# 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:** 12
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/221 "2011-02-09T04:25:53Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > True, all the semi-autos I know of lock the slide open when the magazine empties. I’m not sure however about full-autos; would it make a difference whether it was an open-bolt or closed-bolt auto? Shouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/222 "2011-02-09T04:35:18Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I have to say “Fargo” got it _almost_ right - I’ve mentioned this before in the past, but their one false step was when the guy started cleaning off his car before he started it - I don’t know anyone here who would clean before starting. You start it up so it can start heating up a bit while you get out and clean off the snow and ice. If you’re talking about the scene where William H. Macy comes out to his car after the meeting with his father-in-law where he finds out he’s not getting the money for the parking lot, then I’d be willing to give them a pass. You have to remember that he had been under the impression earlier that day that he was finally free and clear and would even be able to call off the kidnapping. Well now he’s not getting the investment money from his FIL and his wife ended up getting kidnapped anyway, so he just wasn’t thinking straight. ---
**Author:** ![gone2thedogs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@gone2thedogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gone2thedogs)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/223 "2011-02-09T04:40:14Z")
> [@McReady](#): > > “Ship will self-destruct in T minus five minutes.” > > I blame Riddley Scott for this one – or at least, the earliest instance I can think of is in _Alien_. > > No, you stupid ship’s computer. The ship will blow up in _five minutes_. “T minus five minutes” is a description of _what time it is now._ At the moment the ship blows up, the time will be T. Five minutes after that, the time will be T _plus_ five minutes. > > I’ve seen (or rather heard) this same stupid error in countless movies and tv shows since then. “Core explosion in T minus sixty seconds.” What the fuck do they think “T minus” means? > > And how could a generation that grew up watching NASA rocket launches have failed to grasp this simple concept? I love this McReady! Thank you from all scientists on the planet. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/224 "2011-02-09T05:26:50Z")
Any time a car accelerates or stops, the tires squeal. Even on dirt. Nobody ever gets a ticket for it though. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/225 "2011-02-09T05:48:54Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Well for starters the dress code. Real teenagers don’t dress like the Hollywood version. Especially girls. I went to HS from 1999-2003, and girls very seldom wore skirts. They wore pants like the boys, unless they were unusually dressed up (like for a presentation) or cheerleaders (only on game day). Even the transfers from the local Christian school quickly switched from (long) skirts to pants. Nobody would’ve gotten away with a bare midriff (even in gym class) or hemline above the knee. “Unnatural” hair colors were banned sophmore year, the only acceptable visible piercings were ears, and all black clothing wasn’t allowed. We also never did shirts vs. skins in gym class (even if it wasn’t a mixed activity) or showered afterward. Nor did we ever have a pretend marriage/baby assignment. I was in high school 2002-2006. Unnatural hair colors were allowed, some girls wore skirts- at least one almost exclusively-, there were no restrictions on piercings, and lots of people wore all black- though my view on that last point might be a bit biased by being on a bunch of tech crews for theatre. There was also a fake baby assignment. But nobody I knew showered after gym. I think the people who did swimming in their gym classes did, but that’s a different case. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/226 "2011-02-09T06:18:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > cleaning up with a two pair, just isn’t nearly as dramatic. Unless it’s aces and eights–and too little is properly documented about that famous poker game to know for sure whether the movies get _that_ right or not! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/227 "2011-02-09T06:48:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In the 1960s, _Star Trek_ introduced the idea of a self-destruct in space ships to visual SF. Although they threatened to use it, I think the only time they actually did was **The Doomsday Machine**. It served a useful plot point. “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” was the episode with the classic self-destruct scene, including code phrases spoken by Kirk, Spock and Scott and a dramatic countdown (material later used in the third film). “The Doomsday Machine” depicted a starship sent on a kamikaze run, and “By Any Other Name” features Scott sabotaging the Enterprise with intent to make her explode, but the aliens who’ve seized her detect and neutralize the plan . ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/228 "2011-02-09T09:16:38Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > 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. I forgive him the rest of his movie work just for that sequence, which had me cracking up for days. ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/229 "2011-02-09T12:50:35Z")
> [@Rrose\_Selavy](#): > > Are ventilator shafts usually wide enough for a person to crawl through? Some are, if the building’s big enough and you hit the right duct. What they _aren’t_ is clean. They’re filthy. Even a pretty new building will have dust, and lint, and all kinds of crap lining the walls of the duct almost from day one. I’m sure in a huge building like in _Die Hard_ you could find ductwork large enough to pass a Bruce Willis-sized man through, but he’s going to look like hell when he comes out. Oh, and they’ll be _dark_. Not pitch black; you’ll get light coming through from the various registers, and probably a few screw-holes here and there, but it’s going to be pretty dim in there. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/230 "2011-02-09T16:12:58Z")
> [@carlb](#): > > Some are, if the building’s big enough and you hit the right duct. > > What they _aren’t_ is clean. They’re filthy. Even a pretty new building will have dust, and lint, and all kinds of crap lining the walls of the duct almost from day one. I’m sure in a huge building like in _Die Hard_ you could find ductwork large enough to pass a Bruce Willis-sized man through, but he’s going to look like hell when he comes out. > > Oh, and they’ll be _dark_. Not pitch black; you’ll get light coming through from the various registers, and probably a few screw-holes here and there, but it’s going to be pretty dim in there. Mythbusters did a segment on this. Yes, there are ducts big enough for a full grown man to crawl through. But if your goal is to be stealth, you better find another way of getting into or out of the building, because you’re going to make a hell of a lot of racket climbing through those things. ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/231 "2011-02-09T16:29:10Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Mythbusters did a segment on this. Yes, there are ducts big enough for a full grown man to crawl through. But if your goal is to be stealth, you better find another way of getting into or out of the building, because you’re going to make a hell of a lot of racket climbing through those things. Or just traiin a cat to do it for you? Vaguely remember a Mission Impossible episode with something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/232 "2011-02-09T19:57:05Z")
> [@carlb](#): > > Some are, if the building’s big enough and you hit the right duct. > > What they _aren’t_ is clean. They’re filthy. Even a pretty new building will have dust, and lint, and all kinds of crap lining the walls of the duct almost from day one. I’m sure in a huge building like in _Die Hard_ you could find ductwork large enough to pass a Bruce Willis-sized man through, but he’s going to look like hell when he comes out. > > Oh, and they’ll be _dark_. Not pitch black; you’ll get light coming through from the various registers, and probably a few screw-holes here and there, but it’s going to be pretty dim in there. IIRC, Bruce Willis’s vest got pretty dirty after crawling through the ducts. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/233 "2011-02-09T20:07:42Z")
They’re also not nicely finished on the inside and full of sharp metal engines. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/234 "2011-02-09T20:07:59Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Mythbusters did a segment on this. Yes, there are ducts big enough for a full grown man to crawl through. But if your goal is to be stealth, you better find another way of getting into or out of the building, because you’re going to make a hell of a lot of racket climbing through those things. I think the only way it would have been louder was if they had tossed a few buckets of bolts in with them … ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/235 "2011-02-09T20:22:00Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > They’re also not nicely finished on the inside and full of sharp metal engines. Edges. Edges! Sharp little metal engines would also be a problem, though, I imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/236 "2011-02-09T20:42:44Z")
> [@carlb](#): > > Some are, if the building’s big enough and you hit the right duct. > > What they _aren’t_ is clean. They’re filthy. Even a pretty new building will have dust, and lint, and all kinds of crap lining the walls of the duct almost from day one. I’m sure in a huge building like in _Die Hard_ you could find ductwork large enough to pass a Bruce Willis-sized man through, but he’s going to look like hell when he comes out. One movie that got this right was the anime _Akira_. At one point, a character is hiding in a duct, listening in on a meeting of a revolutionary cell, and the duct is absolutely disgusting: everything is covered in dust, grime, and cobwebs. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/237 "2011-02-09T20:43:44Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Edges. Edges! Sharp little metal engines would also be a problem, though, I imagine. Well, those movie ducts tend to always end in giant, razor sharp fans… ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/238 "2011-02-09T21:18:44Z")
People looking through binoculars with the black thingy around the outside. When you look through binocs, you just see a magnified image not black round edges. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/239 "2011-02-09T21:25:45Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > Any time a car accelerates or stops, the tires squeal. Even on dirt. I think it’s the intro sequence to _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_ where James Bond manages to get his tires to squeal on _sand_. ---
**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 9, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/240 "2011-02-09T21:43:14Z")
> [@eenerms](#): > > People looking through binoculars with the black thingy around the outside. When you look through binocs, you just see a magnified image not black round edges. Again, that’s not because the writers don’t know how binoculars work. It’s an intentional deviation in order to signal to the viewer what’s going on. It’s visual shorthand. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494.md?page=13)