# Suspension of Disbelief Unsuspended
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 9, 2012, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290 "2012-02-09T06:40:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/21 "2012-02-09T21:49:05Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#):
>
> In _2001_, when Heywood Floyd is riding to the space station, he drinks juice with a straw from a closed container. When he stops sipping, the juice falls back down the straw. Even when I first saw this as a teenager, I was pretty sure that wouldn’t happen in the absence of gravity. It didn’t affect my appreciation of the whole movie, though. The quality of the movie might have something to do with how much it bothers you.
That’s probably not a mistake. If he’s lightly squeezing the container when he sips, and releasing it when he’s done, the container will create a slight vacuum when it expands again, drawing the liquid back down the straw into the container.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/22 "2012-02-09T22:06:52Z")
_A Perfect World_ was a feature film, not a TV movie, so you took me right out of this thread from the start with that mistake. 😉
Haven’t thought about that film in ages. Liked it a lot.
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### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/23 "2012-02-09T22:14:58Z")
> [@Kenm](#):
>
> So I’m watching a Clint Eastwood/Kevin Costner movie that I recorded off TV, A Perfect World, in which Costner plays an escaped convict who, along with another convict, are driving along a Texas highway in a '59 Chevy with a kidnapped kid being held as hostage. The movie is set in 1963 (made in 1993).
>
> Costner is driving, and his conversation with the other convict in the back seat is shot from what would be outside the windshield. The audience can see the passing countryside through the passengers’ side windows and the rear window.
>
> The gear-shift lever is in park.
Are you sure it was in Park? Maybe it was in third gear.
It’s been years since I last drove a “three-on-the-tree” standard transmission car (and a '59 Chevy would likely have a three-on-the-tree; as manual, three-gear, transmissions on the steering column were fairly common for many cars of that time period), but I do recall that of the cars I drove that were equipped with three-on-the-trees, third gear was way up on the steering column–so far that it could be mistaken for Park on an automatic transmission.
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### Author:  [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/24 "2012-02-09T22:34:46Z")
> [@Spoons](#):
>
> Are you sure it was in Park? Maybe it was in third gear.
>
> It’s been years since I last drove a “three-on-the-tree” standard transmission car (and a '59 Chevy would likely have a three-on-the-tree; as manual, three-gear, transmissions on the steering column were fairly common for many cars of that time period), but I do recall that of the cars I drove that were equipped with three-on-the-trees, third gear was way up on the steering column–so far that it could be mistaken for Park on an automatic transmission.
I’m pretty sure on the AMC Javelin I learned on, reverse was up and in (towards the driver), first down and in, second up and back (towards the windshield), and third was down and out.
Of course, AMC could well have been non-standard.
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### Author:  [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/25 "2012-02-09T23:13:41Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#):
>
> _A Perfect World_ was a feature film, not a TV movie, so you took me right out of this thread from the start with that mistake. 😉
I said I had recorded it from the TV.
> [@Spoons](#):
>
> Are you sure it was in Park? Maybe it was in third gear. . . .
With H-pattern transmissions, third is straight down. First is toward the driver then down. Second is up. Reverse is toward the driver and up.
I had a '56 Austin that had an H-pattern four on the tree (plus reverse) transmission. In that car, third was, indeed, at the top. But the Chev was a three-speed, not a four.
The movie Chevy wasn’t in second, though. IIRC, the gear lever is shaped differently in standard-shift Chevys of that vintage; the bendy parts in the movie Chevy’s lever would make it awkward to constantly shift.
And I’m not sure if a standard transmission was available in the mid-level Bel Air model of the movie, though they were in the entry-level Biscayne. For what that’s worth.
Jeez, people. It was just a post about an Eastwood movie with a clanger that should have been caught. At least Costner wasn’t smoking cigars of three different lengths.
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### Author:  [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/26 "2012-02-09T23:14:00Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#):
>
> I notice a glass that’s full from front view but half empty from back view,
I originally read this as “half full from the front view and half empty from the back view”.
I laughed. 😛 then I realized I’d read it wrong. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/27 "2012-02-09T23:22:16Z")
Perhaps I should include the moving ‘blood’ stain on Kirk’s uniform in _Wrath of Khan_.
The first time I watched the movie it was in a theater and none of my cadre noticed it.
Later (much later) when rewatching it on disc, it was very obvious.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/28 "2012-02-09T23:45:22Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Why does _The Neverending Story_ have closing credits, dammit?!
That’s another story. And shall be told another time.
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### Author:  [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/29 "2012-02-10T02:34:09Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#):
>
> Perhaps I should include the moving ‘blood’ stain on Kirk’s uniform in _Wrath of Khan_.s.
And, of course, Khan’s second banana who closed his eyes long after he was killed.
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### Author:  [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/30 "2012-02-10T02:43:16Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Why does _The Neverending Story_ have closing credits, dammit?!
Yeah, and why is it called _Final_ Fantasy when there are over 14 of them? Ruins all the games for me, it does.
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### Author:  [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/31 "2012-02-10T06:39:21Z")
> [@Mosier](#):
>
> In the godawful King Arthur ripoff “First Knight,” Lancelot dramatically wins the battle with the evil bad king by knocking the jagged nasty looking sword out of his hands. The shot changes to a view of the sword as it’s sailing through the air, twisting end over end until it lands point-down in the dirt. The camera then turns back to Lancelot and the bad guy. The bad guy is wearing an expression of shocked disbelief as Lancelot runs him through, while he’s still holding the jagged nasty looking sword. He was still holding the goddamn sword! Arghhhhhhh! Fuck that movie!
I feel your (and the OP’s) pain.
I saw another “Camelot” movie a few years back (I forget the actual title) with terrible special effects that totally unsuspended my disbelief.
There were all sorts of scenes with terrible film production, bizarre dialog, and completely unrealistic and unbelievable scriptwriting.
The worst scene has the King-Arthur-type-character fighting an evil knight in the forest. After much battle, King Arthur chops off the knight’s arm (or was it leg?) and yet the knight still wanted to fight. Yeah right.
So Arthur chops off another limb, but the knight wants to keep battling. Arthur keeps chopping off limbs and the black knight keeps on attacking anyway. Really fake looking blood is spurting everywhere.
This scene (and the whole film, actually) was so outrageous my friends and I were literally in tears as we watched it.
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/32 "2012-02-10T07:01:47Z")
I think you guys are confusing suspension of disbelief with continuity errors. A continuity error would be something like the blood on Kirk’s uniform appearing and disappearing with every other camera cut. Others are just flat out errors like the gear shift being out of place.
Suspending our disbelief means we accept some premise that we would otherwise reject. Let’s take Dr. Who. I suspend my disbelief and accept that there is a time traveling dude who inhabits multiple bodies over the course of many years. I accepted that aliens were taking over key government positions in Britain over the course of a very special two part episode. What I could not accept was the idea that Britain did not have access to the launch codes to their own nuclear arsenal. No, Britain had to consult with the United Nations in order to get those codes. It took me completely out of the episode.
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### Author:  [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/33 "2012-02-10T08:29:31Z")
Well, one person’s launch codes is another person’s gear shift. 😃
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### Author:  [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/34 "2012-02-10T08:55:17Z")
You should watch the Hal Needham movie Megaforce. I’m serious - you should get really drunk or high and watch it - you’ll thank me later.
Anyway, there’s one scene where they’re speeding across the desert on motorcycles, but in the closeups the wheels aren’t rotating. They are closeups of parked motorcycles.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/35 "2012-02-10T08:59:47Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> My suspicion is that you’re not bringing this up not because of any real outrage about it, but just to show people how clever you were to spot it.
He could be in a movie.
Because there is no way that these tire marks were made by a 1964 Buick Skylark convertible. These marks were made by a 1963 Pontiac Tempest.
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### Author:  [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/36 "2012-02-10T10:01:10Z")
It is odd what you’ll cheerfully accept, and what makes you go ‘wait, what?’ isn’t it- one that really got me was ‘X-Men First Class’.
I was quite happy with the weird mutation stuff, and physics defying skills, but at one point a character stuck his head in a tank containing a shoal of clownfish, and proceeded to grow temporary gills, and all I could think was ‘that’s stupid- clownfish don’t swim in shoals like that!’.
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### Author:  [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/37 "2012-02-10T11:05:32Z")
> [@Filbert](#):
>
> It is odd what you’ll cheerfully accept, and what makes you go ‘wait, what?’ isn’t it- one that really got me was ‘X-Men First Class’.
>
> I was quite happy with the weird mutation stuff, and physics defying skills, but at one point a character stuck his head in a tank containing a shoal of clownfish, and proceeded to grow temporary gills, and all I could think was ‘that’s stupid- clownfish don’t swim in shoals like that!’.
You’re my hero!
I had a similar moment in one of the Harry Potter movies. The kids went to talk to some spider monster thing, who sent a bunch of spiders to attack them. All I could think of as the kids were running away from this literal teeming carpet of giant spiders was, “there’s no goddamn way that forest ecosystem could support that many giant flesh eating spiders!”
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### Author:  [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/38 "2012-02-10T16:21:07Z")
> [@Zebra](#):
>
> Because there is no way that these tire marks were made by a 1964 Buick Skylark convertible. These marks were made by a 1963 Pontiac Tempest.
Benedict Cumberbatch strikes again!\*\*\*\*
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### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/39 "2012-02-10T16:25:55Z")
…and another thing, it seems like about every other movie that I watch starts with an African lion roaring. Then the lion never appears in the rest of the movie and none of the characters ever mention it even to say “boy, I’m glad that scary lion is gone.” Whether it’s a continuity error or a dangling plot thread, I can’t say, but it takes me right out of the movie every single time.
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/40 "2012-02-10T16:40:20Z")
Star Wars, the one where Quite Gone Case was skewered by the Red Dancer. you’re a Sith! with a lightsaber! you _do not_, oh so carefully, withdraw your lightsaber as if it is a sword. you stick them with the pointy end and scribble.
> [@Kenm](#):
>
> … This happens twice more before I delete the turkey. …
is that code?
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