# 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:** 81
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1601 "2022-01-11T14:49:52Z")
lol, yes…my favorite mental example of this is when they hide behind a car door as protection. They have obviously never been out in the desert and seen the bullet holes going through a car completely that some good old boys decided to shoot up just because. 😉 Cars, like waist-high railing walls, aren’t bulletproof, especially from high-powered rifles. Plus, since Frank made everything to his scale, ‘waist-high’ might be even less cover for abnormally sized people who don’t fall into his ideal perspective… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1602 "2022-01-11T15:49:48Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > [@Andy\_L](#): > > > > In a well-known science fiction novel, before the villain can threaten to kill the hostage, the hero threatens to shoot the hostage first, leaving the villain at a loss… > > Now I’m thinking of a certain scene from _Blazing Saddles_. I’m thinking of the movie _Speed_. “What do you do, hotshot? What _do_ you _do_?” “SHOOT THE HOSTAGE!” ---
**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:** [January 11, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1603 "2022-01-11T16:17:52Z")
About 20 years ago, there was a crappy Russian “blockbuster” called _ **Personal** _ [ID] _ **Number** _, in which terrorists take over the Moscow Circus. How are the bad guys beaten? _Spetsnaz_ commandos rappel down from the catwalks firing their assault rifles one-handed on full auto. Each terrorist is hit square in the chest, but none of the captive spectators in the grandstands are harmed. That’s good shootin’! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1604 "2022-01-11T16:20:24Z")
I think they pull them back and forth while sliding them to the ends of the casket until they are out from under it. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1605 "2022-01-11T16:22:47Z")
Re: hanging up the phone without saying goodbye: I heard it mentioned a couple times recently in the wake of Harry Reid’s death that he was one who did this IRL. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1606 "2022-01-11T16:58:42Z")
> [@XT](#): > > when they hide behind a car door as protection I never believed that was protection, I thought it was “camoflage” - if you can’t see someone properly, you can’t predict their movements. I may be uneducated in this particular trope. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1607 "2022-01-11T17:09:41Z")
Well, if you are hiding behind an open car door they can see your legs, so they have a good idea where you are. But in general, you can see this all the time with people in cars crouching down while the car is riddled with automatic weapons fire and being unscathed, which, simply, isn’t going to happen unless you are just really lucky and all the shots miss you. Bullets go right through a car unless they are firing from ahead through the engine block. The best example I can think of off the top of my head is in Hancock. Armed bank robbers are firing at a pinned-down policewoman with automatic weapons. She is crouching down behind the vehicle and it’s shielding her. Hancock walks up (being bulletproof and all), then picks her us…and uses the bottom of the car as a shield for the policewoman, while the bank robbers pour fire at it. And the policewoman is safe…saved by the bulletproof protection of the car! Except she would be dead of course. Granted, this is a fantasy movie (Hancock is a superhero after all who is bulletproof and can fly and such), but still, I think it demonstrates what Hollywood THINKS a car offers wrt protection from firearms. ---
**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:** [January 11, 2022, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1608 "2022-01-11T17:31:02Z")
> [@XT](#): > > and with both firing, while no one around them notices because the ‘silencer’ is so quiet they just can’t hear the shot? Silencers are quite the thing. It sure would be nice if they worked like on TV or movies. How did the trope ever get started, seeing as how “fft” silencers are as impossible as FTL travel? Just watched a brand new FBI International and they used silenced rifles. Will this perversion of physics ever end? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1609 "2022-01-11T17:31:09Z")
> [@XT](#): > > This brings up something that might have already been addressed but I’m going to point it out anyway…when you fire a gun, the bullet can and often does go right through the initial target and hits someone else. This is especially true of a high-powered rifle, but even a pistol, especially at close range can have this effect. There is a book, _Time and Time Again_, where a guy goes back in time to save the world from WW1. He has a Glock type 9mm. The author thinks that the modern 9mm is super powerful, able to easily go through one body and kill another. However, that 9mm is the same cartridge as in the Luger, a standard WW1 weapon. Now sure- it _could_ but I wouldn’t count on it. The author also thinks the French, etc didn’t want WW1, it was all Kaiser Bill. However, the French was giving Russia millions of gold francs to build military railroads to mobilize the Russian army vs Germany. Pretty much every one of the major Euro powers wanted WW1, and they all thought “the boys will be back by Christmas”. Idiots all. ---
**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:** [January 11, 2022, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1610 "2022-01-11T17:35:49Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The author thinks that the modern 9mm is super powerful, Saw an early Kojak (Savalas, not Rhames) and Kojak remarked on the bad guy’s 9mm as a “cannon”. I was like, were they so sheltered in 1973 that they thought a 9mm was “something”? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1611 "2022-01-11T17:40:46Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > However, that 9mm is the same cartridge as in the Luger, a standard WW1 weapon. Now sure- it _could_ but I wouldn’t count on it. Sure, a 9mm (fired from whatever) can go through a body and hit another. You are right, a modern Glock firing a standard 9mm round is going to be as effective as someone using a Luger or whatever from the period. I suppose it’s possible that the modern gunpowder is a bit more powerful, or maybe the round has more (or less) grains, or perhaps the Luger was firing ball ammo and the Glock had some sort of specialty ammo, but basically, they both are going to be very similar…and both can potentially penetrate a body at close range. Did a quick search on YouTube, and there is [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24yz0OzVlE4) video showing someone firing a 9mm round at a ballistics dummy at close range and it easily penetrated the dummy and went out the other side (I think if you fast forward to around 8:00 you can just watch that part if you are interested). ---
**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:** [January 11, 2022, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1612 "2022-01-11T18:28:14Z")
What was the exhibit shown, Rothko’s Beige Period? ---
**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:** [January 11, 2022, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1613 "2022-01-11T18:39:36Z")
LOL. That would warrant shooting up an art gallery, I’d say. No, I think it was an exhibition of the Emporer’s late period wardrobe. ---
**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:** [January 11, 2022, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1614 "2022-01-11T23:33:14Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Well, if you are hiding behind an open car door they can see your legs, so they have a good idea where you are. But in general, you can see this all the time with people in cars crouching down while the car is riddled with automatic weapons fire and being unscathed, which, simply, isn’t going to happen unless you are just really lucky and all the shots miss you. Bullets go right through a car unless they are firing from ahead through the engine block. > > The best example I can think of off the top of my head is in Hancock. Armed bank robbers are firing at a pinned-down policewoman with automatic weapons. She is crouching down behind the vehicle and it’s shielding her. Hancock walks up (being bulletproof and all), then picks her us…and uses the bottom of the car as a shield for the policewoman, while the bank robbers pour fire at it. And the policewoman is safe…saved by the bulletproof protection of the car! > > Except she would be dead of course. Granted, this is a fantasy movie (Hancock is a superhero after all who is bulletproof and can fly and such), but still, I think it demonstrates what Hollywood THINKS a car offers wrt protection from firearms But don’t police cruisers have tempered, bullet-resistant window glass, specifically so they can be rolled down into the door, offering a bit more protection than a civilian car? I seem to recall reading or hearing that, maybe in a Tony Hillerman novel. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1615 "2022-01-11T23:43:45Z")
I believe that the pfft silencers actually do exist but theyre from guns that are SPECIFICALLY made for silenced shooting. For example the Welrod pistol or MP5 covert models had integral suppressors that were much more quiet than the ones you just mount on existing guns, and they were given 9mm ammo that was subsonic and specifically calibrated to work best with those guns. ---
**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:** [January 11, 2022, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1616 "2022-01-11T23:56:39Z")
Re the “ordinary objects are bulletproof” discussion: In _The Phantom_ comic strip a few years back there was a memorable episode where The Phantom managed to avoid getting shot in a gangland shootout by hiding behind a full-sized mattress. 🤨 ---
**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:** [January 12, 2022, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1617 "2022-01-12T00:01:03Z")
I was playing a video game the other day that let me craft a fully functional silencer out of a plastic water bottle and a roll of duct tape. And then attach it to a revolver. ---
**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:** [January 12, 2022, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1618 "2022-01-12T13:21:25Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > The Phantom managed to avoid getting shot in a gangland shootout by hiding behind a full-sized mattress. Yeah, everybody knows only a California King sized mattress will stop bullets, being thicker than other mattresses (don’t try this at home, though). ---
**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:** [January 12, 2022, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1619 "2022-01-12T13:34:06Z")
In “The Sarah Conner Chronicles” they played with that trope - the Connors hide behind couches, etc. in a firefight in their house, but we soon learn that the couches have been reinforced with Kevlar. ---
**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:** [January 12, 2022, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1620 "2022-01-12T13:40:32Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > I’ve never been to a funeral that had the coffin-lowering ceremony at the actual burial site. Is that a real-life thing that I’ve just somehow missed, or is that just a TV / movie convention? > > I’ve been to a lot of funerals – many when I was an altar boy and, sadly, in recent years, many of relatives and people I’ve known. There certainly is a grave-side ceremony where people will usually place flowers on the coffin. Thy usually “dress up” the site with Astro-turf-like fake grass covering the new excavation and dirt, and often with a tent-like pavilion near the grave (nobody has to carry those black umbrellas, should it rain). More often than not, I’ve seen the coffin suspended on canvas tethers on a four-sided tubular thing that sits around the gravesite. When everyone leaves they hit a release and two of the tubes rotate, letting the canvas tethers slowly unfurl and gradually lower the coffin into the grave. > > YMMV That is exactly how its been at every funeral I have been to including the fake grass covering the fresh dirt and hole. The workers are usually a discreet distance away. Nothing is done to lower the casket until everyone leaves. These funerals have all been in the Northeast and at Catholic cemeteries. I don’t know if that matters. > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > > [@XT](#): > > > > Well, if you are hiding behind an open car door they can see your legs, so they have a good idea where you are. But in general, you can see this all the time with people in cars crouching down while the car is riddled with automatic weapons fire and being unscathed, which, simply, isn’t going to happen unless you are just really lucky and all the shots miss you. Bullets go right through a car unless they are firing from ahead through the engine block. > > > > The best example I can think of off the top of my head is in Hancock. Armed bank robbers are firing at a pinned-down policewoman with automatic weapons. She is crouching down behind the vehicle and it’s shielding her. Hancock walks up (being bulletproof and all), then picks her us…and uses the bottom of the car as a shield for the policewoman, while the bank robbers pour fire at it. And the policewoman is safe…saved by the bulletproof protection of the car! > > > > Except she would be dead of course. Granted, this is a fantasy movie (Hancock is a superhero after all who is bulletproof and can fly and such), but still, I think it demonstrates what Hollywood THINKS a car offers wrt protection from firearms > > But don’t police cruisers have tempered, bullet-resistant window glass, specifically so they can be rolled down into the door, offering a bit more protection than a civilian car? I seem to recall reading or hearing that, maybe in a Tony Hillerman novel. Not true at all. I haven’t heard of that as even an in-job urban legend. [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=80) [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=82)