# Dumb things in movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433 "2016-02-28T21:21:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/81 "2016-03-02T01:37:23Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > They deflect gravitons, thus warping the gravitational constant of the multi-verse. Dude. What EVER. But the Empire really, really needs a good [Dental Plan.](http://images.latinpost.com/data/images/full/22339/could-emperor-palpatine-return-for-the-newest-star-wars.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/82 "2016-03-02T01:39:54Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Our guilty TV habit is Hawaii 5-O. We get a kick out of how nearly every week, in the penultimate scene they’ll kill 5-10 bad guys (paradise indeed!), and their reaction is, “Let’s go have a beer!” After the WAVE. ---
**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 2, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/83 "2016-03-02T02:03:08Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Our guilty TV habit is Hawaii 5-O. We get a kick out of how nearly every week, in the penultimate scene they’ll kill 5-10 bad guys (paradise indeed!), and their reaction is, “Let’s go have a beer!” I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch a single episode of this series, but I’ve got to ask: Does McGarrett still say “Book 'em, Danno!” every week? :dubious: 😕☹ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/84 "2016-03-02T03:08:32Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch a single episode of this series, but I’ve got to ask: Does McGarrett still say “Book 'em, Danno!” every week? :dubious: 😕☹ I haven’t seen it since the first run, and did not watch it regularly, but I believe he said, “Book him, Danno!” ---
**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 2, 2016, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/85 "2016-03-02T03:20:24Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I believe he said, “Book him, Danno!” Depends on who the perp(s) were. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/86 "2016-03-02T03:33:46Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Guy gets the drop on another guy, pointing an automatic handgun at him. Guy makes a move and the guy with the gun cocks his automatic dramatically. It’s either a dramatic effect edit, or the guy with the gun had a chambered round with the hammer down, which, for most automatics, would render it useless in a confrontation with someone else carrying a weapon. The list is endless, I know, and most people don’t know the difference. The rest of us just have to grit our teeth. 🙂 Police have their guns on a bad guy. Bad guy takes a hostage and tells all the cops to put their guns down. _They do._ :smack: ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/87 "2016-03-02T03:41:01Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > When the gun magazine runs out of bullets, don’t just throw your Guns the floor. You might find additional cartridges or bullets on the next dead body you encounter. Or you can bludgeon someone with it. > [@Flyer](#): > > Any scene that talks about guns being registered, or needing to be registered. Very, very, very few jurisdictions require any sort of registration for guns. (Except machine guns, but that’s a different issue altogether.) > > > [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > > > Am I reading that correctly? Generally, you have to be registered, ie, licensed, to carry, but the gun itself doesn’t have to be. You can carry any gun you own. * * * I have a very specific bone to pick with _The Good Wife_\*. They keep wanting to do death penalty stories, so they have executions in Indiana, because the show is set in Chicago, and Illinois doesn’t have the death penalty. Well, sorry, but since the show has been on the air, the only executions in Indiana have been the three fictional ones on _The Good Wife_. Since the moratorium was lifted in the 70s, there have only been a few more than a dozen executions here, IIRC, and one of those was Timothy McVeigh, which was a federal execution in Terre Haute. Also, death row in Indiana is in Indianapolis (Terre Haute is even further away), which is about 5 1/2 hours from downtown Chicago. But the characters zip back and forth as though all they have to do is hop the border, which granted is about 75 minutes from Chicago. This is not to mention that no one facing the death penalty would hire some general purpose out-of-state lawyer. He’d want a DP specialist, and a lawyer like that would not practice in a non-DP state. Been wantin’ to say that for a while. \*Yes it’s a TV show, not a movie, but this has been bugging me. ---
**Author:** ![justmeetee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@justmeetee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justmeetee)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/88 "2016-03-02T03:46:46Z")
I’ve turned off a lot of lights over the years and have never heard a loud echoing ka-thunk. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/89 "2016-03-02T07:55:40Z")
Let’s make some androids that look just like humans and fill them with blood! WTF Dinosaurs sound like lions/tigers because of course they do. I mean, they’re reptiles. Why don’t they hiss? Why don’t they sound like giant chickens? Someone hangs up on you in a movie, you get dial tone. Huh? I always get that voice. “If you’d like to make a call…” No dial tone for minutes. All right, not a lot of people have seen androids and live dinosaurs, but who hasn’t been hung up on? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/90 "2016-03-02T13:18:47Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Let’s make some androids that look just like humans and fill them with blood! WTF > > Dinosaurs sound like lions/tigers because of course they do. I mean, they’re reptiles. Why don’t they hiss? Why don’t they sound like giant chickens? One of the intriguing things about the original 1933 **King Kong** is that the T. Rex in it DOES hiss – it doesn’t roar. as related in Goldner and Turner’s book _The Making of King Kong_, Cooper and Schoedsack contacted the American Museum of Natural History in New York on just this issue (as they had on many details regarding the dinosaurs), and received a reply that they claim boiled down to “Dinosaurs didn’t roar, you idiots – they’re reptiles!” But they couldn’t have them be silent, either. So Murray Spivak and his sound crew came up with the weird sort of hissing thing, which I believe one of the sound technicians did simply using his mouth. Kong’s roar, on the other hand, was made by mixing several different animal roars together. Actually, even in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake they don't exactly roar: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ZYZsJYZVt5g/maxresdefault.jpg "King Kong (3/10) Movie CLIP - Kong Battles the T-Rexes (2005) HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYZsJYZVt5g) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/91 "2016-03-02T14:31:10Z")
> [@stillownedbysetters](#): > > 80 bad guys - trained killers, so we’re told - all shooting at one good guy and no one hits him. And meanwhile, the good guy is hitting _everything_ with every single bullet while not even getting scratched (yeah, I’m looking at you Arnold “Commando” Schwarzenegger…). And ancient battles (up to the 17th century at least) were apparently fought by mobs of men charging into each other with no formation, no command structure, or no discipline beyond mass brawling. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/92 "2016-03-02T16:20:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > … “Dinosaurs didn’t roar, you idiots – they’re reptiles!” But dinosaurs were not reptiles. They were dinosaurs. Their closest living descendants aren’t reptiles, they’re birds, which are capable of many types of vocalization. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/93 "2016-03-02T16:28:48Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > But dinosaurs were not reptiles. They were dinosaurs. Their closest living descendants aren’t reptiles, they’re birds, which are capable of many types of vocalization. I’m semi-quoting from the book. And in 1933, even people at the AMNH were calling dinosaurs “reptiles”. Certainly nobody back then would be making the “dinosurs are birds” argument. ---
**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 2, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/94 "2016-03-02T16:28:57Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Let’s make some androids that look just like humans and fill them with blood! It’s not blood, it’s coolant and lubricants. That’s why it’s white! 🙂 ---
**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 2, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/95 "2016-03-02T16:30:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’m semi-quoting from the book. And in 1933, even people at the AMNH were calling dinosaurs “reptiles”. Certainly nobody back then would be making the “dinosurs are birds” argument. The movie-makers were decades ahead of their time! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/96 "2016-03-02T17:42:56Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > But dinosaurs were not reptiles. They were dinosaurs. Their closest living descendants aren’t reptiles, they’re birds, which are capable of many types of vocalization. I want to see a dinosaur movie where the hulking predatorsaurus rears back and emits a blood-curdling “Cock-a-doodle-doooo!” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/97 "2016-03-02T18:11:02Z")
Kicking open doors and shooting locks. Finding an old car or truck that’s been sitting in a barn for years and you get in turn the key and it starts right up. Also, I saw one of those scenes where a tech is trying to break into a secure server and a bunch of source code goes scrolling up the screen and there’s an obvious syntax error in the code. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/98 "2016-03-02T18:42:25Z")
People turning to look behind while running away from someone/something. I’m pretty sure if I had to run for my life, I’d run till I couldn’t run any more or until I was certain there were no footsteps within earshot. OK, I probably can’t run 100 yards before collapsing, but still… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/99 "2016-03-02T18:52:03Z")
Any time a person on tv or in movies is science-ing something (pipetting, mixing reagents in flasks, looking at something under a microscope), the all the lights in the room are turned off except for one small, eerily-glowing blue light source illuminating only the direct field of work. When my husband or I see this on a show, we cheerfully make fun of the Sexy Science Lighting. All the scientists I know have the lights in the room turned on when they’re doing small, precise work in a lab. You risk pipetting inaccurately if the lights are all shut off! ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433/100 "2016-03-02T18:58:53Z")
The Revenant when Leo’s character was in the river during mid-winter for that length of time. Per the movie that had to be a substantial amount of time. Ever been in river water in mid-winter ? I have up to waist deep and I don’t think that scene is credible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-things-in-movies/747433.md?page=6)