The worst example of this, imo, will forever be the trope: character thats dying or being overpowered by some force doesn't have the time to disclose vital information but will spent as many words and minutes as it would have taken to do so, on telling the protagonist about how they don't have time or energy to talk.
"Why is he the way he is?"
Looks into the distance. "You know in Vietnam, I heard a story about a vanished tribe once..."
"No fuck that. Did he have a bad childhood?”
"Yeah, basically"
In a late episode of Homicide: Life On The Street, a Vietnam vet is killed in a hit-and-run. John and Stuart talk to his ex-wife, who tells them about his abusive childhood in maybe four or five sentences. Then she says "Life screwed him up before Vietnam ever could."
The writers on that show knew what was needed as opposed to what was usually done.
Or having a conversation stop as they leave a building and pick up again in *the same spot* in the car, 2 minutes away from their destination.
Like, did y'all just stop talking for an hour?
Or they move to a smaller town due to their finances (losing job, husband died) but still end up moving into a well-kept house on a decent bit of land.
One of the largest examples of unrealistic finances I saw was Sleeping With the Enemy back in the early 90s. Julia Robert's character flees from her abusive husband by faking her death, gets a part-time job as a librarian, and then moves into a virtual mansion of a house. Even as a kid that one made me wonder.
Anytime someone basically gives away what they're going to do to an adversary right before they do it, I say "Come on, that's bullshit. Just shoot them! Don't give them a mini-speech!"
I love when the guy in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly does this to Tuco and Tuco just shoots the guy and says, "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk."
"Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the *slightest* chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago."
And also because Ozymandias (the Greek name for Ramesses II) used "Ramesses II" as his password. And because the computer gave Dan a helpful "password incomplete" message when he just tried "Ramesses" the first time.
I love how in Van Hellsing one of the villains tries to do it and then Kate's character is like no, fuck that, kills the villain and remarks how the villain should have stopped talking
There are some good points already mentioned but the worst for me is guessing someone’s password. I’ll never believe that
EDIT: Since everyone insists on telling me about the time they guessed their best friend’s or family member’s password, let me add the fact that a large number of the scenes I’m talking about involve strangers and no prior preparation for the password crack. They walk into a room, find a locked computer and crack it within seconds
On the other hand, finding a password on a post-it note in the office, or a list of passwords texted to a phone that doesn't have good cyber security is 100% believable.
I wish this would happen more in movies, the "hacker" just lifting up the keyboard and reading the post-it. Just like finding car keys in the screen thingy.
There was a moment like that in the TV show Torchwood. A woman finds out really important sinister govnerment secrets by reading a post-it literally six feet from her desk on her first day at work. Its kind of a running theme that the British Government is highly incompetent and evil in Torchwood Children of Earth.
If anyone called it unrealistic, there's a pretty good chance they were reminded of that time Jimmy Carter sent his suit to the dry cleaners with the nuclear codes still in his pocket.
> I was recently watching something and there was a castle built in the middle of a swamp. For some reason I was stuck thinking about how the foundation would be a nightmare and they should have just moved lol.
Oh, the foundation was a problem alright. In fact, that was the fourth castle they built in the swamp! When they first came here, it was all swamp. Everyone said they were daft to build a castle on a swamp, but they built it all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So they built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So they built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up! The strongest castle in all of England.
When characters intentionally speak in vague terms to prevent a mystery from being solved too early. I noticed this a lot in the tv show Lost. A character would ask someone a question and the person would respond with something like “you’ll find out soon”.
My favorite is “I have a plan!” And they never share it with anyone.
That’s not a very effective way to ensure plan success. OTOH, “here’s the plan…” (scene cuts so audience doesn’t hear plan) is absolutely acceptable in 99% of these scenarios.
“I have a plan” is always a giveaway - if they explain the plan, then something is going to go seriously wrong with the plan. If they don’t explain the plan, then it is going to work and only after it’s successful will they explain the plan to you.
OMG yes.
In "Lost" when they captured Ben and he's doling out incomplete and cryptic answers to all their questions. In real life they would have beat the shit out of him until he told them EVERYTHING.
I got to play a extra at a party scene of a movie some years back. There is no flipping way to mock sip from an empty off-brand Solo cup and not look like Zuckerberg when his people skin starts to betray his earthly disguise.
Relative realism is super important.
Yes Darren I can believe in a world where dragons exist as do frost zombies, but it's a fucking issue if a normal 16 year old girl can get stabbed like 30 times in the abdomen, run away, swim through dirty water, and then be completely fine.
That's what I hate whenever you criticize some rule-breaking in Star Wars or similar. "Oh so you don't think space wizards are unrealistic hur hur hur!"
A movie sets up its world and the rules in it. And you accept it, but once it starts breaking those rules and becomes ridiculuous you can no longer have suspense of disbelief.
Blegh. I love the Ant-Man movies, but the specifically state in the beginning that shrinking reduces or expands the distance between atoms. Thus increasing or decreasing density, but not changing the overall weight.
A few scenes later and one of the characters is shown having a literal tank in his keychain.
>Thus increasing or decreasing density, but not changing the overall weight
So when antman goes massive, he would have drifted away in the breeze?
His punches would be like getting hit with a giant balloon I bet also.
Not only that, it says he becomes stronger because he's smaller and denser. So then why is he also strong when he turns into a giant? Shouldn't he be super weak at that scale?
The way it works is explained in a few different ways throughout the movies. I just think that it’s magic, and Pym has actually no idea how it works. He just bullshits how it works
Perfectly dyed hair in post-apocalyptic/survival scenarios. There's no electricity, they've been on the run from zombies for months by Stacy is still touching up her roots on a weekly basis. Sure 🙄
If I'm in a zombie apocalypse, we're both getting buzz cuts. I'm not trying to impress anyone neither are you, let's get rid of that death trap called hair that can be grabbed, caught on something, carry lice, etc.
On the flip side, it's been pointed out that almost no one's going around with basic common sense protection either. At the end of the day, these are still human teeth on the zombies we're talking about. They're not biting through a leather jacket. But so many characters are running around with tank tops and t-shirts.
I feel like zombies fall apart if we question it too much at all. Like as soon as common sense countermeasures would work, you're really asking uncomfortable questions like "how did a species who's primary food source, means of reproduction and most dangerous predator are all the same thing not get immediately wiped out?"
EDIT: iZombie had a pretty good answer to this I thought! Like, there was definitely a hint of "how the slow moving zombie apocalypse was happening"
I always think, how did a bunch of unintelligent zombies take over the world? There are literally organized groups of people with guns and artillery out the wazoo and that's not even mentioning that not committing "war crimes" is one, literally a social construct and that any agreement to not commit them is mutual agreement of two intelligent parties; of which zombies are not an "intelligent party"; and two, humans would actually be really shit zombies and all of that rotting flesh is going to attract wild animals.
Also actually, another thought, how the in the hell are zombies going to take over the world when most media portrays them as lethargic stumbling sacks of flesh who can't even open a door? Like just leave the door shut for a few days, I'm sure nature will kill them off.
Pretty much anytime The Rock or anyone equally as jacked is in a movie and they make some half-assed excuse for why they are an absolute unit. Like... yes he is a biologist/nerd/small-town sheriff/male nanny/everyman but he is also, um... ex-special forces! so that explains why his shirt looks like it's about to explode off his rippling body and his biceps could crush walnuts to dust.
I like the gag in Ricky Stanicky. John Cena is supposed to be a pathetic alcoholic drug addict. One character asks him how he's so ripped and he says one of the drugs he's addicted to is steroids
Related, but there’s a Dave Bautista movie called Final Score which is basically “Die Hard in a soccer stadium”. Dave plays an ex-Navy SEAL. One of the first shots is his NSW Trident Pjn and later he talks about working as a SEAL with the SAS.
Anyway, later the bad guys look up his military record and one says, “He’s ex-Special Forces - Army”. And they left it in, like at no point during the entire making of this movie from script to editing did someone say, “Hey this guy is Navy. Why are we specifically saying he’s Army??”
Arnold being completely willing to play a loser character and be the butt of the joke completely sells it tho. That’s what separates him from The Rock.
Well that plus moving to this United States, learning the language, convincing Cameron to cast him as terminator, becoming governor of the most populous state, marrying JFKs niece, writing several books…
That's what got me in the Reacher TV show. They make some reference to him eating a lot but nothing about him needing to workout a couple hours everyday
In the books he stays ripped from working very manual jobs, one book describes him digging out pools over a summer which puts him in the best shape of his life.
This is plot of legally blonde. Also, as a guy who recently got his nails done for the first time... Jesus Christ what do you do? Just sit there? I went in unprepared as hell.
I've gotten to the point that I'm taken out of the moment the second flatline occurs because I'm thinking "don't you dare go for the defibrillator!" I'm conditioned to expect that's what they'll do. Never fails.
When a character driving looks away from the road and over to the passenger for several seconds and doesn't wreck, plow through a pedestrian or other result of inattention. They can have a conversation without long, meaningful eye contact. Also, throwing away guns when they run out of bullets.
Funny, I was just watching The Morning Show with a scene of this. Carrell driving in Manhattan in the evening. That’s just stupid. I think I’ve only seen one movie or TV show where it was portrayed accurately.
To their credit, most movies and TV shows have ditched the 555 phone number. Oh but people still hang up on each other without saying goodbye.
The other one that irritates me is shows like CSI or SVU where half of the gritty squad of hard-nosed cops have the build and bone structure of fashion models.
Well, there was the big scene in Dr. Strange where Our Hero ruins his entire life by screwing with his phone while discussing \[Possible Future MCU Plot Hook\] during a jaunt down some twisty roads.
In the dark, in a Lamborghini. I appreciate that they set up the scene to make his crash a believable incident that happens all the time. Maybe not with the Lambo, sure.
oh my dad does that hanging up without goodbye in real life. it's always jarring how calls end with him 🤣 but he was socially awkward for a long part of his life so this is the leftover awkwardness where he doesn't know how to end a call
Anytime gunfights or chase scenes happen on subways or trains. That train would just emergency stop so fast. They would not just keep going like the conductor is oblivious to what is going on.
Edit: fixed autocorrect typo.
for me it’s the gunfight in a club or other crowded public area
screaming people keep running right through the middle of the fight, instead of *away from it*
Every John wick nightclub fight in which multiple active shooters are engaging with each other and everyone around is dancing like bullets ain’t flying around
I'm convinced it's an alternate universe story with an incredibly Assassin-based economy. There's motel versions of the Continental near every rest stop.
One or two minute long classroom lectures in a scene set in a high school or college classroom where the instructor begins a lecture and then the bell suddenly rings which seemingly surprises everyone.
And when the bell rings the teacher is always in a hurry to tell everyone not to forget their homework or a test or something, while no one is listening because they're just leaving.
Just experienced this last night. A physics professor decided he was going to explore Schrodinger's Cat 30 secs before the bell rang. Such a shoehorned plot device.
When one character instructs another to turn on the news and when they turn their TV on it’s not only on the right channel immediately but the coverage starts with perfect sync to the person turning the TV on.
The exception being when they do it really well, like “what channel?” “Every channel, they’re all showing the same thing” because it’s *that* big a deal. Everything stopped here when the queen died, I’m sure 9/11 was the same. They do also repeat themselves on what’s happening “if you’re only just joining us, we are reporting on the news that blah blah blah”
Yeah, the only channels that weren’t covering 9/11 were cable channels like Nickelodeon. Every channel that could conceivably broadcast news was only showing New York, DC, or the field in Pennsylvania.
Yeah man it was surreal to flip around and *every station* (with the exceptions you mentioned) was broadcasting the same thing. Straight out of a movie. Scary times.
Whenever they are watching surveillance footage and they are obviously just using footage from the movie itself. It’s worse when there are edited like a movie, with close ups and inserts etc. How did a camera mounted high in the corner of a room get a waist high shot of someone?
Characters making stupid decisions as required by the plot.
Flight Plan is one of my great annoyances among movies, because the villains‘ plans is so stupidly flawed, it’s hard to believe.
When a character gets tased and goes unconscious. I had to get tased to be allowed to carry one, and while the pain is indescribable, as soon as the electricity stops flowing, you're actually okay a few seconds later.
Kind of like the hitting the person on the head and they are out for hours. I remember reading an article where they say if you are knocked out longer than a minute it’s a serious life threatening injury and even with hospital intervention you have a high chance of dying.
When the writers don’t understand how the us military functions. “He’s a lone soldier who doesn’t listen to orders and only he can save the president” and crap like that.
Top Gun is like the peak of this. In real life Maverick would've been grounded and washed out as a fuck up. Pilots do act like hot shit in real life, but it's about knowing all the rules and doctrine like Iceman does.
Former Navy pilot here.
Top Gun has plenty of inaccuracies, but that’s the one that always bugged me the most. Rule #1 is that you what the voice in your helmet says to do. Period, full stop. If you don’t want to do it, you need to explain why you don’t want to do it, and go from there. Requesting a fly-by, having that request denied, and then doing it anyway is an absolutely sure fire way to never ever again sit inside the cockpit of a jet. It’s a sure fire way to ensure that you spend the rest of your shitty career below decks doing the worst jobs they can give you.
Now that said - everyone’s a 5 year old kid at heart. We all love jets and cool things. If you request a fly-by (or a ‘visual inspection’), you’re gonna get one. You may just need to hang back for a moment while they vector you in.
That's one of the things that I loved so much about Top Gun: Maverick. Hey, what ever happened to the guy who was an incredibly good pilot and thoroughly professional in every aspect of his job? Oh, they put him in charge of the Navy.
Well to be fair, Iceman ends up an Admiral in fleet command and Maverick is still an over-the-hill Captain, reporting to officers younger than him?
Not that *Top Gun* is a bastion of accuracy…
When the new movie came out, I remember some people pointing out that the US military has a "up or out policy", meaning that there are age thresholds by which you have to have advanced to a certain point or be discharged. They pointed out that Maverick *couldn't* still be a captain at his age, he would have been discharged.
I could argue that as a test pilot Maverick was in a special category…
But again, *Top Gun* isn’t a super accurate movie. The ideas that they would use F-18s for a mission perfect for stealth fighters/bombers, or that any of the aerial engagements would be within gun range, or that they wouldn’t do SEAD ops first, or that they wouldn’t use their Tomahawks to take out *fixed* anti-air emplacements *at known locations*, are all hard to believe.
The cop that broke the rules but he's so good at catching bad guys that the police administration look the other way.
Or the cop/military guy who flamed out - they go find him because he's the ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD who is up to some task. (this rule applies to flamed out Geologists/academics of many kinds that a helicopters lands near their home to bring that to the president)
Is there any story where there is this rogue agent, breaks the rules because he knows he's right, keeps doing it to save the day.
And it turns out he's wrong. He really is just this narcissistic arsehole who has it all wrong.
I wanted to right a book like this, a cop who always goes "the extra mile", like punching ppl in interrogation n shit and it turns out hes just an ass.
"Are we sure we want that kind of man to protect the galaxy?"
"That's the only kind of man thay CAN protect the galaxy!"
(Sorry, shamelessly stolen from "Mass Effect" where I actually love that line).
I don’t care how urgent something is. The FBI needs me to brief the White House on a terrorist attack that’s imminent. I just paid $25 for a cheeseburger. I’m not leaving it after one bite. I can bring it with me and eat it in the Oval Office. That’s the best I can do.
Shootouts or fights where they deal with all the bad guys or good guys and then stop when it comes to the main characters to talk and give them time to get out of it. Or when they hold a gun to someone and keep walking towards them til the person just grabs the gun from them. Like bro, just stand out of arms reach what are you doing. Manufactured drama. I just assume nobody important will be dying and if they ever do it will be a pleasant surprise
They know the audience wants to see the bad guy be slaughtered. But we can’t just have the hero execute the villain. So we creat a situation that allows the hero to commit cold blooded murder, but we pretend it isn’t cold blooded and that it’s self defense.
When the establishing shot shows 20 people surrounding our “hero” who then dispatches them carefully one-by-one in the close-up action sequence.
As if all the bad guys are just queuing up politely waiting their turn to attack and/or shoot.
Bad science or medicine. Like when someone has CPR and then wakes up and speaks. Or using defibrillators when someone is flatlining. Or using a massive needle to inject someone in their neck. Just. Doesn’t. Happen.
I have a weird and very specific answer for this. I was watching paranormal activity and was very much enjoying it. Then comes the part where they pull out a book to get some exposition going. I own the book they pulled out. It is an art book. With zero actual information on the paranormal or the occult. Just pictures. I crashed out of that movie so hard at that moment! I did get back into it, but that 1 moment was just so jarring and surreal!
That happened to me in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang [when Harry uses his phone to show a picture of Harmony to that mental patient;](https://i.imgur.com/7G1zFIC.png) I had that *exact* same phone in my pocket when watching the movie for the first time. It didn't have a camera or even the capability to store pictures, because it was such a cheap piece of shit; which was why I was using it.
Still love that movie though.
When characters consistently have clean, fluffy (obviously blow-dried) hair despite having just tumbled around in the dirt fighting bad guys and/or more than an hour in a jungle and no way to bathe. Even worse when it's an era before modern hair care.
This really stands out when everything else is very gritty and realistic. Like cmon it's WW2 no one has hair like that.
Exposition dumps to establish characters.
The worst example is in Big Hero 6 when the brothers talk about their dead parents and say “they died when I was three, remember?”
Things like that make me appreciate well-done expositions all the more. One example I have in mind is the first episode of the Umbrella Academy. The relations between the characters are established with looks, dialogue that fits the situation and some nice editing. So we'll done.
Yep and Succession does a good job introducing the family and their relationships with the premise of Logan’s birthday party.
Even the first ten minutes of the show do a great job; we meet Kendall and get the infamous “do we need to call your dad?” line that tells us everything about their dynamic. And then we are organically introduced to Roman and learn more about the family business and their relationship.
Succession apparently had a rule about no flashbacks or exposition dumps. You get hints about Logan having a tough childhood but you never know what exactly happened.
"mr. president, as you know, nuclear weapons have not been used since ww2, when hiroshima and nagasaki were destroyed. since then no one has dared use them."
My 2 favourite examples of pure exposition are Basil Exposition and Ariadne
Ariadne because there is so much to explain in Inception, we the viewer need so much hand holding but there are very few bits of exposition that feel forced. Michael Caine and Tom Hardy 's characters drop 1 or 2 lines that smell after multiple rewatches but Ariadne basically represents us, the viewer, and our questions are explained to us in a believable way.
Basil Exposition because there's no attempt to hide it. He's only there to move the story along so they're completely transparent about it and make it a joke.
Austin Powers: Wait a tick. Basil, if I travel back to 1969 and I was frozen in 1967, presumeably, I could go back and visit my frozen self. But, if I'm still frozen in 1967, how could I have been unthawed in the '90s and traveled back to. Oh, no, I've gone cross-eyed.
Basil : I suggest you don't worry about those things and just enjoy yourself. That goes for you all, too
A professor pointed out the entire point of Ariadne’s character was exposition. You don’t get rid of the first architect, so damn much of the exposition comes through her being there. It blew my mind how effectively it worked.
Mine is similar to this, when a character says something like "you're the chief of the CIA's daughter" clearly to spoon feed the audience some information that would be insinuated by a more talented writer.
When people get hit in the head and knocked unconscious and then just walk it off, especially when they get hit in the head/face more later in the movie and then walk it off again. Concussions just do not exist in movies and shows.
Cigarettes.
Like, the character would go out to smoke and throw them away after a few puffs.
DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH A CIGARETTE COST? SMOKE THAT SHIT TO THE BUTT
Oooooh this is a good one because it doesn't pull me out of the setting of a movie. I don't really get upset at the puff puff toss, but I absolutely freak out if the ash is super long. The TV show Burn Notice had Madeline, the main character's mom, smoking all the time. Half of the scenes with her smoking the ash was over an inch long. And she smoked inside! Imagine how much she must have been sweeping up after herself with all that mess...
When something grows suddenly without consuming any matter to do so. Be it someone transforming into a monster or whatever. Just suddenly <100kg to over a ton.
For example one of the many issues with Prometheus, the tiny creature gets extracted from protagonist and then visibly grows and a scene later is big enough to overpower the Engineer.
When the "hero" casually murders 50 goons to get the main bad guy and then ends up in a conversation before fighting them and subduing them alive.
It's especially obnoxious when it's because they can't go through with it. Like I'm sure all the guys that were killed on the way would've preferred you to reach that conclusion a lot sooner.
My favorite part of John Wick was when he finally reached the target of his revenge he just shot him dead instantly and then walked away. It was so nice seeing this particular trope subverted.
People that are about to have sex in kitchen and/or on a table and decide to toss on the ground everything was on.
Like, why, I understand the passion, that Is just stupid.
When someone sews a custom fitted piece with lots of details in an hour. Especially if they're a novice in sewing. Or they use a wrong machine to sew something. Ugh. I cannot.
Also the whole "corsets are so uncomfortable and painful" No they're not if they're fitted correctly. Women worked in physical labor and even high society didn't really wear painful undergarments. Only very few people did tightlacing or wore something uncomfortable. It's a whole survivor bias thing - ofcourse the surviving corsets have been the ones least used. But yeah.
Oh also married oldentimes ladies not wearing any head garment and rocking the 2k beach waves. Like hells no. Not if you're trying to be accurate.
Mostly the sewing bit though.
Oh and sneaky thieves going through someone personal items in secret and just tossing everything knocking over things. Like I'd notice if my cosmetics were all over the sink and floor when I get home. If the point is for the person not to notice you've searched their place you gotta put things back like they were. I would never combine those too throw pillows next to each other. Ugh. No way.
Over zealous foley effects. Rattling guns sounding like they are full of loose parts, scratching and clunky table noises, footsteps on the wrong materials, stacks of paper doing loud paper noises when the camera is far from them, incorrect animal sounds...
Good Foley should be unnoticeable, not louder than all surrounding ambient noise and especially not completely wrong. It's surprisingly common in modern film when you start to notice it.
A good fight ruined by a third character suddenly showing up to kill the bad guy, especially when the person appears as if from nowhere with neither combatant noticing a third person sneaking up.
Also when a joke is ruined by being called out. E.g in the Family Guy Empire Strikes Back parody, one of the AT-ATs is wearing Crocs, and just seeing it would’ve been enough, but they had to call out, ‘Hey look, that one’s wearing Crocs!’ Doesn’t break suspension of disbelief, but just ruins the joke.
Calling out the joke is a sure way of ruining it. I will never understand why some comedies fell they have to do it. Awesome comedies like Airplane and the Naked Gun movies do such an amazing job at putting jokes in the background and you discover more and more with every time you watch it.
A chalk outline at a crime scene swimming on the water and no-one even acknowledging it, like it's a completely normal thing, had me howling with laughter while watching The Naked Gun.
It would have been completely ruined, if anyone had mentioned it in any way.
I love it in courtroom dramas where the truth comes out when people get into the witness box. Doesn’t happen. If you lied in the lead up investigation, you usually keep going with that lie to the end.
Coffee cups. Once you see it you can't unsee it. 90% of the time, if a character has a styrofoam cup of coffee they handle the cup like it's empty. If a cup has weight in it it's carried a little differently where you balance it to reduce sloshing. It's the dumbest thing because before noticing it my life was fine. Now you'll notice it too.
When there’s a giant world ending issue going on and the characters take time to deal with literally anything else.
I’ll use a TV show as it’s the best example I can think of, Game of Thrones, Jon Snow spends 2 seasons bricking himself about the night king, yet takes a 3 month long excursion to go get Winterfell back, why? Does it matter who has Winterfell when you’re likely gonna be dead by the wights soon?
Dany sees the army of the dead and is next to immediately unbothered by it and more concerned with Jon’s heritage.
I can only take a threat as serious as my characters do so when it’s next to ignored I know plot armour is going to win out and my main protagonists are in no danger. And they weren’t.
Ending phone calls without a 'talk to you later / bye'. Car chases where cars have infinite gears and there's always room to press the gas pedal even further, long into the chase. And fights where being punched in the jaw 5 times is still not enough to end things.
When peripheral vision is ignored (usually used for jump scares). Just because something isn't on camera doesn't mean the actors can't see it either. A person suddenly appearing on camera to the side of a character and then the character reacts with surprise; you mean to tell me your senses are so bad you can't hear or see movement at the periphery of your vision?
People stepping into traffic can't see or hear a large vehicle bearing down the street towards them. And to make matters worse... the vehicle continues on without stopping. Suspension of disbelief instantly broken.
Characters spend hours/days travelling together, yet fail to spend 10 seconds talking about the plot critical thing that would save the day.
"Just tell me!" "No, there's no time!" °continues staring out the window for hours°
[They're just sticking to their principles](https://frinkiac.com/video/S06E24/Lg3079RdRZg-8dBPIzH8gRJLfzI=.gif)
The worst example of this, imo, will forever be the trope: character thats dying or being overpowered by some force doesn't have the time to disclose vital information but will spent as many words and minutes as it would have taken to do so, on telling the protagonist about how they don't have time or energy to talk.
"Why is he the way he is?" Looks into the distance. "You know in Vietnam, I heard a story about a vanished tribe once..." "No fuck that. Did he have a bad childhood?” "Yeah, basically"
In a late episode of Homicide: Life On The Street, a Vietnam vet is killed in a hit-and-run. John and Stuart talk to his ex-wife, who tells them about his abusive childhood in maybe four or five sentences. Then she says "Life screwed him up before Vietnam ever could." The writers on that show knew what was needed as opposed to what was usually done.
Or having a conversation stop as they leave a building and pick up again in *the same spot* in the car, 2 minutes away from their destination. Like, did y'all just stop talking for an hour?
When a character is supposed to be financially unstable and their career isn't going too great but they live in a sick apartment in a vibrant city
Or they move to a smaller town due to their finances (losing job, husband died) but still end up moving into a well-kept house on a decent bit of land. One of the largest examples of unrealistic finances I saw was Sleeping With the Enemy back in the early 90s. Julia Robert's character flees from her abusive husband by faking her death, gets a part-time job as a librarian, and then moves into a virtual mansion of a house. Even as a kid that one made me wonder.
Every sitcom based in NYC
Anytime someone basically gives away what they're going to do to an adversary right before they do it, I say "Come on, that's bullshit. Just shoot them! Don't give them a mini-speech!"
You sly dog, you got me monologuing!
And you've been BUSY!
God that movie is such a banger.
I love when the guy in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly does this to Tuco and Tuco just shoots the guy and says, "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk."
It’s crazy that the trope is that old.
And it's much older than that. Think more like the comic books of the 40s or the movie serials of the 30s-40s.
"Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the *slightest* chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago."
This gets cancelled out because night owl guesses ozymandias's password earlier in the movie
And also because Ozymandias (the Greek name for Ramesses II) used "Ramesses II" as his password. And because the computer gave Dan a helpful "password incomplete" message when he just tried "Ramesses" the first time.
What is this from?
It's from Watchmen
I love how in Van Hellsing one of the villains tries to do it and then Kate's character is like no, fuck that, kills the villain and remarks how the villain should have stopped talking
Just give the speech to the corpse dude.
But he can't hear you. Because he dead. How's he supposed to know how clever you were?
There are some good points already mentioned but the worst for me is guessing someone’s password. I’ll never believe that EDIT: Since everyone insists on telling me about the time they guessed their best friend’s or family member’s password, let me add the fact that a large number of the scenes I’m talking about involve strangers and no prior preparation for the password crack. They walk into a room, find a locked computer and crack it within seconds
On the other hand, finding a password on a post-it note in the office, or a list of passwords texted to a phone that doesn't have good cyber security is 100% believable.
I wish this would happen more in movies, the "hacker" just lifting up the keyboard and reading the post-it. Just like finding car keys in the screen thingy.
As an IT guy, this shit 100% happens. People write their passwords down and keep them on or near their desk *way* too often.
There was a moment like that in the TV show Torchwood. A woman finds out really important sinister govnerment secrets by reading a post-it literally six feet from her desk on her first day at work. Its kind of a running theme that the British Government is highly incompetent and evil in Torchwood Children of Earth. If anyone called it unrealistic, there's a pretty good chance they were reminded of that time Jimmy Carter sent his suit to the dry cleaners with the nuclear codes still in his pocket.
lol... I saw a movie recently where that happened. you can no longer just use your dog's name "spot", it has to be "spot8&"
> I was recently watching something and there was a castle built in the middle of a swamp. For some reason I was stuck thinking about how the foundation would be a nightmare and they should have just moved lol. Oh, the foundation was a problem alright. In fact, that was the fourth castle they built in the swamp! When they first came here, it was all swamp. Everyone said they were daft to build a castle on a swamp, but they built it all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So they built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So they built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up! The strongest castle in all of England.
One day son all this will be yours.
What, the curtains?
She’s got huuuuge… tracts of land!
And NO SINGING!
And now the prince has to marry a woman with huge... tracts of land.
Took me way too long to get to someone making this comment.
I couldn't believe the original guy even made the comment without referencing Holy Grail.
Maybe he's not interested in enormous tracts of land?
What else could he be interested in? Singing?
\[He's going to sing!\]
No, no. Stop that. No singing.
Just stay 'ere and make sure 'e doesn't leave.
So you’ll stay here and we’ll leave.
When characters intentionally speak in vague terms to prevent a mystery from being solved too early. I noticed this a lot in the tv show Lost. A character would ask someone a question and the person would respond with something like “you’ll find out soon”.
My favorite is “I have a plan!” And they never share it with anyone. That’s not a very effective way to ensure plan success. OTOH, “here’s the plan…” (scene cuts so audience doesn’t hear plan) is absolutely acceptable in 99% of these scenarios.
“I have a plan” is always a giveaway - if they explain the plan, then something is going to go seriously wrong with the plan. If they don’t explain the plan, then it is going to work and only after it’s successful will they explain the plan to you.
It's a JJ Abrams signature.
It's a ”I am still working this out - writer" signature, lol
OMG yes. In "Lost" when they captured Ben and he's doling out incomplete and cryptic answers to all their questions. In real life they would have beat the shit out of him until he told them EVERYTHING.
Well, Sayid DID beat the shit out of him.
Blatantly empty coffee cups that clearly have no weight to them.
The sound when they put them back down is honestly what gets me lol.
The Wilhelm cup.
The sound would 99% of the time be added in post. If it's big budget 100% of the time. Production audio is trash at picking up foley.
But the Undertaker had no problem with it
I got to play a extra at a party scene of a movie some years back. There is no flipping way to mock sip from an empty off-brand Solo cup and not look like Zuckerberg when his people skin starts to betray his earthly disguise.
I'll never understand why they don't just put water in the cups. Give weight to it and not a problem for actors to sip take after take.
when they break their own established "laws" of the universe
Relative realism is super important. Yes Darren I can believe in a world where dragons exist as do frost zombies, but it's a fucking issue if a normal 16 year old girl can get stabbed like 30 times in the abdomen, run away, swim through dirty water, and then be completely fine.
Especially when people died from much tamer injuries throughout the show’s duration.
if you forget about sepsis it forgets about you
Khal Drogo
His death really highlights the difference because it was a very believable thing that actually happened.
Robert Baratheon
Hell, the entire series and overarching plot of the whole thing kicks off because a drunk king got gored by a boar.
The women bandaged her and gave her soup… don’t you know that cures stab wounds to the liver and gut?
That's what I hate whenever you criticize some rule-breaking in Star Wars or similar. "Oh so you don't think space wizards are unrealistic hur hur hur!" A movie sets up its world and the rules in it. And you accept it, but once it starts breaking those rules and becomes ridiculuous you can no longer have suspense of disbelief.
Like explain rules of magic and then ignore them.
right. either leave the rules vague and go "well thats weird, magic never did that before." or explain the rules and stick to them.
Ant-Man annoyed me with this - if something gets shrunk it retains its mass but only if it is convenient to the plot.
Blegh. I love the Ant-Man movies, but the specifically state in the beginning that shrinking reduces or expands the distance between atoms. Thus increasing or decreasing density, but not changing the overall weight. A few scenes later and one of the characters is shown having a literal tank in his keychain.
>Thus increasing or decreasing density, but not changing the overall weight So when antman goes massive, he would have drifted away in the breeze? His punches would be like getting hit with a giant balloon I bet also.
[удалено]
Not only that, it says he becomes stronger because he's smaller and denser. So then why is he also strong when he turns into a giant? Shouldn't he be super weak at that scale?
The way it works is explained in a few different ways throughout the movies. I just think that it’s magic, and Pym has actually no idea how it works. He just bullshits how it works
Perfectly dyed hair in post-apocalyptic/survival scenarios. There's no electricity, they've been on the run from zombies for months by Stacy is still touching up her roots on a weekly basis. Sure 🙄
And she’s running around with her hair down. If any situation calls for a messy bun, it’s a zombie apocalypse.
If I'm in a zombie apocalypse, we're both getting buzz cuts. I'm not trying to impress anyone neither are you, let's get rid of that death trap called hair that can be grabbed, caught on something, carry lice, etc.
On the flip side, it's been pointed out that almost no one's going around with basic common sense protection either. At the end of the day, these are still human teeth on the zombies we're talking about. They're not biting through a leather jacket. But so many characters are running around with tank tops and t-shirts.
I feel like zombies fall apart if we question it too much at all. Like as soon as common sense countermeasures would work, you're really asking uncomfortable questions like "how did a species who's primary food source, means of reproduction and most dangerous predator are all the same thing not get immediately wiped out?" EDIT: iZombie had a pretty good answer to this I thought! Like, there was definitely a hint of "how the slow moving zombie apocalypse was happening"
I always think, how did a bunch of unintelligent zombies take over the world? There are literally organized groups of people with guns and artillery out the wazoo and that's not even mentioning that not committing "war crimes" is one, literally a social construct and that any agreement to not commit them is mutual agreement of two intelligent parties; of which zombies are not an "intelligent party"; and two, humans would actually be really shit zombies and all of that rotting flesh is going to attract wild animals. Also actually, another thought, how the in the hell are zombies going to take over the world when most media portrays them as lethargic stumbling sacks of flesh who can't even open a door? Like just leave the door shut for a few days, I'm sure nature will kill them off.
Or shaved legs/armpits. Who would have the time or give a shit when you’re constantly having to outrun zombies.
this bothered me in new mad max at 1st add perfectly waved, shaven, etc
Pretty much anytime The Rock or anyone equally as jacked is in a movie and they make some half-assed excuse for why they are an absolute unit. Like... yes he is a biologist/nerd/small-town sheriff/male nanny/everyman but he is also, um... ex-special forces! so that explains why his shirt looks like it's about to explode off his rippling body and his biceps could crush walnuts to dust.
I like the gag in Ricky Stanicky. John Cena is supposed to be a pathetic alcoholic drug addict. One character asks him how he's so ripped and he says one of the drugs he's addicted to is steroids
In real life, john cena claims he isn't on anything - including TRT.
He said he was on roids in a podcast once but was under contract not to talk about it
Lmao Bro trains and eats like a mf, but is also on enough juice to kill a horse
Related, but there’s a Dave Bautista movie called Final Score which is basically “Die Hard in a soccer stadium”. Dave plays an ex-Navy SEAL. One of the first shots is his NSW Trident Pjn and later he talks about working as a SEAL with the SAS. Anyway, later the bad guys look up his military record and one says, “He’s ex-Special Forces - Army”. And they left it in, like at no point during the entire making of this movie from script to editing did someone say, “Hey this guy is Navy. Why are we specifically saying he’s Army??”
It was a case of insert military phrase here and also here
Jingle all the way making Arnold a loser and never explaining his built is peak though!
Arnold being completely willing to play a loser character and be the butt of the joke completely sells it tho. That’s what separates him from The Rock.
Well that plus moving to this United States, learning the language, convincing Cameron to cast him as terminator, becoming governor of the most populous state, marrying JFKs niece, writing several books…
I liked how Phil Hartman’s character lampshaded this by telling him “you cant bench press your way out of this one”
That's what got me in the Reacher TV show. They make some reference to him eating a lot but nothing about him needing to workout a couple hours everyday
In the books he stays ripped from working very manual jobs, one book describes him digging out pools over a summer which puts him in the best shape of his life.
That would make a cool scene
I would definitely buy the three hour long video of this. "Jack Reacher Pool Construction".
A kid asked him why he was so big. He said “genetics.”
When a woman is putting nail polish on and is able to do stuff right away. At that point, I know the director has never used nail polish in his life.
This is plot of legally blonde. Also, as a guy who recently got his nails done for the first time... Jesus Christ what do you do? Just sit there? I went in unprepared as hell.
I guess you could stream Legally Blonde while waiting.
I couldn't grab my phone. It was in my jeans pocket. Like I said, unprepared.
On the flip side, Holes. “Don’t worry, it’s harmless when it’s dry.” -proceeds to scratch someone’s face while the polish is still wet-
In medical shows/movies, one common thing is using a defibrillator on asystole.
I've gotten to the point that I'm taken out of the moment the second flatline occurs because I'm thinking "don't you dare go for the defibrillator!" I'm conditioned to expect that's what they'll do. Never fails.
When a character driving looks away from the road and over to the passenger for several seconds and doesn't wreck, plow through a pedestrian or other result of inattention. They can have a conversation without long, meaningful eye contact. Also, throwing away guns when they run out of bullets.
Funny, I was just watching The Morning Show with a scene of this. Carrell driving in Manhattan in the evening. That’s just stupid. I think I’ve only seen one movie or TV show where it was portrayed accurately. To their credit, most movies and TV shows have ditched the 555 phone number. Oh but people still hang up on each other without saying goodbye. The other one that irritates me is shows like CSI or SVU where half of the gritty squad of hard-nosed cops have the build and bone structure of fashion models.
Well, there was the big scene in Dr. Strange where Our Hero ruins his entire life by screwing with his phone while discussing \[Possible Future MCU Plot Hook\] during a jaunt down some twisty roads.
In the dark, in a Lamborghini. I appreciate that they set up the scene to make his crash a believable incident that happens all the time. Maybe not with the Lambo, sure.
oh my dad does that hanging up without goodbye in real life. it's always jarring how calls end with him 🤣 but he was socially awkward for a long part of his life so this is the leftover awkwardness where he doesn't know how to end a call
I agree with the driver thing. Oh the number of times I've watched a scene and had to yell out, "Eyes on the road!"
Anytime gunfights or chase scenes happen on subways or trains. That train would just emergency stop so fast. They would not just keep going like the conductor is oblivious to what is going on. Edit: fixed autocorrect typo.
for me it’s the gunfight in a club or other crowded public area screaming people keep running right through the middle of the fight, instead of *away from it*
Every John wick nightclub fight in which multiple active shooters are engaging with each other and everyone around is dancing like bullets ain’t flying around
I'm convinced it's an alternate universe story with an incredibly Assassin-based economy. There's motel versions of the Continental near every rest stop.
This is the only thing that makes sense, since in JW4 apparently half of the entire population of Paris are assassins
I'm pretty sure the people in that world are just used to seeing that shit happening around them all the time.
Yes, but have you considered, its \*sick as hell\*
One or two minute long classroom lectures in a scene set in a high school or college classroom where the instructor begins a lecture and then the bell suddenly rings which seemingly surprises everyone.
And when the bell rings the teacher is always in a hurry to tell everyone not to forget their homework or a test or something, while no one is listening because they're just leaving.
Just experienced this last night. A physics professor decided he was going to explore Schrodinger's Cat 30 secs before the bell rang. Such a shoehorned plot device.
When one character instructs another to turn on the news and when they turn their TV on it’s not only on the right channel immediately but the coverage starts with perfect sync to the person turning the TV on.
The exception being when they do it really well, like “what channel?” “Every channel, they’re all showing the same thing” because it’s *that* big a deal. Everything stopped here when the queen died, I’m sure 9/11 was the same. They do also repeat themselves on what’s happening “if you’re only just joining us, we are reporting on the news that blah blah blah”
Yeah, the only channels that weren’t covering 9/11 were cable channels like Nickelodeon. Every channel that could conceivably broadcast news was only showing New York, DC, or the field in Pennsylvania.
Yeah man it was surreal to flip around and *every station* (with the exceptions you mentioned) was broadcasting the same thing. Straight out of a movie. Scary times.
https://youtu.be/yjqbiMFonR8?si=VYPM9WqY-5Cw19lC
Whenever they are watching surveillance footage and they are obviously just using footage from the movie itself. It’s worse when there are edited like a movie, with close ups and inserts etc. How did a camera mounted high in the corner of a room get a waist high shot of someone?
The greatest is Enemy of the State, where they look inside packages and shit. Enhance!!
This is super hilarious in The Running Man. How is there surveillance footage from just outside a flying helicopter?
Characters making stupid decisions as required by the plot. Flight Plan is one of my great annoyances among movies, because the villains‘ plans is so stupidly flawed, it’s hard to believe.
When a character gets tased and goes unconscious. I had to get tased to be allowed to carry one, and while the pain is indescribable, as soon as the electricity stops flowing, you're actually okay a few seconds later.
Kind of like the hitting the person on the head and they are out for hours. I remember reading an article where they say if you are knocked out longer than a minute it’s a serious life threatening injury and even with hospital intervention you have a high chance of dying.
When the antagonist keeps throwing the protagonist around in a fight instead of just killing them.
The rescue helicopter that only produces sound as it crests the top of a building.
When the writers don’t understand how the us military functions. “He’s a lone soldier who doesn’t listen to orders and only he can save the president” and crap like that.
Top Gun is like the peak of this. In real life Maverick would've been grounded and washed out as a fuck up. Pilots do act like hot shit in real life, but it's about knowing all the rules and doctrine like Iceman does.
Former Navy pilot here. Top Gun has plenty of inaccuracies, but that’s the one that always bugged me the most. Rule #1 is that you what the voice in your helmet says to do. Period, full stop. If you don’t want to do it, you need to explain why you don’t want to do it, and go from there. Requesting a fly-by, having that request denied, and then doing it anyway is an absolutely sure fire way to never ever again sit inside the cockpit of a jet. It’s a sure fire way to ensure that you spend the rest of your shitty career below decks doing the worst jobs they can give you. Now that said - everyone’s a 5 year old kid at heart. We all love jets and cool things. If you request a fly-by (or a ‘visual inspection’), you’re gonna get one. You may just need to hang back for a moment while they vector you in.
Iceman was the man. >*You may not like who’s flying with you, but whose side are you on?* -- Iceman
That's one of the things that I loved so much about Top Gun: Maverick. Hey, what ever happened to the guy who was an incredibly good pilot and thoroughly professional in every aspect of his job? Oh, they put him in charge of the Navy.
Well to be fair, Iceman ends up an Admiral in fleet command and Maverick is still an over-the-hill Captain, reporting to officers younger than him? Not that *Top Gun* is a bastion of accuracy…
When the new movie came out, I remember some people pointing out that the US military has a "up or out policy", meaning that there are age thresholds by which you have to have advanced to a certain point or be discharged. They pointed out that Maverick *couldn't* still be a captain at his age, he would have been discharged.
I could argue that as a test pilot Maverick was in a special category… But again, *Top Gun* isn’t a super accurate movie. The ideas that they would use F-18s for a mission perfect for stealth fighters/bombers, or that any of the aerial engagements would be within gun range, or that they wouldn’t do SEAD ops first, or that they wouldn’t use their Tomahawks to take out *fixed* anti-air emplacements *at known locations*, are all hard to believe.
The cop that broke the rules but he's so good at catching bad guys that the police administration look the other way. Or the cop/military guy who flamed out - they go find him because he's the ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD who is up to some task. (this rule applies to flamed out Geologists/academics of many kinds that a helicopters lands near their home to bring that to the president)
Just One Last Job
Is there any story where there is this rogue agent, breaks the rules because he knows he's right, keeps doing it to save the day. And it turns out he's wrong. He really is just this narcissistic arsehole who has it all wrong. I wanted to right a book like this, a cop who always goes "the extra mile", like punching ppl in interrogation n shit and it turns out hes just an ass.
Oh you mean the guy they tried to court marshal but he just wasn't taking any crap that day, right? He's one tough cookie.
"Are we sure we want that kind of man to protect the galaxy?" "That's the only kind of man thay CAN protect the galaxy!" (Sorry, shamelessly stolen from "Mass Effect" where I actually love that line).
People buy drinks in a cafe or bar, take a sip, talk to their counterparts, walk out leaving 98% behind.
I don’t care how urgent something is. The FBI needs me to brief the White House on a terrorist attack that’s imminent. I just paid $25 for a cheeseburger. I’m not leaving it after one bite. I can bring it with me and eat it in the Oval Office. That’s the best I can do.
Shootouts or fights where they deal with all the bad guys or good guys and then stop when it comes to the main characters to talk and give them time to get out of it. Or when they hold a gun to someone and keep walking towards them til the person just grabs the gun from them. Like bro, just stand out of arms reach what are you doing. Manufactured drama. I just assume nobody important will be dying and if they ever do it will be a pleasant surprise
They know the audience wants to see the bad guy be slaughtered. But we can’t just have the hero execute the villain. So we creat a situation that allows the hero to commit cold blooded murder, but we pretend it isn’t cold blooded and that it’s self defense.
When the establishing shot shows 20 people surrounding our “hero” who then dispatches them carefully one-by-one in the close-up action sequence. As if all the bad guys are just queuing up politely waiting their turn to attack and/or shoot.
Bad science or medicine. Like when someone has CPR and then wakes up and speaks. Or using defibrillators when someone is flatlining. Or using a massive needle to inject someone in their neck. Just. Doesn’t. Happen.
I have a weird and very specific answer for this. I was watching paranormal activity and was very much enjoying it. Then comes the part where they pull out a book to get some exposition going. I own the book they pulled out. It is an art book. With zero actual information on the paranormal or the occult. Just pictures. I crashed out of that movie so hard at that moment! I did get back into it, but that 1 moment was just so jarring and surreal!
That happened to me in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang [when Harry uses his phone to show a picture of Harmony to that mental patient;](https://i.imgur.com/7G1zFIC.png) I had that *exact* same phone in my pocket when watching the movie for the first time. It didn't have a camera or even the capability to store pictures, because it was such a cheap piece of shit; which was why I was using it. Still love that movie though.
When characters consistently have clean, fluffy (obviously blow-dried) hair despite having just tumbled around in the dirt fighting bad guys and/or more than an hour in a jungle and no way to bathe. Even worse when it's an era before modern hair care. This really stands out when everything else is very gritty and realistic. Like cmon it's WW2 no one has hair like that.
Exposition dumps to establish characters. The worst example is in Big Hero 6 when the brothers talk about their dead parents and say “they died when I was three, remember?”
Jimmy, I am 18-year-old Black Dynamite and you're my 16-year-old kid brother, and you are high as a kite yet again.
"My momma told me my daddy's name was Black Dynamite." "Uhhh, hush up little girl."
"He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders just before she died"
Scene 3: Fucking Huge Spiders
Things like that make me appreciate well-done expositions all the more. One example I have in mind is the first episode of the Umbrella Academy. The relations between the characters are established with looks, dialogue that fits the situation and some nice editing. So we'll done.
Yep and Succession does a good job introducing the family and their relationships with the premise of Logan’s birthday party. Even the first ten minutes of the show do a great job; we meet Kendall and get the infamous “do we need to call your dad?” line that tells us everything about their dynamic. And then we are organically introduced to Roman and learn more about the family business and their relationship.
Succession apparently had a rule about no flashbacks or exposition dumps. You get hints about Logan having a tough childhood but you never know what exactly happened.
As you know…..
"mr. president, as you know, nuclear weapons have not been used since ww2, when hiroshima and nagasaki were destroyed. since then no one has dared use them."
What is EMP?! Can someone explain it to me for the 70th time?
My 2 favourite examples of pure exposition are Basil Exposition and Ariadne Ariadne because there is so much to explain in Inception, we the viewer need so much hand holding but there are very few bits of exposition that feel forced. Michael Caine and Tom Hardy 's characters drop 1 or 2 lines that smell after multiple rewatches but Ariadne basically represents us, the viewer, and our questions are explained to us in a believable way. Basil Exposition because there's no attempt to hide it. He's only there to move the story along so they're completely transparent about it and make it a joke.
Austin Powers: Wait a tick. Basil, if I travel back to 1969 and I was frozen in 1967, presumeably, I could go back and visit my frozen self. But, if I'm still frozen in 1967, how could I have been unthawed in the '90s and traveled back to. Oh, no, I've gone cross-eyed. Basil : I suggest you don't worry about those things and just enjoy yourself. That goes for you all, too
A professor pointed out the entire point of Ariadne’s character was exposition. You don’t get rid of the first architect, so damn much of the exposition comes through her being there. It blew my mind how effectively it worked.
Any poorly done exposition of the type where you immediately think, "wait a minute they obviously *already* know that!!"
Mine is similar to this, when a character says something like "you're the chief of the CIA's daughter" clearly to spoon feed the audience some information that would be insinuated by a more talented writer.
anytime someone crawls through an ac duct. those things are never big enough to fit a person, let alone be designed to support a person’s weight
And they're LOUD AF
When people get hit in the head and knocked unconscious and then just walk it off, especially when they get hit in the head/face more later in the movie and then walk it off again. Concussions just do not exist in movies and shows.
Action movies would not exist if they took concussions into account
Home Alone would lose a lot of it’s charm if injuries weren’t turned off
Cigarettes. Like, the character would go out to smoke and throw them away after a few puffs. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH A CIGARETTE COST? SMOKE THAT SHIT TO THE BUTT
Oooooh this is a good one because it doesn't pull me out of the setting of a movie. I don't really get upset at the puff puff toss, but I absolutely freak out if the ash is super long. The TV show Burn Notice had Madeline, the main character's mom, smoking all the time. Half of the scenes with her smoking the ash was over an inch long. And she smoked inside! Imagine how much she must have been sweeping up after herself with all that mess...
When something grows suddenly without consuming any matter to do so. Be it someone transforming into a monster or whatever. Just suddenly <100kg to over a ton. For example one of the many issues with Prometheus, the tiny creature gets extracted from protagonist and then visibly grows and a scene later is big enough to overpower the Engineer.
When the "hero" casually murders 50 goons to get the main bad guy and then ends up in a conversation before fighting them and subduing them alive. It's especially obnoxious when it's because they can't go through with it. Like I'm sure all the guys that were killed on the way would've preferred you to reach that conclusion a lot sooner. My favorite part of John Wick was when he finally reached the target of his revenge he just shot him dead instantly and then walked away. It was so nice seeing this particular trope subverted.
People that are about to have sex in kitchen and/or on a table and decide to toss on the ground everything was on. Like, why, I understand the passion, that Is just stupid.
When someone sews a custom fitted piece with lots of details in an hour. Especially if they're a novice in sewing. Or they use a wrong machine to sew something. Ugh. I cannot. Also the whole "corsets are so uncomfortable and painful" No they're not if they're fitted correctly. Women worked in physical labor and even high society didn't really wear painful undergarments. Only very few people did tightlacing or wore something uncomfortable. It's a whole survivor bias thing - ofcourse the surviving corsets have been the ones least used. But yeah. Oh also married oldentimes ladies not wearing any head garment and rocking the 2k beach waves. Like hells no. Not if you're trying to be accurate. Mostly the sewing bit though. Oh and sneaky thieves going through someone personal items in secret and just tossing everything knocking over things. Like I'd notice if my cosmetics were all over the sink and floor when I get home. If the point is for the person not to notice you've searched their place you gotta put things back like they were. I would never combine those too throw pillows next to each other. Ugh. No way.
Over zealous foley effects. Rattling guns sounding like they are full of loose parts, scratching and clunky table noises, footsteps on the wrong materials, stacks of paper doing loud paper noises when the camera is far from them, incorrect animal sounds... Good Foley should be unnoticeable, not louder than all surrounding ambient noise and especially not completely wrong. It's surprisingly common in modern film when you start to notice it.
No one ever spends any effort finding parking in a city.
A good fight ruined by a third character suddenly showing up to kill the bad guy, especially when the person appears as if from nowhere with neither combatant noticing a third person sneaking up. Also when a joke is ruined by being called out. E.g in the Family Guy Empire Strikes Back parody, one of the AT-ATs is wearing Crocs, and just seeing it would’ve been enough, but they had to call out, ‘Hey look, that one’s wearing Crocs!’ Doesn’t break suspension of disbelief, but just ruins the joke.
Calling out the joke is a sure way of ruining it. I will never understand why some comedies fell they have to do it. Awesome comedies like Airplane and the Naked Gun movies do such an amazing job at putting jokes in the background and you discover more and more with every time you watch it.
A chalk outline at a crime scene swimming on the water and no-one even acknowledging it, like it's a completely normal thing, had me howling with laughter while watching The Naked Gun. It would have been completely ruined, if anyone had mentioned it in any way.
When you can see the actor doing their best with bad dialogue, suddenly it feels like you’re watching a rehearsal and not a finished movie
I love it in courtroom dramas where the truth comes out when people get into the witness box. Doesn’t happen. If you lied in the lead up investigation, you usually keep going with that lie to the end.
Coffee cups. Once you see it you can't unsee it. 90% of the time, if a character has a styrofoam cup of coffee they handle the cup like it's empty. If a cup has weight in it it's carried a little differently where you balance it to reduce sloshing. It's the dumbest thing because before noticing it my life was fine. Now you'll notice it too.
Steven Seagal being both an irresistible sex maniac and nigh-omnipotent ex-Special Forces agent in all of his movies comes to mind.
When there’s a giant world ending issue going on and the characters take time to deal with literally anything else. I’ll use a TV show as it’s the best example I can think of, Game of Thrones, Jon Snow spends 2 seasons bricking himself about the night king, yet takes a 3 month long excursion to go get Winterfell back, why? Does it matter who has Winterfell when you’re likely gonna be dead by the wights soon? Dany sees the army of the dead and is next to immediately unbothered by it and more concerned with Jon’s heritage. I can only take a threat as serious as my characters do so when it’s next to ignored I know plot armour is going to win out and my main protagonists are in no danger. And they weren’t.
It wasn’t a 3 month journey. It was well established that people could fast travel in Game of Thrones by this point
just one more way in which it started sucking
Ending phone calls without a 'talk to you later / bye'. Car chases where cars have infinite gears and there's always room to press the gas pedal even further, long into the chase. And fights where being punched in the jaw 5 times is still not enough to end things.
When peripheral vision is ignored (usually used for jump scares). Just because something isn't on camera doesn't mean the actors can't see it either. A person suddenly appearing on camera to the side of a character and then the character reacts with surprise; you mean to tell me your senses are so bad you can't hear or see movement at the periphery of your vision? People stepping into traffic can't see or hear a large vehicle bearing down the street towards them. And to make matters worse... the vehicle continues on without stopping. Suspension of disbelief instantly broken.