# 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:** 64
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1261 "2021-05-27T16:52:04Z")
Aah, a move commonly known as the Prometheus. [Best with appropriate music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdZXlMl1xG4) Except in my family, where for historic reasons we call it guineafowling, from the time we were on safari and the guinea fowl ran ahead of us for at least a couple of kilometres. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1262 "2021-05-27T19:56:44Z")
Iirc certain animals prefer to run in straight lines rather than juke because they assume they can outrun anything else than can run in a straight line. Which makes sense if you can run 60mph but then when you go against a car… ---
**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:** [May 27, 2021, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1263 "2021-05-27T20:12:00Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Aah, a move commonly known as the Prometheus. That’s a particularly egregius example of the phenomenon. When I saw that neither woman was trying to run to the side to avoid the rolling/collapsing ship, I lost all interest in their survival. They’re just too dumb to exist. Outta the Gene Pool. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1264 "2021-05-27T20:55:17Z")
Reminds me of Jurassic Park, where the heroes are in a tree, under a car also stuck precariously in the tree. Get to the other side of the tree - quickly - don’t climb down while staying precisely under the car. ---
**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:** [May 28, 2021, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1265 "2021-05-28T12:33:12Z")
And THAT reminds of of another trope that I really don’t like – the Magically Appearing-From-Nowhere Chasm. Prior to the car being pushed over the edge, you had absolutely no idea that there was a sheer dropoff on the other side of that fence anywhere. In fact, all the scenes you’d been shown depicted rainforest and pretty flat ground there. They had a goat put there as bait for the T. rex, popping up out of a recess in the ground. Even in retrospect, you’d think they wouldn’t want a chasm so close to where they wanted the star of the show to appear. It’d make it harder for him to get there. And he might fall off the edge. But they needed that dramatic plunge for the car to be pushed over, so it magically appeared when they needed it. As if they had just thought of it. Other examples – the Sudden Chasm of death during the Egyptian truck chase in **Raiders of the Lost Ark** At the start of the chase, you’d swear they were in flat country. After the pursuing jeep falls off the edge, they seem to be in country with some moderate hills. But when Steven Spielberg needed a deep chasm for a jeepful of Nazis to plunge into, we were in Mountain Country (at 4:11 in the clip here) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/yqQD8sVtfA4/maxresdefault.jpg "Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Truck Chase (1981) [HD]") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqQD8sVtfA4) Or in the 2009 J.J. Abrams **Star Trek** movie The Great Chasm of Iowa that the young Kirk loses his uncle’s car into seems awfully convenient and deep for such a flat state. Apparently it’s supposed to be a quarry, but that’s pretty unconvincing. I think they thought a great big hole in the ground was more dramatic than having Kirk, say, drive the car into a tree. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xTGeagS4HcU/maxresdefault.jpg "Star Trek - Chase Scene") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTGeagS4HcU) ---
**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:** [May 28, 2021, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1266 "2021-05-28T14:48:11Z")
That actually looks a lot like the [Thorton Quarry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton_Quarry) in Illinois, just south of Chicago. It’s a big chasm in a very flat landscape. Here’s a YouTube tour - it’s not a special effect. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/BLaWZVcLSWE/maxresdefault.jpg "021 Did you ever want to see into the Thornton Quarry? Here's your chance! In 4K") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLaWZVcLSWE) ---
**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:** [May 28, 2021, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1267 "2021-05-28T14:53:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > the Sudden Chasm of death Talk of ‘chasms of death’ reminds me of this Youtube clip showing what a Fakey McFakerson Bear Grylls is. I don’t think this is too much of a hijack from the OP topic, because it illustrates the fact that, while the occasional chasm does exist in real life, it’s seldom as much of a problem as it is in TV fiction (E.G. Man vs. Wild) and movies. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3UpSlpvb1is/hqdefault.jpg "Re: Man Vs. Wild, Bear Grylls is a Phony") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpSlpvb1is) ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1268 "2021-05-28T15:02:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Apparently it’s supposed to be a quarry, but that’s pretty unconvincing. So, Spielberg wanted to go the the quarry and throw stuff? ---
**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:** [May 29, 2021, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1269 "2021-05-29T00:07:26Z")
I doubt that hiding under a bed or in a closet is nearly as effective as Hollywood makes it out to be. ---
**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:** [May 29, 2021, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1270 "2021-05-29T00:23:12Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Other examples – the Sudden Chasm of death during the Egyptian truck chase in **Raiders of the Lost Ark** At the start of the chase, you’d swear they were in flat country. After the pursuing jeep falls off the edge, they seem to be in country with some moderate hills. But when Steven Spielberg needed a deep chasm for a jeepful of Nazis to plunge into, we were in Mountain Country (at 4:11 in the clip here) > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqQD8sVtfA4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqQD8sVtfA4) I think there’s an even bigger problem with the whole sequence: Indy spontaneously hijacks a truck filled with German soldiers in the middle of the Egyptian desert. Where the hell is he going to go with them? Aren’t the Germans going to follow him en masse? Assuming the Germans don’t overpower him before the gas runs out, what’s he going to do when it does? Has he planned all this out beforehand? Does he have armed accomplices waiting for him out in the Sahara? Is he prepared to eliminate the Germans who try to stop him? Has he arranged for the cargo to shipped elsewhere? I ask similar questions whenever I see the hero of a movie/TV show decide to tackle the bad guys on the spur of the moment. Somehow or other, the bad guys always screw up and there’s a happy ending. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1271 "2021-05-29T02:07:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > And THAT reminds of of another trope that I really don’t like – the Magically Appearing-From-Nowhere Chasm. Heh. It’s like in the Road Runner cartoons that no matter where Wile E. is, there’s always a cliff he can fall off. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1272 "2021-05-29T02:35:51Z")
_And this time, it’s personal!_ Cops shows do this every time. But in reality if a police officer gathered great evidence and even a confession from a perp to the murder of his wife, it would all be thrown out of court. Same with pretty much any relative or close friend, except maybe his partner. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1273 "2021-05-29T04:22:20Z")
[https://crimereads.com/your-guide-to-not-getting-murdered-in-a-quaint-english-village/](https://crimereads.com/your-guide-to-not-getting-murdered-in-a-quaint-english-village/) ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1274 "2021-05-29T13:59:23Z")
I would add to that “any club with Joyce Barnaby.” That woman has a murder magnet in her, I swear. ---
**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 30, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1275 "2021-05-30T15:35:44Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > [Greek fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_thermal_weapons#Greek_fire) was a thing that existed. But only in the eastern Roman empire, aka Byzantium. The formula was lost when the empire ended, and no other nation had Greek fire. The Arabs may have had something fairly close, but they were also in a region where some kind of petroleum can be found on the surface, and it is assumed that Greek fire was based around that. Medieval Europe most emphatically had nothing of the sort. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1276 "2021-05-30T15:53:55Z")
I seem to recall a Liam Neeson movie where it worked…for a little while. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1277 "2021-05-30T16:24:20Z")
And…? Nothing in the post I was responding to restricted anything to _Western_ Europe only. The Eastern Roman Empire was _also_ a European one. Medieval Europe did have “something of the sort” - it had the thing itself. ---
**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:** [May 30, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1278 "2021-05-30T22:10:15Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I seem to recall a Liam Neeson movie where it worked…for a little while. ☹ . Yea. That’s what made the scene so memorable. When he said “They’re going to take you”, I thought “Hasn’t he ever seen a movie?” ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1279 "2021-05-30T23:48:39Z")
This is usually an Army scenario: two guys will enter into some kind of wager, and everybody in the room will excitedly want in on the action and just throw money down on the table with no accounting for who threw how much. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1280 "2021-06-01T03:14:11Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > Here’s one I hate that I just saw happen last night in an otherwise well-done show: the hero cop who goes into a dangerous situation without waiting for backup. > > Just watched _Fargo_ again last night where the very pregnant lead character spots the murderer’s vehicle and decides to investigate, alone. She then finds the murderer feeding a corpse into a woodchipper and still does not call for backup before confronting him. > > She’s otherwise highly competent and I guess they are kinda going for absurdist humor so it works for the film, but it wasn’t a particularly intelligent decision. Back up is not always a thing. Not everyone lives in a big city or even the suburbs. I know plenty of cops who work where they are often on their own and have to take care of business by themselves. One in particular worked in a town that I drive through part of every day. The town is 50 square miles and at night they have three cops working. If one or both are busy your back up might be 30 minutes away. Or more. I’ve spoken with some Alaskan State Troopers. Sometimes their back up is a couple of days away. Sometimes you do what you have to do and hope for the best. A couple of other things that are common for TV cops to do: give up your gun. I don’t care if you are holding the president, the pope or my mother hostage. I’m not giving you my gun. That would just mean I’m going to die too. Or when the bad guy raises his gun and the cop and bad guy are standing there pointing their guns at each other. “Well now Detective Steel you have finally caught up to me.” What would actually happen: “W…” bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang click [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=63) [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=65)