# The Language of Cinema Cliche: This is how you know that ...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 19, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317 "2005-03-19T15:10:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/121 "2005-03-26T02:22:31Z")
> [@rjung](#):
>
> The Capitol Records building.
>
> Also, [Los Angeles City Hall](http://www.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_pages/0036-0409-1714-5241.html) gets used a lot.
>
> And the [Hollywood Sign](http://home.earthlink.net/~kolsky/pix/photos/hollywood-sign-closeup2.jpg) and [Mann’s Chinese Theater](http://www.americaontheroad.it/immagini/manns_chinese_theater.jpg) are gimmies.
Occasionally, the [Bonaventure Hotel](http://www.culik.com/weatherr/Pomo/JamesonHotel.html) gets used, too. (Just occasionally. It’s not _that_ great.)
Jeez, L.A. really needs some amazing landmark, doesn’t it? Like an arcology or a ziggurat or a zeppelin mooring tower or something.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/122 "2005-03-26T02:49:54Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#):
>
> Jeez, L.A. really needs some amazing landmark, doesn’t it? Like an arcology or a ziggurat or a zeppelin mooring tower or something.
Come to think of it, wasn’t the Empire State Building designed to double as a zeppelin mooring tower?
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/123 "2005-03-26T02:57:29Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> 😃 Remember _The Kentucky Fried Movie’s_ Bruce Lee parody, “A Fistful of Yen”? The camera pans New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty in the foreground. Subtitle on screen: “HONG KONG”
“Contestant #3: Same question.”
“We are building a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude! Dr. Klan forges our spirits, and we have his gratitude! Let’s all give Dr. Klan a great big hand!”
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/124 "2005-03-26T03:03:43Z")
One of two characters in a bed, sitting half-wrapped in a bedsheet, smoking the obligatory post-sex cigarette. A handy way to say “sex” without showing it.
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### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/125 "2005-03-26T04:10:51Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> Come to think of it, wasn’t the Empire State Building designed to double as a zeppelin mooring tower?
Yep, which _Sky Captain_ takes advantage of.
Too abd they found that zepplin mooring in the middle of the city doesn’t work, and the fact that zepplins went into decline after the Hidenberg acccident.
Sorry, I think zepplins are very cool.
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### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/126 "2005-03-26T04:14:55Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#):
>
> Occasionally, the [Bonaventure Hotel](http://www.culik.com/weatherr/Pomo/JamesonHotel.html) gets used, too. (Just occasionally. It’s not _that_ great.)
>
> Jeez, L.A. really needs some amazing landmark, doesn’t it? Like an arcology or a ziggurat or a zeppelin mooring tower or something.
I vote for Ziggurat. The Sumerians deserve something to be remembered by.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/127 "2005-03-26T04:36:38Z")
> [@HPL](#):
>
> Sorry, I think zepplins are very cool.
Amen! If you have to go from New York to LA, would you rather spend two hours in a cramped seat or two days in a gracious stateroom? 🙂
> [@HPL](#):
>
> I vote for Ziggurat. The Sumerians deserve something to be remembered by.
OK, but if you don’t belong to a religion that involves putting a temple at the top, what’s a ziggurat good for?
I guess you could build a more-or-less ziggurat-shaped office building. You know, like the “Trans-America Pyramid” in San Francisco. But a ziggurat (or a pyramid) is not really a good functional shape for an office building.
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### Author:  [@Pedro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pedro)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/128 "2005-03-26T04:56:01Z")
We know we are watching a post coital scene between our hero and the dashing female character when she sheepishly gets out of bed in the morning fully wrapped in a bedsheet, too shy to show her naughty parts to her sex partner.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/129 "2005-03-26T04:57:47Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> But a ziggurat (or a pyramid) is not really a good functional shape for an office building.
Nonsense. Plenty of us have had our still-pumping hearts torn from our chests in office buildings.
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### Author:  [@Gorgonzola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgonzola)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/130 "2005-03-26T07:35:09Z")
Nursing staff at a given care facility will take one of the following forms:
- stiff and irritable
- pretty and overly provocative
- cheerful (only if caring for infants)
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### Author:  [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/131 "2005-03-26T18:31:25Z")
If the receiver of a pay phone is seen dangling off the hook, someone has been killed or kidnapped.
When the camera shot is wider than is necessary for the scene, someone’s gonna get jumped.
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### Author:  [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/132 "2005-03-26T18:38:27Z")
Oh, and if a little boy with no connection to the storyline is seen approaching a body of water with a fishing pole, a human corpse is about to be discovered.
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### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/133 "2005-03-26T18:53:44Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> OK, but if you don’t belong to a religion that involves putting a temple at the top, what’s a ziggurat good for?
For summoning Gozer, obviously. Having LA covered In Mashmellow is something everyone can enjoy.
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### Author:  [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/134 "2005-03-27T05:48:06Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#):
>
> Dreary soap operas made in England are a gritty and searing indictment of the class system. This is still Mrs Thatcher’s fault, although she’s been out of power for 15 years.
I would like to point out that on Coronation Street (UK soap for those not in the know), characters will have sex if they’re drinking red wine, all women wear their dressing gown to see the men to the door after sex(whereupon a nosy neighbor will spot them), and if someone’s wearing a purple shirt, their imminent death is guaranteed.
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### Author:  [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2005, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/135 "2005-03-27T06:03:31Z")
I don’t know why this is, but if a character takes food out of a restaurant, something significant – and often strange – will happen on the ride home. This is especially true if he also talks to the cashier on the way out. If you take the food with you, you can’t just arrive home in the next scene. (The one exception is cops, who are free to get take-out for the stake-out with no intervening storyline.)
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### Author:  [@Merl\_Minnozza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merl_Minnozza)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2005, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/136 "2005-03-27T06:47:33Z")
The sound of a helicopter, in any movie taking place in the 60’s, means that a scene involving Vietnam is forthcoming.
When there is a courtroom scene, and it is unrelated to the rest of the movie, the judge always seems to be a black woman. I don’t know why this is, but I see it all the time - I guess there’s something wise and maternal about a black female judge. In movies which are dedicated to lawyers, courts, etc, the judge is usually not a black woman.
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### Author:  [@Merl\_Minnozza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merl_Minnozza)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2005, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/137 "2005-03-27T06:58:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Decent people forced to use violence do not cream the living shit out of the heavy. They turn their backs and give him a sporting chance to regain his feet and attack again.
This reminds me of what is in my opinion the worst movie cliche ever: the woman (and it is always a woman) thinks that she has killed the evil rapist/serial killer/scumbag, and as he is lying on the floor “dead” you see 1. his eyes open and him rise to his feet, attacking the woman again, or 2. the woman start to walk away, then cut to a shot of her walking towards the camera and the evil guy who she thought she killed is poised behind her ready to strike!
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### Author:  [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2005, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/138 "2005-03-27T06:59:58Z")
I think the black woman judge, when not a primary role, is an easy way to give an indisputably positive role to a minority.
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### Author:  [@Gorgonzola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgonzola)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2005, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/139 "2005-03-27T07:01:18Z")
If the dream-within-a-dream sequence has already resulted in a jump scene, the next scene will not be part of a dream, no matter how much it may appear to be.
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### Author:  [@RobuSensei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobuSensei)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2005, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-language-of-cinema-cliche-this-is-how-you-know-that/295317/140 "2005-03-27T12:53:12Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#):
>
> > [@Dooku](#):
> >
> > If a character happens to posses a unique skill, and time is taken early in the movie to display the character performing that skill, it is a 100% certainty that skill will become necessary at a crucial point late in the movie.
>
> “[E]very gymnast in a movie sooner or later encounters a bar.” – Roger Ebert, quoting “an ancient movie principle”.
Almost-case-in-point: Some deleted scenes from “Love, Actually” show that Liam Neeson’s stepson character was a champion gymnast. This was used to make the last chase much more acrobatic…
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