# 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:** 16
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/41 "2012-02-10T16:44:24Z")
> [@Manduck](#):
>
> 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.
Oh My God, Megaforce! I haven’t though about that movie in years. Those same motorcycles had retractable wings and could fly! Barry Bostwick does a barrel-roll on one at the end, via one of the most hilariously unconvincing special effects ever committed to film. (I was working as an usher at the time and thus saw that scene multiple times.)
A true cinematic classic.
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/42 "2012-02-10T22:55:05Z")
This thread would not be complete without a link to the [flying motorcycle scene from Megaforce.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1NpZxn860M)
Something was suspended in that scene. Wasn’t my disbelief.
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### Author:  [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/43 "2012-02-10T23:08:00Z")
Never watch the movie “Twister” if you are worried about continuity errors -
and don’t watch the time clock thats on the bridge in ST Undiscovered Country.
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### Author:  [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2012, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/44 "2012-02-11T12:54:23Z")
> [@SpazCat](#):
>
> This thread would not be complete without a link to the [flying motorcycle scene from Megaforce.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1NpZxn860M)
That was the funniest thing I’ve seen in years. Thank you!
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### Author:  [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2012, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/45 "2012-02-11T13:28:32Z")
> [@Cayuga](#):
>
> That was the funniest thing I’ve seen in years. Thank you!
I think I cried a little at that clip, but in a good way.
Plus we got to see what happened after Michael Beck’s career was launched by “The Warriors”!
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/46 "2012-02-11T13:35:55Z")
> [@SpazCat](#):
>
> This thread would not be complete without a link to the [flying motorcycle scene from Megaforce.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1NpZxn860M)
>
> Something was suspended in that scene. Wasn’t my disbelief.
Something about the guy @ 1:24 reminds me of Will Farrell.
---
### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/47 "2012-02-11T13:43:08Z")
> [@Odesio](#):
>
> 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.
To me, the big one is in Spiderman 2, the fight between SM and Doc Ock on the train. I can accept superpowers being granted via radioactive spider bite. I can buy-in to the concept of a high-school student turning superhero and not using his powers to impress, then bang, his way through the female half of the student body. I can accept some pudgy guy somehow ending up with mechanical tentacles. Hell, I can even accept that Kirsten Dunst can be romantically interested in Toby McGuire.
But I can’t accept what happens [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ1hUJP-1EE), from :33-:39. You CANNOT throw something _ahead_ of you, only to have it catch up to you from _behind_. You cannot, dammit! I don’t give a crap what sort of movie-world you live in, just don’t blatantly violate Newton that way. WTF?
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/48 "2012-02-11T23:21:03Z")
I am one of “those people” who notices the weird stuff. E.g., an actor putting the book down on the table twice in a row, etc.
These usually make me enjoy the movie/show much more. I get drawn into it. So a glitch like on the OP is a fun thing thing to enjoy, not a bad thing.
But sometimes it’s just plain old “Oh, come on now!” and the I get the unsuspended feeling.
It’s one thing for an actor, stage flunky, whatever, to screw up. It’s another when the writers and/or producers just get into “We just don’t care.” mode. E.g., you have a Halloween episode and then several months later say it’s 3 months until Christmas. Can’t you folks plot out the show against a calendar?
Is Hotlips’ father dead or alive? What is Henry’s wife’s first name? C’mon folks. Figure things out and stick to it.
The worst: Laugh tracks. Egad. Just … stop. And as to the BBT: You’re not fooling anyone. That’s not the audience laughing most of the time.
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### Author:  [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/49 "2012-02-11T23:59:15Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#):
>
> I find myself distracted and amused when a scene switches vantage point like that, and I notice a glass that’s full from front view but half empty from back view, or a character whose hands are clasped together when seen from the left, but spread out or pocketed from the right. I always figured it was the case of a film editor getting really tired late at night and not paying attention to continuity details. These things only irritate me when they pull me out of the movie, and that generally just happens when the movie is marginally decent anyway.
Stuff like that nags at me too. I notice it with hair a lot too. Mainly women (just because they’re more likely to have longer hair) they’ll have like a strand hanging loose in the close up, then they switch to a wider angle and it will be tucked behind her ear, then back to closeup and it’s loose again.
I mean, I know it’s just a show and that I should really just relax, but it just gets to me sometimes where I can’t ignore it, it just draws my attention and I wind up missing dialog I’m so busy waiting to see where the hair goes in the next camera change.
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### Author:  [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2012, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/50 "2012-02-12T00:28:42Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Frankly, if that sort of thing bothers you, you have no business watching movies portraying fiction, and should probably stay away from fiction in all forms. Stick with your National Geographic Documentaries, if you can avoid having them ruined by your own silly nitpicking.
>
> I mean, it’s fun to see something like that, but for it to be anything other than an amusing bit of trivia, the viewer has to have a real problem understanding what “fiction” is.
>
> 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.
My response to this idiotic, obnoxious post is [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=14764525#post14764525)
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/51 "2012-02-12T17:03:25Z")
> [@Kenm](#):
>
> Benedict Cumberbatch strikes again!\*\*\*\*
Actually Mona Lisa Vito. (Marissa Tomei)
---
### Author:  [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/52 "2012-02-14T03:43:06Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> To me, the big one is in Spiderman 2, the fight between SM and Doc Ock on the train. I can accept superpowers being granted via radioactive spider bite. I can buy-in to the concept of a high-school student turning superhero and not using his powers to impress, then bang, his way through the female half of the student body. I can accept some pudgy guy somehow ending up with mechanical tentacles. Hell, I can even accept that Kirsten Dunst can be romantically interested in Toby McGuire.
>
> But I can’t accept what happens [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ1hUJP-1EE), from :33-:39. You CANNOT throw something _ahead_ of you, only to have it catch up to you from _behind_. You cannot, dammit! I don’t give a crap what sort of movie-world you live in, just don’t blatantly violate Newton that way. WTF?
Given how fast the train was going and the amount of air resistance they’d have been feeling, Spidey getting behind Ock isn’t a problem. Catching up with him, of course, is. Maybe when he was passing through the pedestrian bridge (or whatever that structure was) he grabbed it and flung himself forward super-fast. I think, though, that just to do all the other stuff he does, Spiderman has to have some low-level flying ability.
Actually, in the comic doesn’t he get his wall-crawling ability from some kind of cosmic sticky-force (sort of the opposite of DC’s speed force)? If so, it would make (comic book) sense that he could also _reduce_ his stickiness, and thereby fly through the air frictionlessly. If he eliminated the friction caused by air mid-flight, but kept his momentum, he would accelerate! (Right? Ok, what if he maintained his ventral friction but eliminated it dorsally? That would provide lift and allow him to transfer some of his downward motion forward. Maybe?)
---
### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/53 "2012-02-14T04:29:35Z")
Look at the scene again - he doesn’t grab anything. He just (miraculously) turns his body around, mid-flight, and then catches up to Doc Ock through his own momentum.
And, no, he wouldn’t accelerate if he was frictionless - the laws of physics don’t work that way. He needs a force acting upon him to accelerate.
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### Author:  [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/54 "2012-02-14T20:25:14Z")
The only way Spidey can catch up to Doc Ock from behind after having been thrown forward is if _the train_ accelerates to bring Doc Ock past Spidey, then slows down again. What they should have done instead is have Spidey grab the bottom edge of the bridge he passes through and whip himself around to hit Doc Ock from the front.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/55 "2012-02-14T21:12:29Z")
True, but I don’t think trains are that responsive. 😉
---
### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspension-of-disbelief-unsuspended/612290/56 "2012-02-14T21:26:17Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#):
>
> Given how fast the train was going and the amount of air resistance they’d have been feeling, Spidey getting behind Ock isn’t a problem. Catching up with him, of course, is. Maybe when he was passing through the pedestrian bridge (or whatever that structure was) he grabbed it and flung himself forward super-fast. I think, though, that just to do all the other stuff he does, Spiderman has to have some low-level flying ability.
>
> Actually, in the comic doesn’t he get his wall-crawling ability from some kind of cosmic sticky-force (sort of the opposite of DC’s speed force)? If so, it would make (comic book) sense that he could also _reduce_ his stickiness, and thereby fly through the air frictionlessly. If he eliminated the friction caused by air mid-flight, but kept his momentum, he would accelerate! (Right? Ok, what if he maintained his ventral friction but eliminated it dorsally? That would provide lift and allow him to transfer some of his downward motion forward. Maybe?)
Your No-Prize is in the mail.
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