# 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:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/121 "2014-06-06T13:36:06Z")
And there’s the “Little House” effect–People living out in the middle of nowhere with no washers & dryers always have perfectly clean, freshly ironed clothes. Hell, they look better than what I’m wearing as I type this. One thing I love about The Big Bang Theory is that they do not explain their jokes, and some of them are very obscure. My absolute favorite: Raj: What happened? Sheldon: Obviously another carnal fiasco with the shiksi goddess. Howard: Shiksa. Shik-sa. Sheldon: Forgive me. Yiddish was not spoken in east Texas. And if it was, it wasn’t spoken for long. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/122 "2014-06-06T13:55:08Z")
I find it annoying that movie and TV characters are able to have conversations in nightclubs and parties at a normal speaking volume. One of the reasons I hate going to nightclubs is that the only way to have a conversation is by yelling in someone’s face. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/123 "2014-06-06T14:29:35Z")
> [@Shamozzle](#): > > “We now go to Tony for this this late-breaking story. Tony?” > > “Thanks, Diane. I’m down here on Broadway where it appears a six-storey gelatinous cube is inhaling taxis. Police suggest drivers use alternate routes. Back to you, Diane.” Man, I hate it when that happens! Stupid gelatinous cube. :mad: You owe me a new monitor, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/124 "2014-06-06T16:06:01Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > I don’t open those windows 😕 But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to open those windows? > [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Turning off the ignition didn’t occur to him in “hours”? Or taking your foot of the gas and letting the car naturally slow down. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/125 "2014-06-06T18:46:24Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Still thinking about it: any reason the duct has to be big enough for Willis to crawl through? Other than, you know, plot contrivance. 🙂 Is there ever anything done in a movie that _isn’t_ for the sake of plot contrivance? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/126 "2014-06-06T18:58:17Z")
I hate when someone has a perfectly good plan to do something, and that plan fails due to some incredibly rare, unforeseen, or complex set of circumstances. Everyone just throws their hands up and say “Oh well, the plan failed, back to the drawing board”. If the plan doesn’t work, try it again! Tweak it a bit! If Wile E. Coyote had tried the jetpack and rocket skates again and this time didn’t decide to make out with a female coyote made out of dynamite, he would have been picking road runner bits out of his teeth with its bones by now Only time I’ve ever seen this trope upended is when Lisa Simpson picked the lock on the bathroom door to get Maggie after Homer failed the first time. She even said something like “I just tried the lockpick again, I don’t understand why we only try things once” ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/127 "2014-06-06T20:06:13Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I hate when someone has a perfectly good plan to do something, and that plan fails due to some incredibly rare, unforeseen, or complex set of circumstances. Everyone just throws their hands up and say “Oh well, the plan failed, back to the drawing board”. We were talking about movies and TV, not Congress. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DiggitCamara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/128 "2014-06-06T23:08:46Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Computer “hacking,” simply b/c in this day and age there can’t be anyone left alive who is so unfamiliar with computers that it can seem at all plausible that a character can shit out 200 wpm for 10 seconds and then say “I’m in!” [How about two?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/129 "2014-06-06T23:16:31Z")
> [@Shamozzle](#): > > “We now go to Tony for this this late-breaking story. Tony?” > > “Thanks, Diane. I’m down here on Broadway where it appears a six-storey gelatinous cube is inhaling taxis. Police suggest drivers use alternate routes. Back to you, Diane.” When this becomes a Pixar flick. do you think John Ratzenberger will do the voice of THE CUBE? > [@buddha\_david](#): > > Is there ever anything done in a movie that _isn’t_ for the sake of plot contrivance? 😉 Sigh! Hope springs eternal, m’friend. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/130 "2014-06-07T00:00:20Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I find it annoying that movie and TV characters are able to have conversations in nightclubs and parties at a normal speaking volume. One of the reasons I hate going to nightclubs is that the only way to have a conversation is by yelling in someone’s face. And when movie characters leave a nightclub, they never complain about the ringing in their ears. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/131 "2014-06-07T00:50:02Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > If the plan doesn’t work, try it again! Tweak it a bit! > > If Wile E. Coyote had tried the jetpack and rocket skates again and this time didn’t decide to make out with a female coyote made out of dynamite, he would have been picking road runner bits out of his teeth with its bones by now > > Only time I’ve ever seen this trope upended is when Lisa Simpson picked the lock on the bathroom door to get Maggie after Homer failed the first time. She even said something like “I just tried the lockpick again, I don’t understand why we only try things once” It was also touched on when THE POWERPUFF GIRLS did an episode where the cartoon supervillain reviewed his previous plan (use a mystic artifact to turn all the people of the world into dogs) and why it failed (our super-powered heroine, now a mundane dog, bit him in the butt such that he dropped the shatterable artifact). So he modified the plan: change everyone _ **except** _ the super-powered crimefighters into dogs, thus preventing them from biting his butt _ **as** _ dogs. I mean, yes, granted, they could still bite his butt _ **without** _ being dogs, but he’s a step ahead by dint of having armored his butt just in case, so no worries. I leave the rest as an exercise for the reader. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/132 "2014-06-07T01:21:59Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I hate when someone has a perfectly good plan to do something, and that plan fails due to some incredibly rare, unforeseen, or complex set of circumstances. Everyone just throws their hands up and say “Oh well, the plan failed, back to the drawing board”. If the plan doesn’t work, try it again! Tweak it a bit! > > If Wile E. Coyote had tried the jetpack and rocket skates again and this time didn’t decide to make out with a female coyote made out of dynamite, he would have been picking road runner bits out of his teeth with its bones by now > … DUDE! You weren’t there! You don’t know! ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/133 "2014-06-07T02:23:12Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Also. zooming in on digital pictures and “enhancing” them to an extent that is not possible IRL so as to get clear license plate numbers or count the suspect’s nose hairs. _(“Yup, that’s him, the nose hair count is the same as recorded when he went to prison 15 years ago!”)_ You’re forgetting though, they first have the gruff older cop say “Clean it up!” ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/134 "2014-06-07T02:43:44Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Still thinking about it: any reason the duct has to be big enough for Willis to crawl through? Other than, you know, plot contrivance. 🙂 To be fair here, duct work can get big. My office went for the ‘industrial everything’s exposed’ look (aka the “Bob, is that a sewage pipe running down the corner of your office?” look). The HVAC duct work is certainly big enough for me to crawl around in. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/135 "2014-06-07T02:57:46Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > To be fair here, duct work can get big. My office went for the ‘industrial everything’s exposed’ look (aka the “Bob, is that a sewage pipe running down the corner of your office?” look). The HVAC duct work is certainly big enough for me to crawl around in. I appreciate that; wanted to have the facts before I shot my mouth off. But I’m not 100% sure the support system (it usually looks like metal straps) would handle a grown man (or, in the case of “Aliens” half a platoon). I keep thinking of Groundskeeper Willie chasing Santa’s Little Helper through the school duct work, when it collapses in the gym: **Make way for Willie** as he lands on Chalmers. **I said, “Make way for Willie,” you bloated gasbag**. 😃 ---
**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:** [June 7, 2014, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/136 "2014-06-07T03:46:24Z")
Bad guy takes off in his car. Good guy gets on the roof of the car and hold on with his finger tips. All BG would have to do is slam on the brakes. Oh, and while GG is on the roof, BG shoots through the roof and GG twists his body this way and that to avoid the bullets. He never gets hit. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/137 "2014-06-07T13:27:01Z")
People who get roaring drunk in the evening and wake up fine in the morning. And people who are always eating and seriously underweight. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/138 "2014-06-07T14:09:29Z")
An whats with all the bad phone connections? That is the reason a person on the phone has to repeat what the person on the other end just said, right? This contrivance is so ingrained that sometimes, even if they film the other end of the phone conversation, Person A still repeats what Person B just finished saying. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/139 "2014-06-07T14:35:58Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > How about the twelve-on-one combat, in which twelve (or so) villains attack our hero, usually using karate or some other form of martial art, but do so one at a time, so that he can pick them off individually? Wouldn’t they be more effective attacking from all sides at once? 12 people attacking at once? How would they all fit? More realistically, if they haven’t trained to attack together, more than one or two would probably end up getting in each other’s way more than they would bother the hero. And I have seen some fights in old Jackie Chan movies where partners took him on and did a good job beating on him. Until he managed to take out one, then the other was at a disadvantage because his tactics were based on having his partner. > [@glee](#): > > It’s a one-off, but although Avatar was spectacular viewing, I am appalled at the valuable substance being called ‘unobtainium’. > They really couldn’t think of a better name? :smack: That one actually makes sense, an engineer says “OMG! We’ve actually found unobtaimium!” and everyone on the project just calls it that until the name sticks for good. > [@Morbo](#): > > Another few that annoy me: > Sprinklers. Hero holds a lighter up to one sprinkler in a building - they all go off, everywhere in the building. No, they do not - each sprinkler head is designed to only go off when the glass around that individual head’s sensor breaks due to the heat. IOW, if you hold a lighter up to one sprinkler head, **only that one** will go off. There also isn’t enough pressure in those pipes to have them all spray like Gene Kelly is going to start dancing. Finally, that water will be filthy, not like the Evian spray you see in the movie. Depends on the set up of the sprinkler system. I worked in a plant where if you set off one sprinkler (By say, hitting it with a raised forklift.) all the sprinklers in that section would go off. Shut down the plant a couple of times while I worked there. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911/140 "2014-07-17T15:02:37Z")
Okay. I got another one: shouting someone’s name at their back as they are walking away. “Bob! Bob! Bob! Come back, Bob! Bob!..\” Bob doesn’t so much as look back or slow down. The person being shouted after \*never \*does. I’m not sure which is most annoying: 1. the plaintive, repetitive shouting of the name 2. the fact that the person shouted at never looks back or slows down 3. the combination of 1 & 2. Wait. It’s the combination. This is closely related to the one where the person shouts into the phone that the OP has already hung up. In older movies, the caller taps repeatedly on the buttons in the cradle where the phone handset rests. Now there’s nothing to tap. And BTW, cell phones don’t have dial tones. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-contrivances-that-annoy/689911.md?page=8)