# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/101 "2022-03-21T18:55:55Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > If a woman of child-bearing age feels nauseous or throws up at any time, but especially in the morning, she’s preggers. Fainting can also often indicate pregnancy. Or terminal illness. It’s a toss-up, really. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2022, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/102 "2022-03-21T18:59:02Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Then there’s “Not Believing the Kid” (or other naive character) who Saw Something Important, so the plot goes round and round in circles until – oh yeah, The Kid really saw The Thing, so we shoulda believed him before 17 more people got killed. However, this worked _really_ well at emphasizing the creepiness in the original _Invaders from Mars_ movie. That movie scared me to death when I was a kid. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2022, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/103 "2022-03-21T19:09:06Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Fainting can also often indicate pregnancy. Or terminal illness. It’s a toss-up, really. Depends on the woman’s age. If she’s pre-menopause, it’s baby time, if older, it’s bye-bye. > [@carrps](#): > > However, this worked _really_ well at emphasizing the creepiness in the original _Invaders from Mars_ movie. That movie scared me to death when I was a kid. Not saying it can’t be effective, just overused. Heck, think of the times Andy didn’t believe Opie, and that kid was well-nigh perfect! Another one: whenever the cops walk up to the front door of a residence, and it’s ajar, there’s a dead body inside somewhere. Always. Asking someone, “Are you okay?” when their whole family has been murdered, their house burned to the ground, and their dog run over. The cop who refuses to see the shrink. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2022, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/104 "2022-03-21T19:23:07Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Cars blow up at the drop of a hat-- going over a cliff, or flipping upside down, or crashing into concrete barriers. Are cars really **that** explosive? And the cousin of the exploding car: the gun that goes off when someone drops it. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Then there’s “Not Believing the Kid” (or other naive character) who Saw Something Important, so the plot goes round and round in circles until – oh yeah, The Kid really saw The Thing, so we shoulda believed him before 17 more people got killed. Oh well. And the “Not Letting the Kid Get a Word in Edgewise” variation. The kid just saw The Important Thing and is tugging on the arm of one of the adults while they’re standing around discussing **the very problem the kid desperately wants to tell them about**. . . and “Quiet, kid. Adults are talking.” ---
**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:** [March 21, 2022, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/105 "2022-03-21T19:26:09Z")
That’s the kid’s cue to run off and try to Fix Things on his own. And get into big trouble, possibly life-threatening. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2022, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/106 "2022-03-21T19:29:44Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > in the original _Invaders from Mars_ movie But that film used the it was really just a dream! cliche. Or _was it_? > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Are cars really **that** explosive? To be fair, cars almost never explode going over cliffs these days (at least not before they hit bottom), unlike the 70s, where the second the tires stop touching ground the car explodes! ---
**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:** [March 21, 2022, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/107 "2022-03-21T19:37:17Z")
Someone’s life is threatened (police or civilian): “I don’t need protection!” “I can take care of myself!” “I don’t need a babysitter!” Also, the Safe House is the least safe place to put the defendant/witness. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2022, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/108 "2022-03-21T20:21:01Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > If anyone, but especially a middle-aged man, has a pain in their left arm: heart attack. “It’s nothing … just a little indigestion. I’ll be okay in a minute.” ---
**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:** [March 21, 2022, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/109 "2022-03-21T20:24:57Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > To be fair, cars almost never explode going over cliffs these days (at least not before they hit bottom), unlike the 70s, where the second the tires stop touching ground the car explodes! Remember, this _was_ right after the Pinto came out… ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/110 "2022-03-22T01:13:49Z")
Safe House’s find absolutely nothing wrong with suddenly a pizza delivery guy or package delivery man showing up completely unexpected and are happy to just open up the sealed door wide for them. Bonus points if the pizza delivery guy hands the man guarding the door the pizzas so as he’s holding him distracted, then that’s when the silenced pistol comes out. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/111 "2022-03-22T01:19:33Z")
Maybe the most hack cliche that pops up all the time still. A man with a huge penis/a woman with huge breasts is the most sexually desirable person of all time to everyone. If a woman (or gay man) sees a dude accidentally naked and he just happens to have a huge penis, she will tell her friends and suddenly EVERYONE is going to want to sleep with him regardless of how ugly or awkward he is. If a man sees a woman with huge breasts at a party or at work despite him being in a happy relationship, expect all sorts of awkward moments as he can’t seem to escape the gravitational pull of her breasts. ---
**Author:** ![superwombat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superwombat/32/16616_2.png) [@superwombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/superwombat)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/112 "2022-03-22T01:25:15Z")
The stylish last drag, then flick of a cigarette butt to light up an equally stylish petroleum fuelled kiloton explosion, walking cooly away from it, donning sunglasses. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/113 "2022-03-22T01:30:27Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Then there’s “Not Believing the Kid” (or other naive character) who Saw Something Important, so the plot goes round and round in circles until – oh yeah, The Kid really saw The Thing, so we shoulda believed him before 17 more people got killed. Oh well. this was lampshaded major plot point in the parody horror “eight-legged freaks” dean devlins best work after the tv show he made … and I forget the name of ATM ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/114 "2022-03-22T01:33:04Z")
lol porn would die if any that was banned lol ---
**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:** [March 22, 2022, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/115 "2022-03-22T04:19:34Z")
Someone\* is working alone late at night in their office. It’s pitch dark. The only illumination is one small lamp on the desk. The person hears a sound somewhere outside the office. They stand up and go to the door of the room. Do they immediately flip on all the lights in the place? No. They shout into the darkness, “Who’s there? Is anyone there?” And then they proceed **into** the darkness, calling out, “Who’s there?” over and over until they get bashed in the head. * * * * * * \* It’s probably the defendant/witness/cop who said (above), “I don’t need any protection! I’ll be fine!” ---
**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:** [March 22, 2022, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/116 "2022-03-22T06:56:30Z")
Two people talking. The camera goes close on one of them. If it stays on them for more than a couple seconds, it will pull out to show the other one is gone. See: every iteration of Batman. Just watched a scene where 2 guys were talking. One walks to his car. The camera follows the other guy just long enough for us to know the car is going to explode, making the walking away guy turn to face the camera in shock. If someone gets in a car and the camera is in closeup on their face when they pull out, they’re going to have an accident. Especial!y if they’re looking over their shoulder in reverse, in which case they will accidentally jolt forward. When someone stands inside an open refrigerator door, or medicine cabinet, when they close it there will be someone standing behind it. If someone enters a house and throws their keys on a table without turning on a light, there will be someone sitting in the dark waiting for them. Usually smoking a cigarette. ---
**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:** [March 22, 2022, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/117 "2022-03-22T12:34:40Z")
How about horror movie clichés? Let’s see, the classic “victim fodder is cautiously walking through darkened building when ‘raaaaawwwwrr!’-- screeching cat jump-scare”. The “scary / murdery thing happens to protagonist, but it’s just a nightmare, thank God” cliché. I’m so sick of this one, not just because it’s an easy and hacky way to trick the audience and ratchet up jump scares without advancing the plot too quickly; also because, and maybe this just bothers me, who dreams that they are watching themselves, as if they are in a movie? All my dreams and nightmares are in POV first-person mode. > [@lissener](#): > > When someone stands inside an open refrigerator door, or medicine cabinet, when they close it there will be someone standing behind it. This one is so common I’m pretty sure I saw a couple recent horror movies where they subverted it and messed with your expectations-- person is shaving, brushing their teeth or whatever in bathroom mirror; camera first shows view over their shoulder into the mirror; then scene changes to camera directly on face; then back to mirror where you expect the ghost or whatever to be in the mirror…but no. A couple back-and-forth mirror views, no scary thing, you relax a bit. Then the person exits the bathroom…and THE SCARY THING IS RIGHT THERE IN THE HALL ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/118 "2022-03-22T21:24:37Z")
I know it’s been mentioned before, but I don’t think in this thread. The police procedural tv show trope, “the car has gps navigation, so we can track it!” Maybe _now_ when cars actually have mobile phones built in, but from about 2000 to maybe 2015 gps navigation systems were reasonably common, but always on data connections were rare, yet it seems every other episode of CSI was doing it. Of course the magical gps feedback system also worked on the occasional hiking gps, but in those cases it was the lack of gps that caused the problem, “he usually hikes with a gps, but because he left it behind we can’t track him.” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/119 "2022-03-22T23:02:47Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > The police procedural tv show trope, “the car has gps navigation, so we can track it!” Serious question: is this even possible? You’d have to know the car’s VIN, and then get a court order to get OnStar (or whatever, I assume there are more providers?) to give you access. But do cars even routinely report back? Can they be remotely queried to give up their data? I have my onstar turned off. Can it be remotely turned on? How long would this take? Does the car store history data? That is, what if by the time they get the court order, and wake up the folk at OnStar, I’m home parked in my driveway, and there’s no history? Or is this just CSI-grade “happy hooey” and has no basis in fact? Like cars getting “hacked” and being driven remotely, even if that model has no automatic steering controls (and the hacker has no way to see where the car is going)? Makes you long for the simpler days of “enhance”, where if you just enhance the right way, you can read a license plate reflected from a person’s eyeball taken from an ATM camera across the street. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2022, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002/120 "2022-03-22T23:23:53Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Serious question: is this even possible? With my Tesla I’m sure it is. I can see in real time on my phone where the car is. This isn’t even some hacker stuff, but right in the Tesla app. I can also remote control it, but only if the phone is near the car. I’m sure the user agreement has something about turning over that information under a valid court order. The only times I’ve heard of law enforcement tracking a Tesla in real time was with a stolen car and the assistance of the owner. Tracking can be disabled within the car, but I don’t know if Tesla can re-enable it remotely. My guess is that OnStar and other systems have similar abilities, but I’m not familiar enough with them to say for sure. Almost any app on your phone with location permission can track you, and be compelled (or attempted to be compelled) by law enforcement to turn over logs or real time information. I’m still waiting for well written scripts where smart characters leave phones behind, or send them to alternative locations, etc. to throw off pursuit. Usually the smart character uses a phone then cracks it in half and throws it in the trash to show they have good opsec. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealbreaker-screenplay-cliches/961002.md?page=7)