# things movies get wrong about your industry **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181 "2009-06-18T15:31:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/101 "2009-06-19T16:32:30Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > One of my biggest complaints about _Apollo 13_ is that for the use of the LM as a lifeboat and the resequencing of the startup procedure for reentry (to limit the drain on the LM battery) was presented as being done _ad hoc_ by Ken Mattingly and one engineer. In fact, when it was reported that Apollo XIII was in trouble hundreds of Grumman engineers and technicians (who had worked on the LM) drove back to work unbidden and immediately pulled out the existing extengency procedures for the LM. > > Stranger There is an entire book on the development of the LEM by one of the main Grumman engineers, with a big section on what they did during the crisis. I can understand why the limitations of the movie and the focus on the astronauts kept them from showing the behind the scenes work - but the only guy who seemed to be a Grumman engineer was a jerk. That wasn’t fair. They should have shown the [towing bill](http://myweb.accessus.net/%7E090/as13tow.html) Grumman sent Rockwell. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/102 "2009-06-19T16:46:43Z")
This is really minor, but I think it’s sort of funny. I work for a gas company. Not fuel gas–nitrogen, oxygen, helium, etc. Since I’ve started working here, I’ve noticed that any time they want to imply that a setting, especially an abandoned building, is “industrial,” they put a bunch of gas cylinders in the background. Old warehouse? Gas cylinders. Crumbling factory? Gas cylinders. Defunct steel mill? Gas cylinders. It makes sense, in that the gas cylinders do give a place that industrial feel, and they’re a relatively easy and cheap prop that can be used over and over. Realistically, they wouldn’t be left around like that. Those puppies have value. They’re reused over and over by the gas company. Even if they didn’t go back to the gas company, they would have been sold for scrap. There’s a lot of metal in them. So yeah, no big deal as an error, but I find it interesting to see how often this device is used. Now you’re going to start seeing gas cylinders everywhere you look! Heh. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/103 "2009-06-19T17:01:39Z")
I’m a nurse, an RN. Like others have said before, there is not much that Hollywood gets RIGHT about my profession. Outside of surgery, pretty much everything you see on screen (being done by doctors, all very earnest in their white coats) is either done by an RN, a phlebotomist or lab tech, a respiratory therapist or similar. Doctors tend to give orders and then stand back and others perform the tasks. Oh, and in my 20+ years of nursing, in 3 different hospitals and home health, I’ve only ever heard of 2 nurses sleeping with doctors. They were very isolated incidents. 99% do not wear all white anymore OR caps. In fact, we are the farthest thing from sexy on the job-and thank goodness. Also, nothing happens as quickly as it does on screen. Lab work? Drawn, sent to lab and resulted can take up to an hour, if not more (depends on the lab and the test). About all movies do get right are codes and even then… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/104 "2009-06-19T17:03:31Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Do you think an advanced species is going to travel halfway across the galaxy just to anally probe some farmer in Iowa? What about the farmer’s daughter? ---
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/105 "2009-06-19T17:30:09Z")
Mobile phone software/firmware. No, the government does not make us put in tracking chips. We have enough trouble keeping the margins high, putting in the necessary stuff. You need to charge them at least once a week, if not more. People seem to be unconcerned about roaming charges! (Doctor Who) Everything. ---
**Author:** ![Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gam_Zeh_Yaavor)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/106 "2009-06-19T18:21:59Z")
Archaeology: We only rarely unearth unspeakable ancient evils. Human remains are less likely to be intact skeletons and more likely to be little chunks of anonymous bone that the student excavators either toss into a bag with the ancient chicken and pig bones or unwittingly throw away onto the heap of excavated dirt. Stumbling onto a human burial in North America is often the Kiss Of Death for a dig, due to NAGPRA. Stumbling onto anything totally awesome outside the USA, like a Roman treasure hoard or a sealed Egyptian tomb or whatnot, is almost certainly the Kiss Of Death for your dig, because the local archaeological superintendency or other local officials will immediately take over your project and kick your ass out. Less time is spent running from giant boulders, and more time is spent putting things in a small plastic bag, labeling the bag, putting that bag in a slightly larger plastic bag, and labeling that bag. Then listing the bag on the proper register, placing it in the appropriate crate, and noting it in the crate manifest. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/107 "2009-06-19T18:31:04Z")
> [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](#): > > Archaeology: We only rarely unearth unspeakable ancient evils…Less time is spent running from giant boulders, and more time is spent putting things in a small plastic bag, labeling the bag, putting that bag in a slightly larger plastic bag, and labeling that bag. Then listing the bag on the proper register, placing it in the appropriate crate, and noting it in the crate manifest. Yes, but what about the Nazis? “I hate these guys.” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gam_Zeh_Yaavor)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/108 "2009-06-19T18:35:16Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Yes, but what about the Nazis? “I hate these guys.” > > Stranger The Nazis are a bit annoying, but at least they bring good beer on-site. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/109 "2009-06-19T18:57:47Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Hey, I’ve been on a Navy ship underway, pal. You can’t slip this one by me :). Yeah, some of them are definitely painting things. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/110 "2009-06-19T22:51:22Z")
You cannot take a sample of anything, add three drops of unidentified clear, colourless liquid, put it into a vial, place the single vial into a gas chromatography machine, and then 20 seconds later get a print-out with the sample’s complete ID. The shortest GC run I’ve ever done, on a single sample, was 2.5 hours. The longest was about 3.5 days. That doesn’t include the multiple weeks, or even months, of method development needed to ensure that your GC method works, and that’s assuming you _know_ what you’re testing for. GC is pretty useless for unknowns. The GC also won’t give you an IR spectrum. You use an IR spectrophotometer for that. No one in their right mind would work in a lab in the dark just because it’s nighttime. You aren’t required to turn off the lights just because the sun has gone down. Basically everything you ever see about lab work on CSI or similar shows is completely wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/111 "2009-06-19T23:04:50Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > I’m an video game artist, so in addition to **Miller** ’s comment on _Grandma’s Boy_, I can only add [this.](http://mediacast.sun.com/users/CMelissinos/media/BeAGameDesigner.mpg) > > The sad thing is that’s a commercial for an actual college where they supposedly teach actual game development. Why can’t kids in Texas or Massachusetts go to that college? Texas has slackers, too. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/112 "2009-06-19T23:07:58Z")
Here in So Cal, where the weather pretty much forces us to wear summer clothing much of the year, I have yet to see tweed on any profs. Oh, I’m sure they wear it somewhere–just not here. Even ties are unusual on the guys unless they’re administrators, brand-newbies trying to prove themselves, or very old-school. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/113 "2009-06-20T00:09:20Z")
> [@IdahoMauleMan](#): > > Indeed. > > But that reminds me about 2 more flying pet peeves from ID. > > 1. The hick cropduster tows his plane behind an RV to go from town to town. It looks like he has 8.50x6 tires on the plane at least, and possibly larger tundra tires. Those things are not made like automobile tires…they can’t roll for 1000s of miles down a highway without serious damage. And they’re expensive. Tundra tires run about $4000 a pair. > > 2. The notion that a rag-tag band of cropduster pilots, rusty old service officers (the President) and a few others could hop in F-15s and fly them in perfect formation after a few minutes of briefing strains credibility. To say the least. F/A-18s. Sorry I can’t help myself. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/114 "2009-06-20T01:12:11Z")
Software developer here - everyone pretty much has it covered, so I’ll just add this: Software company offices in the movies. Take **Kyle XY**. The office is in a prime location on the shores of a lake in the deep woods with three-story tall daisy-chained flatscreens in the lobby welcoming visitors in a sexy female computer voice. The building itself has the kind of architecture that would make Frank Gehry weep. Meanwhile dozens of employees wearing suits walk sternly through the halls on important errands. Kyle’s dad is a tester and frequently has to go to the office to “run tests” which consist of him sitting in his huge office behind his spotlessly clean desk staring purposefully at his one monitor. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/115 "2009-06-20T01:18:29Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > Basically everything you ever see about lab work on CSI or similar shows is completely wrong. Yes, but it has been priceless for tormenting the lab guys. me: “I need you to run this unknown on the GC and identify it.” lab guy: 😕 me: “Hey, they can do it on CSI. All of 'em. And on NCIS…” lab guy: :mad: Of course, I am easily amused. (… although, not by CSI.) ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/116 "2009-06-20T02:26:51Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > But you DO have a habit of saying out loud everything you are typing, even when in a room alone, right? > > Because Hollywood has taught me no one ever types quietly. I actually do this… ---
**Author:** ![IdahoMauleMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71c47a/32.png) [@IdahoMauleMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IdahoMauleMan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/117 "2009-06-20T03:08:11Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > F/A-18s. > > Sorry I can’t help myself. Well played. Very well played, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![IdahoMauleMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71c47a/32.png) [@IdahoMauleMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IdahoMauleMan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/118 "2009-06-20T03:17:50Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > One of my biggest complaints about _Apollo 13_ is that for the use of the LM as a lifeboat and the resequencing of the startup procedure for reentry (to limit the drain on the LM battery) was presented as being done _ad hoc_ by Ken Mattingly and one engineer. In fact, when it was reported that Apollo XIII was in trouble hundreds of Grumman engineers and technicians (who had worked on the LM) drove back to work unbidden and immediately pulled out the existing extengency procedures for the LM. I enjoyed the book ‘Lost Moon’ by Lovell immensely, and read it after I had seen the movie. One of the disappointments was finding out how Ron Howard mismoshed events and people together, as you describe above. I was led to believe the movie was painstakingly accurate, down to the looks and clothes of the actors matching the ‘looks’ and clothes of the original engineers in Mission Control. I don’t have the book with me at the moment, but I think it says the ‘reverse current’ idea was immediately obvious to the young engineer John \, the guy with the coffee pot. He knew how to address the problem, and there was never any sort of race-against-the-clock problem solving in the simulator with Mattingly, as you discuss above. Finding that out later in the book (as well as the liberties taken with the ‘burn’ navigation event using the Earth) kind of let some air out of my balloon. I think in the book, the manual burn was described as no big deal. Someone should correct me if I’ve misremembered. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/119 "2009-06-20T04:21:57Z")
Criminal law shows. Prosecutors do not shag the judge, jurors and/or the defendant. Defence counsel do not shag the client, jurors, or the judge. This is true no matter how short the skirt of any of the aforementioned participants is. I do know of a reported case where the prosecutor had been previously shagging the defence lawyer - client got a retrial - but that is exceptional. Also - addresses to juries do not take 30 seconds. They are not handwringing about contrived philosophical conundrums. Cross-examination does not elicit confessions. And no Hollywood lawyer seems to know the slightest thing about the formalities of asking unobjectionable questions, or about the rule that cross-examination is for asking questions as opposed to making comments. My wife hates me watching these shows with her. Nor do I blame her. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/120 "2009-06-20T06:04:11Z")
It depends. Are you describing the career I trained for, full of discoveries like Indiana Jones? Nope, archaeology is mostly scraping away layers of dirt, hoping the next layer will actually mean something. Lesson: feed your grad students lots of beer. Engineering is more important, since the hotshot who took off in a kite that’s likely to kill him is likely to accomplish that not-difficult deed, and does. ETA: Typically, he does. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181.md?page=7)