Taking off in a helicopter on a rescue mission, in any disaster will have the copter smashed into a building or the ground in a magnificent explosion. Hero walks away with one laceration over his left eye.
Them too.
Oddly the Imperial stormtroopers had excellent marksmanship. It is just the the stars were protected by both the Force and plot armor.
Only 50% and only security. Engineering and Communication also wear red shirts, but Scotty & Uhuru always came back.
The full line is “I’m on to something, but I can’t talk right now. I’ll meet you at…” So the person on the other end of the line will have to figure out what “something” was on his/her own.
Another cliched unhelpful knowledge transfer device is the “Cryptic, yet ultimately useful, dialogue.”
Protagonists: “Where is the key to open the crystal vault?”
Wise old sage: “You will have to look inside yourself for the key”
Protagonists come back from the quest: “We almost got killed! Tim was bleeding out after we got jumped by the orks, which, by the way, you also didn’t tell us about. We needed that potion inside the vault to save him! Why didn’t you tell us that I was born with a key-shaped tumor in my mouth that perfectly fit the lock on the crystal vault? We would have opened it much much sooner!”
Wise old sage: “The key was inside you all along.” ::::twinkle in his eye::::
If the advisor wants the heroes to succeed, they should speak clearly. If the advisor wants them to fail, they should give wrong advice. Being cryptic yet true is not sure to accomplish either of these.
If there is a vital piece of video or audio recorded on a mobile phone that is completely out of charge, the protagonist will stick it on to charge and then not return to play it until it is charged to 100%
The download speed of any file/information transfer is defined as:
The amount of time between the start of the download/capture and the entry of the villain minus 1 second.
This is true for all file sizes and all connections.
It is also true that any “ghost” or hidden drives/file structures can be found simply by clicking a very visible icon.
And to go along with that, if the hero is in a fight where he is kicked, punched, and otherwise brutalized, he will be fine in a few minutes (or seconds, depending on the plot).
Likewise, if the bomb has a digital timer counting down to 0, the bomb will be defused with fewer than 5 seconds left.
Unless it’s James Bond doing the defusing, then the timer will read 0:07.
In a swordfight where Guy A is outclassing Guy B, Guy B has one great hope: get disarmed.
Suddenly he’ll become ten times better at fighting a swordsman.
Trivia challenge: The “007” insert in Goldfinger replaced the original shot. Before the substitution, what was the number on the readout of the nuclear device?
(NB: The corresponding line of dialogue was not changed. Few people noticed because the audiences were laughing over the readout.)
Corollary: A helicopter flown by the bad guys will appear magically from beyond the horizon without making a sound that might alert the good guys to its presence.
I got a laugh out of that. When my wife and I are watching a mystery, and the camera lingers on a shot a little to long, a book for instance, we both yell out, “Chekhov’s Book!”
Anyone can sneak up on anyone so long as they are out of frame of the viewer. Even if they are out in the open.
And when the camera switches from one to the other and back again, the windows never match.
I have a friend who calls all the red-shirts “Ensign Expendable”
An estranged couple in an action movie will have an argument in the middle of a dangerous situation. Firefight? Natural disaster? Doesn’t matter-- they will stop fleeing for their safety and work out their issues right there and then, oblivious to flying bullets or debris falling all around them.
I mentioned this in another thread, but I’m still chuckling at Taika Watiti’s writing/direction of a big battle in The Mandalorian… where he cuts away to two Storm Troopers on sentry duty, far from battle. They’re just chillin’, chatting as they try to shoot small rocks(?) with their laser pistols.
And they’re terrible shots. They never hit what they’re aiming at.
If you are a character in a move and you are played by…
Tom Cruise, you will run.
Harrison Ford, you will get angry and point.
Brad Pitt, you will talk while eating.
“Why, what’s up?”
“I can’t tell you now.”
“Why not?”
“I… I just can’t.”
“So I’m supposed to walk to my car, it’s alternate-side parking, so that’s a block away, y’know, then drive to the abandoned lighthouse just so you can give me a clue?”
“Look, it’s the lighthouse on Eroded Cliff Roa…”
“Why don’t you just TELL ME what it is!?!”
“Uh… just, ummm…”
“Jesus…”
“Hurry!”
“No! I’m not traipsing out there. Tell me now or I’m hanging up.”