# Movies & TV Episodes with Obsolete Plot Points (multiple spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961 "2014-07-13T00:22:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 6
**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:** [July 28, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/101 "2014-07-28T17:39:02Z")
You know, Clark could just check Wally World’s website to see if the park was open, rather than driving cross-country… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/102 "2014-07-28T17:57:42Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I recently watched _Back to the Future_ for the first time in ages, and it occurred to me that it’s essential to the plot that Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer not have a cellphone. Jennifer is going to visit her grandmother and has to write down her grandmother’s phone number so Marty can call her there. She uses the back of the “Save the Clock Tower” flier, and this is the only reason why Marty keeps the flier. Without the flyer, he wouldn’t have know the exact date and time of the crucial lightning strike. People still write down phone numbers – it’s quicker than adding them to your phone address book. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/103 "2014-07-28T18:53:07Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Also, from about 1969-1981, there seemed to be some requirement that every sitcom have an episode where a computer screwed something up, and a manager refused to override it, because “the computer can’t be wrong.” Usually it had to do with someone receiving a bill with a misplaced decimal, so they were being billed hundreds of dollars, when they really owed forty or fifty. Those episodes are laughable now, and not for the intended reasons. Happened when ATMs started getting popular, too; every sitcom had an episode where they went to the ATM, it went crazy and started spitting out money, and then the police came around asking questions. Cell phones have changed horror movies forever. Now, every horror movie has to have a “Dammit, no signal!” scene to justify why the victim can’t just call for help. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/104 "2014-07-28T19:20:29Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Happened when ATMs started getting popular, too; every sitcom had an episode where they went to the ATM, it went crazy and started spitting out money, and then the police came around asking questions. I remember those. I also remember when microwaves, answering machines and car phones were new, and there are several shows that have very dated episodes where someone uses a microwave to cook a turkey (which is possible, but there’s a reason it never caught on), gets really angry at repeatedly getting an answering machine, or has some kind of misunderstanding over a car phone after which hilarity ensues-- or uses a phony bad connection to get out of something, because they were so common when the technology was new. There’s also a _Bob Newhart Show_ episode where Bob gets a pager (y’know, cause he’s a _doctor_), and expects that he’ll be getting paged all the time, because he’s so important, but he never gets a page. Everyone else he knows seems to be getting pages, including clients, who get them during sessions, and one bum on the street gets one (IIRC, Bob is waiting in line at the time to see _Star Wars_ with Howard and his son). Generally, the _Bob Newhart Show_ holds up pretty well, but that one is going to have anyone in college now scratching their heads. I realize they will know what pagers are, but the idea of one being a status symbol will probably go over their heads. Young people mostly associate them with drug dealers. > [@](#): > > Cell phones have changed horror movies forever. Now, every horror movie has to have a “Dammit, no signal!” scene to justify why the victim can’t just call for help. Or, “The battery is down, and I forgot my car charger!” Pretty soon, writers are going to give up, and just set all horror films before 1990. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/105 "2014-07-28T19:26:49Z")
> [@Wolf333](#): > > Windows was unable to reach anyone before Blair destroyed the radio due to the storm. 3.1 or 95? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/106 "2014-07-28T19:42:49Z")
> [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](#): > > The darkroom and the developer chemicals would be a little problematic too. > > That was a great old movie and worth watching just for Audrey Hepburn, she was so pretty. 🙂 I love Wait Until Dark, but it’s dated in another, non-technological way: all this elaborate kerfuffle is over a quantity of heroin that any pusher on the street corner is carrying in his pockets. We’ve gotten used to plots revolving around shiploads of contraband; a few ounces seems pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/107 "2014-07-28T20:03:47Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > He talks about “toll calls,” a very LA-specific problem. But why would the kids be calling kids who lived in distant parts of the Southland? Maybe they were from their old neighborhoods, from the days before they somehow formed a family. It also depends on how the local area boundaries are drawn. I lived in the southern part of a large area, but the “free area” is apparently determined in terms of how far away it is from the center of that area, as people who lived five miles away from me were in the “toll area”. > [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > Star Trek IV is an obvious example. Kirk tries to hide the use of his communicator from the 20th Century marine biologist. Now she’d just ask, “Where’d you get that antique phone? Does it really still work?” Another anachronism: they have to go to Naval Air Station Alameda to find a nuclear powered ship, and it turns out to be the Enterprise. USS Enterprise left Alameda by 1990 (replaced by USS Carl Vinson, and while that ship was being overhauled, by USS Abraham Lincoln on its way to its permanent base at Pearl Harbor), and NAS Alameda itself was decommissioned as part of the national Base Realignment And Closure scheme about 10 years ago. (If you do a Google Earth view of the area, you can barely make out the area where the base’s runways were located.) ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/108 "2014-07-28T20:37:52Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Not just old movies. > A lot of modern films either forget mobile phones exist, or at some critical point the protagonists’ phone battery runs out, or they don’t have signal. > Can’t search for a list right now, but there are a number of montages and lists I’ve seen. > > I think it’s because in some senses mobile phones are a “spoiler” technology. > Similar to how the existence of guns can spoil the potential for epic melee fights. So, many films either pretend guns don’t exist, or you get some contrivance like the main two guys run out of ammo at the same moment. This is probably why so many crucial scenes take place in parking garages. Everyone knows that it’s often hard to get a cellphone signal inside a parking garage, so the writers don’t need to go to any great lengths to explain why their character spends 10 minutes running around like an idiot instead of just calling 911. ---
**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:** [July 28, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/109 "2014-07-28T20:58:43Z")
Given my experiences with them, the movie-makers should just show that the protagonists use Sprint as their carrier - that alone would explain why calls can’t be connected. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/110 "2014-07-28T21:14:45Z")
That dropped call tone could be the new scary noise, replacing the Psycho shower scene musical sting ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/111 "2014-07-28T21:25:51Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I recently watched _Back to the Future_ for the first time in ages, and it occurred to me that it’s essential to the plot that Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer not have a cellphone. Jennifer is going to visit her grandmother and has to write down her grandmother’s phone number so Marty can call her there. She uses the back of the “Save the Clock Tower” flier, and this is the only reason why Marty keeps the flier. Without the flyer, he wouldn’t have know the exact date and time of the crucial lightning strike. Yeah, but none of those plot points are obsolete in a movie that requires you to accept _time travel_ as a basic premise 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/112 "2014-07-28T22:11:17Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > You know, Clark could just check Wally World’s website to see if the park was open, rather than driving cross-country… Which raises the question; just how \*would \*a theme park in 1983 have about informing the public a planned 2 week closure for maintenance? 😕 Would they just schedule it far enough in advance that they print the closure dates in the upcoming year’s brochures and promotional material? Also weren’t the Griswold’s traveling sure the summer; :dubious: you’d think if the park had to be shut down for planned maintenance they’d wait until the off-season. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/113 "2014-07-28T22:25:24Z")
I remember seeing ads in rags like Thrifty Nickle for unexpected park closures or concert cancellations or what not. Regular schedules of openings, closing, events, etc… were often found in flyers at the local 7/11. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/114 "2014-07-28T22:50:49Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Which raises the question; just how \*would \*a theme park in 1983 have about informing the public a planned 2 week closure for maintenance? 😕 Would they just schedule it far enough in advance that they print the closure dates in the upcoming year’s brochures and promotional material? Also weren’t the Griswold’s traveling sure the summer; :dubious: you’d think if the park had to be shut down for planned maintenance they’d wait until the off-season. Yeah, I kind of found it hard to believe even back when the movie came out that the park would close for maintenance during the busiest time of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/115 "2014-07-28T23:23:54Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > Don’t get started on _Heathers_ - a gun in school is merely an inconvenience? Teen suicide just being one of those things? Men whose being (potentially) gay is a huge deal? Passing around handwritten notes instead of making Facebook postings? They don’t make them like that anymore. Or drinking bottled water is immediately recognized as evidence of gayness. > [@ftg](#): > > Today, you just type in the name and place (and this cop had a quite unusual name) into one of those people finder web sites. You’ll get their age for free. (And for $20 bucks you can get a _lot_ of information.) Nevermind using any cop database for some reason. > > This happened on the classic cop show _Rizzoli and Isles_ waaay back on July 8, two thousand-ought-fourteen. Boy, those were the days. FYI those cop databases are for official use only. Using them for non law enforcement purposes can get you fired or jailed. The ones in this state are monitored and there are periodic audits. No way am I risking a 5 year Official Misconduct charge to find out someone’s age. ---
**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:** [July 28, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/116 "2014-07-28T23:34:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > People still write down phone numbers – it’s quicker than adding them to your phone address book. I think **Lamia** ’s point was that Marty McFly would call his girlfriend’s cellphone. ---
**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:** [July 28, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/117 "2014-07-28T23:34:48Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > People still write down phone numbers – it’s quicker than adding them to your phone address book. I’m pretty sure Marty would have already had his girlfriend’s number in his phone. ---
**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:** [July 28, 2014, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/118 "2014-07-28T23:36:21Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Or drinking bottled water is immediately recognized as evidence of gayness. Yeah, but it wasn’t bottled water it was “MINERAL WATER!” ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961/119 "2014-07-29T02:20:38Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > A lot of modern films either forget mobile phones exist, or at some critical point the protagonists’ phone battery runs out, or they don’t have signal. > Can’t search for a list right now, but there are a number of montages and lists I’ve seen. There’s the [“No Signal” montage](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIZVcRccCx0), where people in one horror movie or thriller after another can’t get a signal, have dead batteries and no way to recharge, lose their phones, drop their phones into the water, or have their phones smashed or burned by someone else. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > People still write down phone numbers – it’s quicker than adding them to your phone address book. The obsolete part isn’t the pen and paper, it’s the fact that Marty needed the grandmother’s landline number in the first place. If Jennifer had a cellphone he could just call her at the same number he usually called her at even when she was at her grandmother’s house. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-episodes-with-obsolete-plot-points-multiple-spoilers/692961.md?page=5)