# Movie contrivances that annoy. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2014, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911 "2014-06-03T12:03:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/241 "2014-07-28T17:29:06Z")
Here’s one: a character is a teacher, and is shown in class lecturing, either to establish the subject or to introduce some plot point. The lecture the teacher is giving is a rudimentary introduction to the subject, when it’s supposed to be the middle of the semester or school year. My girlfriend and I are watching _Breaking Bad_. We’re only in the second season, and the show has already been guilty of this a few times. In the first episode, Walt is shown defining chemistry to his class. I thought “oh, it must be the first day of school.” But something happened later in the episode (I’ve already forgotten what) that establishes it’s supposed to be winter or spring. Other examples that come to mind are _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ and _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_. However, I don’t remember off-hand if there is anything in these movies that states the time of year, so I suppose it could be the first day of class in these cases. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/242 "2014-07-28T17:39:51Z")
Just saw another contrivance that annoys the shit out of me, as it’s bought and paid for by RJ Reynolds. Guy is in a police station, lights up a ciggie, the interviewer sez “you can’t do that here” and the guy sez “what are you gonna do, arrest me?”…Fuck yeah, that’s exactly what they’re gonna do. This feeds into a Smoker’s fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![mambocrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@mambocrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mambocrow)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/243 "2014-07-28T18:44:20Z")
Here’s two I haven’t seen mentioned: Hanging off a precipice, hundreds of feet (at least) up in the air. Protagonist is hanging onto the edge by a hangnail, antagonist is walking about on the edge that protagonist is hanging onto. Always ends up well for the protagonist. The Star Trek reboot had at least two of these scenes. High speed car chase on wrong side of an Interstate. Miles and miles of near misses, openings in oncoming traffic appear with regularity throughout the chase all at high rate of closing speed. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/244 "2014-07-28T19:03:45Z")
> [@mambocrow](#): > > The Star Trek reboot had at least two of these scenes. > > . The entire fucking godawful Star Trek reboot is a _movie contrivance that annoys._:mad: ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/245 "2014-07-30T21:53:37Z")
Ah, because of Lucy- the old “innocent or reformed con _forced_ back into a life of crime”. Crooks don’t force innocents into being drug mules, it’s too risky. People react oddly when threatened. There are scads of weak willed, ignorant and/or greedy dudes who will do whatever just for money. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/246 "2014-07-31T07:18:26Z")
> [@mambocrow](#): > > Here’s two I haven’t seen mentioned: > > Hanging off a precipice, hundreds of feet (at least) up in the air. Protagonist is hanging onto the edge by a hangnail, antagonist is walking about on the edge that protagonist is hanging onto. Recently seen, too often seen: protagonist is running after antagonist in one of those rooftop chases. Antagonist makes the jump. Protagonist doesn’t, but ends up hanging by a hangnail, or more exactly, by the tips of their eight fingers. The laws of Physics say the result would have been more along the lines of “smudge on floor down below”. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/247 "2014-07-31T11:04:14Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Anything that smacks of “presentism”–applying standards of the present to the past. If your tale is set in the past, make it historically accurate. > > I saw the recent movie of the Australian tour of Driving Miss Daisy, and Boolie Werthan refers to Hoke Coleburn as a “man.” Totally wrong–He would have used the word “boy” for any black guy back then. Agree about the general observation, but disagree about the specific example. I can find plenty of examples of a 1940s reference by a white Southern man to a black man as “man.” In fact, this view of yours probably qualifies as a trope of some kind itself: that the past uniformly displays the most odious characteristics, so a woman in an office in the 1950s is subjected to a veritable barrage of pinches on the ass, invitations to motels, and in-office rape attempts before lunch every day. If realism is the goal, then it’s in arguable that women in the 1950s had a worse time in the office environment than exists now, but the cartoonish view that every moment was a living landmine of attacks isn’t realistic. Most offices were like most offices today – certainly a general tone of “a woman’s place” that doesn’t persist today, but not an barely-concealed threat of Caligula-ish proportions. There was a thread a few months ago about being transported back to the 1950s. One poster was aghast, thinking that if she married, everything she used to own prior to marriage will wind up in her husband’s name, not hers. I explained that while such laws did once exist, by the 1950s every state had eliminated them. Boolie Werthan was certainly not a paragon of enlightened racial thinking. But at the same time, he wasn’t someone who would call an older man “boy,” at least the Boolie in the 1987 New York version. I suppose if the Australian tour somehow rewrite Boolie as more base, you’d have a point, but I infer that your comment arises from the simple connection of the time and location of the play. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/248 "2014-07-31T11:14:02Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Speaking of area codes. On an episode of Bernie Mac, he gets a phone message from his sister and says “Area code 201. What’s she doing in Atlantic City?” > > Uh, Bernie. Atlantic City is 609. A defensible mistake. At one time, the entire state of New Jersey was 201. Burgeoning population required several changes, and Bernie’s old enough to remember pre-1958, especially if he learned area codes as a kid, like I did. At ten, i was fascinated with the area code schemes and could tell you area codes for most major cities. ---
**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:** [July 31, 2014, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/249 "2014-07-31T11:30:38Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > And why do you blame Morgan Freeman for speaking the lines in the movie he is being paid for speaking? Do you think he should have insisted they rewrite the entire movie so he wouldn’t have to speak things he didn’t agree with? I think he’s blaming Morgan Freeman for not having better taste in the scripts he picks. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/250 "2014-08-15T03:23:32Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I think he’s blaming Morgan Freeman for not having better taste in the scripts he picks. He’s an actor making a living. Better lousy scripts than no scripts. He can’t count on always being the President or God. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911.md?page=12)