# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/81 "2011-02-07T18:34:45Z")
And Howard Hawks (and Christian Nyby) ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/82 "2011-02-07T18:40:05Z")
Missed the edit window. It is now apparent to me that **BwanaBob** was referring to the correlation between moon phase and time of day (e.g., waxing moon rises behind the sun, waning moon rises before the sun). At first reading I [mis-]interpreted it as a claim that the orientation would change with time of day. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/83 "2011-02-07T18:45:57Z")
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”. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/84 "2011-02-07T18:51:21Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/85 "2011-02-07T18:56:30Z")
> [@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. What would they do? Ají de Gallina, I agree, but I also see it’s a shorthand for “wedding”, I guess. It does irk me a little. Is it so hard to do a little research and find out about different wedding customs? Or maybe make them up, for the sake of fantasy? I’d even be happier if they went back to Greek or pagan roots. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Doctor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/86 "2011-02-07T19:02:01Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > A corollary to this - a friend told me that most of the time the water in sprinkler systems is not sparkling clean like it’s portrayed in the movies, but that it’s kinda dirty. So, when you see people running through indoor sprinkler water, they should be getting filthy. > > Is this true, or was my friend pulling my leg? Actually, the water in sprinkler pipes is black! Algae is one component of that black water. It rapidly clears up as the sprinkler runs as they are usually backed with a pump to increase the pressure when a sprinkler trips. How do I know you ask? I’ve seen someone set one off on a construction site with a heat gun too close to the sprinkler head in a shower room. Totally ruined the grout (all blackened) and the baseboard in the hallway for about 30 feet in every direction. A LOT of water comes out of one of those. The only good part was that the pump was turned off, so it was not as bad as it could have been. But, yeah, that water was BLACK when it first came out. ---
**Author:** ![phantom\_lamb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@phantom\_lamb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phantom_lamb)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/87 "2011-02-07T19:29:20Z")
> [@kapri](#): > > - Drivers having conversations with passengers and taking their eyes off the road for many seconds at a time to talk to them. This. A few times I’ve actually thought out loud “What the hell are you doing!? Look ahead!” I swear they’d take their eyes off the road for like almost ten seconds sometimes. :rolleyes: ---
**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 7, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/88 "2011-02-07T19:38:38Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > As for TV and movies, one that always gets me is the “instant perfect Google search” which can be seen most offensively in Twilight, but it shows up everywhere. It’s such a cheap and lazy fix for an info-dump, and I hate to break it to you, but most of the sites on the net (especially those turned up with a general Google search) aren’t that image heavy and are certainly not quality information about the restricted/specific focus of whatever the producers needed. Maybe they use Bing, and avoid “information overload” (whatever that is). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/89 "2011-02-07T19:55:36Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > That delay between writing a book and publishing it depends on what the book is being written about. Books can be rushed out pretty quickly if the publishers desire it (a particular subject becomes a hot media topic, they can have a book out in a matter of weeks.) An “acquaintance” of mine actually makes his living by writing cheapy biographies of recently deceased celebrites. Basically, when a famous person dies, he tosses together a book-length overview of their career and it gets rushed out to bookstores. When Michael Jackson & Farrah Fawcett died, he had separate books on each one of them out in stores in less than a week. Writing a so-called “instant book” has never been the subject of the plot ever. Not even once. It is always a regular book, subject to the regular length of process. > [@](#): > > Also, the old cliche about the studio camera running may have been ridiculously un-true many years ago. But in this youtube age, it happens quite a lot. Mel Gibson calling an interviewer an asshole, or Seth Green having a meltdown at the Robot Chicken studios are pretty well known examples. Again, the plot is always set in a formal television studio, never in a real-world setting where amateur photography is involved. No woman ever has a proper historical hairdo or makeup in a Hollywood historical picture. She always could step right out into the street after changing her clothes. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/90 "2011-02-07T20:00:39Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Some minor nitpicks: In **The Corbomite Maneuver** , Kirk _bluffs_ that the Enterprise has a built-in device which will not only destroy the ship but contaminate a large region of space for several years. It’s a big fib, but useful enough that it’s used again in **The Deadly Years** , to trick some Romulan attackers into backing off. In **The Doomsday Machine,** the Constellation’s badly damaged impulse engines (“Aye. In her shape, it’s hard to keep her from blowing”) are allowed to destruct. And in **Let That Be Your Last Battlefield** , after the Enterprise has been hijacked ?five? times in previous episodes, Starfleet evidently decided that a self-destruct capability was a good idea, but it required a lengthy procedure in which the senior officers had to agree that yes, they’re really, really, really, really, really, really sure they want to do it. The slick bit is that the codes to prime the self-destruct in TOS are the same as the codes used in Star Trek III. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/91 "2011-02-07T20:09:51Z")
Newspaper reporters and magazine writers go into their editors’ (1) offices to pitch story ideas, and the editors make (2) eye contact with the reporters and then (3) praise them for their inspiration and diligence. 1. You just scooch your chair over on rollers when she comes back from the bathroom and 2. try to catch her before she starts reading her e-mail and 3. Ha. ---
**Author:** ![zoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ea924/32.png) [@zoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoog)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/92 "2011-02-07T20:10:34Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/93 "2011-02-07T20:23:30Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > [Mythbusters did this and agrees with your assessment.](http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-heroic-hang.html) Thanks for the tip. Unless I missed it, they never even tried hanging by one hand. With both hands, a light woman could hang on to a narrow ledge for about 30 seconds, while an average-built man’s grip was torn loose immediately, and even an expert male lasted only about 15 seconds. I would confidently predict that on a narrow ledge like they used, nobody but a freak of nature could hang on for even ten seconds with just one hand. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/94 "2011-02-07T20:26:32Z")
Whenever someone points an semi-automatic pistol at someone and pulls the trigger it makes a loud clicking sound. In bar fights, when someone menacingly smashes a beer bottle to make it into a wedding, he doesn’t get all cut up by the glass that flies around. While its not as true as it used to be, I always used to laugh at all the interracial gangs from movies in the 70s and the 80s, particularly when the people looked way too old to be in gangs. Also, if you were to believe the TV cop shows and movies NYPD homicide detectives spend most of their time arresting white people for killing other white people, whereas the unfortunate reality is that in NYC most of the killers and the victims are minorities. Also we could probably easily do a thirty page thread on the mistakes courtroom dramas make, but I’ll pick out a few of my favorites. One lawyer defending two people at trial. In reality that’s not allowed and for good reason since it creates a conflict of interest if prosecutors offer a deal to one of them or if one of them wants to make a deal. Trials always take far, far longer than portrayed in the movies or TV. That’s especially true of class action lawsuits which drag on for years. The surprise witness or the evidence presented at the end. In reality this is also gone through in the discovery phase of the trial. ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/95 "2011-02-07T20:35:04Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > I can do it. I pole dance. I bet I could hang on to a rope for a good 2 minutes. I could easily climb one in two minutes. 🆒 I am female, 5’ 2" and weigh all of 110 lbs. soaking wet with my hooker heels on. 🆒 > > :: flexes pole grip hand :: All I can say is, try it. When I was a kid in sixth grade, I could EASILY climb up the swingset pole, but not the rope in gym class. And that was a very thick rope, at least two inches in diameter. Poles are much easier. The ropes cat burglars use in movies are like half an inch in diameter. Like I said, try it. BTW, in real life, a rope like that would work if it had knots in it every foot or so. Makes all the difference. ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/96 "2011-02-07T20:38:20Z")
A lot of people are talking about hotels, which reminds me of elevators. In real life, if something goes wrong with an elevator, the default is that the safety brake will lock it in place, not that it will fall to the basement. The other, even more common thing, is that when people are stuck in an elevator, one of them just pops the hatch in the ceiling and climbs out. I’ve been looking for a ceiling hatch in an elevator for 30 years. Never seen one. ---
**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 7, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/97 "2011-02-07T20:41:47Z")
> [@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. For the most part, you’re right. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve done CPR on a scene, then in the back of the ambulance, all the way to the hospital, where CPR continues, along with chemical interventions and shocks (if advised…there are some times when the AED - automated external defibrillator - advises you not to shock the patient). In the instances I’ve been party to, the EMTs alternate with the staff to provide CPR (you’d be amazed how badly CPR can tire you out, and it’s a horrible strain on the back) in order to keep someone fresh doing the compressions, generally at 2 minute intervals. CPR generally continues for upwards of 20 minutes or so at the hospital, until either a pulse is found, or the doctor calls it, and announces a time of death. And, sadly, it’s around 90% for the latter (according to the instructors when I went through my EMT training, and through my experience). ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/98 "2011-02-07T20:41:53Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > Women always orgasm every time they have sex. You mean that’s wrong? No wonder they won’t stop calling me. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/99 "2011-02-07T20:45:01Z")
> [@](#): > > In real life, if something goes wrong with an elevator, the default is that the safety brake will lock it in place, not that it will fall to the basement. True. In fact, this is what the gave Otis a patent for – the Safety Elevator. Boxes that went up and down had been around for centuries. What Otis invented was one that wouldn’t inadvertently kill you if the cable snapped. > [@](#): > > The other, even more common thing, is that when people are stuck in an elevator, one of them just pops the hatch in the ceiling and climbs out. > > I’ve been looking for a ceiling hatch in an elevator for 30 years. Never seen one. Me, too. But they’re a staple of TV, movies, and fiction. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494/100 "2011-02-07T20:45:11Z")
> [@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”. Speaking of Catholicism… nuns haven’t worn floor-length gowns since I was in second grade (well over 40 years) in real life, but always wear them in the movies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-almost-always-get-wrong/570494.md?page=6)