# 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:** 70
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1381 "2021-06-24T13:31:19Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > TV is turned on and the defense attorney/community activist/all-purpose jerk starts declaiming about how much trouble he/she is going to make for the good guys. They always tune in at _just_ the right time. Well, the “just the right time” thing is obviously for plot exposition, but if you watch CNN when there is anything remotely resembling “breaking news” they run reports all the time, generally with no new information. ---
**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:** [June 24, 2021, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1382 "2021-06-24T13:44:08Z")
The stories featured on _Law & Order_ (for instance, a sleazy lawyer offering a big reward for info benefiting his client) typically are of the sort you’d see on local Eyewitless News. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1383 "2021-06-24T14:38:20Z")
I have to believe that the number of criminals who manage to evade the police by using “parkour” to escape across the urban landscape is vanishingly small. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1384 "2021-06-24T18:12:41Z")
> [@tingbudong](#): > > If the protagonist has a military background, it is almost always some sort of special forces. Never the guy in the rear with the gear, which is where most who served actually served. I can’t remember the movie - I think it was a Wayans’ brothers comedy - but there was a supporting character everyone was really intimidated by. He had an eyepatch, and every one talked about how he’d lost the eye in Vietnam, presumably doing crazy special forces shit. One of the main characters gets to know him, and finds out that he did lose the eye in Vietnam - he was in the typing pool, and he and his fellow office workers were shooting paperclips at each other with rubber bands when one nailed him right in the eye. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1385 "2021-06-24T18:59:50Z")
**I’m Going To Get You Sucka** , was going to bring this one up too. Also iirc everyone is let down except for the one guy in the group who ALSO was actually in the Army Typing Pool, who’s impressed by his service. ---
**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:** [June 24, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1386 "2021-06-24T22:10:12Z")
Regarding the action movie standard where our hero/heroine(s) break into the bad guys’ lair to find evidence of skulduggery without telling anyone where they’ve gone, are caught by the bad guys and lie unconvincingly about how the authorities will be there any minute: “He knows too bloody much. We’ll kill him and dump him. He’ll have had no chance yet to tell what he’s seen. We’ll be all right.”… "Gerard’s apparently untroubled voice rose as if in courteous discussion. “I did of course leave word of where I was going. If I don’t return safely you’ll find the police at your door.” “They always say that in movies.” Denny said. “It’s never bloody true.” - from _Proof_ by Dick Francis. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1387 "2021-06-24T23:20:34Z")
I may have mentioned this earlier in this thread, so forgive me if I repeated myself, but I have a Facebook friend (HS classmate) whose father lost his leg in WWII. He graduated in May 1945 and immediately enlisted, and while he was in boot camp, he was riding in a vehicle that tipped over, and his leg was broken badly enough that they decided to amputate it. He never saw combat. ---
**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:** [June 24, 2021, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1388 "2021-06-24T23:46:23Z")
The past was a dangerous time. My father’s uncle lost his leg when a truck lost its load of barrels, and one of them knocked him down and crushed it. Apparently, he could still climb ladders, faster than some two-legged folk ---
**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:** [June 25, 2021, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1389 "2021-06-25T02:00:51Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > The past was a dangerous time. I’ll say–100% of all known injuries happened in the past! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2021, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1390 "2021-06-25T02:05:51Z")
Another thing rarely seen IRL that I know of: Those triangular sports banners on a teenager’s or young man’s bedroom wall. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2021, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1391 "2021-06-25T02:12:32Z")
That’s why I’m glad I don’t live then any more. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2021, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1392 "2021-06-25T02:12:44Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Another thing rarely seen IRL that I know of: Those triangular sports banners on a teenager’s or young man’s bedroom wall. You mean pennants? I’ve seen them on plenty of walls, but mainly a log time ago, or on the walls of older people. The fad has died away. But at one time, you saw pennants all over the place. Not only for teams, but for tourist attractions. ---
**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 25, 2021, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1393 "2021-06-25T03:25:28Z")
My older brother had a bunch of sports pennants on his wall. It didn’t seem unusual in the early 70s. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2021, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1394 "2021-06-25T03:32:01Z")
> My older brother had a bunch of sports pennants on his wall… early 70s. Were they hanging on wood paneling? I’ve only seen them on period TV shows or movies, always in a teenage boy’s room. And I WAS a teenage boy in the early 70s (I got better). Me and my friends would have posters of a team, or more often specific players. (ETA: Just asked a fellow 70s kid. He had a huge Kareem Abdul-Jabbar poster, but no “Milwaukee Bucks” pennants… “Naah, a pennant wouldn’t have been exciting enough.”) ---
**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:** [June 25, 2021, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1395 "2021-06-25T04:07:14Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > You mean pennants? I’ve seen them on plenty of walls, but mainly a log time ago, or on the walls of older people. The fad has died away. But at one time, you saw pennants all over the place. Not only for teams, but for tourist attractions. Well except among baseball fans. The people who owned my current house a few months ago were big baseball fans, and when we toured the house their teenage kid’s rooms both had the pennants for several baseball teams on the wall. Looks over at the wall…yeah, still a few nails up there. I need to hang something up there. Not pennants. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2021, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1396 "2021-06-25T12:04:47Z")
I know a guy (older than mw) whose walls right now are covered with pennants. Of course, the guy is an obsessive souvenir collector, so he’s not typical. But he’s not alone, either. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2021, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1397 "2021-06-25T12:34:11Z")
Me too. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2021, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1398 "2021-06-25T12:40:52Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > > > Another thing rarely seen IRL that I know of: Those triangular sports banners on a teenager’s or young man’s bedroom wall. > > You mean pennants? I’ve seen them on plenty of walls, but mainly a log time ago, or on the walls of older people. The fad has died away. But at one time, you saw pennants all over the place. Not only for teams, but for tourist attractions. Yeah, my sisters and I used to have some, and yes, we hung them on our bedroom walls. They do seem to have faded into the past, though. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2021, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1399 "2021-06-25T12:49:12Z")
This may have been covered already, but how about the elite assassin for hire: the classy, well-dressed gentleman (or sometimes lady), staying in only the finest hotels and dining finely in spots throughout the world they travel to in order to dispatch their targets that they were well paid to take out with a high degree of professionalism. Think John Wick or the whole Wickian universe. Though, I guess it’s possible that those types do exist, and the only reason I’m still alive is because I don’t know that they do 😅 ---
**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:** [June 25, 2021, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1400 "2021-06-25T13:35:35Z")
And how these assassins are always able to get into the empty building or apartment across the street and a few stories up from their exiting victim. No need to worry about locks and security if you are an elite assassin. [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=69) [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=71)