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 a little bit harder to be realistic. Reddit users have recently been discussing moments 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 of Every Movie Has A Lesson, Don Shanahan!
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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 with Bored 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."
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We also asked Ryan which scenes he always has a hard time taking seriously in TV shows and films. "As a Software Engineer by profession, I’ll go with almost any scene with a 'computer expert' in it showing off their 'skills,'" he says. "There were several great comments to that effect in the thread which explain the problems with those scenes much better than I could."
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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 in How 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."
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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.'"
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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!"
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To gain even more insight on this topic, we also reached out to film expert Don Shanahan, founder and writer of Every Movie Has a Lesson. Don shared that, aside from being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, he's also a fifth grade school teacher by day. "That makes me notice movies have inaccuracies or impossible conveniences that take place in school settings," he told Bored Panda. "For example, there are so many movies (Back to the Future, the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, Ender's Game) where outside, non-active student characters somehow just infiltrate a school and wander the hallways undetected or unstopped by school personnel."
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"In today's day and age, especially in this sensitive era of school shootings, visitor security protocols would never let that happen," Don explained. "That and the staff know everyone. No stranger would get through without getting spotted and questioned by even the most low-level school employee."
"Another school setting inaccuracy are those moments when a big speech scene that interrupts a school event is allowed to happen with all kinds of bystanders," the film expert continued. "Take the big graduation public confessional that goes down at the end of Crazy, Stupid Love. The number of school staff members or witnessing parents would squelch and shun those moments in a heartbeat."
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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."
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As far as scenes Don has noticed were done quite accurately, he shared, "Sticking with the school teacher hat I wear and the education setting, one of the best examples of a realistic school teacher was Woody Harrelson's character Max Bruner in The Edge of Seventeen, written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, who's an awards contender this year for Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret."
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"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 site Every Movie Has A Lesson!
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In the disaster movies people don’t hoard toilet paper.::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."When a baby is born and it’s a beautiful, squeaky clean 3-6 month old twice the size of a newborn. They are tiny, goo covered, swollen purple aliens IRL.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.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.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.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.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.The amount of time between responses in phone conversations.
"Hi mom."
*1.37 seconds later*
"What do you mean Larry and his ferret were hit by a scooter in Moscow!?"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.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.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 modestyHow "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.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 EXPLOSIONSWhen the guy stalks the girl and gets the girl in the endThere'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 ?.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.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.Frantically shouting “TAXI!!!” while hailing a cabWhen someone shoots 10000000000000000 bullets with a single magazine in a pistol but then it runs out when they have an actual shot at someone“The neutrinos are mutating!” -2012.
Neutrinos can’t f*****g mutate. They can’t even decay.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.”. LolHitting 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.An explosion nearby and everyone talks and hears fine. I love that scene in The Other Guys about this.Basically any time they show lab work being done.
They either don't wear PPE, or they do wear it but don't wear it properly, or for the right things. Food/beverage/chewing gum in a lab is a big big no. If some character in a drama TV show walked into my lab demanding results, the first thing I'd do is give them safety glasses...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.Pumping the shotgun every time you mean business. You're just ejecting fresh shells on to the floor.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!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.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.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.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.Movies set a long time ago trying to emulate people from 500-2000 years ago but they all have perfect skin and white teeth.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.
