# Things Movies Almost Always Get Wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 7, 2011, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494 "2011-02-07T06:45:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/181 "2011-02-08T14:54:28Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Again, not the case here in the hell of socialized medicine we call Canada :D. No physical films are being created in this province, except maybe some mammograms in the North and I doubt that most of Canada makes actual films. Where are you and your broken foot? > > EDIT: Ah, South Carolina. When I was seeing a neurologist, and getting an MRI every 6 months, they were stored digitally. But I received films and carried them across the parking lot to the doctor who used a lightbox to view them. And our local hospital still used film for both their MRIs and X-rays. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/182 "2011-02-08T15:07:55Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > When I was seeing a neurologist, and getting an MRI every 6 months, they were stored digitally. But I received films and carried them across the parking lot to the doctor who used a lightbox to view them. And our local hospital still used film for both their MRIs and X-rays. Maybe I should start a different thread. ---
**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:** [February 8, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/183 "2011-02-08T15:22:47Z")
Just about anything associated with public schools in the movies is wrong to terribly wrong. You’d think the writers had never gone to school themselves. Even allowing for “dramatic license,” things are way, way off. The only movie that got things even close to right was Nick Nolte’s [Teachers](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088242/). ---
**Author:** ![Sally\_Mander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Sally\_Mander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sally_Mander)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/184 "2011-02-08T15:25:46Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Can you elaborate on this? I’m from an area that gets cold weather and I’m not sure I’ve noticed what you’re talking about. (Although after you’ve explained I’m sure I will not be able to _not_ notice in the future. 🙂 ) It may not be what **Cat Whisperer** is thinking of, but for me, it’s the trees. Characters are outside in winter, usually with fake snow on the ground, but all the deciduous trees are full of leaves and the grass is fertilizer-green. You never see someone’s breath, either. It’s painfully obvious they’re in LA, not whatever northern area the TV show or movie is actually set in. You never see bare trees unless they’re filming on location. ---
**Author:** ![markm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@markm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markm)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/185 "2011-02-08T15:50:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Criminal Minds had an episode where they got this right. Little girl is lost in a mall, and Garcia moves into the mall’s security office with only her laptop. She finds a shot of the girl and when asked to enhance it, she basically says no way with the hardware she has, at least not in any amount of time to do any good. I had to laugh one day when I was requested to create a copy of some surveillance footage for a cop one time. He started off on the wrong foot with me anyway, demanding I give him the footage and I give it to him right now (this was when he was in a town 1.5 hours away, and the footage was not for anything related to our company. It just happened to be that one of our cameras _might_ have seen something happen at a business across the street.) Never once did he ask if I could help him, instead expecting I would do it simply because he said to I told him the footage would not help him and he told me I ‘better get it’ for him. Before driving all the way there to get it, I remoted into the recorder with him on the phone and told him, “I’m looking at the footage right now. There is no detail whatsoever. You might be able to get make/model of the vehicle, but you cannot get the license plate, which is all you’re wanting.” At this point he actually said, “Oh, I already made the store manager show me the footage and it’s exactly what I need. We have some software that can enhance that so we can get all the detail we need. I’ll be able to tell you exactly what the license plate is.” I laughed to myself because it does not matter how magical your software is, if the camera did not capture the detail, you will never recover it. I installed the cameras, I know their specs, I know they did not capture the level of detail he was wanting/needing. I had some work I needed to do at that store, so I went ahead and went there and burned him his precious copy of fuzzy images with no detail or resolution (the stuff was well out of the focal range of the camera, because it was well off company property, so we did not care to be recording it.) When I got to the store, the store manager said the cop had bullied her around earlier and that’s when she told him he’d have to talk to me and gave him my number. (apparently, he is always a dick according to the manager. She said they generally don’t mind dealing with the police, but every time he’s the responding officer, it’s nothing but trouble.) ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/186 "2011-02-08T15:58:00Z")
while the replies are interesting, they answer the title of the OP (which has been done several times before) rather than the _actual_ OP; most of the pet peeves so far are intentional shortcuts rather than ignorance. just saying. as a random example, i’m sure they simply do not want the cost of actually replacing the trees, cgi or otherwise, rather than not knowing that they’re wrong for winter. > [@brocks](#): > > … but are there simply because the writers don’t know any better, rather than because they wanted them there? … ---
**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:** [February 8, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/187 "2011-02-08T16:09:59Z")
> [@zoog](#): > > CPR doesn’t go the way that any of my instructors ever explained it. In the movies, they pound on your chest for a few seconds, and bang - back among the living. In real life (at least the way it’s always been explained to me) the point of CPR isn’t to resuscitate someone, it’s to keep the blood and oxygen flowing until the EMT’s can get there with the paddles and get them started again. Don’t know if someone hit this already but paddles are not used on someone whose heart has stopped. CPR and defib would be different victims. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/188 "2011-02-08T16:29:34Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Also, one thing a friend pointed out to me after she foolishly went to the movie The Roommate. > > In the movies groups of freshmen never have any problems getting into bars and never even get carded. > > That certainly wasn’t my experience in college. Also people throwing huge keggers in the dorms. I guess TPTB were somewhat lax about this back in the day. But when I was going to school (late 90s, early 2000s) drinking in the dorms was a big no-no and could get you kicked out of campus housing. That’s not to say that it didn’t happen, but when it did it was usually just a small group of people drinking in their room with the door closed, rather than the big free-for-alls you see in the movies where everybody is walking around in the halls getting sloshed. And it’s not that we were a bunch of prudes. In fact my college was rather well known for being a party school. It’s just that the vast majority of that partying took place off campus. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/189 "2011-02-08T16:33:42Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > while the replies are interesting, they answer the title of the OP (which has been done several times before) rather than the _actual_ OP; most of the pet peeves so far are intentional shortcuts rather than ignorance. just saying. As much as I love the show _Psych_, one episode had a gaffe so major that, to this day, my wife won’t let me re-watch that episode. Shawn and Gus are pretending to be firefighters while investigation an arson/murder, and, while interrogating one of the firefighters, he is attempting to practice for his CPR recertification. Gus is laying on a table, pretending to be a body. He says something, responding to what the firefighter says. Shawn chastises him by saying something along the lines of “he HAS to practice on a living person to get his recertification!” You NEVER, NEVER, NEVER do chest compressions on a living person. Especially one who is talking to you. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/190 "2011-02-08T16:40:36Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > Mine are music related. > > People pick up a guitar and never need to tune it. They pick it up and instantly start jamming. > > Ensembles always play in harmony, in time, even if it’s the first time they’ve played together. > > Drummers can wail away and everybody can be heard perfectly fine. In my grad school band, our drummer knew to play fairly softly so we could hear each other. > > Amplification is rarely needed. One guy, one guitar can easily be heard in a large auditorium. In old movies especially, the singer would wander around the nightclub sans microphone and still be heard above the band and patrons. Also in old Tinpan Alley type movies, the singer would sing the songwriter’s new song perfectly without ever having heard it before. He’d be sitting at some beat up piano, and all she would have to go by was his sheetmusic. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/191 "2011-02-08T16:54:32Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > Catholic weddings. Even in Catholic countries where no matter how atheistic you might be you’ve been to several of them, they start “dear beloved, we are gahtered here today…” and have the “if anyone…or forever hold their peace”. When my brother was married, the (Methodist) pastor read that exact same ceremony that you hear in movies and TV. I guess you can’t beat the classics. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/192 "2011-02-08T17:27:53Z")
In war movies, there’s often a barracks or bar scene where all the guys are crowded around a fight or something, so naturally they all want to place bets. Instantly there’s a big pile of money, and no apparent way to account for who bet what. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/193 "2011-02-08T17:34:57Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > while the replies are interesting, they answer the title of the OP (which has been done several times before) rather than the _actual_ OP; most of the pet peeves so far are intentional shortcuts rather than ignorance. just saying. Yeah, that’s exactly the point I was making. Most of the replies here – like not saying “goodbye” before hanging up the telephone – are not mistakes because writers don’t know how the real world works. They’re intentional deviations from reality in order to serve the flow of the storytelling. > [@silenus](#): > > Just about anything associated with public schools in the movies is wrong to terribly wrong. You’d think the writers had never gone to school themselves. Even allowing for “dramatic license,” things are way, way off. What are you talking about exactly? Examples? ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/194 "2011-02-08T17:42:18Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:165, topic:570494”] Here’s a big one: looking at the footage from a security camera at a little store. It’s grainy and dark. “Zoom that in. Enhance that.” Suddenly you have a crystal clear image better than I could take with a ten-megapixel camera and professional lighting. And they do it all without touching a pointing device to pick the area to enlarge. [/QUOTE] “The Wire” had a pretty good bit about this in episode where they were investigating a group of thugs buying prepaid cell phones. Anyway, McNulty and Kima drive up to some backwater and ask the local police chief there if he can help them obtain a copy of the tape from the convenience store where the cell phones were purchased. But the police chief says the convenience store tape will be useless, as they use the same one over and over again and it’s deteriorated so bad that it looks like a herd of buffalo running through a snow storm. ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/195 "2011-02-08T18:00:28Z")
> [@Agnostic\_Pagan](#): > > Criminal Minds had an episode where they got this right. Little girl is lost in a mall, and Garcia moves into the mall’s security office with only her laptop. She finds a shot of the girl and when asked to enhance it, she basically says no way with the hardware she has, at least not in any amount of time to do any good. Red Dwarf got this [delightfully wrong](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUFkb0d1kbU). “Uncrop” is my favorite. ---
**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:** [February 8, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/196 "2011-02-08T18:59:46Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > In many, many movie the hero chases a bad guy through a hotel or restraunt kitchen, the cooks stare dumbfounded at the ensuing fisrfight or _ignore it completely_ and continue with their cooking. > > This would never happen in any kitchen I ever worked in. The other end of this, which I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before on these boards, is that regardless of how small the restaurant is, the kitchen is _always_ a fully-equipped, convention-sized kitchen staffed by a dozen white-clad chefs (two of whom will be carrying a large, multi-tiered cake between them). In reality, the kitchen in most smaller restaurants almost seems like an afterthought, crammed into the remaining space after the dining room was designed, and there’s one lonely cook, maybe two, frantically trying to bust out the orders. Hell, even the actual convention kitchen I work in now only has three chefs/cooks; occasionally we “borrow” a fourth from the hotel restaurant when we have larger groups. Of course, I understand _why_ they do this: you’d never fit a standard movie camera, let alone a whole film crew and lights, into most of the kitchens I’ve worked in. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/197 "2011-02-08T19:08:50Z")
> [@YoSaffBridge](#): > > It may not be what **Cat Whisperer** is thinking of, but for me, it’s the trees. Characters are outside in winter, usually with fake snow on the ground, but all the deciduous trees are full of leaves and the grass is fertilizer-green. You never see someone’s breath, either. It’s painfully obvious they’re in LA, not whatever northern area the TV show or movie is actually set in. > > You never see bare trees unless they’re filming on location. A good example is the movie _Halloween_ - they’re in Illinois, it’s almost November, the kids are wearing coats and sweaters… and the palm trees in some background shots are just **lush** with life (as are all the deciduous trees and hedges). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/198 "2011-02-08T19:38:53Z")
> [@Agnostic\_Pagan](#): > > Criminal Minds had an episode where they got this right. Little girl is lost in a mall, and Garcia moves into the mall’s security office with only her laptop. She finds a shot of the girl and when asked to enhance it, she basically says no way with the hardware she has, at least not in any amount of time to do any good. “Buffy” got this one right too. There was an episode where they’re watching a security tape on a VCR and going from memory the dialog went like this “Enhance that please” “I can’t do that. This is just a VCR tape” “Well, pause it then.” “Guys, I can’t do that, this is just a VCR!. No, wait, I can pause it.” ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/199 "2011-02-08T20:17:45Z")
> [@brocks](#): > > Steven Seagal in “Under Siege.” Ha! Off-topic, but this was hysterical to me: in that movie, he’s serving as / disguised as a cook. He winds up killing someone in the kitchen with a large cooking knife. The bad guys come by afterward and survey the scene: Kitchen, cutting board, thug with a cooking knife sticking out of him. The main bad guy narrows his eyes and says dramatically, “No _cook_ did this.” I dunno, pinhead, it sure LOOKS like the way a cook would kill someone! All I could do was laugh. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/200 "2011-02-08T20:32:58Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > Whether the crescent moon looks like ) or like ( depends on which hemisphere (northern/southern) and which phase (waxing or waning), but not on time of day. Well it does in the sense that you cannot see a waning moon in the early evening, which is typically the scenario shown in movies: early evening, or after dinner, two people talking outside with the waning moon shining above - can’t happen at that time of day. It’s as if stylistically the waning moon is more desirable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494.md?page=11)