# 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:** 60
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1181 "2021-04-28T22:45:44Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > This also happened in an episode of _ **The Saint** _ I saw many years ago. A murder victim wrote “COP” in his own blood before he died. I thought “Huh! It would be funny if he was writing in Cyrillic instead of Latin letters.” > > Turned out the murderer was named “Soran,” and the victim was a Russian who sometimes lapsed into his native language. (“SORAN” being “COPAH” in Cyrillic.) That’s almost directly lifted from Sherlock Holmes A Study in Scarlet, where a German word written in blood is mistaken for the start of an English name. Agatha Christie also had a couple of occasions (notably Murder on the Orient Express) where a clue hinged on the letters being Cyrillic, not English. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1182 "2021-04-28T23:33:28Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > That’s almost directly lifted from Sherlock Holmes A Study in Scarlet, where a German word written in blood is mistaken for the start of an English name. And, in keeping with the “that never really happens” idea, that particular clue turns out to be fake, put there by the murderer to mislead the police. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1183 "2021-04-28T23:41:58Z")
😂 That is worse. Some one tried to compliment me by saying I looked like Jack Black… but then they said no, they meant Kyle Gass. Needless to say, not really a compliment. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2021, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1184 "2021-04-29T01:19:20Z")
When our hero is faced with several bad guys that want to fight, the bad guys are suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of decency and take their turns getting their asses kicked instead of all attacking at once. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1185 "2021-04-29T01:25:51Z")
Medical drama shows use defibrillators a lot more often than I suspect they are used in real life. I suppose that’s because it’s dramatic, what with someone calling out “Clear!”, rubbing the paddles together and then shocking the patient. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1186 "2021-04-29T02:16:11Z")
Also, how often do doctors hop on top of people on gurneys and straddle them doing CPR as they are wheeled down the hall? ---
**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:** [April 29, 2021, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1187 "2021-04-29T02:44:56Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I think it was also the last episode with Zulu as Kono. Ya done good. Except for this. Zulu as Kono was in seven more episodes. This episode was of course called The Ninety Second War. > [@SciFiSam](#): > > That’s almost directly lifted from Sherlock Holmes A Study in Scarlet, where a German word written in blood is mistaken for the start of an English name. RACHE, which is German for “revenge”, not, as Holmes notes, an unfinished Rachel. But in Sherlock A Study in Pink, it is an unfinished RACHEL and not a German word for revenge. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2021, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1188 "2021-04-29T02:49:30Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@terentii](#): > > > > I think it was also the last episode with Zulu as Kono. > > Ya done good. Except for this. Zulu as Kono was in seven more episodes. > > This episode was of course called The Ninety Second War. Yeah, I realized it wasn’t his last this afternoon. He was in today’s episode as well. I guess he lasted through to the end of the fourth season. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2021, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1189 "2021-04-29T04:06:25Z")
Matin Crane, Frasier’s dad, spent years trying to work out why a victim would write HELP in her last moments. Solving that led him to the killer. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1190 "2021-04-29T04:14:38Z")
I’ve been thinking about this and if I were dying in a pool of my own blood I’d probably tell my husband hello. H-E-L- “Clearly the victim was signaling for help.” Really these situations are difficult to navigate without misunderstandings. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1191 "2021-04-29T04:45:20Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > This also happened in an episode of _ **The Saint** _ I saw many years ago. A murder victim wrote “COP” in his own blood before he died. I thought “Huh! It would be funny if he was writing in Cyrillic instead of Latin letters.” > > Turned out the murderer was named “Soran,” and the victim was a Russian who sometimes lapsed into his native language. (“SORAN” being “COPAH” in Cyrillic.) It was a Saint short story first. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2021, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1192 "2021-04-29T11:51:44Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > RACHE, which is German for “revenge”, not, as Holmes notes, an unfinished Rachel. But in Sherlock A Study in Pink, it is an unfinished RACHEL and not a German word for revenge. I have to comment on this, because I’ve never seen anyone else do so. **A Study in Scarlet** , which was the first Sherlock Holmes story, first appeared (as Holmes fans know all to well) in _Beeton’s Christmas Annual_ in 1887, and in book form a year later. It has the incident of “Rache” being found written on the wall. As the perpetrator explains at the end of the book > [@](#): > > “The blood had been streaming from my nose, but I had taken no notice of it. I don’t know what it was that put it into my head to write upon the wall with it. Perhaps it was some mischievous idea of setting the police upon a wrong track, for I felt light-hearted and cheerful. I remembered a German being found in New York with RACHE written up above him, and it was argued at the time in the newspapers that the secret societies must have done it. I guessed that what puzzled the New Yorkers would puzzle the Londoners, so I dipped my finger in my own blood and printed it on a convenient place on the wall." I have absolutely no doubt that Doyle got this idea from ----- Mark Twain. In **A Tramp Abroad** , Twain’s account of travels through Germany, published in 1880 (seven years before A Study in Scarlet), Twain remarks on the scribblings on the wall of a German prison cell: > [@](#): > > Here and there, lonesome prisoners had eased the heavy time by altering the records left by predecessors. Leaving the name standing, and the date and length of the captivity, they had erased the description of the misdemeanor, and written in its place, in staring capitals, “FOR THEFT!” or “FOR MURDER!” or some other gaudy crime. In one place, all by itself, stood this blood-curdling word: > > “Rache!” > > (footnote, translating this – “Revenge!”) > > There was no name signed, and no date. It was an inscription well calculated to pique curiosity. One would greatly like to know the nature of the wrong that had been done, and what sort of vengeance was wanted, and whether the prisoner ever achieved it or not. But there was no way of finding out these things. In some editions there’s even an illustration showing someone writing this on the wall, just as there are illustrations in some editions of A Study in Scarlet showing “Rache” on the wall. Yet I don’t recall any of the annotated editions of Sherlock Holmes that call attention to this obvious borrowing. It took me by complete surprise when I read **A Tramp Abroad.** ---
**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:** [April 29, 2021, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1193 "2021-04-29T12:37:35Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Medical drama shows use defibrillators a lot more often than I suspect they are used in real life. I suppose that’s because it’s dramatic, what with someone calling out “Clear!”, rubbing the paddles together and then shocking the patient. They’re very often used in TV and movies to start a heart that has stopped, which is completely wrong. Hence the name ‘defibrillator’, they’re used to stop fibrillation by temporarily stopping the heart. Then it restarts, hopefully with a normal rhythm. It’s like a reboot. You can’t use a device that’s meant to **stop** the heart to start an already stopped heart. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2021, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1194 "2021-04-29T13:12:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I have absolutely no doubt that Doyle got this idea from ----- Mark Twain. Cool! ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1195 "2021-04-29T13:17:50Z")
On cop/investigator shows, the detectives get a tip that a group of bad guys is having a meeting. For some reason, the crooks conveniently choose a parking lot out in the open, with no concerns that passersby will overhear their conversations, and plenty of cars in the parking lot for the detectives to hide behind. Granted, it gives more space for the inevitable shootouts that ensue, but the tone of the episode is that these bad guys are already paranoid and secretive and would want to cloak any suspicious activity. Stay in one lane (so to speak), cop show people! ---
**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:** [April 29, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1196 "2021-04-29T14:43:39Z")
> [@solost](#): > > They’re very often used in TV and movies to start a heart that has stopped, which is completely wrong. Unfortunately, even the otherwise-mostly-accurate Emergency! does this far too often. It is, however, very dramatic, which is what they were going for. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1197 "2021-04-29T19:55:48Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > 😂 That is worse. > > Some one tried to compliment me by saying I looked like Jack Black… but then they said no, they meant Kyle Gass. Needless to say, not really a compliment IKR? I was mainly bemused - I really _do_ look like Stephen King; but I don’t think either of us looks like Gary Busey - but also a tiny bit offended. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1198 "2021-04-29T21:51:05Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Also, how often do doctors hop on top of people on gurneys and straddle them doing CPR as they are wheeled down the hall? A few years ago, that and the flappy paddles were (apparently\*) done to me on the way out of the elevator from the ER to the cath lab. I later overheard my attending cardiologist describe me to his residents as “a bad Scrubs cliché”. When the ER doc and nurses came to visit me in the ICU later, I said “I know you do this a couple of times a day, but thank you”. He replied, as a specialist in cardiac arrest, that he saw a case like mine every few years. \* I wasn’t exactly “there” at the time ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1199 "2021-05-03T12:40:32Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Well, IIRC, Mythbusters has shown that it is not impossible to do if you have guidance from an experienced controller/pilot on the radio. And modern jets can nearly land themselves these days, given the correct inputs to the computer. Let me guess; it was done in a simulator, not with a real plane. Auto-landings have been done in the past, on a test basis, but I am not sure if any of the current planes can do that. ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1200 "2021-05-03T13:18:57Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Although back in college, my friends and I visited a local gun range where you could fire automatic submachineguns like the MAC-10. It actually doesn’t have much kick to it. At least, not like the movies where the hapless untrained person wrestles with the thing spraying wildly like a firehouse. Depends on the gun. Some had massive muzzle climb, such as the Thompson. Many years ago I saw some very second-rate gangster biopic where the hero fired two Tommy guns simultaneously, with a sound more appropriate to an arcade game. [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=59) [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=61)