# 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:** 5\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/161 "2009-02-03T23:18:27Z")
How I was right. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2009, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/162 "2009-02-04T08:19:01Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Don’t think it’s come up yet… can we PLEASE stop having people crawl through air ducts to get from room to room? > > At least Paul Blart has a funny variation on this theme. So did Scrubs. The janitor crawls through the air duct to spy on a doctor and ends up hallucinating from all the dust and debris that had collected in there. Hostile Dialect, Hostile Dialect, Narcissist ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/163 "2009-02-04T15:25:32Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Speaking of air ducts can we please stop hiding money/cameras/jewels in hotel room air ducts? Why? Because I have never been in a hotel or motel room with air ducts. They all have independent heating/cooling wall units. I’ve been in lots - although admittedly only one that I could remove without the aid of a screwdriver. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/164 "2009-02-04T17:45:22Z")
I’d like to retire the phone call to a cop by the bad guy… “you have 10 minutes to go to the corner of A street and 27th avenue, go…” followed by a couple of minutes of frantic running and a series of other locations that invariably involve a) someone using the pay phone the guy needs to use!! oh no!!! b) sliding in a bus / subway just as the doors closed (guy yelling “hey!” followed by flashing police badge optional but always helps) and c) cop’s idea of trapping or tailing baddie foiled by baddie’s elaborate going all over hell-and-gone. Apparently felons, in addition to plotting world domination, also enjoy measuring average footspeed of 50+ year old guys in trench coats through various points of a city. Which might explain why, after all that, they feel the need to “begin the unnecessarily slow dipping mechanism” instead of just shooting them. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362/165 "2009-02-05T15:04:58Z")
…also, heroes who can walk around without so much as a limp when shot in the leg, jump from roof to roof, bounce off hoods of moving cars… must then wince when romantic counterpart is dressing the wound. It’s apparently the law in California or something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-and-movie-plot-cliches-that-really-annoy/483362.md?page=8)