# SHOCKER! Things work differently in the movies. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778 "2016-05-03T14:42:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/181 "2016-05-09T16:09:38Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Au contraire, mon frere! That’s only true for cabled elevators. Hydraulic elevators can have cylinders and endcaps made of dissimilar metals and welded together. Corrosion can cause the endcap to blow off under pressure, and the car drops like a rock. In the mid-90s we started selling the first brake for hydraulics. I was under the impression that the system Otis invented had nothing to do with the lifting mechanism, but used an idler wheel and a centrifugal clutch which released the spring-loaded brakes when the car speed exceeded the normal amount. His demonstration involved having a guy with an axe cut the cables of the demonstration elevator car he was in. Just an urban legend? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/182 "2016-05-09T16:14:07Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > Too easily overcome, unfortunately. DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME! > It can be held closed with a finger or a bit of duct tape, which allows the user to send a nail a couple of hundred feet downrange. Or into the finger holding back the interlock. :eek: > > Another popular trick is to tape the trigger so that the interlock acts as the “trigger” and fires a nail whenever the gun is pressed down to the surface. Or dropped on your foot … :smack: Nothing can be made idiot-proof because idiots are just _too damn clever_! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/183 "2016-05-09T17:10:58Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Nothing can be made idiot-proof because idiots are just _too damn clever_! 😃 There are those who learn by reading. Others will learn by observation. But some just have to whiz on the electric fence themselves :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/184 "2016-05-09T17:41:26Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Sprung by the baddies, our hero races through the restaurant kitchen, dragging the girl, and closely followed by gun-toting goons, who all make it through unscathed into the back alley. Maybe a tray of vegetables gets knocked aside but that it the limit of fatalities. > > I entered a large restaurant kitchen once, and had three knife-armed feral cooks corralling me before I got clear of the swinging door. They were not going to let anyone near their cabbages. On a related note, something I’ve mentioned before: That cozy little restaurant has an equally “cozy” (read: cramped) kitchen with maybe one or two cooks in it. Not the full-sized catering kitchen with a dozen chefs you see in the movies. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/185 "2016-05-09T18:19:23Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > My old college dorm elevator had a stop button. Mine too, except it wasn’t a button, it was a lever. We had one elevator that serviced the odd floors, and another that serviced the even floors (+ lobby). Every now and then some smartass would tie a length of dental floss to the lever, send the elevator up without them in it, and then yank the floss when the elevator was between floors. Ha-ha, now everybody (including the people on ninth floor) has to walk up and down until building management can get an elevator service guy to come out and get the elevator running again. > [@Soylent Juicy](#): > > You can’t have a gun fired near you at close range and not experience some kind of hearing damage. Some movies are better than others on this point. In [Copland,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_Land) a bad guy deliberately fires a gun next to Sylvester Stallone’s head to fuck up the hearing in his remaining good ear. Black Hawk Down also had the soldiers dealing with TTS after a firefight. > [@MacLir](#): > > Another popular trick is to tape the trigger so that the interlock acts as the “trigger” and fires a nail whenever the gun is pressed down to the surface. Or dropped on your foot … Watched an ER documentary some years ago in which a construction worker was lying on a gurney, waiting for surgery. Seems a nail gun was hanging on a step ladder, and he walked into it; either the interlock or trigger had been by passed, and when he walked into it it fired a framing name into his chest. Like, _completely_ in, thus the need for surgical extraction. He was not happy. For the elevator crash folks…I’m guessing the brake mechanism doesn’t do anything if you start going [up really fast?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrvsfP1PxYk) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/186 "2016-05-09T19:55:56Z")
> [@Smitty](#): > > My personal bugaboo is shoulder injuries. Having badly torn a rotator cuff once, I can tell you that the arm in question largely ceases to function. I would imagine that the extra trauma of a gun shot wound to that area would prevent the recipient from raising and firing a weapon or throwing haymakers with the arm in question for some time. Depends how close the wound is to the actual shoulder articulation I suppose. I once clean broke my collarbone and it took a while before anybody (myself included) noticed there was anything wrong besides soreness from the fall. I could move my arm just fine, it just hurt like the Dickens. The idea of punching people with it, however, makes me wince as I write. Good way to engineer an open fracture IMO. And collarbone fractures are so easy and practical to set to begin with ! ---
**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:** [May 9, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/187 "2016-05-09T20:07:46Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > No one rolls face to face with their bed partner and kisses intimately in the morning. \ Oh my god this makes me absolutely crazy. A peck, at best. Tongues? Open mouths? GAH… > [@RickJay](#): > > For that matter, in the movies, you can strangle a person to death in fifteen seconds. You grab them, they choke, flail for about ten seconds, and they’re dead. > > It takes a lot longer than that for a person to die of asphyxia or brain hypoxia. They can become unconscious very quickly - no more than 15 seconds if you can cut off the blood supply almost entirely - but **you need to keep strangling them to kill them.** If you just walk away after they fall unconscious, they’ll wake up quite rapidly. Thank you! the idea that lack of movement = death is ridiculous. > [@Lorne\_Armstrong](#): > > At a judicial hanging, the condemned man doesn’t die the second he drops, even if the neck is broken. Really? A snapped neck doesn’t mean instant death? The head keeps blinking or something? Ew. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/188 "2016-05-09T20:31:03Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Really? A snapped neck doesn’t mean instant death? The head keeps blinking or something? Ew. The neckbreak in standard-drop gallows is supposed to at least cause paralysis/unconsciousness so the condemned does not endure conscious strangulation, but it may not be instantly fatal by itself, though. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/189 "2016-05-10T00:08:52Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > I was under the impression that the system Otis invented had nothing to do with the lifting mechanism, but used an idler wheel and a centrifugal clutch which released the spring-loaded brakes when the car speed exceeded the normal amount. His demonstration involved having a guy with an axe cut the cables of the demonstration elevator car he was in. Just an urban legend? :dubious: At first it was even simpler! The rope was attached to a leaf spring from a wagon, with the ends going through strong hoops on the car. Lifting the car drew the spring ends in. If the cable broke the spring would go slack and gouge into the shaft wall, stopping the car. Later, the shaft was lined on both sides with what looked like little ladders and the spring ends went between the steps. It was an interesting job for ten years, but it had its ups and downs. And if the guy sitting across the aisle is also an expert witness, don’t ask to look at his photos. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/190 "2016-05-10T00:34:52Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > AFAIK, night vision goggles don’t glow green or red. You mean the display screen? Depends. Newer generation systems use ambient light amplification and are largely real color. Older systems used projected IR bounced off the object and then detected. Those screens displayed with green light images. > [@JcWoman](#): > > My favorite one: whenever I need to inject myself with my arthritis medication, of course I have to jam the needle into the side of my neck! (not) Yeah, watching injections shoved full needle into the neck is pretty frightening. > [@divemaster](#): > > When having a medical emergency, dumping a bottle of pills towards your mouth, or forcing pills into an unconscious person’s mouth, will not abate the (heart attack/stroke/spontaneous decapitation) in 3 seconds, enabling the stricken person to immediately be A-OK. > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > There are slow-acting poisons that function like a time bomb. You can predict the time of death to the precise minute. The hero has 24, 48 or 72 hours to find the antidote. It’s always an exact number of days. If the victim is given the antidote a few seconds before the deadline, he will make a complete recovery in less than a minute. Yeah, they are running down to the deadline, have had hours of escalating problems as the poison becomes more acute, and finally, right as they enter the death throws, the hero rushes in and gives them the antidote, and _poof_ they are magically a-ok. No side effects, recover in moments. > [@Cyros](#): > > For some inhalers you, in fact, do hold it an inch or so away from your mouth. Note figure a [here](http://www.mckinley.illinois.edu/handouts/inhaler_use/inhaler_use.html). > > Some inhalers will shoot most of the medication to the back of your throat if you put it in your mouth. By holding it away from your mouth and breathing in you get the full dose of medication. Newbies can buy special spacers or use an empty toilet paper roll to get the correct distance. I have 2 inhalers - a corticosteroid and albuterol. I was shown a spacer for each but not required for either. I was told it helps people who have trouble activating the button and inhaling simultaneously. They fill the spacer then inhale. > [@D\_Odds](#): > > Tasers do not knock people out. A taser to the neck is not a sedative. > [@scabpicker](#): > > I know you’re not saying this doesn’t happen, but that kind of thing does actually happen, it’s just amazingly hard to predict which blow’s gonna do what: > > (Spoilered because it is real, but it is just a terrifying hockey check.) > > [Mark Messier turned Mike Modano off like a light switch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yxLlZkknv0), and Modano was conscious shortly afterward. It’s certainly not the kind of thing I’d like to have happen without a medical crew around, but apparently Modano was none the worse for wear afterward. > > To hear some people in NY tell it, that’s a shoulder check to the side of the head. Others say he got hit with an elbow the jaw. Either way, that’s also not the classic “whomp on the back of the head”. Correct, that is not a standard knock on the back of the head. That was a “knockout” shot that resulted in a quick rotating and tilting jerk of the head. That’s not a sure thing, either, but much more likely. But the Hollywood trope is a conk on the head that is a power switch off that leads to no further damage than a headache when they wake up. ---
**Author:** ![Haldurson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@Haldurson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haldurson)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/191 "2016-05-10T02:29:22Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > I’ve done that. I didn’t die. But it was…_very_ uncomfortable and _very_ messy. A lot of bodily fluid leakage. I had a roommate in college (back in the late 1970s/early 80s) who ran through a glass door. I didn’t witness this exactly, but I heard it happen. He was drunk, and running after someone (who would eventually replace him as my roommate). He put his hand out in front of him as he was running, in order to (he hoped) hit the metal opening bar, and missed, and crashed through the door over the bar. Fortunately there were people around and 911 was called, and he got by with a lot of stitches. What probably saved him was that he hit the glass first with his hand. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2016, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/192 "2016-05-10T13:12:38Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Nothing can be made idiot-proof because idiots are just _too damn clever_! 😃 Every time they think they’ve made it idiot proof, someone builds a better idiot. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/193 "2016-05-10T13:13:49Z")
And whenever someone puts on an original play in a too bit theatre, some Broadway bigwig will be in the audience to make them a star. It do not work like that. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/194 "2016-05-11T12:16:47Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Also the sprinkler system is not connected to the fire alarm system. Pulling the fire alarm will not automatically turn every sprinkler in the builder in. No business/school/etc in their right mind would ever install a system like that. Actually, there is one place — albeit not a building — where they would all go off. On the hanger deck of an aircraft carrier a fire is Very Serious Business and the whole deck gets sprayed if one sprinkler head is set off. In one of [Daniel V. Gallery’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_V._Gallery) memoirs he told of a sailor who found this out the hard way. He decided to prank a group watching a movie by setting off the sprinkler over them with a lighter on a pole. The Captain was not amused. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/195 "2016-05-11T13:42:47Z")
Movies set in ancient and medieval times are usually riddled from start to finish with inaccuracies. A couple of entertaining take downs by an expert (links to YouTube videos): [Great Movie Fighting Techniques as illustrated by “Helen of Troy”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFBK-eVl76M) [The history-pedants’ guide to The Last Kingdom - episode one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCJUDdEirco) ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/196 "2016-05-11T14:23:00Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I have 2 inhalers - a corticosteroid and albuterol. I was shown a spacer for each but not required for either. I was told it helps people who have trouble activating the button and inhaling simultaneously. They fill the spacer then inhale. I’ve been using albuterol on and off since the mid '80s. It has always been recommended to either use a spacer or hold the inhaler 1 or 2 inches in front of your mouth. I was told by my doctor many moons ago that it was to prevent the initial rush of medication from splattering all over the back of your throat and not making it to your lungs. I’ve experienced this phenomenon a few times when I have used the inhaler with my lips around the opening, even with perfectly timed breaths. While this is a method that can be used you are not receiving the full dose of medication when you do. A quick google of several websites seems to back up what my doctor told me. > **[How to use an inhaler - no spacer: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia](https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000041.htm)** > > Using a metered-dose inhaler (MDI) seems simple. But many people do not use them the right way. If you use your MDI the wrong way, less medicine gets to your lungs, and most remains in the back of your > **[How To Use A Metered-dose Inhaler | familydoctor.org](https://familydoctor.org/how-to-use-a-metered-dose-inhaler/)** > > It’s important to learn how to use an inhaler correctly. Otherwise, your airways will not receive the right amount of medicine. [http://lungcentre.vch.ca/medicine/inhalerinstructions.aspx](http://lungcentre.vch.ca/medicine/inhalerinstructions.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/197 "2016-05-11T14:37:20Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > System admins do not get alert messages indicating “someone is hacking the network” and then get into hacker battles where each side is feverishly typing code. Actually this does happen, but often counterparty is either a co-worker or nobody at all, and instead of feverishly typing code, we mute our phone and say “I’m going to get that asshole first thing tomorrow.” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/198 "2016-05-11T14:56:09Z")
I was just reminded of this one on a tv show I recently watched: In real life if someone coughs, 99.99% of the time it’s nothing serious. On a movie or TV show if someone coughs, it’s always the beginning of a fatal disease. Then there’s the vomiting corollary- if a young woman throws up in a movie or tv show and she hasn’t been drinking, it’s always a first sign she’s pregnant. If someone is shot on the left side of their chest, it’s always quickly fatal- they’ll have just a minute or two for a few last words before they die. But if they’re shot on the right side of their chest, they’ll nearly always recover. ---
**Author:** ![sps49sd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@sps49sd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sps49sd)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/199 "2016-05-11T15:05:59Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Actually, there is one place — albeit not a building — where they would all go off. On the hanger deck of an aircraft carrier a fire is Very Serious Business and the whole deck gets sprayed if one sprinkler head is set off. In one of [Daniel V. Gallery’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_V._Gallery) memoirs he told of a sailor who found this out the hard way. He decided to prank a group watching a movie by setting off the sprinkler over them with a lighter on a pole. The Captain was not amused. Ah, PO2 Joe Bluberry… I wouldn’t call it a _memoir_, but Stand By-y-y-y-y to Start Engines is hilarious and mostly realistic! ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778/200 "2016-05-11T15:28:34Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > No one rolls face to face with their bed partner and kisses intimately in the morning. \ Speak for yourself 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocker-things-work-differently-in-the-movies/753778.md?page=11)