# What is extremely common in TV or movies but almost never happens in real life? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311 "2021-02-06T04:16:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 111
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2202 "2022-11-06T11:16:37Z")
> [@solost](#): > > > [@Mangetout](#): > > > > The character provides the blood by making a huge slash across their palm. Despite this potentially pretty serious injury, the plot moves forward. > > The brothers on the show Supernatural must have had horribly scarred palms. Seems like they did that for one reason or another every other episode for 15 long seasons. Also, they’d slash their forearms a lot. They should look like they have a long-standing problem of cutting. They lampshaded this sort of one of the times one of the brothers came back from the dead (that happened so often I’ve forgotten which one which time!) and mentioned he was scar-free. My headcannon is that Castiel did a lot of healing on those boys. > [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > And cuts on the palm are super painful! I never understand why they don’t just make a small cut on the back of their arm or something. They did make cuts on their arms - but I wouldn’t call them small. Did anyone mention yet that after slicing their palms there was often a dramatic squeezing of the fist to make the blood pour out between the fingers? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2203 "2022-11-06T20:31:00Z")
> [@JohnnyEcks](#): > > In real life, nobody seriously straps a crossbow or retractable blade to their forearm. I have seen it on dudes with missing hands. Weapons, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2204 "2022-11-12T01:33:34Z")
> [@icon](#): > > Right, but is it common to see on all the monitors at your work? I’ve worked in at least two places where yes, every monitor had Post-It Notes lined along the edges. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2205 "2022-11-12T22:11:26Z")
I know this sounds silly, but the line you had about people running and not getting winded reminded me of a scene I remember in the film Red Sonja, with Brigitte Nielsen and Arnie. In one scene they are sword fighting. going at it all out, and yes, they do get tired, sitting down finally and huffing and puffing. Sure, it was a fantasy film but that was a bit of realism I didn’t expect, ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2206 "2022-11-12T22:22:38Z")
I feel I’ve seen far too many passenger aircraft crashes in fiction where a plane crash lands where it’s hard enough to catch the entire plane on immediate fire but not hard enough for it to explode in a giant fireball or be completely vaporized. Lots of scenes in fiction of people on fire running out of plane wrecks. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2022, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2207 "2022-11-13T00:59:18Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’ve worked in at least two places where yes, every monitor had Post-It Notes lined along the edges. How else are people supposed to keep track of their log-ins and passwords? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2022, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2208 "2022-11-13T01:56:59Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > How else are people supposed to keep track of their log-ins and passwords? For security, just write them backwards. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2022, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2209 "2022-11-13T05:18:53Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > For security, just write them backwards. Ooh, I’m going to invent Pig Latin, except for numbers. (It’ll revolutionize post-it note security.) But what bothers me even more is the hacker breaking into the home/office and trying to guess the password: "Okay, when this CFO was seven, his family had a dog named _Snickerdoodle,_ (but that’s not it), who loved to go to Grandpa’s cabin on Cape Cod, near _Truro_ (but that’s too short). So, _Grandpa Jablonskiwicz_ (also not it) would help the kids skip out on Grandma’s _Jell-o Turkey ‘n’ Noodle Ring_ (too obvious) and go for pizza up the highway… at _“Savory And The Sweet Escape Pizza Bakery”._ And… that was it, I’m in! ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2210 "2022-11-23T02:56:43Z")
Has anyone mentioned the spat at the top of the long staircase? Husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend are having an argument. A slap, an angry strike, and suddenly someone tumbles all the way down the steps and ends up at the bottom staring upwards, glassy-eyed, dead. I am guessing the stairtop squabble accidental death thing is not all that common in real life. But every TV detective ever has had one or two. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2211 "2022-11-23T07:06:56Z")
I guessing that even if the squabble is common, death is the often the result. We has a staircase in the house we lived in when I was 4 & 5. I fell down it a couple of times, and don’t even remember being bruised. But yeah, it’s a weird place for a squabble to escalate. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2212 "2022-11-23T15:49:09Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > don’t even remember being bruised So hit your head pretty hard and got amnesia? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2213 "2022-11-23T21:29:55Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > So hit your head pretty hard and got amnesia? I meant, didn’t even have any bruises I didn’t recognize. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2022, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2214 "2022-11-24T05:27:49Z")
A SPIRAL staircase, no less. How many people actually have one of those? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2022, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2215 "2022-11-24T06:54:58Z")
My neighbors have one, a tight, windy spiral. My house has the normal, straight one, ending in skull cracking tile. I fell down a set similar to mine when I was a tot, and turned out none the worse for wear\*. However, I am careful around them now. More height, age and weight make falling down them a far more daunting prospect now. \*I was dropped on my head when I was less than a day old. I’m pretty sure my warranty was voided then. ---
**Author:** ![TheTooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/919ad9/32.png) [@TheTooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTooth)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2022, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2216 "2022-11-24T08:13:18Z")
I’ve fiddled with electronics since I was fifteen and I’ve yet to see a failure result in blue forked lightning skitter across the contours of whatever it is that failed. Generally it’s just a flash and maybe a pop followed by a little smoke. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2022, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2217 "2022-11-25T12:56:51Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > SPIRAL staircase, no less. > > How many people actually have one of those? A friend’s dad died recently. The guy was interesting, sort of an idiot savant of spiral staircases. He had a beautiful grand spiral staircase in his home which he designed and built himself. He built two others, one in a friend’s home and one for his mother-in-law. The guy wasn’t a carpenter, wasn’t a mathematician, but he sure could build spiral staircases. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2022, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2218 "2022-11-25T16:54:59Z")
There was a spiral staircase in the house where I was living in 2010–2011. I had rented the basement, and the staircase was open except for a chained gate at the top. My landlady (a dental hygienist who invariably locked herself in her bedroom when she came home from work and smoked pot all evening) owned two huge pit bulls. The dogs would sit quietly at the top of the stairs and stare at my cat, who stared back from down below. One day I went upstairs to work in the kitchen and forgot to put the chain on the gate. The dogs went after my cat and literally scared the piss out of him. I found him hiding in the broom closet afterwards. (He was okay, just very frightened.) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2219 "2022-11-25T21:26:11Z")
This thread is really spiraling 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2220 "2022-12-05T20:09:50Z")
Double and even triple stairways (for the servants, in some case) were common in many old homes in and around Boston when I was growing up. No, my family wasn’t rich, more like “educated” (actually, literally) which put us in the in crowd (as it were) in those days. Nowadays, those neighborhoods, cities and towns are gentrified literally beyond recognition; and in nearly every one of them the residents are rich AND high educated, but in ways very difficult from the relatively classical-genteel era I grew up in, and that wasn’t a million years ago (postwar). ---
**Author:** ![Drsunflower1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drsunflower1/32/12711_2.png) [@Drsunflower1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drsunflower1)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/2221 "2022-12-11T14:20:09Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > I am guessing the stairtop squabble accidental death thing is not all that common in real life. I had a patient once when I was doing my residency on the inpatient ward. She witnessed her father push her mother down the stairs with death as a result. Dad was sentenced based on her testimony. She was fourteen at the time. She was probably f\*cked up before that already, but I’m sure this didn’t help. So unfortunately this does happen. Not sure how often, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311.md?page=110) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311.md?page=112)