# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 283
**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:** [September 22, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5669 "2026-09-22T13:08:00Z")
Re **The Firm** and jumping into a truck bed filled with cotton bales. I married into a NC family of tobacco and cotton farmers. Baled cotton is not something you want to jump into. Cotton MAY have been baled more loosely many years ago, but the bales are almost as hard as wood now (and at the time of the film). ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5670 "2026-09-22T15:17:49Z")
The film “the Other Guys” has the best depiction of “aim for the bushes” jumping from a great height. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5671 "2026-09-22T17:24:01Z")
That immediately came to mind to me too. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5672 "2026-09-22T18:08:05Z")
I want to see a skewering of this trope, where the protagonists muse about jumping into the trash and drop something down that way to test it out, whereupon it gets hilariously destroyed and they take the stairs instead. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5673 "2026-09-22T18:20:48Z")
Your failure to distinguish between “your” and “you’re” greatly displeases me. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5674 "2026-09-22T18:41:24Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I heard that once in a scene- with a double barreled shotgun. (which has no such mechanism, although some crazy person did make a double-barrelled pump shotgun). I’d like to see someone using a drilling with a pump shotgun and twin magazine-fed rifles. 🤣 > [@markn\_1](#): > > a bad guy in a car would try to run over the hero, and the hero would survive by leaping towards the car, do a somersault rolling over the hood, and land on his feet while the car safely drove past him. Anybody else remember the episode of \*That’s Incredible!" where they tried jumping completely over a fast-moving car – front to back – while it drove under them? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5675 "2026-09-22T18:49:50Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Anybody else remember the episode of \*That’s Incredible!" where they tried jumping completely over a fast-moving car – front to back – while it drove under them? That sounds like the modern variant of this: [![](https://sites.rhodes.edu/sites/sites/files/2022-06/bull.jpg) ](https://sites.rhodes.edu/sites/sites/files/2022-06/bull.jpg) People have always been silly proving their manliness… ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5676 "2026-09-22T19:12:27Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Anybody else remember the episode of \*That’s Incredible!" where they tried jumping completely over a fast-moving car – front to back – while it drove under them? Sounds more like a “Jackass” episode. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5677 "2026-09-22T20:54:02Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > [@SCAdian](#): > > > > Anybody else remember the episode of \*That’s Incredible!" where they tried jumping completely over a fast-moving car – front to back – while it drove under them? > > That sounds like the modern variant of this: Except that they didn’t touch the car on the way over. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5678 "2026-09-22T20:55:53Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Sounds more like a “Jackass” episode. Or “Mythbusters.” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5679 "2026-09-22T21:04:06Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Except that they didn’t touch the car on the way over. I’ve seen modern footage of bull jumping, they still do it in Spain, and they jump the bull in one leap, without touching it. Here’s video: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_vqyPbFccjo/maxresdefault.jpg "The Jaw-Dropping Art of Bull-Leaping") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vqyPbFccjo) ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5680 "2026-09-22T21:23:25Z")
Couldn’t find a video, but [here](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19801123&id=L4VhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mKIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5431,1479921)’s a newspaper article that mentions it (second column, fifth paragraph). ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5681 "2026-09-22T22:02:26Z")
“It’s you against yourself.” Yeah, I’m losing that battle. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5682 "2026-10-01T04:31:36Z")
People in elevators holding a discussion push a stop button between floors to talk for a minute or two, then start it again. It happens quote often in Star Trek, but I’ve seen it in straight dramas including LA Law. Does any elevator anywhere have a stop button? I’ve never seen one. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2026, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/5683 "2026-10-01T04:50:04Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Does any elevator anywhere have a stop button? I’ve never seen one. I’ve been in several that had them. One was in the data center I worked alone overnight in. I pulled it (it pulled out, pushing it in reset it) occasionally just to break up the tedium. The idea of doing it for conversation is pretty ludicrous, though. Every time I pulled it a loud bell would start ringing. [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=282)