# TV and movie plot cliches that really annoy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2009, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362 "2009-01-28T06:32:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/101 "2009-01-30T02:06:19Z")
**My Personal Experiences with, and Opinions about, Annoying Plot Cliches** > [@Ethilrist](#): > > Having sex once means you get pregnant. Ding! The first time I ever had unprotected sex, I got pregnant. > [@Morbo](#): > > Putting a body part through glass will cut it to pieces. Ding! My BFF’s then-boyfriend smashed a pane of glass in a door in their apartment while they were having an argument in front of me, and I spent most of the day in the hospital with them while doctors debated whether they could save his hand. > [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](#): > > Not quite as final, but let’s get rid of the one-punch/karate chop to the neck knockout death blow. But Spock gets to keep the Vulcan Nerve Pinch, right? Right? > [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](#): > > Horror movies … monster chasing teenager … teenager looks to see if monster is still chasing him or her … and moron teenager falls down! Seriously, what kind of a _expletive deleted expletive deleted_ of a _expletive deleted expletive deleted_ teenager can’t run and look over his shoulder at the same time? Ding! I totally would have fallen down. My right wrist still doesn’t bend right, and I was only being chased by the dog. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/102 "2009-01-30T02:19:01Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > 1. It’s lupus. > > 2. It’s not lupus. Timmy Lupus? ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/103 "2009-01-30T05:30:47Z")
If you are female, and have been through emotional trama, you must go to the bathroom and start cutting off your own hair. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/104 "2009-01-30T05:42:35Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > Just once I want to see the monster trip and fall. > > …but then the Clueless Ingenue rushes between them and says, “No!!!” > > And is immediately taken hostage. One of the best things about the movie _Speed_: “Shoot the hostage” as a solution to a hypothetical (and later) real hostage situation. Speaking of horror movies: Someone makes no attempt to ensure that the monster/villain is really dead, ensuring that there will be sequels or an end-of-movie “he’s still alive!” plot twist. A nice turnaround on this is in the otherwise utterly forgettable “Monster Man”, about a bad guy who literally chases his victims around in a monster truck (that’s the least weird part of the movie too; it goes downhill from there). At the climax of the movie, the hero’s friend, who had been left for dead earlier, steals the monster truck and runs over the bad guy. Our hero jumps into the truck with the friend, puts the truck into reverse, and backs up over the bad guy’s body. Then he drives forward again. Then reverses. Then the movie time-shifts 8 hours into the future, and they’re still doing it. His friend remarks “I think you got 'im!”😃 ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/105 "2009-01-30T06:03:04Z")
> [@audit1](#): > > If you are female, and have been through emotional trama, you must go to the bathroom and start cutting off your own hair. If you’re a guy, you express your emotions by smashing up your house. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/106 "2009-01-30T08:23:30Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Springs to mind since I’m reading up on House : “If we give him the medicine, and he’s got the disease, he’s cured. If it’s the wrong diagnostic he’ll DIE IN 5 SECONDS BECAUSE HIS PANCREAS WILL EXPLODE !”. Yeah, that gets old. I seriously don’t know why anyone watches that show. Every single episode is exactly the same. It’s like they’re stuck on the same page of Plot Mad Libs, dropping new diseases and twists into the same paragraph over and over. > [@Raguleader](#): > > Oh, on that note: The EVIL/CARELESS WITH HUBRIS Americans/Military. For the full effect, the US military taking control of the situation in some crappy little foreign country (like, say, England ) and then proceeding to make a total cluster of things. An excellent example of this is 28 Weeks Later. To be fair, that’s not an American movie, is it? And, you gotta admit, it’s not like there ain’t precedent IRL. > [@Stauderhores](#): > > Two people who are always bickering and at each other’s throats are actually in love, even though they don’t know it. > > Doesn’t make any sense and is used far too often. And may contribute to the all-too-common phenomenon of terrible couples staying together when they have no reason to. (Or vice versa?) > [@Skald the Rhymer](#): > > Um.. how’s that a cliche? > > Only takes once. There’s no requirement that something has to be impossible in real life to be a cliche. > [@Skald the Rhymer](#): > > And there’s just as long a string of people who have apparently unprotected sex without any real consequences. Which is also a bit of an absurd cliche. You’d think that at least one of the people involved would later be fretting about pregnancy and/or diseases. > [@Meyer6](#): > > Oh, wait, now we’re both really turned on! Let’s start making out! We were made for each other! I remember reading in some scholarly work recently that anger in couples leads to sex more often than you’d think, because it creates such a state of physiological arousal that can switch into sexual arousal at the snap of a finger. Can’t remember for the life of me where I read it, though, so no cite. > [@Antinor01](#): > > If you’re a guy, you express your emotions by smashing up your house. Or somebody else’s house, as in the fascinating Castilian flick _Fausto 2.0_. Hostile Dialect, Hostile Dialect, Narcissist ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/107 "2009-01-30T08:52:45Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Wasn’t there an episode of Grey’s Anatomy where a dude came in impaled by a live bomb or something? > > Which, incidentally, I’m told happens from time to time in warzones, where some poor dude gets hit by an RPG that doesn’t go off. I’ve heard a story where this happened to a guy in Afghanistan, and they lowered him into a foxhole before they started operating so he would only take out the medical guys working on him if the warhead went off. > > My JROTC instructor told us this at the beginning of class one day, then asked us if anyone felt they were having a bad day. 😃 Happened again in 2006 in Afghanistan. ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/fsIEEIcYSrs/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/fsIEEIcYSrs?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/108 "2009-01-30T12:59:16Z")
Another computer corollary: Our heroes (usually two of them) need to access a dead character’s computer to get some vital file that will save the day. \*Hero 1: \* Oh no! It’s password protected! What do we do? \*Hero 2: \* Um, try “password.” _Monitor:_ ACCESS DENIED in big red letters. \*H1: \*Maybe it’s his mother’s maiden name! \*Monitor: \*ACCESS DENIED!! in even bigger red letters. (H2 suddenly remembers a scene from the first act in which dead character waxes lovingly nostalgic about his childhood pet ferret.) _H2:_ Wait! Try “Slinky”! \*Monitor: \* ACCESS GRANTED! NICE GOING, GUYS! \*H1: \* Wow, good thing there were no random numbers in there or anything! ---
**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:** [January 30, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/109 "2009-01-30T13:29:42Z")
## “Hey, Ralph, what’s up?” … “Naw, just having a beer. You know I retire next week?” … “Yup, I put my papers in. 30 years on the force is enough for any man. Never had to fire my gun at all, can you believe it?” … “Oh, man, I’ve already got the perfect place. It’s this little beach house near Punta Gorda. I’ve already put a large down-payment on the boat and it will arrive in a month.” … “Yeah, Sally’s all buzzed 'cause she can spoil the grandkids 24/7.” … “Sorry, I gotta go. Dinner’s waiting.” You just _know_ that poor man is 1. … Going to fire his gun. 2. … NEVER going to live to retire. Hell, he probably won’t even make dinner, getting shot in a convenience store robbery or something. ---
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/110 "2009-01-30T14:34:56Z")
> [@emilyforce](#): > > But Spock gets to keep the Vulcan Nerve Pinch, right? Right? Well, yeah. The nerve pinch _works_. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/111 "2009-01-30T15:05:31Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Rather than cutting one of the timer’s outputs, could they be cutting one of the inputs necessary for the timer to decrement? Ya know this could make for a funny twist on the cliche, maybe for an Austin Powers… guy clips a wire for a bomb, clock stops at 0:04… then the bomb still goes off. “What happened? I cut the wire.” “Yeah. All you did was stop the readout. It’s still a bomb.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/112 "2009-01-30T15:14:03Z")
This one might bother me more because it’s in my profession, but “I’m gonna call a press conference and announce to the world why you fired me/ your bookkeeping practices / how you stole this secret formula.” Then you walk out the door to a podium with 15 microphones. Yeah, umm… try calling up CNN headquarters sometime and say you have shocking news about why the boss canned you. I’m guessing they’re not going to magically appear outside the front door waiting for you like it’s the State of the Union. ---
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/113 "2009-01-30T16:46:14Z")
Another I just thought of, speaking of the media: A character can walk into the room, turn on the TV or radio, and the news broadcast starts right at the beginning of the Big News Story. It’s never a commercial, or weather report. Sometimes the newscaster says, “Repeating the Big News Story…” right when the character turns on the TV/radio. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/114 "2009-01-30T16:59:05Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > That would be inexcusable except that it actually happens in real life. Yes, but this thread isn’t about cliches that _couldn’t happen_, it’s about cliches that _annoy_. Whether or not it ever happens in real life, it is still an overused, trite and done-to-death gimmick that just makes people groan with exasperation whenever they see it. To be sure, there are plenty of real-life Sam & Dianes - couples masking their mutual attraction to each other with snarky one-liners - but I don’t want to see another TV show based on ‘will they or won’t they hook up?’ ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/115 "2009-01-30T19:14:07Z")
The worst offender I ever saw of the “guy jumps through glass window intact” meme was in a Bollywood movie (bear with me, it’s bad even for them.) Guy is on the opposite roof, on the boys’ dorm, threatening suicide, when he sees smoke coming out of the girls’ dorm windows. His girlfriend is in there. OH NOES! He somehow uses his belt to make a slider-thingy device to slide across the POWER CABLES across the plaza - about fifty feet up - to crash through a plate glass window. He gets up, and there’s like a broken piece of glass still on his arm. What does he do? BRUSHES IT OFF. Amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/116 "2009-01-30T19:19:44Z")
I just saw The Punisher last night. Sometimes they subverted cliches, as when the hero coldy\_even casually\_executed several wounded adversaries. It was great to see an action hero do something so sensible. Then they turned around and ruined it by having the hero kill the villain in an unbelievably elaborate way that he doesn’t even hang around to watch…though that could be said to be a subversion since he was a hero acting like a villain. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/117 "2009-01-30T19:28:01Z")
See it more so in books than TV/movies, as I don’t watch a lot of TV shows or movies anymore, but I’m sick and tired of investigative teams which always consist of one man and one woman, and before the story’s halfway doesn’t they’re in the sack with each other. I see it so often I’ve started skipping those parts. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/118 "2009-01-30T20:36:32Z")
> [@audit1](#): > > If you are female, and have been through emotional trama, you must go to the bathroom and start cutting off your own hair. You have the option of crying in the shower instead. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/119 "2009-01-30T20:43:45Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > You have the option of crying in the shower instead. No, no. In that great big deep bathtub everyone’s apartment comes equipped with. Preferably while drinking lots of wine. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/120 "2009-01-30T20:46:03Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > You have the option of crying in the shower instead. Good one. I’m also tired of women being killed in showers, and of shower scenes that have no particular purpose except to show female skin, then don’t actually show anything interesting. If you’re going to pander, man up about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362.md?page=7)