022-04-04T16:50:25Z")
> [@digs](#): > > And more bad physics: after she’s hit, her blood gets flung _sideways,_ and of course there’s enough for every bystander to get sprayed in the face. To paraphrase _Galaxy Quest_, “Then she exploded.” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/203 "2022-04-04T17:45:39Z")
> [@digs](#): > > That’s phenomenally stupid: The street she’s walking across is a T intersection. The bus would have to be turning as it hit her. And going slowly, with the driver watching out for the curb and maybe even pedestrians. Ha, you’re right, I didn’t notice that before-- in addition to all the other silliness of a bus being able to flatten the girl by surprise in a quiet, open, sleepy little Main Street area with no other traffic, there is no way whatsoever the bus could have come from that direction with that much speed, unless it teleported there somehow. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/204 "2022-04-05T07:55:41Z")
I believe that scene is the origin of the trope, so it could rely on real shock to distract the audience, who was not expecting it. Nowadays if the camera lingers on someone for more than a second after they step into the street you know exactly what’s coming. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/205 "2022-04-05T11:26:17Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > I believe that scene is the origin of the trope, so it could rely on real shock to distract the audience, who was not expecting it. [Meet Joe Black](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VDdN_b6TjYo), though. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/206 "2022-04-05T14:26:50Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > I believe that scene is the origin of the trope, so it could rely on real shock to distract the audience, who was not expecting it. > [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > [Meet Joe Black](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VDdN_b6TjYo), though. It goes back at least to 1974 and [Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnCF4kJAzIw) ETA: and YouTube just led me to 1971’s [Vanishing Point](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOb2BqiGZGA). There was a lot of grimdark in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/207 "2022-04-06T10:10:18Z")
Sorry I meant that it launched it as a cliché, not that it invented it. The first couple occurrences aren’t clichés yet. After Final Destination it got beaten into the ground, and I’ve heard it described as “like that scene in Final Destination!” more than once. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/208 "2022-04-07T14:39:48Z")
Ooh, I just saw one of my favorite dealbreaker clichés on a TV show-- the heating duct large enough for a grown man to crawl through, that as a bonus is perfectly clean inside. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/209 "2022-04-07T15:04:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Then Steve takes out his snub-nosed revolver, and while dodging fires a single shot and drops the sniper. 🙄 Hell, Jim Rockford got multiple hits on an airplane from his snub nose revolver, and got it to explode in mid-air. I saw a hilarious jump scare this week. Girl is running across an open field towards a cabin. The shot is framed with the cabin behind the camera, off screen. As she approaches the camera, she runs into a man who comes from off-screen surprising everyone, including the girl who obviously had a clear line of sight to the man for at least 10 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/210 "2022-04-07T15:43:02Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Ooh, I just saw one of my favorite dealbreaker clichés on a TV show-- the heating duct large enough for a grown man to crawl through, that as a bonus is perfectly clean inside. Not only big enough, but _strong_ enough to support the weight of a full-grown man crawling at top speed! * * * * * * One of my faves, “Is that a threat??” or the variation, “Are you threatening me??” * * * * * * How about: “Are you saying **I** killed Mary Lou?” “Did you?” There are lots of variations of this one: “You seem to think **I** moved the body.” “Did you?” “Are you asking me if that’s **MY** gun?” “Is it?” “You act like you think I’m lying!” “Are you?” * * * * * * And then at the end of a vigorous interrogation, the cop/detective says, “I’m not accusing you!” when of course he absolutely **IS** accusing the person. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/211 "2022-04-07T16:43:47Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Ooh, I just saw one of my favorite dealbreaker clichés on a TV show-- the heating duct large enough for a grown man to crawl through, that as a bonus is perfectly clean inside. And the duct is silent. In the real world, ducts make loud noises when you handle them. In live theater, rattling a piece of sheet-metal was the traditional method of simulating thunderclaps. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/212 "2022-04-07T18:12:38Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Hell, Jim Rockford got multiple hits on an airplane from his snub nose revolver, and got it to explode in mid-air. Funny you should mention shooting and planes; I just saw a most ridiculous example of marksmanship from an airplane just last night, watching the Rifftrax version of ‘McBain’, a 1991 movie starring Christopher Walken and Maria Conchita Alonzo. So, the setup is, Walken is in the copilot seat of a mid-size prop plane that is invading another country’s airspace. One of the country’s military jets pulls up on the pilot side and is gesturing for the plane to land. Walken pulls out a pistol, and shooting across the pilot of his plane, the bullet somehow magically passes through their canopy without shattering it and takes out the pilot of the military jet. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/213 "2022-04-07T18:17:12Z")
If there is sand in the shot, there will be a hawk screech on the sound track. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/214 "2022-04-07T18:20:26Z")
> [@solost](#): > > > [@Cheesesteak](#): > > > > Hell, Jim Rockford got multiple hits on an airplane from his snub nose revolver, and got it to explode in mid-air. > > Funny you should mention shooting and planes; I just saw a most ridiculous example of marksmanship from an airplane just last night, watching the Rifftrax version of ‘McBain’, a 1991 movie starring Christopher Walken and Maria Conchita Alonzo. > > So, the setup is, Walken is in the copilot seat of a mid-size prop plane that is invading another country’s airspace. One of the country’s military jets pulls up on the pilot side and is gesturing for the plane to land. > > Walken pulls out a pistol, and shooting across the pilot of his plane, the bullet somehow magically passes through their canopy without shattering it and takes out the pilot of the military jet. Sounds like something you’d see on _ **The Simpsons** _. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/215 "2022-04-07T19:08:06Z")
“They stole my thunder!” ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/216 "2022-04-07T19:41:53Z")
Person X has important information that could solve the case, rather than simply cut to a scene of us talking to person X, let’s have scene of us driving up to person X’s house, walking to the door, only to discover it is ajar and person X is not answering us when we call to them. No one will guess person X has been killed. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/217 "2022-04-07T20:05:34Z")
> [@solost](#): > > the heating duct large enough for a grown man to crawl through, that as a bonus is perfectly clean inside. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > One of my faves, “Is that a threat??” or the variation, “Are you threatening me??” I just re-watched The Expanse, and they subverted both of those cliches. Amos: “Is there an air vent?” Prison guard: “Yeah, about 18 inches wide. How small can you make yourself?” Murtry: “Now that was a threat.” _\>shoots guy down in cold blood\<_ ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/218 "2022-04-07T20:36:10Z")
Then there is the related: we have a person/thing X in our possession that the baddies desperately want (and must have to advance the plot) we must get to place Y. Rather than just cut to us at place Y with thing/person X lets have a scene of us driving across town with X in a heavily armed convoy. No one will guess that the baddies are about to ambush us and take X. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/219 "2022-04-07T21:02:00Z")
Ha! And then it turns out that the heavily armed convoy was a _decoy_, and the valuable thingie was actually driven to place Y in an ice cream truck that played “Pop Goes the Weasel” over and over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/220 "2022-04-07T23:13:52Z")
Something like that DID happen after the famous Cullinan diamond was discovered. > **[Cullinan Diamond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullinan_Diamond)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, weighing 3,106.75 carats (621.35 g) (1 lb 5.92 oz), discovered at the Premier No.2 mine in Cullinan, South Africa, on 26 January 1905. It was named after Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the mine. In April 1905, it was put on sale in London, but despite considerable interest, it was still unsold after two years. In 1907, the Transvaal Colony government bought the Cullinan an... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002.md?page=12)