# Life imitating art - What common movie plot devices are mistakenly believed by most people? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229 "2015-11-21T21:16:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![guitario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@guitario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guitario)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/1 "2015-11-21T21:16:01Z")
I’m placing this in general questions simply because I’m looking for specific things - so apologies in advance if in the wrong section. Anyway, so common movie plot devices that don’t exist in the real world, but are widely believed to be true by the majority. The best one I can think of is the theory that people only fall to the floor when shot in the torso because they have seen it numerous times in the movies - so they instinctively follow this behaviour. [Why Do People Fall Down When Shot? | RealClearScience](http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/07/why-do-people-fall-down-when-shot.html) Another one is that recently arrested individuals are entitled to one free phone call. I’m sure every police station in the western world hears this on a daily basis, but apparently it’s not true. [7 Bullshit Police Myths Everyone Believes (Thanks to Movies) | Cracked.com](http://www.cracked.com/article_18385_7-bullshit-police-myths-everyone-believes-thanks-to-movies_p2.html) It doesn’t have to be related to crime - so can anyone think of others? Cites and links welcome, but not necessary if explained. Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/2 "2015-11-21T21:55:35Z")
Back in the “Old West” days, everyone walked around with guns holstered at their side. Ironically, gun laws were _stricter_ than they are today. (In Texas anyway) ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/3 "2015-11-21T22:01:48Z")
[Sideways cappin’, gangsta style](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side_grip). ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/4 "2015-11-21T22:25:50Z")
[That you can outrun an explosion.](http://science.howstuffworks.com/outrun-explosion2.htm) ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/5 "2015-11-21T23:26:50Z")
You can break out the glass in a modern high-rise building. You can’t. Next time you have nothing better to do: Look for small red reflectors on or under the windows of the nearby high rise. Those mark the windows which can be broken for fire-fighting or evacuation of people. The rest would require an axe or explosive. ---
**Author:** ![guitario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@guitario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guitario)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/6 "2015-11-21T23:38:01Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > You can break out the glass in a modern high-rise building. > > You can’t. Next time you have nothing better to do: Look for small red reflectors on or under the windows of the nearby high rise. Those mark the windows which can be broken for fire-fighting or evacuation of people. The rest would require an axe or explosive. I’ve never considered that before, but now you mention it, it makes sense. You’d not want someone tripping over 30 floors up and stumbling into a window. they’d have to be strong. _goes to Google pictures of high rise windows…_ ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/7 "2015-11-21T23:46:04Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > You can break out the glass in a modern high-rise building. [Have things changed that much since 1993?](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/window.asp) > [@](#): > > It isn’t often we have occasion to employ the term “accidental self-defenestration” in an article, but that phrase certainly applies to the case of Garry Hoy, a 38-year-old lawyer with the Toronto law firm of Holden Day Wilson, who on 9 July 1993 plunged to his death from the 24th floor of the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower building at TD Centre in front of several horrified witnesses. > > For motivations that remain unclear to this day Hoy had apparently developed a fondness for showing off the tensile strength of office building windows (and/or demonstrating Falling man his fearless trust in that aspect of building design) by running and hurling himself at window panes in front of onlookers, who would watch a stunt that always ended with Hoy’s bouncing off of the window panes, leaving both glass and lawyer unharmed. On a fateful day in 1993, however, Hoy attempted his feat in front of a group of prospective legal apprentices with disastrous results: Apparently the first attempt came off as usual with Hoy harmlessly rebounding off the window, but when Hoy threw himself against the pane a second time, it popped out of its frame and sent Hoy fatally tumbling 24 stories to the courtyard below. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/8 "2015-11-21T23:50:05Z")
It sounds like it wasn’t the glass that broke; it was the frame the glass was held in. The glass was strong enough to not break, but probably he had weakened the structure in which it rested in by throwing himself at it so many times. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/9 "2015-11-21T23:52:43Z")
I recently watched _Braveheart_ with a friend. Toward the beginning, I remarked that I had read that there was no good historical evidence that _droit du seigneur/jus primae noctis_ had ever actually been practiced. My friend replied "well, but is there any evidence it _wasn’t_ practiced? " ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/10 "2015-11-21T23:54:42Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > It sounds like it wasn’t the glass that broke; it was the frame the glass was held in. The glass was strong enough to not break, but probably he had weakened the structure in which it rested in by throwing himself at it so many times. Well, that sounds like a distinction without a difference to me: If the window pane is completely out, the window is just as open as if the window pane had broken into fragments and some large fragments were out. More open, in fact, because now I don’t have to remove any pieces of window to have a completely open hole. And it is possible construction has changed in the 20+ years since the story I linked to. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/11 "2015-11-21T23:57:03Z")
Chalk/tape outlines around corpses, almost never happens in reality, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/12 "2015-11-22T00:01:46Z")
Someone noticed this earlier: The reflector may be a CA thing; other places may mark the breakables differently: > **[Red reflectors on building windows](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=28869)** > > What are the red reflectors for on some office building windows? Being red, I’m guessing something related to fire, but what? Certainly not where the sprinklers are - the windows would all be covered in red. I was thinking perhaps to mark windows... ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/13 "2015-11-22T00:02:04Z")
A bullet does not send you flying backward and out of a window. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/14 "2015-11-22T00:03:30Z")
I’ve posted this elsewhere on these boards, but last summer I was on a jury, and was surprised that contra courtroom dramas, when the attorneys raised an objection, they didn’t specify a reason. They didn’t say “objection, your honor! He’s baiting the witness!” They just said “objection!” and the judge would either sustain or overrule. If if happened several times in quick succession, they would approach the bench and discuss the reasons for the objection with the judge, out of earshot of the jury. The judge specifically told us that they did that because mentioning the reasons could bias the jury. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/15 "2015-11-22T00:18:27Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Well, that sounds like a distinction without a difference to me: If the window pane is completely out, the window is just as open as if the window pane had broken into fragments and some large fragments were out. More open, in fact, because now I don’t have to remove any pieces of window to have a completely open hole. > > And it is possible construction has changed in the 20+ years since the story I linked to. If the fellow had been using the same window for his demonstration, he may well have weakened the frame. Very few windows, I’m guessing, are made so the glass will pop out. There was a theory that an intact glass pane, from height, would/could come down as a scythe, making a mess of people on the ground. Even if it came down vertically, it would weigh enough to kill. So: no, I don’t think the glass popping out of the frame was intended. Even his final demonstration proved the strength of the glass. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/16 "2015-11-22T00:39:28Z")
That lawyers will badger somebody into confessing in the witness stand, or that it’s a common occurrence. Or that they’ll ask a witness a question when they don’t already know the answer… it’s a courtroom, not a fishing expedition. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/17 "2015-11-22T01:46:11Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > That lawyers will badger somebody into confessing in the witness stand, or that it’s a common occurrence. Or that they’ll ask a witness a question when they don’t already know the answer… it’s a courtroom, not a fishing expedition. At least in the courtroom dramas I’ve seen, the lawyers aren’t looking for facts, they’re simply trying to make the witness look like either a liar or a moron. Here in MN hunters seeking to get the state law against suppressors lifted had to fight the Hollywood myth that “silencers” turn a gun into a barely audible assassination weapon. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/18 "2015-11-22T01:57:15Z")
**Life imitating art [or not] - What common movie plot devices are mistakenly believed by most people?** That the good guy always (or almost always) wins and lives happily ever after. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/19 "2015-11-22T03:03:34Z")
There are a few martial arts-related ones, like nerve pinches, “death touch,” and anything involving breaking thick boards against the grain. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229/20 "2015-11-22T03:14:24Z")
“You only use 10% of your brain!” Most notably used as the entire premise of the film _Lucy_, but it crops up quite often in media and inspirational Facebook posts alike. Uh . . . in what world would it, evolutionary speaking, make sense for 90% of our brains to be dead weight? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-imitating-art-what-common-movie-plot-devices-are-mistakenly-believed-by-most-people/738229.md?page=2)