# Does Hollywood have no idea how intravenous injection works? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 14, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958 "2015-03-14T03:52:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/21 "2015-03-15T00:16:34Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > This is _Fringe_, right? Erm, yes. I said that in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/22 "2015-03-15T03:01:43Z")
:smack: You did. Anyhow, the injection stuff was far from the “have no idea how things really work” thing in that show. I still enjoyed it. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/23 "2015-03-15T03:24:34Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > When I was given the mandatory VD lecture in Vietnam, the medic told us that if we “started dripping like a faucet,” we would be unable to return home when our tour was over, and we would “get a 60cc penicillin injection in the right side of the left nut. With a long, square needle. {pause} Four times!” > > Think he was exaggerating? I suspect after about the 30th mass short arm inspection, medics got really annoyed at the concept of VD. ---
**Author:** ![theR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@theR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theR)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/24 "2015-03-15T03:51:44Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > Or, you know, it might be an intra_muscular_ drug. I’ve used intramuscular Geodon on patients before. Calms them the fuck down and a 21 gauge needle is about an inch and a half long. Sometimes what you think is bullshit… isn’t. Don’t forget that subcutaneous injections are also a thing. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/25 "2015-03-15T12:48:34Z")
> **[thatsnothowyoupipette](https://thatsnothowyoupipette.tumblr.com/)** > > This blog is inspired by a love for science and bad TV. Please send any submissions of... ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/26 "2015-03-15T14:39:53Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > [http://thatsnothowyoupipette.tumblr.com/](http://thatsnothowyoupipette.tumblr.com/) Eh the examples from Farscape are kind silly because it was pretty clear in context that it was some kind of alien injector device. It might have been a pipette used as a prop repainted, but in the episode it was an injector. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/27 "2015-03-15T14:52:40Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Does Hollywood have no idea how intravenous injection works? > WTF? The know just as much about those as they do AEDs. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/28 "2015-03-15T20:35:50Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Would this be related to the way they never actually show a character taking pills? Even legal medication? Instead, they’ll show the character shaking the pills into the palm of their hand, and then bringing their cupped palm to their mouth, covering their whole mouth with their palm, so you never actually see the pills going into their mouth. > [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > A former roommate of mine (now deceased) was effectively “addicted” to herbal supplements. … And I could not help noticing that he put the pills into his mouth in exactly the same way they show it on TV. He’s literally the only person I’ve seen take pills that way IRL. I hate to sound stupid, but what other way is there? Say I shake four aspirin out of the bottle and into the palm of my hand. I’m supposed to pick them up, one by one, in my fingertips and transfer each one to my mouth individually? That’s absurd. I bring my palm up to my mouth, which pops all four pills inside, and then take a sip of water. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/29 "2015-03-16T00:02:48Z")
I really enjoy tv tropes for giving shots, they’ve taught me a lot. For example: When preparing a shot, turn the needle up and squirt about three cc’s into the air. When you need to sedate a bad guy in a hurry, jab him in the neck (as already stated above). When you need to give yourself an emergency injection jab it directly into your heart. (Ain’t nobody as manly as Malcolm Reynolds in that regard!) Always use a needle three to eight inches long, depending on the scenario described above. Oh, also whenever you need to inject yourself, yank the needle cap off with your teeth and spit it out. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/30 "2015-03-16T00:27:59Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > The answer to all questions of this form is pretty much always “No, Hollywood has no idea how \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ works.” (See also [Sjöberg’s Law of Cinematic Innacurracy](http://brunching.com/mylaws.html).) Hell, even when they make a move _about making movies_, it will almost certainly not actually be an accurate depiction of the movie-making process. (“They film all of the scenes in order, right? And all the special effects and sound are all part of that, right?”) > > Mostly it’s a matter of Dramatic License and/or Rule of Cool (or at least Rule of Not-Watching-Paint-Dry). > > I also admit that while I have been the subject of properly done intravenous needle placements (which indeed look like nothing I’ve ever seen in a movie or on TV) I actually have no idea what the proper procedure for giving a fast-acting sedative injection to some uncooperative person looks like. This is exactly correct. Hollywood doesn’t know how any profession works—medicine, law, journalism, law enforcement, high finance—and they don’t particularly care. Movies and television aren’t documentaries. They have no need to do anything realistically. They also don’t know how any specific real-life city is laid out or that it can’t actually go form noon to midnight from one end of an underpass to another. It doesn’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/31 "2015-03-16T03:27:29Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > I hate to sound stupid, but what other way is there? > > Say I shake four aspirin out of the bottle and into the palm of my hand. I’m supposed to pick them up, one by one, in my fingertips and transfer each one to my mouth individually? That’s absurd. I bring my palm up to my mouth, which pops all four pills inside, and then take a sip of water. Yes, but do you toss the pills into your mouth quickly and then lower your hand, or do you leave the palm of your hand over your mouth for several seconds and appear to be slowly licking the pills off your hand, as actors (and my former roommate) do? > [@Acsenray](#): > > This is exactly correct. Hollywood doesn’t know how any profession works—medicine, law, journalism, law enforcement, high finance—and they don’t particularly care. Movies and television aren’t documentaries. They have no need to do anything realistically. Now that you mention it, I’m frequently driven nuts by the depictions of restaurants in movies/shows. Specifically, those scenes where a character is dining in a small, cozy restaurant that seats perhaps 50-100 people. The character’s enemy bursts in through the front door, waving a gun, and so the character opts to flee by running through the kitchen and out the back door. And it is revealed that this small, cozy restaurant has a gigantic, convention-sized kitchen with 12 white-clad chefs. I’m convinced that that type of depiction is the reason some people see nothing wrong with showing up in party of 40 at a small restaurant, without calling ahead, and then complaining, “Why is our food taking so long?” They just don’t understand that we don’t have a gigantic kitchen with a dozen chefs. We have a cramped kitchen that feels like it was added as an afterthought, with one or two guys in T-shirts and baseball caps, and no space to prepare 40 meals all at once. Granted, I understand why Hollywood shows kitchens like that: There would be no room for a camera crew in a realistically-sized kitchen. So they shoot the dining room scene in a restaurant that has the look they want, and shoot the kitchen scene in some hotel’s catering kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/32 "2015-03-16T04:55:56Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Quoted for truth. > > What does bug me, though, is when they are doing a venipuncture (blood draw) and just jab the skin randomly. That is _not_ how it works. > > mmm That’s the one that bugs me. Also, they usually don’t use a tourniquet to make the vein pop up, they just stick it in. Also, I just wanted to say … SED-A-GIVE! ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/33 "2015-03-16T06:38:24Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > This is exactly correct. Hollywood doesn’t know how any profession works—medicine, law, journalism, law enforcement, high finance—and they don’t particularly care. Movies and television aren’t documentaries. They have no need to do anything realistically. > > They also don’t know how any specific real-life city is laid out or that it can’t actually go form noon to midnight from one end of an underpass to another. It doesn’t matter. What I find amusing is that sometimes Hollywood gets it correct, but people disbelieve it because it’s in a movie. Hollywood’s percentage ain’t that great, granted, but I look at the OP and I think if I was unethical “mythbuster” I could easily make take somebody down with a poorly aimed injection. Myth _confirmed_. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/34 "2015-03-16T06:55:39Z")
Wait a minute! Are you trying to tell me that Medical and Nursing school graduates know more about giving intravenous and intramuscular injections than Film school graduates? :dubious: Now pull the other one, it’s got bells on it. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958/35 "2015-03-18T00:28:37Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > The answer to all questions of this form is pretty much always “No, Hollywood has no idea how \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ works.” (See also [Sjöberg’s Law of Cinematic Innacurracy](http://brunching.com/mylaws.html).) Hell, even when they make a move _about making movies_, it will almost certainly not actually be an accurate depiction of the movie-making process. (“They film all of the scenes in order, right? And all the special effects and sound are all part of that, right?”) > > Mostly it’s a matter of Dramatic License and/or Rule of Cool (or at least Rule of Not-Watching-Paint-Dry). I went to AA with a relative once and my largest takeaway from it was that every one in Hollywood must be an alcoholic, since the experience basically matched what you see in TV and in film more or less exactly. They might not know how movies are made, but they know what goes on in an AA meeting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hollywood-have-no-idea-how-intravenous-injection-works/714958.md?page=1)