# Moments that ruin suspension of disbelief \*spoilers!\* **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2011, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902 "2011-02-28T11:29:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/101 "2011-03-04T20:02:30Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > They wander carefree, and there is a long delay, and then they get hit. Did they not bother to check traffic? Was the car or bus that hit them not watching the road AT ALL? Well, no, of course not - they were too busy talking to the passenger in their own movie. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/102 "2011-03-04T22:13:52Z")
This thread needs a link to [19 Ads for Products that Apparantly Exist In Movies:](http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_173_19-ads-products-that-apparently-exist-in-movies/) Like: \*\*The Psychopath Sensing Automatic Starter: \*\*reliable starter can detect aggressors and prevent your car from starting until the last possible moment. Usually. or The **Monster Cable Macbook-to-Alien Invader Adapter Interface** (Special props for the 1 star review…nerds will appreciate it.) and of course **Space Air** Without it, you can’t have fireballs accompany every explosion! ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/103 "2011-03-05T02:04:32Z")
> [@Pandoranoid](#): > > Also, when characters encountering severe danger take the time to yell ‘Run for it!’ to their companions. When something as obviously threatening as a giant lizard monster or a murderous robot is giving chase, no one would ever actually _say_\*\* ‘run for it’. You just run. …Really? :dubious: Seems like pretty normal conditioned behavior, especially for anyone who’s had siblings. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/104 "2011-03-05T03:53:29Z")
> [@Pandoranoid](#): > > Another WSoD killer for me: when one character says, ‘Wow, you look tired’ or something, and they don’t at all. For some reason the example that stick in my head is this awful made-for-cable movie starring Ellen Barkin as a guy who, for various boring reasons, has died and been reincarnated as a foxy blonde. At one point early in the movie, someone comments that she looks kind of flushed, and she/he says something like ‘yeah, it’s this damn makeup-ya gotta be a fuckin’ Rembrandt to apply the stuff!’ Her make-up, of course, looks perfect, as though it were skillfully applied by a make-up artist–which, of course, it was. _Switch_ wasn’t made for cable. It was a major theatrical release, intended (IIRC) to get Jimmy Smits’ movie career going after his well-received turn on _NYPD Blue_. The network promoted the ever-livin’ fuck out of it, to the extent that lines from the ad campaign ended up getting referenced in an episode of _Mystery Science Theater 3000_ and an Eminem song. Too bad the movie was such a piece of shit, eh? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/105 "2011-03-05T07:22:56Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Well, no, of course not - they were too busy talking to the passenger in their own movie. 😉 Good point! That probably explains it. Do tropes cancel each other out? Paging a bistromatician… ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2011, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/106 "2011-03-05T08:06:08Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > _Switch_ wasn’t made for cable. It was a major theatrical release, intended (IIRC) to get Jimmy Smits’ movie career going after his well-received turn on _NYPD Blue_. To nitpick your nitpick, it was after Smits’s turn on _L.A. Law_, released the summer before he joined _NYPD Blue_. I’ve got a sad \*thing \*for Jimmy Smits. ---
**Author:** ![Sakuma\_Drops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sakuma\_Drops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sakuma_Drops)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/107 "2011-03-06T04:21:19Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > There’s also the five-hundred-foot waterfall in Illinois in _The Fugitive_ Disney’s _Pocahontas_ had one of those in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. And our heroine just jumps off of it like she’s in Acapulco or something. There’s this part in _The Right Stuff_ that cracks me up every time. I believe it’s right after Yuri Gagarin goes up on his flight, the Mercury 7 are all walking and talking and harumph-ing together, and John Glenn says, “And I’m sick of those…those…those _darn Russians!_” The way John Glenn the character is set up as Mr. Squeaky Clean All-American Eagle Scout Astro-Man, this line is both perfect and ridiculous. I happen to really like _The Right Stuff_; I know that most of the characterizations are closer to caricatures compared to real life, but that’s part of the charm, I think. It’s sort of like watching _300_ except with astronauts. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/108 "2011-03-07T00:44:41Z")
Something that annoys the fuck out of me, and pulls me out of _any_ movie? Four words: “You gotta believe me!” ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/109 "2011-03-07T01:06:56Z")
> [@wonder\_lust](#): > > Kind of like this… > Me to husband: I see you bought yourself some new underwear. > Husband: Yeah. The waistbands in my old ones were getting streched out. > Me: Oh… I see. With wear an washing the elastic eroded and lost its tension. > Husband: Riiiiiiiight. Without tension in the waistband, the fit gets looser. The only thing for it is… > Together: …buying new underwear. 🆒 YEEEAAAAAHH ! ---
**Author:** ![Pandoranoid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce73a5/32.png) [@Pandoranoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pandoranoid)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/110 "2011-03-07T02:00:45Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > …Really? :dubious: Seems like pretty normal conditioned behavior, especially for anyone who’s had siblings. Um, I had a brother, 4 years my senior, and neither one of us ever felt it necessary to recommend that the other run from a clearly dangerous situation. Granted, we never ran in to Bigfoot or anything—but there were definitely moments when we got into scrapes that required a swift evacuation, and I don’t remember ever feeling the need to announce that running was suddenly an Obviously Good Idea. But then, some people have a firmer grasp of the obvious that others. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Pandoranoid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce73a5/32.png) [@Pandoranoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pandoranoid)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/111 "2011-03-07T02:07:48Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > For me, more generally, it is those productions which call for a lead role to go to someone unattractive - but the makers of the movie simply cannot help casting a typical Holywood star for the role. Especially notice this where the story calls for an unattractive woman. Oh, that drives me nuts. I heard that Claire Danes did a wonderful job in the biopic about Temple Grandin, but I just can’t get over the annoyance of having such a typically atrractive actress play this rather strange-looking woman. Am I to believe that there is not one single un-foxy actress with the chops to nail that role? ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/112 "2011-03-07T02:29:45Z")
> [@Pandoranoid](#): > > Oh, that drives me nuts. I heard that Claire Danes did a wonderful job in the biopic about Temple Grandin, but I just can’t get over the annoyance of having such a typically atrractive actress play this rather strange-looking woman. Am I to believe that there is not one single un-foxy actress with the chops to nail that role? Apparently John Lithgow wasn’t available. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pandoranoid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce73a5/32.png) [@Pandoranoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pandoranoid)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/113 "2011-03-07T02:35:30Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Apparently John Lithgow wasn’t available. 😉 :eek:My lord, she really does look so much more like Lithgow than Danes. If I end up being one of those old ladies who sprouts a full mustache in her golden years, I am going to assume it is punishment for laughing at remarks like that one. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/114 "2011-03-07T06:24:15Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Something that annoys the fuck out of me, and pulls me out of _any_ movie? > > Four words: > > “You gotta believe me!” I’ll see that and raise you “If this were fiction…” ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/115 "2011-03-07T07:11:22Z")
I’ve noticed a disturbing swath (especially in commercials) of situations where some unmarried single mother with two kids who works two dead end jobs somehow has a house nicer than most upper-middle class people. It’s tolerable sometimes, but it just shatters my belief if they’re ostensibly living in some major monstrosity like LA or NYC where even legitimately rich people tend to have increasingly more luxurious apartments. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/116 "2011-03-07T08:45:18Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > …Really? :dubious: Seems like pretty normal conditioned behavior, especially for anyone who’s had siblings. > [@Pandoranoid](#): > > Um, I had a brother, 4 years my senior, and neither one of us ever felt it necessary to recommend that the other run from a clearly dangerous situation. Granted, we never ran in to Bigfoot or anything—but there were definitely moments when we got into scrapes that required a swift evacuation, and I don’t remember ever feeling the need to announce that running was suddenly an Obviously Good Idea. But then, some people have a firmer grasp of the obvious that others. 😃 I wouldn’t do it for my brothers or them for me, since we all have good reflexes. Neither would we have to do it for most of our cousins, aunts and uncles. But my mother, her sister and their mother have all been pulled, pushed, grabbed, yelled and generally needed ridiculous amounts of caretaking when crossing the road. So, if any of them happened to be around I can picture us or our cousins yelling “geroffngetmovingWOMANNNNNNNNN!” ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/117 "2011-03-07T23:09:45Z")
I was just reminded of this thread last night while watching old Alfred Hitchcock Presents re-runs. In the days when that show was filmed, it was illegal to depict money on television. Whenever it changes hands, you see funny-looking frills and squiggles, and it yanks me out of the narrative like a visible zipper on the monster costume. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/118 "2011-03-08T01:35:16Z")
> [@Pandoranoid](#): > > I heard that Claire Danes did a wonderful job in the biopic about Temple Grandin, but I just can’t get over the annoyance of having such a typically atrractive actress play this rather strange-looking woman. Am I to believe that there is not one single un-foxy actress with the chops to nail that role? I sometimes wonder the opposite - if Temple Grandin for example, might not also look fairly attractive with studio makeup under studio lighting… ---
**Author:** ![SuperNelson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/119 "2011-03-08T20:12:06Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > I see your point, but it jarred me out of [Elizabethtown](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368709/). Orlando Bloom’s trip into that city. The film showed him travelling north on 65 from Louisville International Airport (E-town is south), taking 64 east and arriving at his destination. Completely the wrong direction he needed to travel. > > I suppose he could have been lost, but there’s nothing to support that in the film. Not only was he lost, he was gloriously, hopelessly lost. So lost he ended up in the middle of nowhere, yelling the name of the exit he couldn’t find at his map. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see an Indiana State Trooper giving him directions. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902/120 "2011-03-08T20:14:16Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > I was just reminded of this thread last night while watching old Alfred Hitchcock Presents re-runs. In the days when that show was filmed, it was illegal to depict money on television. Whenever it changes hands, you see funny-looking frills and squiggles, and it yanks me out of the narrative like a visible zipper on the monster costume. Why on earth would it be illegal to depict money on television? 😕 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-that-ruin-suspension-of-disbelief-spoilers/572902.md?page=7)