# Movie cliches **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129 "2000-06-12T16:02:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Palmyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/57b2e6/32.png) [@Palmyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palmyra)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/41 "2000-10-16T02:45:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ThisYearsGirl \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*\* > > > > [li]Phone numbers start with 555.[/li] > > \*\* > > It always kinda ruins a movie for me when I see a 555 number in a movie. It just makes it seem so. . . fake. \*\* movies and television use 555 because that prefix doesn’t exist, thus the possibility of using a real phone number is ZERO. Prank calls might follow the prominent use of a working number… i guess. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/42 "2000-10-16T02:58:31Z")
Damn, Palmyra, I was reading these and was going to put in exactly what YOU did about the 555! Beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![Palmyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/57b2e6/32.png) [@Palmyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palmyra)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/43 "2000-10-16T03:00:50Z")
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! my evil plans works yet again!! ---
**Author:** ![Palmyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/57b2e6/32.png) [@Palmyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palmyra)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/44 "2000-10-16T03:02:03Z")
shit… was that outloud…? ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/45 "2000-10-16T03:09:53Z")
If someone is dying in the hospital, they always have impecable timing in that they give their last speech inparting all their knowledge or feelings to someone, then immediately die when they are done. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/46 "2000-10-16T03:34:50Z")
More on shootings: A .380 and a .45 seem to have the same (or reversed) effect. A person in a movie can take a .45 (which makes a neat little hole) and keep coming, while the hero’s .380-class pistol (i.e. Bond’s PPK) can kill the bad guys in a single shot. IRL, a .45 turns anything it hits into hamburger, and would knock Superman on his arse. A .380 is woefully underpowered for anything but the closest-up applications. In the Phillipines during the Spanish-American war, the gov’t issue .38’s didn’t even slow down the charging local tribesmen (who were hopped up on drugs); so some soldiers bought, borrowed, or stole old .45 Colt revolvers, which were found to flip the tribesmen over backwards. In movies people can shoot handguns accurately over long distances, while running. IRL, it’s hard to hit something from 30 feet away when you and the target are both standing still. _Three Kings_ was good with the descriptions of what happens when one gets shot. It ain’t pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/47 "2000-10-16T03:48:12Z")
You know a helluva lot about guns, my boy. Is it that Texan background? ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/48 "2000-10-16T03:53:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoggie \* > \*\*You know a helluva lot about guns, my boy. Is it that Texan background? \*\* That, and a lot of ex-army relatives, bro-in-law that’s a gun dealer… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/49 "2000-10-16T04:44:51Z")
In schlocky horror movies, an endangered woman will stand there facing her attacker and scream, rather than do something intelligent like run away. (the Thing From the Nuclear Waste Dump is invariably slow moving and a slow amble would be sufficient escape speed.) The result is usually that she is raped and impregnated by The Thing From Beyond Space. If she runs away, the Thing From The Bottom of the Cave will catch her easily because she is wearing seven inch stiletto heels or other footwear unsuitable for running. If the endangered woman has a weapon handy, she will kill the Thing From the Abandoned Subway Tunnel because it will do something incredibly stupid that will make it easy for her to do so (see the neck-stretching scene in _C.H.U.D._ ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/50 "2000-10-16T05:48:41Z")
Originally posted by \*\*Gunslinger \*\* > [@](#): > > A person in a movie can take a .45 (which makes a neat little hole) and keep coming, while the hero’s .380-class pistol (i.e. Bond’s PPK) can kill the bad guys in a single shot. In the stories, Bond’s PPK was a 7.65mm. The caliber is also mentioned in _Living Daylights_, by a Russian who recognizes the sound of the action, IIRC. > [@](#): > > IRL, a .45 turns anything it hits into hamburger, and would knock Superman on his arse. Whoa! I didn’t even know Superman _existed_ in real life! > [@](#): > > A .380 is woefully underpowered for anything but the closest-up applications. I won’t argue with you on this one, but it’s interesting how many military handgun cartridges used in this century (e.g. 7mm Nambu, 8mm Lebel, 7.65mm Browning, 5.45x18mm Soviet) are substantially less powerful. > [@](#): > > In the Phillipines during the Spanish-American war, the gov’t issue .38’s didn’t even slow down the charging local tribesmen (who were hopped up on drugs)… I’ve heard this a lot, but I’ve never really understood it. What drugs were they using? > [@](#): > > … so some soldiers bought, borrowed, or stole old .45 Colt revolvers, which were found to flip the tribesmen over backwards. Well, I think the .45s injured them sorely, and they fell over backwards. Perhaps elephant guns and shotguns project enough momentum to know a human down, but I don’t see how a pistol could. Take a 225-grain bullet from your revolver, travelling at 920 feet per second: its momentum is 207,000. Compare a five-ounce (2187-grain) baseball travelling at 75 mph, or 110 feet per second: its momentum is 240,570. Unless my math is wrong, a well-thrown regulation baseball has more momentum than a .45-caliber bullet at high subsonic speed; therefore, your tribesman is less likely to be knocked down by the bullet than a batter is by a wild pitch. Again, you could _fall_ down from the pain when hit by a baseball; if this is what you meant by “flip the tribesman over backwards”, well, that’s very likely given the blood loss they would have suffered. But 150-pound person could hardly be knocked over by these objects; if, theoretically, all the momentum were transferred from the baseball, the person would be travel backwards at a velocity of 0.23 feet per second, or about one-sixth of a mile per hour. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/51 "2000-10-16T06:13:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boris B \* > \*\*Originally posted by \*\*Gunslinger \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > A person in a movie can take a .45 (which makes a neat little hole) and keep coming, while the hero’s .380-class pistol (i.e. Bond’s PPK) can kill the bad guys in a single shot. > > In the stories, Bond’s PPK was a 7.65mm. The caliber is also mentioned in _Living Daylights_, by a Russian who recognizes the sound of the action, IIRC.\*\* > > Yeah, I knew that. But it’s still pretty small. I did say .380 _class_… > > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > IRL, a .45 turns anything it hits into hamburger, and would knock Superman on his arse. > > Whoa! I didn’t even know Superman _existed_ in real life! \*\* :rolleyes: You know the point I was trying to make. If he did, it would. \*\* > [@](#): > > In the Phillipines during the Spanish-American war, the gov’t issue .38’s didn’t even slow down the charging local tribesmen (who were hopped up on drugs)… I’ve heard this a lot, but I’ve never really understood it. What drugs were they using? > [@](#): > > … so some soldiers bought, borrowed, or stole old .45 Colt revolvers, which were found to flip the tribesmen over backwards. Well, I think the .45s injured them sorely, and they fell over backwards. \*\* [/QUOTE] \*\* The show I watched on the History channel said “local drugs”…probably the equivalent of PCP or LSD… And the “flip over” was a bit of hyperbole…it’d definitely leave their vital organs on the groung behind them. And I know from a very reliable source\* that 2 .45 ACP tracers in the chest from 15 feet will not make a person fall _foward_. \*–(semi) Funny story, actually…my dad, Green Beret in 'Nam. He carried tracers in his pistol to mark targets for the helicopter gunships. One time a firefight got really close-in, and he couldn’t get the M-16 around in time. He put two holes in the guy, and the slide locked open on the empty magazine. Thing was, he’d gone in with THREE rounds in the gun…him and his teammates figured the first one must’ve gone off under his armpit as he drew it from the shoulder holster…:eek: (they joked that they were more likely to accidentally off themselves than be killed by the enemy…once he shot an 80mm mortar into the wind and watched it sail back over his head…luckily it was a dud) ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/52 "2000-10-16T06:18:42Z")
“…once, but it was a college prank.” and… Guy totals his 20 year old clunker…“Damn! 2 more payments and that baby would have been mine!” ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/53 "2000-10-16T06:48:41Z")
One common feature I’ve noticed in car chases recently is the fruit cart’s big brother, The Bottled Water Truck. a) One of the cars leaps into the air and flies into the truck’s cargo load, sending big plastic bottles bouncing everywhere. If the crashing car is the chasee, it will pass completely through the truck and proceed onward. b) One of the cars passes just in front of the truck, causing it (the truck) to spin out, skid sideways, and send it’s load of bottles bouncing across the street. If the truck just missed hitting the chasee, one of the chasers will crash into the now-stationary truck, as per scenario a). –sublight. ---
**Author:** ![alibey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@alibey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alibey)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/54 "2000-10-16T06:59:21Z")
how about when the hero goes into the dark cave and picks up a (torch, lamp, flashlight, etc) and it works. the torch or lamp will have oil or the flashlight will have juice in the batteries. that and 1 candle will light a room ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2000, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129/55 "2000-10-16T13:44:49Z")
I think he changed guns several times, just like he changed cars. He started with the .380, changed later, and also had a Beretta at times. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cliches/22129.md?page=2)