People Share What Movies Present As Normal, But It Actually Isn’t, And Here Are 40 Of The Best Insights
Life would be much simpler yet more exciting at the same time if things worked just like in our favorite movies. The good guys would always save the day at the last minute. Adventures of a lifetime could happen at any moment. And your soulmate could be just around the corner. Alas! That’s not how the real world works.
OG_Builds created a thread on r/AskReddit and asked people to share what is totally normal in movies but never actually happens in real life. And, wow, did people deliver! The redditor’s post received 28.8k comments in 2 days, as well as more than 64.2k upvotes. Scroll down to have a look, don’t forget to upvote your fave things that are normal in movies, and share your own ideas in the comments! OG_Builds told Bored Panda that they got the idea to make the thread after watching a lot of movies while on vacation, while the comment that they could relate to the most was the one about finding new friends.
“I think the comment I found the most relatable was one pointing out how movie characters find friends the second they move to a new city. I just moved to a new town and I feel like movies underestimate the amount of time it takes to get to know people and build relationships.” Read on for the rest of our interview with the thread’s OP.
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Women can be in the jungle for days but no body hair anywhere.
Men instantly grow a beard
Looking away from the road for a solid 10 seconds while driving to talk to someone
“While watching The Amazing Spiderman 2, I thought about how there are so many things that are never questioned in movies, though the same things rarely happen in real life. I wanted to see if my fellow redditors had some examples of such things,” OG_Builds shared what inspired them to make the thread in the first place.
They added that some of the other comments that stuck in their head from the thread were about car explosions and parking spots. “Another user commented that it takes very little impact for a car to blow up. If a car crashes into a tree it explodes, which is rarely the case in real life. Someone also pointed out that finding parking spots is way too easy. I never thought about this, but it’s actually really weird that movie characters are able to find parking spots in the middle of the day in Manhattan.”
Hacking is typing really fast.
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Working as a waitress and living in a huge apartment, with the fridge full, and expensive clothes.
The pushy dude in the romcom ends up getting the girl whereas in real life they’d be more likely to end up with a restraining order.
In the redditor’s opinion, life wouldn’t be better if everything worked like in the movies. “I think movies fail to acknowledge that humans aren’t perfect. We make mistakes. Sometimes we stumble the words and we cough in the middle of conversations. Life isn’t always on our side. Sometimes, we need an hour to find somewhere to park, and some days we wake up with the worst bed hair.”
They continued: “Some might say it would be easier if life was a movie, but these flaws and imperfections are what make life so beautiful. I wouldn’t change that for the world.”
"Enhancing" a sh**ty quality image to 4k and zooming in to the size of a microbe with perfect clarity.
My boss gave me a small picture for the newspaper headline. - Take this, zoom in. - We can't zoom in... - What you mean we can't? I saw it in movies. They just zoom in... - But sir, that's in movies... - You probably don't know how to do it... Why did I hire you?
Being able to outrun an explosion.
And /or surviving because apparently jumping at the right time means the shockwave won't hurt you
Mom makes a huge breakfast and lays it all out. Kids and husband grab a bagel on the way out the door ignoring all the food
And going to the bar of cafe to get a drink or some coffee, drinking 1/4-2/4 then suddenly they need to run off somewhere or decide to just leave for any reason really (leaving the drink that they only just paid for behind).
Whether things would be better if life were more like movies is debatable; but making movies more like real life would be a pretty bad idea, don’t you think? Let’s have a think and see what would change.
Imagine for a moment how boring Star Wars and movies with battles in outer space would be if we didn’t willingly suspend our disbelief and wanted everything to be super-realistic.
Ion cannons and explosions wouldn’t make any sounds (“In space no one can hear you scream” is very accurate, too). Meanwhile, you couldn’t even see those spectacular laser weapons. Darn you, vacuum of space, why do you have to make things so dull?!
However, lightsabers could kinda sorta maybe work according to some scientists and some very dedicated and talented crafters.
Wherever the detective has to go, he always finds a parking spot right in front of the place. Downtown Manhattan included.
People waking up with perfect make up, my wife points this out in everything we watch.
Women don't take their makeup off before going to sleep, yet they wake up with impeccable skin
Actually being able to have a conversation at a bar while music is playing.
Action scenes would also be horrific if everything worked on IRL logic and not film logic. Protagonists wouldn’t disarm the bomb at the last second before the timer counted down to zero. There’d be no timer in the first place!
In case our heroes couldn’t disarm the bomb in time, they wouldn’t walk away from the explosion without getting hurt at all. The powerful shockwave would mean that the villains would win and that we’d have to get new heroes in the middle of the film. (Come to think of it, it would be interesting to see more movies where the bad guys win.)
Police take a DNA sample and have the results in an hour.
Easily avoidable issues if the person just explains what is happening
Let’s also not forget how dangerous jumping through shattered glass windows is in real life. The sharp edges would hurt you very, very badly. Meanwhile, action heroes shrug shattered windows off like it’s no big deal.
Our verdict? Movies might have a bunch of things in them that never happen in real life but that’s why we love them so much! We wouldn’t have it any other way because movies that are too realistic wouldn’t have much structure and would end before things really got started. Now if only movie logic would spread to real life...
In a fight, those henchmen usually fight the main character one by one, one on one until they all get beaten.
These bad guys are so polite, each one waiting for their turn to fight and eventually get beaten.
How normalized stalking is. "You dropped this, so I followed you for three hours to give it back" -> "Kiss and hug, now we're dating".
In reality, it's mace and call the cops for stalking.
Ask your friends to meet you at a predetermined time and place with no explanation as to why.
I have a hard time getting friends to meet up for legitimate reasons with advanced notice. Meanwhile, movie characters come together in an abandoned warehouse in Brazil like...
(all walk in at the same time)
"Why'd you call?"
Often without mentioning what time and what place, yet they all magically show up at the same time and same place. Wish I was psychic like that.
Walking home from the grocery store carrying a single paper bag with an unwrapped loaf of French bread sticking out the top.
Hackers. Perfect code, first try, no issues ever. If your code runs correctly first try, you're confused and scared.
Also hackers using 1 keyboard with 2 people to hack into 3 different systems in 44 seconds.
You can have a Ph.D. in theoretical high-energy astrophysics, have finished your postdoc(s), and be running the biggest project in the organization by the time you are 23 if you are a woman and really pretty.
And all those academic pursuits take a shitload of time, energy, and focus to do. Something has to take a backseat til you’re done and graduated, and usually it’s your social life, which also frees up the time it takes to maintain perfect clothes, hair, and makeup. Hell, while I was putting in long hours writing my Master’s thesis, there were days when I didn’t have the energy to shower, much less blow dry my hair, put on makeup, get dressed in nice clothes, and go out for several hours. I preferred to spend that time researching, writing, or sleeping.
Uninterested woman has a sudden change of heart for the loser guy and they live happily ever after.
Guy walks in holding a 30-page document, gives to some other dude.
The dude who's getting the document glances at the first page for a nanosecond and immediately knows everything there is to know about this case.
Unlimited bullets and accuraccy 100% for shooting normal bad guys
Cars exploding on impact
I always thought that westerns should have horses explode any time they roll down a mountain just to make fun of exploding cars.
People not screaming in absolute agony when shot or stabbed in the gut.
Reservoir dogs is one movie that did it realistically.
Women in war zones and other longterm disaster situations with filthy matted hair and tattered grimy clothes always seem to find the time to have perfectly groomed eyebrows and put on a little make-up
An orange filter when you go to mexico
You mean that Tweety the tangerine toddler has been camouflaging all that time to build a wall without being noticed?
people recovering very quickly from injuries, especially head injuries
Background music. Life would be so much better with background music
Scientists in any field are experts in every other field of science as well, e.g. the physicist in Annihilation concluding the tree formations are due to homeotic mutations.
In horror movies I always enjoy how fast and deep a perfectly symmetrical grave gets dug
My grandfather was a gravedigger and he was very proud of his symmetrical holes :-)
Serial killers just standing there staring at you and giving you enough Time to escape.
Women giving birth in about 2 minutes and screaming their heads off the entire time. Then the “newborn“ looks about 6 months old.
Women always being portrayed as screaming full stop. Pretty sure that not every women's reaction to something scary or gory is going to be full on screaming for several seconds or more.
Load More Replies...My personal favorite is movies acting like bad guy minions never know each other. A good guy goes down, the music changes and there is a moment of sadness and another good guy saying, "Rest easy, my brother. For I will avenge you." But when a bad guy goes down the other bad guys couldn't care less. To add insult to injury they step all over the downed dude to continue chasing the good guy. Even bad guys have friends.
Or the one I hate the most. many good guy team mates die and they win the battle and celebrate. but if the god guy dying had some screen time, time for a funeral, some speeches and a 10 gun salute."We won the fight but lost a brother." Damn you you lost like hundred.
Load More Replies...Also, when a character looks something up in a book, they always open it in the middle and voila! - here is the inormaiton they were looking for. Sometimes it's several books lying around, all opened in the middle.
In movies a day lasts about 78 hours. How else do they find the time to exercise, shower, get ready, commute to work, work for at least 10 -12 hrs, go out for dinner, then for drinks, meet someone and go for a long walk, then go home and get a snack and talk with your friend about the person you just met, watch a movie (and still look fresh and well-rested). Totally relatable! :'D
...and still have some time to kill someone and go find some place in the woods to dig a hole and bury them before going to bed.
Load More Replies...Hitting someone on the head to “knock them out”, with no ill effects (they eventually “wake up”, and it’s always later). In real life, it takes a pretty severe blow to the brain and a massive concussion to cause unconsciousness. And if the person isn’t waking up after a few seconds it typically means permanent brain damage or death.
My favorite is the egoism and narcissism of the bad guys...especially when it comes to the main villain. He could kill the good guy in a single quick shot or throw him off the rock or whatever, but no...the bad guy needs to reveal every damn secret, tell his family and work history, give a presentation on how superb he is and what looser is the good guy and all of that just gives the good guy enough time to summon his powers and beat the bad guy before the end credits start :-)
That was spoofed in one of the Austin Powers movies, where the villain's son is getting impatient and says something like "Just kill him already!".
Load More Replies...One of my favorites is when lawyers walk into a police interrogation room and say "This interview is over." First of all, when did anyone call this lawyer? Secondly, that's not how police interviews end. Another of my favorites is people pulling the IV out of their arm and leaving the hospital like that's normal.
I did that when i was confused and unwell in hospital: lol u can't just pull out an iv without bleeding on everything I discovered!
Load More Replies...when a soldier announce he's gotta be a dad or getting married… we all know he'll die
Trapped in a dark dungeon, mine, etc. Lights a candle, match, or lighter and the place lights up like Vegas.
The characters: "Oh, it's so dark, I can't see anything." Me: "Umm, guys, I can see everything, y'all blind?"
Load More Replies...Never locking or unlocking car doors unless there is a bomb that is activated upon using the keys. When having a headwound with blood that has dropped down, it is not wiped away. (Maybe a day later). Fighting makes you be covered in dust or dirt smears and in many cases the action hero doesn't seem to wash it off. I guess it's the same kind of stuff make up is made from. Also, on survival movies, women are never on their period. Imagine having to flee and being on your period. Sure, you can use fabric cloths and wash them, but there isn't really any time while fleeing.
He: Run, save yourself. She: No, i'm not leaving without you. Then they kiss, no matter what they are running away from.
Character rings a doorbell and the door is opened within seconds... does everyone hang around behind the front door?
When characters need to research something, the go to the library and find books with pictures (like Dante's Divine comedy) and those pictures solve everything! Especially if the pictures are by Gustave Dore.
A bit crude but noone cleaning up after sex. They lay there in post-coital bliss, when in reality it's all about the cup and run!
The clean-up doesn't have to be immediate, surely? Clean-up and post-coital snack are always a good thing... but surely you can cuddle/laugh/chat for a bit first?
Load More Replies...If a character coughs, you can be sure they have become ill with an incurable disease and will die soon.
or the other drivers just keep casually driving and not braking or pulling over or getting out of the way.
Load More Replies...Also murderer gets victim after a long hunt. Instead of killing victim immediately he brags about how he got him, how he tricked everyone and whatnot, so that victim has enough time to escape or be rescued.
Military personnel so lax that civs walk in unnoticed, get the critical whatevers, and leave with a hasty, "Oh, we got lost, we're just looking for Walmart" excuse. Right up there with women running in tight skirts and high heels at Olympic-medal-worthy speed.
Or Security Guards that are never doing their job. Oh, wait, that happens in real life. I know, I worked in Security for 14 years. We called those guys Barney's (as in Barney Fife).
Load More Replies...Humans , especially western ones, are always smarter than the people they meet. Even in Avatar, where they tried to do the opposite. I mean 'Mikesully' learned very fast (A few years? months?) what the members of the tribe would need all their childhood and teenage years to master..
Brushing teeth without using toothpaste: Think I only saw this once by Alexander Kaidanovsky in 'Stalker' by Andrei Tarkovsky. Oh and when phoning someone the phone is answered immediately.
bulletproof couches always seemed odd to me, my cat can destroy one but multiple bullets cant? lol
Well, I mean, a movie or tv show would be pretty boring if it was accurate to the real world.
Woman who's been kidnapped gets her chance to escape, knocks the guy over the head once and runs. Giving him enough time to shake off what would normally be a debilitating head wound and catch her just before she makes her get away. In real life, if some psycho had you trapped and you get a chance to slap him one, you are going to go to town until you know he's down for good.
I enjoyed the comments from the pandas more than the past itself, hilarious
Badguys running up to hero with gun, waiting for his turn to be beaten.. If u have a gun as a badguy fighting a hero, i would imagine hiding and empty that clip (wich has unlimited bullets oc)
What about a huge wall fan spinning slowly in the background of a dark room...?
CPR: A: Done for three seconds and the victim is not only alive, but wakes up and talks B: A cop declares person dead, even if they saw him/her fall to the ground seconds earlier
I would like to add Not Stirring Coffee or Tea to this list. You see them pour a coffee or be handed one and they add sugar or milk and then start drinking it. WHY AREN'T THEY STIRRING?
How about how the light from a tiny candle can light up another wise pitch dark warehouse the size of 3 football fields.? Or the stereotypes: If you are fat and or ugly , you're either bad, the brainy socially awkward one or the comic relief and if you're slim and pretty, you're good socially affluent and will definately end up getting off with the dream boy or girl of the movie.
People having memorized the phone number of even the most random people.
Let's talk about movie horses: never need water, never need untacking or tacking up, never spook at anything, rear up like a pro (w/o slipping back over and crushing someones pelvis), and never eat anything.
man fights with 10 people but it does not hurt. but whenwoman starts to clean his wounds it hurts so much. ouch!
How about the race-car performance Jason Bourne gets out of a stolen 25 year old taxicab?
These are great, I would definitely watch a movie that addressed some of these in a clever way.
In a shootout, the good guy armed with a pistol will always out shoot three or four bad guys armed with fully automatic machine guns.
That you get blown away when you get shot. Most of the time when you get shot you won't realise it for a couple of minutes.
Would be nice if someone would make a movie based on these descriptions not happening in real life. Would be insanely boring movie. Especially no music. Like space odyssey. Just listening a guy breathing heavily for a long period of time
#38, I just wish somebody would make a movie with ONLY normal background sounds, and NOso called 'background music', just to see how it was received by the public. I am getting old, but I can't be the only one who can't hear a bloody word of some conversations in movies because their is an orchestra playing inthe backround , drowning out the voices.
Weird how many people here don’t understand movies are not real - nor are most intended to be. If you watched a movie in real time without the little things to move the story along and save time YOU’D BE BORED OUT OF YOUR MIND.
Well, clearly the movie is boring if you have time to notice these things, so...
Load More Replies...Well, sure, but movies are about suspension of disbelief. If you want to watch real life just go down to your local downtown and watch the homeless people argue over who gets to work the intersection today. We know it's fantasy, but it it wasn't it wouldn't be half as much fun to watch.
Women giving birth in about 2 minutes and screaming their heads off the entire time. Then the “newborn“ looks about 6 months old.
Women always being portrayed as screaming full stop. Pretty sure that not every women's reaction to something scary or gory is going to be full on screaming for several seconds or more.
Load More Replies...My personal favorite is movies acting like bad guy minions never know each other. A good guy goes down, the music changes and there is a moment of sadness and another good guy saying, "Rest easy, my brother. For I will avenge you." But when a bad guy goes down the other bad guys couldn't care less. To add insult to injury they step all over the downed dude to continue chasing the good guy. Even bad guys have friends.
Or the one I hate the most. many good guy team mates die and they win the battle and celebrate. but if the god guy dying had some screen time, time for a funeral, some speeches and a 10 gun salute."We won the fight but lost a brother." Damn you you lost like hundred.
Load More Replies...Also, when a character looks something up in a book, they always open it in the middle and voila! - here is the inormaiton they were looking for. Sometimes it's several books lying around, all opened in the middle.
In movies a day lasts about 78 hours. How else do they find the time to exercise, shower, get ready, commute to work, work for at least 10 -12 hrs, go out for dinner, then for drinks, meet someone and go for a long walk, then go home and get a snack and talk with your friend about the person you just met, watch a movie (and still look fresh and well-rested). Totally relatable! :'D
...and still have some time to kill someone and go find some place in the woods to dig a hole and bury them before going to bed.
Load More Replies...Hitting someone on the head to “knock them out”, with no ill effects (they eventually “wake up”, and it’s always later). In real life, it takes a pretty severe blow to the brain and a massive concussion to cause unconsciousness. And if the person isn’t waking up after a few seconds it typically means permanent brain damage or death.
My favorite is the egoism and narcissism of the bad guys...especially when it comes to the main villain. He could kill the good guy in a single quick shot or throw him off the rock or whatever, but no...the bad guy needs to reveal every damn secret, tell his family and work history, give a presentation on how superb he is and what looser is the good guy and all of that just gives the good guy enough time to summon his powers and beat the bad guy before the end credits start :-)
That was spoofed in one of the Austin Powers movies, where the villain's son is getting impatient and says something like "Just kill him already!".
Load More Replies...One of my favorites is when lawyers walk into a police interrogation room and say "This interview is over." First of all, when did anyone call this lawyer? Secondly, that's not how police interviews end. Another of my favorites is people pulling the IV out of their arm and leaving the hospital like that's normal.
I did that when i was confused and unwell in hospital: lol u can't just pull out an iv without bleeding on everything I discovered!
Load More Replies...when a soldier announce he's gotta be a dad or getting married… we all know he'll die
Trapped in a dark dungeon, mine, etc. Lights a candle, match, or lighter and the place lights up like Vegas.
The characters: "Oh, it's so dark, I can't see anything." Me: "Umm, guys, I can see everything, y'all blind?"
Load More Replies...Never locking or unlocking car doors unless there is a bomb that is activated upon using the keys. When having a headwound with blood that has dropped down, it is not wiped away. (Maybe a day later). Fighting makes you be covered in dust or dirt smears and in many cases the action hero doesn't seem to wash it off. I guess it's the same kind of stuff make up is made from. Also, on survival movies, women are never on their period. Imagine having to flee and being on your period. Sure, you can use fabric cloths and wash them, but there isn't really any time while fleeing.
He: Run, save yourself. She: No, i'm not leaving without you. Then they kiss, no matter what they are running away from.
Character rings a doorbell and the door is opened within seconds... does everyone hang around behind the front door?
When characters need to research something, the go to the library and find books with pictures (like Dante's Divine comedy) and those pictures solve everything! Especially if the pictures are by Gustave Dore.
A bit crude but noone cleaning up after sex. They lay there in post-coital bliss, when in reality it's all about the cup and run!
The clean-up doesn't have to be immediate, surely? Clean-up and post-coital snack are always a good thing... but surely you can cuddle/laugh/chat for a bit first?
Load More Replies...If a character coughs, you can be sure they have become ill with an incurable disease and will die soon.
or the other drivers just keep casually driving and not braking or pulling over or getting out of the way.
Load More Replies...Also murderer gets victim after a long hunt. Instead of killing victim immediately he brags about how he got him, how he tricked everyone and whatnot, so that victim has enough time to escape or be rescued.
Military personnel so lax that civs walk in unnoticed, get the critical whatevers, and leave with a hasty, "Oh, we got lost, we're just looking for Walmart" excuse. Right up there with women running in tight skirts and high heels at Olympic-medal-worthy speed.
Or Security Guards that are never doing their job. Oh, wait, that happens in real life. I know, I worked in Security for 14 years. We called those guys Barney's (as in Barney Fife).
Load More Replies...Humans , especially western ones, are always smarter than the people they meet. Even in Avatar, where they tried to do the opposite. I mean 'Mikesully' learned very fast (A few years? months?) what the members of the tribe would need all their childhood and teenage years to master..
Brushing teeth without using toothpaste: Think I only saw this once by Alexander Kaidanovsky in 'Stalker' by Andrei Tarkovsky. Oh and when phoning someone the phone is answered immediately.
bulletproof couches always seemed odd to me, my cat can destroy one but multiple bullets cant? lol
Well, I mean, a movie or tv show would be pretty boring if it was accurate to the real world.
Woman who's been kidnapped gets her chance to escape, knocks the guy over the head once and runs. Giving him enough time to shake off what would normally be a debilitating head wound and catch her just before she makes her get away. In real life, if some psycho had you trapped and you get a chance to slap him one, you are going to go to town until you know he's down for good.
I enjoyed the comments from the pandas more than the past itself, hilarious
Badguys running up to hero with gun, waiting for his turn to be beaten.. If u have a gun as a badguy fighting a hero, i would imagine hiding and empty that clip (wich has unlimited bullets oc)
What about a huge wall fan spinning slowly in the background of a dark room...?
CPR: A: Done for three seconds and the victim is not only alive, but wakes up and talks B: A cop declares person dead, even if they saw him/her fall to the ground seconds earlier
I would like to add Not Stirring Coffee or Tea to this list. You see them pour a coffee or be handed one and they add sugar or milk and then start drinking it. WHY AREN'T THEY STIRRING?
How about how the light from a tiny candle can light up another wise pitch dark warehouse the size of 3 football fields.? Or the stereotypes: If you are fat and or ugly , you're either bad, the brainy socially awkward one or the comic relief and if you're slim and pretty, you're good socially affluent and will definately end up getting off with the dream boy or girl of the movie.
People having memorized the phone number of even the most random people.
Let's talk about movie horses: never need water, never need untacking or tacking up, never spook at anything, rear up like a pro (w/o slipping back over and crushing someones pelvis), and never eat anything.
man fights with 10 people but it does not hurt. but whenwoman starts to clean his wounds it hurts so much. ouch!
How about the race-car performance Jason Bourne gets out of a stolen 25 year old taxicab?
These are great, I would definitely watch a movie that addressed some of these in a clever way.
In a shootout, the good guy armed with a pistol will always out shoot three or four bad guys armed with fully automatic machine guns.
That you get blown away when you get shot. Most of the time when you get shot you won't realise it for a couple of minutes.
Would be nice if someone would make a movie based on these descriptions not happening in real life. Would be insanely boring movie. Especially no music. Like space odyssey. Just listening a guy breathing heavily for a long period of time
#38, I just wish somebody would make a movie with ONLY normal background sounds, and NOso called 'background music', just to see how it was received by the public. I am getting old, but I can't be the only one who can't hear a bloody word of some conversations in movies because their is an orchestra playing inthe backround , drowning out the voices.
Weird how many people here don’t understand movies are not real - nor are most intended to be. If you watched a movie in real time without the little things to move the story along and save time YOU’D BE BORED OUT OF YOUR MIND.
Well, clearly the movie is boring if you have time to notice these things, so...
Load More Replies...Well, sure, but movies are about suspension of disbelief. If you want to watch real life just go down to your local downtown and watch the homeless people argue over who gets to work the intersection today. We know it's fantasy, but it it wasn't it wouldn't be half as much fun to watch.