50 Things That Only Happen in the Movies

[71 dB]

Cops only have this one case to work on, and there is never any paperwork to fill out.

Paperwork is often mentioned (whined about), but never shown.

[knight66]

When a computer is turned on it instantly opens up for the passowrd and never decides to update while you twiddle your fingers.

Mike

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

CC camera footage can be zoomed in to reveal details at 4K HD resolution

[vandermolen]

Your fighter aircraft crashes into the forest and explodes yet you emerge unscathed carrying an equally undamaged bottle of whisky (Frank Sinatra 'Von Ryan's Express' opening).

[Florestan]

When a computer is turned on it instantly opens up for the passowrd and never decides to update while you twiddle your fingers.

Mike

Related: all computers use operation systems which don't look even remotely similar to the real-life ones.

[Ken B]

I'm trying to imagine a movie made by GMGers ... we watch the cop filling out web pages after watching his computer upgrade to Windows 10 ...

[Karl Henning]

But (granted, it is a plot point) the Big Device in Paycheck won't start up, because of a bug.

[zamyrabyrd]

Suitcases are light and always easy to carry.

[Karl Henning]

Suitcases are light and always easy to carry.

Unless it is particular comic point (High Anxiety: "I got it . . . I got it – I ain't got it.")

[knight66]

People stride out of a building and within moments successfully attract the attention of a cooperative taxi driver and are whisked off.

Mike

[motoboy]

Solo helicopter pilots can somehow perform complex maneuvers whilst only holding the cyclic.

In Bat*21 you can even see the collective moving as if by magic, while Glover pulls Hackman into the cabin (that would not work either).

[Baron Scarpia]

As people type on a computer they speak aloud what they are typing.

[vandermolen]

People who jump into a river emerge completely dry with hair well groomed ('Where Eagles Dare')

[knight66]

They always get served very quickly at a bar.

They never wait in line to get a table in a restaurant.

Mike

[Karl Henning]

Admittedly, it's [screenplay adaptation of] biography . . . in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, a 'racially mixed' couple being made to wait for a table was a narrative element.

[vandermolen]

They always get served very quickly at a bar.

They never wait in line to get a table in a restaurant.

Mike

Very true.

[NikF]

Stabbings. On screen the knife man plunges the weapon into the victim who responds by grabbing the handle while grimacing and slowly crumpling to the ground in stages.
In real life the knife man very rapidly makes three or four wounds, punctuating accompanying words such as "I'll-fucking-kill-you" while the victim often has no idea they've been stabbed.

When we look over the shoulder of a character who is looking in to a shop window at an object or a tv broadcast or something, it's usually at an angle of about 22 degrees, because that's the angle a polarising filter works with greatest efficiency in order to minimise reflections in glass so we can see through it.

e: and don't get me started on movies that depict boxing. 

[bwv 1080]

Farmboy discovers its his destiny to save the galaxy from an evil empire, which along the way finds out his dad is actually running

[NikF]

Cops who are sitting in a car parked in a alley during the middle of the night, performing surveillance by taking photos when it's pitch dark use a shutter speed that sounds like 1/250, then in the prints always have enough depth of field.

e: also, Hollywood teaches a man that if he makes an advance on a woman and she rejects him, he should continually pursue her regardless, because she will eventually come to her senses and change her mind and welcome his embrace.

[knight66]

It only takes about 20 seconds to strangle a victim. I gather it takes a long time, some minutes.

Mike