# Things in fiction that annoy you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [July 21, 2021, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932 "2021-07-21T01:34:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/41 "2021-07-22T04:16:43Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > why is everyone so sure the traveler doesn’t move in space as well as time? Well, if you can move through space then you’ve just invented really fast space travel to just about anywhere in the universe. In most fictional settings that’s not part of the time travel tech. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > And if you’re not moving, what are you not moving relative to? Well, there aren’t any fixed points in space that you can measure, so as far as I am aware there’s no way to establish your absolute position in the universe. But if you take the 2-D equivalent of the universe (just to make it a little easier to grasp the concepts), you’re not traveling around on the surface of a sheet of paper like Flatland. You’re traveling around on the surface of a balloon (which is slowly inflating). If you imagine you are riding in a little car and are traveling around the surface of the balloon, then you magically pluck yourself out of the car, rewind the film to go back a bit, then put yourself in the same place on the balloon, the car isn’t there. If fictional settings would come up with some sort of even semi-plausible explanation for the xyz shift in addition to the t shift, it wouldn’t annoy me so much. But in most fiction, you don’t have that. It annoys me. It doesn’t have to annoy you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/42 "2021-07-22T04:55:21Z")
Famously on the original Hawaii 5-0. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/43 "2021-07-22T04:55:26Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > > > You might not have moved, but the Earth sure did. > > I’m always amazed that so many people think this is a gotcha. > > Since no one knows how time travel works, why is everyone so sure the traveler doesn’t move in space as well as time? And if you’re not moving, what are you not moving relative to? Yeah I don’t get why people seem so bothered by this. If you just sit in one spot for years time will move forward but you won’t have moved relative to the earth so why should it be any different with time travel, a fictional concept anyways? Unless it’s a plot point, which I _have_ seen in some shows/movies, why would time travel _not_ be relative to the Earth? Who knows how it would actually work if it were a real thing? To me this sounds akin to arguing that “vampires can’t go out in sun in one movie but they can in others! One of them is wrong!” It’s a made up concept, there are no set rules. The Doctor travels in both time _and_ space, but that doesn’t mean that’s how all time travel fiction works. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/44 "2021-07-22T07:32:27Z")
Annoy is probably a little strong, but there is one thing I see so often in tv shows that you can call it before it happens. Bad guy running from two good guys, heading north. Suddenly, one good guy stops, looks around, and then turns and runs straight east. Somehow the good guy running east steps out from around a corner to tackle the bad guy who is still running north, while his good guy partner is still 20 yards away. That’s not how a short cut works in our universe. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2021, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/45 "2021-07-22T07:41:30Z")
Hey, don’t you know that bad guys always run around the block? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/46 "2021-07-22T10:58:39Z")
Suspense is OK, but the constant, just barely escaping [Bad Thing] in the very last nanosecond becomes annoying. I stopped watching the new Lost in Space for this reason. The Robinsons continually evading catastrophe by millimeters and milliseconds began to be tiring. Random chance dictates that one of their hundreds of near-death escapes would have happened a moment too late, rather than just barely in time. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/47 "2021-07-22T11:00:53Z")
Ah, I sweat profusely when stressed, anxious, nervous. It’s mostly a social anxiety thing, but being put under pressure can get it started. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/48 "2021-07-22T11:15:43Z")
Just saw this on a show last night. A character who has never been involved with firearms, weapons, or self-defense of any kind gets caught up in a criminal enterprise. A good guy hands him/her a pistol and says, “I’d better show you how to use this.” After two or three minutes, the character shoots like a professional, hitting every bad guy on the first shot. It reduces proficiency with a handgun to the same level as showing someone where the gas cap cover release is on their new car. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/49 "2021-07-22T11:57:19Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > Suspense is OK, but the constant, just barely escaping [Bad Thing] in the very last nanosecond becomes annoying. Like defusing a bomb as the timer counts down, and cutting the correct wire when the timer reaches 2, or any number of variations on that theme… ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/50 "2021-07-22T12:02:54Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Yeah I don’t get why people seem so bothered by this. If you just sit in one spot for years time will move forward but you won’t have moved relative to the earth so why should it be any different with time travel, a fictional concept anyways? I get where ECG is coming from, but it still sounds like the argument flat-earthers use that if you take off in your plane on the equator suddenly the globe Earth would be spinning at 1000 mph below you. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/51 "2021-07-22T14:21:48Z")
I posted the same thing as ECG in another thread recently, only to have others make the same comment you have. I agree with ECG that in absence of any mention of this problem, I’m not going to assume that the mythical time travel “just works”. Anyone serious about time travel in a fictional world should at least be able to say “Oh, and in case you are wondering about the motion of the earth and solar system over time, that’s not a problem because blah blah blah…” and give some plausible reason. And like ECG says, “It annoys me. It doesn’t have to annoy you.” ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/52 "2021-07-22T18:18:29Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > > [@pullin](#): > > > > Suspense is OK, but the constant, just barely escaping [Bad Thing] in the very last nanosecond becomes annoying. > > Like defusing a bomb as the timer counts down, and cutting the correct wire when the timer reaches 2, or any number of variations on that theme.. Michael Crichton played with that trope in _The Andromeda Strain_. In the novel, the eponymous virus mutates and breaks containment in the secret underground lab where a team of crack microbiologists is studying it. This triggers the thermonuclear bomb underneath the lab, meant as a last defense against an escaped contagion. The bomb can only be disarmed by one particular character, who must insert a key on a substation. Unfortunately, he’s trapped in a section without one, so he must break through the central core, triggering alarms and tranquilizer darts, and fighting his way to the next floor. He makes it, barely reaching the substation before passing out from the lidocaine. When he awakens, the team’s head tells him he made it with about seventy seconds to spare, and he comments that it wasn’t even suspenseful. The head doctor dryly replies that the system evacuates all oxygen on the floor 30 seconds before detonation, so while it might not have been dramatic for _him_… ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/53 "2021-07-22T18:25:07Z")
Just the opposite in [El Dorado (1966 film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado_(1966_film)) Where “Mississippi” is good with a knife but not a gun, so they get him a sawed off shotgun. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/54 "2021-07-22T18:25:08Z")
Teenage protagonists who must stop in the middle of the implausible action–say, preparing to leap from a speeding train–to ruminate about or process their loooove triangle. ---
**Author:** ![Joeu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joeu/32/2911_2.png) [@Joeu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joeu)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/55 "2021-07-22T18:32:32Z")
Two bathroom-related things: 1. People get in the shower (nude, standing right under the showerhead), turn on the water, and take a shower. It comes out at exactly the right temperature from the moment they turn it on. As far as I know, EVERYONE in the real world turns on the water first, gets it right, and THEN gets in. 2. People wake up, get out of bed, get dressed and go about their day. Am I the only one who pretty much ALWAYS has to pee, immediately, when I wake up? (in most fiction, people don’t seem to urinate or defecate at all, and mostly I’m OK with that, because it can be assumed that it’s happening and just not being shown/narrated because who wants to see it. But upon awakening from a full night asleep? Aren’t we all built to pee at that moment?) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/56 "2021-07-22T18:49:54Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Teenage protagonists who must stop in the middle of the implausible action–say, preparing to leap from a speeding train–to ruminate about or process their loooove triangle. Similar to this: people jumping out of airplanes, who stop to have a conversation - particularly if they’re the last members of their team to jump. Uhm, guys? The plane is moving _quite quickly_. Do you really want to land a couple of miles away from everyone else? Get your asses out the door! ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/57 "2021-07-22T19:04:26Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Hey, don’t you know that bad guys always run around the block? 😉 I just explain it to myself that good guys have a portable wormhole/transporter they carry around with them but because reasons, it only works if you run away from your quarry. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/58 "2021-07-22T23:51:00Z")
I just watch the scene. He actually did jump between the supports under the overpass. He also cut through an alley. When Christine finally did kill him, the car tore itself apart driving through a too narrow opening. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xrO8AQ4CrKk/maxresdefault.jpg "Christine (1983) - Run, Moochie, Run Scene (5/10) | Movieclips") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrO8AQ4CrKk) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/59 "2021-07-23T00:57:50Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > A character who has never been involved with firearms, weapons, or self-defense of any kind gets caught up in a criminal enterprise. A good guy hands him/her a pistol and says, “I’d better show you how to use this.” After two or three minutes, the character shoots like a professional, hitting every bad guy on the first shot. It reduces proficiency with a handgun to the same level as showing someone where the gas cap cover release is on their new car. I recall an amusing take on that in _Sleepy Hollow_ – Ichabod Crane knows how to fire a gun, which isn’t all that different from the eighteenth-century ones he’s familiar with… and drops it to look for another weapon after firing once, because nobody told him that modern guns can fire repeatedly. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932/60 "2021-07-23T04:33:49Z")
Okay, so apparently there _are_ some people who sweat when nervous. I still don’t think it’s as common as some writers would have you believe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-fiction-that-annoy-you/946932.md?page=4)