According to Hollywood, you’ll be totally fine if you jump out of a moving car. Maybe you’ll get a few scrapes. Babies come out of the womb perfectly clean and looking three months old, and hacking into a government database only requires smashing a keyboard for a few seconds.We all know movies aren’t real life, but sometimes, they could try alittle bitharder to be realistic. Reddit users have recently beendiscussingmoments in films that cause them to seriously suspend their disbelief, so you’ll find their most spot-on replies below. Enjoy scrolling through, and keep reading to hear from the man who started this conversation in the first place, as well as film critic and founder ofEvery Movie Has A Lesson, Don Shanahan!This post may includeaffiliate links.
According to Hollywood, you’ll be totally fine if you jump out of a moving car. Maybe you’ll get a few scrapes. Babies come out of the womb perfectly clean and looking three months old, and hacking into a government database only requires smashing a keyboard for a few seconds.
We all know movies aren’t real life, but sometimes, they could try alittle bitharder to be realistic. Reddit users have recently beendiscussingmoments in films that cause them to seriously suspend their disbelief, so you’ll find their most spot-on replies below. Enjoy scrolling through, and keep reading to hear from the man who started this conversation in the first place, as well as film critic and founder ofEvery Movie Has A Lesson, Don Shanahan!
This post may includeaffiliate links.
In the disaster movies people don’t hoard toilet paper.
We reached out to the Reddit user who started this conversation in the first place, u/czp55 or Ryan, and lucky for us, he was kind enough to have a chat withBored Panda. As far as what inspired him to ask this question, the OP shared that he’s been over-analyzing media for as long as he can remember.“I had watched one film in particular that day which prompted the question, but I honestly can’t remember what it was now,” he noted. “Could have been one of the Fast and Furious movies, but I might be wrong. I definitely never expected the question to pick up activity the way it did. I had to silence notifications for a while.”
We reached out to the Reddit user who started this conversation in the first place, u/czp55 or Ryan, and lucky for us, he was kind enough to have a chat withBored Panda. As far as what inspired him to ask this question, the OP shared that he’s been over-analyzing media for as long as he can remember.
“I had watched one film in particular that day which prompted the question, but I honestly can’t remember what it was now,” he noted. “Could have been one of the Fast and Furious movies, but I might be wrong. I definitely never expected the question to pick up activity the way it did. I had to silence notifications for a while.”
::15 seconds of keyboard clicking::“I’m in. Now we have access to all the super secret classified government files and can control anything that runs on electricity anywhere in the world.”
My dad was a pipe engineer for 35 years. Every time he watches The Titanic, when Jack is handcuffed to the pipe, he has to point out to everyone in the room how the curved elbow pipe in the shot didn’t exist at the time. The correct setup should have been two straight pieces soldered together to make a corner pipe. I love him and his obscure dad facts!
The extent that people can get punched in the face and just keep going. No one is having Jason Bourne style fights and able to keep going for as long as they all do.
On the other hand, we also asked the OP if he could share any films that he appreciates for how surprisingly realistic they are. “This movie is fantastic for many reasons, but I loved the unexpected depiction of iterative design inHow to Train Your Dragon, when Hiccup is creating a replacement tail fin for Toothless,” Ryan shared.“The first few times he tries, he runs into problems, which he designs around before trying again. He eventually figures out he needs unique positions for different maneuvers before having a complete working product,” the OP explained. “There was a surprising amount of experimenting and redesigning for a fictional, animated movie. Contrast that with most movies treating first generation prototypes as flawless artifacts that work perfectly.”
On the other hand, we also asked the OP if he could share any films that he appreciates for how surprisingly realistic they are. “This movie is fantastic for many reasons, but I loved the unexpected depiction of iterative design inHow to Train Your Dragon, when Hiccup is creating a replacement tail fin for Toothless,” Ryan shared.
“The first few times he tries, he runs into problems, which he designs around before trying again. He eventually figures out he needs unique positions for different maneuvers before having a complete working product,” the OP explained. “There was a surprising amount of experimenting and redesigning for a fictional, animated movie. Contrast that with most movies treating first generation prototypes as flawless artifacts that work perfectly.”
Crawling through air ducts. Most aren’t that big. Or they aren’t that strong to not bend or break at all. They are also incredibly filthy. I have taken out enough duct work to know that you could almost create another person with how many skin cells end up in your air ducts. I also am not doubting the strength of the large threaded supports some duct work has. I’m doubting the strength of the 20 gauge metal to not end bend in the slightest under the weight of a full grown man.
90% of the depictions of women going into labor. It’s rarely ‘Mom feels fine all day > suddenly has one sharp contraction > water immediately breaks and makes a puddle on the floor. Everyone I know who’s given birth has had at least a few hours contracting before the water breaking, if it breaks at all, and then it can be even longer before you’re in active labor.
Ryan also told Bored Panda that the responses his post received were amazing. “I found myself nodding furiously at most of them as they came in,” he noted. “One that sticks in my mind is the mention of a certain GI Joe movie scene where they torpedo icebergs, which then sank. There was also a fantastic reply to it: ‘I have the perfect scientific explanation for this: That movie sucked.'”
Pretty much any scene where there’s some magic computer program that turns blurry, heavily-pixellated images into razor sharp photos?Yeah. That doesn’t exist.
Every time they perform CPR in a movie. Bonus points if the victim wakes up immediately and is totally fine and talking.
Ryan shared that he actually posted the question shortly after he started writing his first novel several years ago. “It certainly helped motivate me to do my fair share of research for certain aspects of my story, and I hope it’s better for it,” he told Bored Panda. “I published the novel in 2022, and I’m working to publish the sequel soon. Having delved into the art of writing a fair bit more now, I can confidently say that, for fiction at least, we all generally want realism to take a backseat to effective storytelling.““There was one comment that mentioned unnaturally perfect dialogue without stuttering or pauses for instance, which is absolutely true, but depending on the genre and tone of the story, the audience may appreciate the efficiency of the dialogue to allow time for other things,” he went on to explain. “Still, even when we appreciate the trade-off, it’s always great fun to harp on everything stories get wrong!”
Ryan shared that he actually posted the question shortly after he started writing his first novel several years ago. “It certainly helped motivate me to do my fair share of research for certain aspects of my story, and I hope it’s better for it,” he told Bored Panda. “I published the novel in 2022, and I’m working to publish the sequel soon. Having delved into the art of writing a fair bit more now, I can confidently say that, for fiction at least, we all generally want realism to take a backseat to effective storytelling.”
“There was one comment that mentioned unnaturally perfect dialogue without stuttering or pauses for instance, which is absolutely true, but depending on the genre and tone of the story, the audience may appreciate the efficiency of the dialogue to allow time for other things,” he went on to explain. “Still, even when we appreciate the trade-off, it’s always great fun to harp on everything stories get wrong!”
Chloroform. It takes several minutes to knock you out, and you won’t be out for that long. I promise I know this because we use chloroform to clean stuff in the lab I intern at, and my advisor told me this. In case the FBI is reading this.
If someone is falling, and say Superman catches them, they’re actually f****d because the forces involved are still going to tear them apart. Superman would have to catch them and decelerate them over time, but this almost never happens. He just catches them. You also can’t just lift an enormously heavy object. The object has to have the structural integrity to remain in one piece - all that pressure at one point (Superman’s hand) would make the object break apart.
Rolling out of a speeding car. Na man, you’re about to look like you made out with a cheese grater.
Anytime sword fighting or fencing in a movie is related to dancing (looking at you Pirates of the Caribbean and GoT.)It’s the exact opposite of dancing. The point is to have a completely unpredictable tempo and, if your opponent does have a specific rhythm, to interrupt it in unpredictable ways.Source: fenced for ten years.
EpiPen usage!! You HAVE to call the ambulance or rush to the hospital after administering it. EpiPen’s are not a magical fix they simply buy you enough time to get to medical care. It bothers me relentlessly when movies show someone being given and EpiPen and they just take a big gasp of air and go back to eating dinner like nothing happened.
We also wanted to know if Don ever has a hard time taking scenes seriously, when he knows they’re extremely unrealistic. “I tend to pride myself on suspending my disbelief and letting things play out,” he shared. “In most cases, those examples I’m talking about are done with humor where the fish-out-of-water or public spotlight circumstances make for good laughs. I may chalk them up to lazy research or uninspired screenwriting, but they don’t take me out of the movie like I know they do for others with more sensitive antennae for accuracies.”
Pretty much everything to do with sleeping:* No awkward clean up after doing the deed* Ever so gently waking up in a room that is already brighter than the sun* Immediately kissing and talking right at each other without recoiling from morning breath* Perfect hair and make-up, both going to bed and waking up* The infamous L-shaped sheet of modesty
When the guy stalks the girl and gets the girl in the end
How “beautiful” depression and disorders are. How it makes you so dainty and pretty and soft. If you threw up your guts every night you would not be bright eyed and gentle with luscious hair and strong nails. If you were depressed you aren’t sitting prettily, and looking mysterious. And don’t get me started on how suicides are NOT that easy, nor that painless and perfect.
Our hero is beaten, stabbed and shot. Next scene he wakes up bandaged in the hospital. Within seconds, he yanks out all the tubes and wires, jumps out of bed, finds his - suddenly clean - clothes, and rushes out to continue his quest. In the next scene he’s full of energy as he pursues his foe, and while his face may have a single scratch or bandaged cut - usually above one eye - there’s no sign of what would ordinarily be a yellow-purple swollen pulpy mess with blood-red eyes.
“Harrelson’s blunt honesty and callous expectations in his interactions with Hailee Steinfeld’s Nadine Franklin are spot-on for high school teachers,” Don explained. “Yet, his stern and sarcastic persona still balances an available empathy that 99% of teachers have and never lose when it comes to supporting their students. He’s far more realistic than the usual book-smart, naive idealist stereotypical traits they lather on actors and actresses playing school teachers. Give me more movie teachers like Max Bruner.“If you’d like to hear more of Don’s thoughts on popular films, be sure to check out his siteEvery Movie Has A Lesson!
“Harrelson’s blunt honesty and callous expectations in his interactions with Hailee Steinfeld’s Nadine Franklin are spot-on for high school teachers,” Don explained. “Yet, his stern and sarcastic persona still balances an available empathy that 99% of teachers have and never lose when it comes to supporting their students. He’s far more realistic than the usual book-smart, naive idealist stereotypical traits they lather on actors and actresses playing school teachers. Give me more movie teachers like Max Bruner.”
If you’d like to hear more of Don’s thoughts on popular films, be sure to check out his siteEvery Movie Has A Lesson!
When someone shoots 10000000000000000 bullets with a single magazine in a pistol but then it runs out when they have an actual shot at someone
There’s the trope of people in advertising having to stay late around the holidays, rushing to finish up the holiday campaign for the new client and having to choose between their career and their family. Yeah, that would not happen very often.In reality the holiday campaign would have been finalized quite some time ago after months of planning, back-and-forth with the client, reviewing layouts/proofs, etc. Around the holiday season we would most likely be working on planning stuff for the spring/summer of the next year.
Pretty much any scene that involves biologists. “Look, the DNA is a perfect match!” as the computer superimposes two identical graphics that are basically just the symbol for DNA 🧬.
There was a scene in the GI Joe cobra movie where they torpedo ice bergs, and then they sank. Yeah, ice doesn’t change its density to be heavier than water just because EXPLOSIONS
When some random person in a bar yells out ”next round is on me!”, Everybody cheers, and the bartenders instantly start handing out drinks without ever talking to the person or getting any kind of payment.
It always takes me out of the movie when say someone will be like “you’ll never believe what’s on the news. Put it on”. Their tv is off, they turn the tv on, and it’s on the EXACT station of said news crew, at the EXACT moment they’re talking about I said topic. That’s not how it works. And it could be anything. Not just news. They turn on the tv and it just so happens to be on what their looking for. Just a small aspect of television/movies that takes me out of it and I’m always like “that’s not how this works.”. Lol
Hitting animals with tranquillizer darts and they collapse immediately.The reality is that it can take 30-45 minutes for an animal to go down completely, longer if the animal is agitated.This is why when kids fall into gorilla pits, the lethal weapons are used. Responders don’t have 30-45 minutes to wait for a large, agitated dangerous animal to stumble around and possibly injure someone. The response has to be immediate, and tranquilizers don’t do that.
“The neutrinos are mutating!” -2012.Neutrinos can’t f*****g mutate. They can’t even decay.
Frantically shouting “TAXI!!!” while hailing a cab
People getting knocked out and waking up a bit later, shaking their heads, and then heading off like normal. Getting knocked out is not like lightly bumping your head on something.
I refused to see the movie Lucy because it was based around the myth “we only ever use 10% of our brain.” Like, no we don’t? We use the whole thing. We cannot just unlock our brains with fancy tech or drugs and suddenly have telekinesis and s**t.
Pumping the shotgun every time you mean business. You’re just ejecting fresh shells on to the floor.
The protagonists and antagonists fighting on the streets and not giving a s**t about thousands of people dying while the cars explode and buildings fall.
One that always gets me is when “medical professionals” shock a flatline heart rhythm.
There is no cleaning up before or after sex. Everyone is just ready to go allll the time!
People in movies being “scientists”, meaning they are good at all forms of science - biology, electrical engineering, physics, programming, communication protocols, advanced mathematics, hacking, robotics…Sure, you could have some knowledge in all of those fields - but specialising in just one of them takes decades… These characters are usually wizards in all fields.
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In Interstellar when they have combines running through a field of green corn. They spent a ton of time getting little details of astrophysics right, then fell flat on their face in the depiction of farming.
Scenes that involve swimming. I try to hold my breath whenever a movie character (non super hero / fantasy) dives underwater and try to hold it as long as he/she is swimming or submerged. I end up dying 9/10 times. I mean there’s probably a lot of things to consider but the amount of time some characters can hold their breaths is super human.
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When a movie thinks that people with autism are like superhumans. They just have random powers like being super smart and instantly recognizing patterns and s**t. Not exactly how it works. Autism is like having a glitchy brain, not some sort of supercharged intellect.
When the hero gets shot in the shoulder, but he’s still able to climb up onto a roof or pick somebody up and carry them or keep punching the bad guys.But then when the girl goes to clean his wounds, all of a sudden it hurts too much.
I watched a movie once where geologists ignored signs of a massive natural disaster, blaming it on sensors… tell me if I’m wrong but I feel like real scientists don’t hesitate to double check Seems like scientists ignore sensors in a lot of movies!! Dante’s peak, The Day After Tomorrow, Spider-Man, and 2012. I’m specifically talking about The Wave!
All the movies with science babble in them. Or tech babble. All of them. At least it’s pretty funny. Just stick “dark energy” or “quantum physics” somewhere. “The quantum dark energy is spreading to his as!” Hacking is babbling about “I’m in” and you always have to “trace the source” I’m pretty sure. “I’m in his h***i collection, tracing the sources now.”
Most explosions. I was in ammo and it ruined most movies for me. They’re still fantastic movies and I love them all, but when a building explodes you’re not gonna walk out casually barely beating the flames, and those thousands of pieces of wood aren’t all going to magically not impale you as they’re hurdled all around you with incredible force.
Avalanches, particularly when someone gets buried and then just bursts out of the snow unharmed. Avalanche debris sets like concrete, you’re not getting out without help. And most deaths/injuries occur from being bashed up during the slide, so you’re not likely to emerge unscathed if it’s big enough to bury you.
Dude walks up to a bar and orders “beer” and gets it no questions asked.
Anytime paintball is shown in a movie. The idiots keep taking their mask of during a game, while shooting is going on. Those things are meant to protect your eyes, not just look cool!
Shower sex
It’s always a pet peeve of mine when in movies, they’re working on a computer and the thing is constantly chirping and beeping with some kind of dumb sci-fi looking interface to it. Like dude, we all have computers now. We all know software doesn’t do that and if it did it would be annoying as hell.I’ve even seen scenes (can’t remember which movies) where they’re clearly using photoshop or something similar and it’s constantly making little sci-fi noises.
Pretty much the entire fast and the furious franchise is a big “it doesn’t work like that”.Also Happy cake day!
Characters making perfect sentences without stuttering or making pauses
That thing were a tech/lab procedure suddenly takes half the time because someone offers to pay more. Uh no, if it needs to be centrifuged for 24 hours it’s still going to take 24 hours even with 100k on the table.Also not as jarring, but everyone always wakes up with perfect makeup and no one ever seems to clean their face
Every moment in 99.9% of all romantic comedies.
I might get some downvotes for this, but in John Wick 2 in the subway when John and Common are shooting at each other stealthily with silencers… that’s so f***g unrealistic, that st would have been so loud, and echoing throughout the subway station.
The movie 2012.Just like….all of it.
The big a*s computer room in the basement of the airplane where 6 special ops soldiers can hide. They would sell seats down there if there was that much room.
So many military-related things: Clumsy uniforms, ranks that make no sense, general misunderstandings of military culture and practices
Almost any scene involving someone being shot or stabbed.
Every single movie where somebody dies and then someone closes their eyes, and their eyes stay shut.
Not a movie but in the show “You” when he gives that guy the latte with nuts in it and he drops dead less than a minute later…nah. It takes a bit longer than that. It would be a much longer, painful demise.
When hackers just spam random letters to hack
Just about every movie where anything does anything in space. I can count the exceptions on one hands. Ships burning prograde into reentry, maneuvering hilariously close, and 99% of the time burning in the wrong direction.Imagine an action movie where everyone runs into the big fight shooting themselves in the head as if that would kill their enemy. It’s painful.
Every movie scene where anyone is using a chainsaw. They don’t start from cold with just one pull, they need a little while to warm up, and you sure as st can’t cut through flesh and bone without f***g that chain up real good (looking at you, Evil Dead)
Without going into full detail, when I was stopped and cops handcuffed me to take me to the station, no one said “you have the right to remain silent… yada yada”
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