# 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:** 7
**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:** [June 20, 2009, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/121 "2009-06-20T06:58:41Z")
> [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](#): > > Archaeology: > > 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. But you still end up putting the crate in a staggeringly huge warehouse with a bunch of other identical crates, right? ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/122 "2009-06-20T07:04:59Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I’m in the Navy. > -\*\*Thongs \*\*of random enlisted blue shirts who don’t actually do anything but make the ship look inhabited. I thought that was just a stereotype! 😮 ---
**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/123 "2009-06-20T09:43:20Z")
I used to be a machinist. The only movie I can think of that really touched on that profession is actually called “The Machinist” (This doesn’t count a brief cameo in October Sky). Despite the name though, machining wasn’t really a major focus of the movie. What it did show seemed fairly accurate, though. One might scoff at the safety procedures, but they may very well of had more stringent safety rules, and the employees just weren’t following them. I saw people pull some pretty boneheaded things in shop I worked in. The odd thing is, despite not being an office job, the movie that seem to best represent that place was “Office Space”. The quality manager was like every one of Peter’s bosses rolled into one. I swear if you swap the words “TPS Report” for “Inspection Sheet” in the conversations I had with him it would be near verbatim dialog from that movie. QM: Yeeeeaaah… You know, I was looking over your inspection sheets for the other night and I noticed you put a measurement of 2.36 when the tolerances for that dimension are only .233 to .239 Me: Oh, yeah, sorry about that I must have put the decimal point in the wrong place. QM: Yeeeeaaah… OK, see, were really trying to make sure these numbers are right, so if you could, you know, just right down the number that comes up on your micrometer that’d be great. Me: Yeah, OK, I’ll do that. It wasn’t that I was just writing any number, I actually _meant_ to right down the number on the micrometer. QM: OK, Yeeeeaaah… We had a meeting on this the other day, were you in that meeting? Me: Yes, I was in the meeting, its not that I don’t know– QM: Well, let me just go back over the procedure with you for filling out these inspection sheets one more time. etc…etc…etc… And I had 4 more bosses besides him. Which may not seem like a lot, but there were only about ten employees in the whole company. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/124 "2009-06-20T11:20:25Z")
I wouldn’t want to call it “my industry” but I’ve worked as a server. Hollywood would have you believe tampering with guests’ food is wayyyyy more common than it really is. I’m sure it’s happened, but it’s really not something 99.9% of food prep staff would ever engage in. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/125 "2009-06-20T12:56:40Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > The government isn’t all in on a huge conspiracy to do, well, anything. Civil servants, for the most part, go to work, slog thru the day, then go home. We’re not plotting behind your back. Really. Actually, after years of working for the government and hearing stories from family who spent many more years working for the government pretty much killed conspiracy theories for me, because most government conspiracies requires a.) a certain amount of competancy and effiecently and b.) that none of this leaks. I don’t believe either is possible. ---
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/126 "2009-06-20T15:11:29Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > U.S. college life is generally portrayed as being one big co-ed dorm kegger blowout. Either that or everyone is really erudite, gifted, and attending a tiny, private university and living a life of the mind. The professors dress up in suits with patches on the elbows and have huge offices that look like libraries. This cracked me up! My 17-year old has one more year until college and I love to listen to her plans. They are straight out of movies/TV. Of course, I think she really thinks that Gilmore Girls is real life, and can’t understand why we don’t live that way. \ ---
**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 20, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/127 "2009-06-20T15:36:37Z")
> [@IdahoMauleMan](#): > > 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 think the look and feel of the sets was probably accurate (based on pictures I’ve seen) but Howard obviously found it necessary to punch up the drama and make some of the characters archetypes rather than accurately representing the real personalities. One definite deviation was Jim Lovell himself, who looks nothing like Tom Hanks (Kevin Costner would have been more accurate casting) and was described as being soft-spoken. Not a bad film by any means, but definitely hacked out to appeal to the broad masses rather than carefully crafted to be both accurate and entertaining. > [@IdahoMauleMan](#): > > 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. I wouldn’t say that it was “no big deal”–any time you have to do a manual controlled maneuver it is a problem, and since they didn’t have a propulsion profile for the LM flight computer it was kind of seat-of-pants–but it wasn’t as hard to control as indicated in the film. The LM descent engine was only designed to hold the lightweight LM, so the vehicle specific impulse for the LM/CSM system was a lot lower, and precise control wasn’t really all that necessary, they just needed a push in the general direction to catch up to the Earth insertion orbit. There were actually two major correction burns and a couple of minor orientation burns. > [@HPL](#): > > Actually, after years of working for the government and hearing stories from family who spent many more years working for the government pretty much killed conspiracy theories for me, because most government conspiracies requires a.) a certain amount of competancy and effiecently and b.) that none of this leaks. Reading the history of the CIA and the personalities who founded the agency, you come to realize that while there are some individual competencies within government bureaucracies, they are massively overwhelmed by political infighting and institutional incompetence. _Burn After Reading_ is far more representative of the CIA than the ubersophisticated “black-on-black kill squads” of _The Bourne Identity_. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/128 "2009-06-20T16:51:13Z")
Four pages and no defense attorneys? You often see lawyers asking leading questions on direct examination. You can (and should) do this on cross, but on direct your opposing counsel will object. Very rarely will a lawyer ask a question on cross that he doesn’t already know the answer to. Also, it’s very rare indeed that a witness will break down and admit they’re lying on the stand. Finally, and this is a biggie on shows like Law and Order, the lawyers are not allowed to wrap up examination of a witness with a little zinger that isn’t actually a question. That kind of stuff is for closing arguments, not for testimony. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/129 "2009-06-20T17:33:54Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > 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. Ha, I can think of quite a few. But then my dad’s a doc and my moms a nurse 😉 and several of their friends match the same description. And some of my buddies who are docs as well 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/130 "2009-06-20T18:55:18Z")
Everyone knows SWEDISH doctors and nurses are quite different than American ones. I’ve seen movies that prove this. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/131 "2009-06-20T19:51:42Z")
> [@Drain\_Bead](#): > > Four pages and no defense attorneys? > > Very rarely will a lawyer ask a question on cross that he doesn’t already know the answer to. Also, it’s very rare indeed that a witness will break down and admit they’re lying on the stand. F. Lee Bailey once asked his friend and colleague Erle Stanley Garner (the creator of Perry Mason) if he’d ever actually seen a witness break down and confess on the witness stand. Gardner laughed, and said, “Of course not,” even though it happened all the time in his novels. Bailey says he’s seen it once, only once. And he wasn’t the lawyer who made it happen. He just happened to witness it once as a spectator. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/132 "2009-06-20T19:54:18Z")
In War of the Worlds, the aliens are taken out by a virus. Independence Day is a rehash of War of the Worlds. The aliens in Independence Day should be taken out with a virus. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/133 "2009-06-20T20:05:16Z")
A friend who works as a paralegal pointed out to me that on lawyer shows, it always seems as if they get a case and then they’re in court a day or two later. IRL it would take weeks or months. Also, they never show the paralegals working day and night to help prep everything and get it filed on time. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/134 "2009-06-20T20:47:47Z")
I’ve worked in multiple businesses, so: **Password cracking** : In the movies, the “hacker” always parks in front of the computer and starts trying passwords–and invariably hits it in a few tries. Granted, I’d try the OEM’s default password (if I knew it), and a few common ones (People still use “password” or their username. Incredible!). But in the real world, cracking passwords typically happens through social engineering, Trojan horses, or finding the password written down somewhere. **Writing** : Novelists in movies always seem to pick their own titles and cover pictures–even first-time novelists. Newspaper reporters create their own headlines, too. This is rare in the real world. And you notice nonfiction writers in movies never seem to spend time on their research? And their desks aren’t filled with stacks of books, files, papers, pictures, and such? My desk is _never_ clear when I’m in the middle of a nonfiction book. **Law** : I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve worked on software development for the legal field and worked with a lot of lawyers, court reporters, paralegals, and judges. Watching court scenes in movies and on TV makes me want to stand up every second question and yell OBJECTION! Half the questions they ask wouldn’t be allowed by a real judge. > [@ITR\_champion](#): > > As a high school teacher, I’ve always wanted to clear up the following points. > > - Teachers are not sexually attracted to students and students are not sexually attracted to teachers. Members of either group would flee from any possibility of a liaison. Yeah, they’d flee (most of the time), but that doesn’t mean there’s no attraction. When I was teaching at a community college, many of my students were fairly close to my age. I was single, and there was quite a bit of temptation. > [@astorian](#): > > It takes me waaaay longer to get logged on than it takes movie villains to destroy the world! That sentence made me laugh! The one time I _had_ to break a password-protected file, it took me two days. And that was with hints. When I had to reverse-engineer the protocol of a specialized device from a competitor so our equipment would work with it, it took me MONTHS with protocol analyzers, custom logging and analysis software, soldering irons, custom cables, and a whole bunch of brain-hurting mathematical analysis. Somehow, bad guys can do this in a couple of hours. ---
**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 21, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/135 "2009-06-21T01:39:26Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Now you’re going to start seeing gas cylinders everywhere you look! Heh. Seven short hours after I posted the above, I went to see **Up** , which was rife with…helium cylinders. It was different than the above scenario, obviously, because the gas cylinders were actually integral to the plot, but I got a laugh out of it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/136 "2009-06-22T17:55:52Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > It’s not my area of expertise, but every time someone implies that there’s a pattern to “blue wire, yellow wire, red wire…” in the madman’s bomb, it blows the illusion for me. This guy is an evil genius and he can’t think to make an unusual choice in insulation color (as if there’s a published convention for wiring madman bombs in the first place). Reminds me of an episode of Stargate SG-1, in which, while being instructed on the color-codes to disarm an alien bomb, the disarmer-in-question notices that -all- of the wires are yellow. He quips that the bomb is defective, and wishes to lodge a complaint if / when they make it home. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/137 "2009-06-22T18:28:06Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > _That being said_ . . . do you notice a pattern among the movies being listed here? Die Hard, The Net, Independence Day; studio crap designed to turn your brain off for 2 hours. You can watch it or complain about it, but it’s unfair to do both :). Hey, the complaints were about Live Free or Die Hard… I’d say one of the real pleasures about the original Die Hard, and one of the things that makes it stand out as an action movie, is that you don’t need to turn your brain off for it. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/138 "2009-06-22T18:40:03Z")
> [@Tenebras](#): > > In War of the Worlds, the aliens are taken out by a virus. Independence Day is a rehash of War of the Worlds. The aliens in Independence Day should be taken out with a virus. Yes, but just to be as accurate as possible, the Martians in H.G. Wells’s _The War of the Worlds_ are taken down by bacteria, not by a virus. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/139 "2009-06-22T18:55:23Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > Hey, the complaints were about Live Free or Die Hard… I’d say one of the real pleasures about the original Die Hard, and one of the things that makes it stand out as an action movie, is that you don’t need to turn your brain off for it. I still have to turn my brain off for Die Hard. I don’t know of a single human that can fall 10 feet down an elevator shaft and catch themselves by their finger tips on the floor below. ---
**Author:** ![doublehelix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@doublehelix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doublehelix)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181/140 "2009-06-22T18:56:11Z")
Scientists label their tubes. There is no such thing as an antivirus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-movies-get-wrong-about-your-industry/500181.md?page=8)