Movies are inspired by real life, right? But they often exaggerate or stylize some situations, occupations, or people.
Often, meaning…basically always.
Perhaps these tropes weren’t so obvious when cinema and TV were brand-new, but audiences today are more sophisticated (or at least have watched a lot more TV and movies). A Reddit thread posed the question:
“What movie things are generally accepted as normal, but are totally unrealistic in real life?”
People some funny, insightful, and sarcastic answers. Let’s check them out!
20. This Medical Misunderstanding
“Regaining consciousness after receiving CPR.”—lexxeffect
19. Happy Hours Galore
“People having copious amounts of time to spend with their friends, not being tired after work.”—celesteshine
18. A Priest Clears Up a Few Things
“I am an Anglican priest.
We are never found lingering alone in candle lit churches late at night picking up service bulletins or books from pews.
Yet every movie shows priests and ministers puttering around dark churches cleaning up.”—Auto_Fac
17. Unrealistic Beauty
“8 hours of travel and the character’s hair and outfit is still perfect.”—SnippySky
16. The Inaccurate Portrayal of Bad Guys
“If you are being attacked by multiple bad guys they will each wait there turn to attack. This shit bugs the heck out of me.”—lilflow88
15. This Unsafe Driving Trope
“Weird nobody mentioned that in movies everybody always looks at each other while driving. And they move the damn driving wheel way to much while driving straight forward, pisses me off.”—JingleJangleG
14. Young, Hot Doctors
“Everyone is young, especially doctors / professors/ specialists they all seem to be the top of their field with years of experience and they are all like 22…. and hot.”—The_Amazing_Username
13. Unrealistic Living Standards
“People on low incomes, e.g. students, living in expensive homes. I’m not necessarily talking about mansions, more like a large apartment in a big expensive city with no roommates.”—BlackCaaaaat
12. Strange Coincidences
“Turning on the tv or radio that happens to be covering the subject the characters were talking about. Unless you are talking about Sept 11 that would never happen.
Never discussing a meeting location, like for dinner.”—jumpinleg
11. High Heels That Never Hurt
“Women in high heels ALL day long. Sometimes they run in them to tackle a bad guy or to get away from a bad guy. The next day they put their non-swollen feet back in them without complaint.
Oh, women never sweat their makeup off. Their faces are never have a greasy sheen in Miami in August.”—sunflore_7777
10. Knock Knock
“People opening their front door 3 seconds after an unexpected knock, like they’re just constantly standing behind the door, just in case.”—brad-corp
9. Hiding Behind Breakable Items
“When someone hides from bullets behind penetrable objects, like tables or a refrigerator door.”—-everst
8. Cool Haircuts Without Training
“Women in action movies who drastically cut their own hair to change their appearance always end up with a fabulous style.”—lascielthefallen
7. Exaggerated Recoveries
“Everything medical.
Being in a coma for weeks or months, waking up and walking around a day or two later? Ridiculous. We treat people that were in comas even for just “a few” weeks and it takes them forever to recover from it.
“his heart stopped beating” and “clear!” – don’t get me started on that.
In the rare cases when they do fake CPR – the actual CPR success rate is about 3%. Yes, 3%. That even goes for health professionals.
Spinal cord injuries: “a miracle, he can walk again”. No, no, no. Takes months and years, will stay severely impaired. It’s more like walking with crutches very slowly and not very far for the rest of his/her life.
Gunshot wounds, knife wounds never cause nerve damage. Nope. They do. Again: disabilities for the rest of your life.
No oxygen for more than 5 minutes (you can go for a longer time in extreme cold): permanent and severe brain damage. Can you guess it? That’s right: Severe disabilities for the rest of your life.
The good guy breaks a bone, is in a cast for weeks/months. Cast comes off – leg looks like new. Nope. It literally stinks (especially in summer), skin doesn’t look healthy and yes – massive loss of muscle mass and function. Good news: with enough training (we are talking weeks and months) – no disability!'”—cszar2015
6. All of These!
“Winning over a girl by making over-the-top, grand gestures (especially when she has already rejected you in the past).
Shattering bottles easily over someone’s head (don’t attempt it unless you want to possibly go to prison for murder).
In action sequences in general, taking an enormous amount of injury and then getting up with a few attractively placed bruises and cuts.
In particular, the trope of the bad guy who more or less needs to be thrown into a jet turbine to be destroyed, or he’ll somehow get back up again.
Characters who always have something witty to say and are never at a loss for words.”—lookoutforthebadger
5. Easy-to-Find Parking Spots!
“Finding a parking spot in front of the building you’re going into.”—marfou
4. Unrealistic Hero Treatment
“Hero always get the best seat in a busy restaurant/dinner!”—Eat_Train_Code_IN
3. Wasting Food
“Not eating the meal that is in front of you.”—PTretro
2. Unrealistic Lack of Pain
“How nobody in movies hurts their knuckles after punching someone, martial artist here and if you punch someone in the forehead like they do in the movies you’d probably just break your own fist,
hitting someone in the forehead is basically like punching a cinder block except the skull is actually harder…”—IShallPetYourDogo
1. Cutting the Palm of Their Hand
“So many movies and shows have the trope of cutting the palm of your hand when blood is needed for some sort of ritual. It originated because it was an easy place for them to hide a blood packet back when special effects weren’t what they are today.
However, if you’ve ever had a cut on the palm of your hand you would know that’s a terrible place to make a wound because you pretty much lose the use of that hand and it can take a while to heal.
There are much better places to draw blood from yet we still see it all the time, hell I just saw it yesterday in the first episode of the new season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. And on top of that the characters are fine in the scenes after or in the case of shows like Supernatural and the 100, they are making fists and fighting with no problem.”—-eDgAR-
Though these tropes can get annoying, these posts are a great way to remember the importance of not taking all information on films and TV too seriously. They’re made to entertain us, but it would be nice if films and TV changed it up once in a while.
Do you have any comments on how you would change these tropes if you could? Feel free to sound off in the comments!
