# Watching movies when the suspense of disbelief has been broken **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005 "2017-10-27T17:55:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/21 "2017-10-28T18:32:13Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Anyone have the experience where you cannot watch some movies because you cannot shake the knowledge that “This isn’t real; this is just actors delivering lines in front of a camera?” Any mental tricks for getting back into the movie-watching brain mode where you can “get into” the movie again? A bad ending of this sort can ruin future viewings for me, at least (vs. opening scenes). I get stabby any time someone mentions 12 Monkeys as some stellar example of filmmaking, when the first time I watched it I was utterly appalled at the airport security protocols (or lack thereof) at the end. Not only do they just perfunctorily wave the asshole with the viruses through without a second thought, after Willis is shot not a SINGLE cop or security person calls back the bottle guy, saying “Hey get back here, you’re part of this too.” This of course was made worse by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, where security became even tighter. But even before then no way he is getting on that plane with those bottles (in a US airport at least), and after shots are fired no way the plane gets to take off with that guy and his cargo on board. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/22 "2017-10-28T18:47:19Z")
This is why I don’t like a lot of modern special effects, they are obviously special effects to me, and it annoys me to come that close to realism without getting all the way there. I have an easier time suspending disbelief for cheap effects, even if they are more obvious, I don’t feel like it’s a lame attempt to convince me that I’m seeing reality. Stupid premises also cause this problem for me. Go full out fantasy or sci-fi if you need to, but don’t try to convince me that impossible technology exists, or that people don’t see the blatantly obvious problems with the situation they are in. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/23 "2017-10-28T18:51:41Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > One recent example where factual inaccuracies in a movie bothered me was in _Kingsman: The Golden Circle_. I knew perfectly well that much of what was going on in the movie was just silly as regards to realism. For that matter, I knew that in the first movie in this series. Still, I was bothered when the scene shifts to Louisville, Kentucky and we see Channing Tatum’s character. He’s a Kentucky native, he’s speaks with a Deep South accent, and he wears a cowboy hat. That struck me as a ridiculous combining of three different areas of the U.S. by the filmmakers who obviously have no real knowledge of individual parts of the U.S. Yeah, I think stuff like that pulls me out of a movie. Like I was watching John Wick 2 and the characters are fighting in the “Oculus” World Trade Center PATH station. They fight their way onto what is clearly an NJ PATH train, after which the stops are announced as Canal Street, Rector Street and Broad Street. Not only are these stops not near each other, they are not on any PATH train line. ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/24 "2017-10-28T19:02:01Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/25 "2017-10-28T19:03:45Z")
Unrealistic dialogue often kills the magic for me. I can get past it, but the film has to be very good for other reasons (Casablanca). Also, fight sequences without clear views of the punches, etc., especially when the actor doesn’t look dangerous. Often in the same film, someone gets shot in a limb and is using it just a few minutes later. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2017, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/26 "2017-10-30T11:48:37Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > [Mythbusters tried it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NODvOx0V57E)It works just fine. > > That’s not to say it’s safe. The raft might tip over, and the passengers might fall out. That’s a high risk. But the raft itself lands softly. No bones broken, assuming they mange to stay in the raft. > > . I saw the episode. I still don’t buy it (as other people, commenting on the linked video, also don’t) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/27 "2017-10-30T12:57:06Z")
I wasn’t actually watching it myself, which may make a difference, but I was walking through the room as others were watching _Stranger Things_ with the closed captioning turned on. And the captions definitely made me feel that “This isn’t real; this is just actors delivering lines in front of a camera,” because I could see the lines that they were going to be delivering right before they delivered them. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/28 "2017-10-30T16:52:10Z")
It’s funny- I can overlook all kinds of impossible things and enjoy a movie. But things that are merely imPLAUSible take me out of a movie entirely. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/29 "2017-10-30T17:22:49Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > It’s funny- I can overlook all kinds of impossible things and enjoy a movie. But things that are merely imPLAUSible take me out of a movie entirely. I think that’s true in general, for most viewers. The hero has to figure out a code sequence of 27 numbers, with 100 billion different possible combinations, or else the anti-matter transport device will activate and the entire city of San Francisco will be instantly teleported to the surface of the moon? No problem. He enters 27 numbers at random, and by pure dumb luck it just happens to be the correct sequence? That’s where people will say, “Oh, come on!” Either I’m a bad movie-goer, or I’m particularly resistant to “breaking the suspension of disbelief.” I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced being “taken out of a movie,” because I don’t think that I’ve ever been _in_ one. That is, I’m pretty much _always_ aware that these are actors in front of a camera delivering lines. Indeed, I find that my enjoyment of movies is usually increased by thinking about the actors, the director, the special effects artists, and their various techniques. Maybe I’m getting more cynical, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve become less and less patient with the whole “Let’s pretend this really happened” school of analysis. The Sherlockian “game” drives me crazy, as do some of the more fanwanky Star Trek fans–ironic considering how long I’ve been a Trekkie myself. In general, I find it more useful to understand and experience works of art as created artifacts, things which had an author and a deadline and a budget and an awareness of audience expectations and a knowledge of the conventions of their particular genre and producers breathing down their necks because this was a big tent-pole release and if it tanked it could mean the end of several people’s careers. So in some ways I don’t really understand the complaint of being taken out of a movie, since I’ve yet to encounter a movie that ever made me forget I was an audience member in a theater watching actors perform their roles. Whether that’s better or worse for my cinema-going experience, I leave to you to judge. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/30 "2017-10-30T19:09:29Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I somehow came across a movie on TV, where they had the Apollo 11 lunar module in the back of a truck and we’re trying to sell it, complete with the descent stage! > > Yeah, I watched up till that point and almost through something at the TV. > > Those kind of gross errors are enough to make me turn the movie off. > > (The descent stage always remained on the moon. The ascent stage always crashed back to the surface, except for Apollo 13, which burned up on Earth reentry, and I believe Apollo 8 which was sent into solar orbit.) jeesh, it’s just a movie! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/31 "2017-10-30T19:15:58Z")
I’ll take it a different way - the movie that took me out of “movie mode” did not have a flaw with science, technology, dialog, unrealistic behavior. It was none of these. The film was _Unstoppable_ and the fact that Scott just could not keep the camera still! The camera was spinning and dodging and weaving for the entire fucking film! Even if two people were having a calm conversation (which I don’t think happened once), the camera would still fly around them like it was a paparazzi drone over Beyonce’s wedding. It’s so ridiculous and over the top that I could not enjoy the film for the silly fun it was. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/32 "2017-10-30T19:17:01Z")
Air resistance on the raft and landing on snow would both help, but the biggest advantage to jumping out in the raft like that is that they’re landing on a steep surface. You’re going from falling straight down at high speed, to continuing down at nearly as high a speed plus somewhat sideways, which is not nearly as much of an acceleration as hitting level ground would be. EDIT: Oh, and when they do the drops of liquid hitting the camera, that’s intentional (often, the liquid isn’t even real at all, but computer-generated). The goal isn’t to make it look live, with no camera at all: The goal is to make it look like a documentary, still with a camera, but filming something real. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/33 "2017-10-30T22:37:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > This is why I don’t like a lot of modern special effects, they are obviously special effects to me, and it annoys me to come that close to realism without getting all the way there. I have an easier time suspending disbelief for cheap effects, even if they are more obvious, I don’t feel like it’s a lame attempt to convince me that I’m seeing reality I have the same thing happen to me with fake CGI blood splatter. It almost never looks good and movies overuse it too much, Expendables 2 is entirely CGI blood splatter and none of it looks remotely convincing, it also effects how extras behave because at least with squibs actors know when to react to being “shot”, with CGI blood splatter they just seem to react either too soon or not soon enough. It takes filmmaking back to the 50s when the only way you’d know somebody was shot was when they fell down right afterwards since there never was any wound on the body at all. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/34 "2017-10-30T22:49:28Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > For me, belief is suspended when the female characters go to bed wearing bras. I know, I know…it’s a small thing. But I’ve never dated any woman who wore a bra when they were sleeping. When the heroine gets up, walks into the kitchen, and is obviously wearing a bra…“it’s just a movie.” Or when “the act” is clearly reaching its conclusion and the woman still has her bra on. I could buy she has to put it back on for support while sleeping, but during the act? ---
**Author:** ![I\_wasn\_t\_truly\_absent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4da419/32.png) [@I\_wasn\_t\_truly\_absent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_wasn_t_truly_absent)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/35 "2017-10-31T04:36:03Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Anyone have the experience where you cannot watch some movies because you cannot shake the knowledge that “This isn’t real; this is just actors delivering lines in front of a camera?” Any mental tricks for getting back into the movie-watching brain mode where you can “get into” the movie again? this was a problem for me a while ago, well , I felt that actors seemed too self conscious in a “I’m acting, I am” kind of way, I watched a lot of stuff with subtitles for a while not understanding the language they spoke made it believable again, I used Danish programmes some cop style things, good stories. Are you good at spotting when people are lying too? I think all the bullshitters in my life were what broke tv for me! seriously though, subtitles. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/36 "2017-10-31T05:16:06Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > The film was _Unstoppable_ and the fact that Scott just could not keep the camera still! But you can’t say you weren’t warned by the title 🙂 ---
**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:** [October 31, 2017, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/37 "2017-10-31T12:09:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Air resistance on the raft and landing on snow would both help, but the biggest advantage to jumping out in the raft like that is that they’re landing on a steep surface. You’re going from falling straight down at high speed, to continuing down at nearly as high a speed plus somewhat sideways, which is not nearly as much of an acceleration as hitting level ground would be. > > . When they later fall and land in the river, is that a steep surface, too? I’m sorry – both those drops look too damned long, and further than the movie makes them appear, but the landing are too hard and sudden (it wasn’t _that_ steep a surface on the snow) for me to believe these people wouldn’t have been seriously if not fatally injured. To refresh your memories: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/U8x2PcmL4pg/maxresdefault.jpg "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (2/10) Movie CLIP - Raft Jump (1984) HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8x2PcmL4pg) ---
**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:** [October 31, 2017, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/38 "2017-10-31T12:14:35Z")
Oh, and regarding Mythbusters and their treatment of the idea: > [@](#): > > Escape Slide Parachute > > Myth: You can survive a fall from an airplane by using an escape slide or a life raft as a parachute > > This myth is most famously portrayed in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, where Indiana Jones jumps out of an airplane with an escape raft, inflates mid-air, and lands on a snowy mountain slope. > > Drop setup > > They used the “Big Dawg” Sikorsky S-58 to lift Buster to a 2000ft drop height, which was high enough because you reach terminal velocity after 14 seconds of free fall. Buster was setup with several instruments including an accelerometer in head, a velocity meter that uses air pressure, frangible bones, and shock meters. > > Drop 1 > > For the first drop they rigged Buster in center of the raft, which turned out to be a bad job. The rigging gave way after they had lifted the raft 400 ft up, ejecting Buster from the raft. Buster was completely destroyed and Adam reacted in shock to the carnage: “Buster is a pile of scrap.” > > Drop 2 > > They improved the rigging in the raft by using big hauling straps instead. Somehow they managed to resurrect Buster. They must have had a lot of spare parts on hand because even the instruments were pretty trashed from the first mishap. > > The raft flipped over and floated in like a parachute at 22mph. Parachutists usually land at about 14mph. This might have been fine for Buster, except he was ejected when the raft flipped over and landed at 154 MPH. > > Drop 3 > > For the third drop they decided to re-rig the raft to be used as a parachute to keep Buster from falling separately. They managed to resurrect Buster resurrected yet again, though he’s headless and looking pretty bad for the wear. > > The parachute safely worked as a parachute, but the rate of descent was too fast. Initially they thought Buster was ok, but once they got close they saw that Buster’s limbs were pretty wrecked. The chest sensors showed that he might have lived (50g shock watch was broken, but 75 and 100 were not), however, even though Buster might have lived, the notion that someone could have lept out and rigged the parachute-like harness is very unlikely. They had already demonstrated the problems with the Indiana-Jones-style descent, so mythbusted. [http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2005/08/episode\_37\_escape\_slide\_parach.html](http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2005/08/episode_37_escape_slide_parach.html) Doesn’t look that promising for Indy from those results. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/39 "2017-10-31T12:23:03Z")
Apparently it’s been too long since I’ve seen that movie, because I don’t remember the second drop at all. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005/40 "2017-10-31T12:49:15Z")
OK, one more from me. And this happens much more often than one might expect. The camera establishes a shot of a business. (In my most recent example, it was actually a cemetery.) The sign for the business is misspelled. (In this example, it was a wrought-iron arch that spelled it “CEMETARY…”) I mean, come on! Some production assistant or stage dresser was given a budget to have a faux wrought-iron arch made and he/she couldn’t be bothered to get the spelling right? The PA had ONE job and screwed it up. I’m sure that most of the people on the set realized it was misspelled, but the shooting schedule made it necessary to use the erroneous sign. The same thing happens with newscasts, newspaper headlines and articles, highway signs, official paperwork, and similar materials shown in films. I immediately start thinking, “What the heck did the director think when the lead actor was handed a fake newspaper with the headline,‘WIFE OF PROMINENT BUSINESSMAN DISSAPPEARS’?” Did he fire the PA? Did he just sigh and say, “Nobody will notice?” In any case, it takes a long time for me to get back into the movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-movies-when-the-suspense-of-disbelief-has-been-broken/800005.md?page=3)