Many of us love watching movies or TV shows, and while they’re made to entertain, that doesn’t mean they should be full of unrealistic moments. Take, for example, a hacker aggressively typing on a WordPress site or a character waking up with perfect hair and makeup.
When a Redditor posed the question, “What’s always portrayed wrong in movies?” the responses came flooding in. People didn’t hesitate to share their frustrations, quickly pointing out the most unrealistic moments that movies just can’t seem to get right. Keep reading to see what made the list!
#1
Zooming in on a CCTV image and shouting ‘enhance’ makes a super blurry image turn 4K.
Image source: OctaneTroopers, Levi Meir Clancy
#2
The fact that whenever someone reads some ancient writing that they translate, it still happens to rhyme in English.
Image source: marioman124, Chris Linnett
#3
Scientists. Usually they have this one sciencey-guy who knows everything from biology to chemistry to physics, and can do complex calculations mentally. Nope, scientists are not walking wikipedias or pubmeds.
Image source: mirgyasen, Polina Tankilevitch
#4
High school students/teenagers. In movies they always have smooth acne-free skin with gym bodies like they all skipped puberty.
Image source: Jennypuki, Paramount Pictures
#5
Crawling in air ducts. Most of they time it’s too small and won’t hold you. Other times you’ll be torn to shreds by the amount of screws in them.
Image source: Longjumping_Fun9815, Adrien Olichon
#6
For context I’m a meat cutter and I run a meat shop on a farm where we slaughter and process animals and cut meat and make produce to sell for retail.
They don’t show it much, but butchering and cutting meat. It’s always some greasy fat guy with disgusting clothes on and just hacking away at some hunk of meat with a cleaver and most times the meat doesn’t even have bones in it so he has no real reason to be using a cleaver and the meat is just like sloppy and loose with blood everywhere. In reality I keep my cut area cold af so the meat stays solid and have different knives for different purposes, most importantly I make sure my clothes stay clean and my face and hands are clean at all times and stay in shape because it can be pretty manual labor.
Image source: JoeMaMa_2000, Kyle Mackie
#7
When a character wants to destroy a computer invariably they will shoot the monitor.
Image source: Natural-School5690, Niclas Illg
#8
Characters with dead-end jobs still always manage to afford decent apartments in major cities instead of living in an alley.
Image source: Poorly-Drawn-Beagle, fox
#9
Parking downtown.
You’re not getting a spot in front of the entrance to the building. EVER. Let alone in the middle of the day.
Image source: BigPZ, Allen Boguslavsky
#10
Driving!!!! No one takes their eyes off the road for that long!!!!
#11
Nobody says goodbye on the phone.
And for that matter, the phone etiquette in general is horrendous.
Image source: heybudsup, Polina Tankilevitch
#12
Chloroform.
It’s takes like, five minutes of inhaling before it knocks you out.
Image source: mammarybagel, 20th Century Fox
#13
People crawling around on top of drop tile ceilings.
Image source: clksNwsls, anonymous
#14
Snakes, always snakes.
They always portray snakes as hostile, aggressive creatures, which always chase you and are always venomous, this cannot be further from the truth.
Snakes are terrified of humans and prefer to run away than bite 99% of the time, chasing people is pointless, it is a waste of energy, and dangerous.
Image source: felixrocket7835, Getty Images
#15
Digging your own grave. Having dug a pool before, I know there’s no way a normal person can dig a perfectly rectangular 6 foot grave without being dead tire and with many hours of breaks and rests.
Image source: theassassintherapist
#16
Some random passerby gives the protagonist information that leads them right to where they need to go.
*Hero standing outside an apartment building, sees some homeless guy on the stoop*
“Hey, you know the guy who lives here?”
“Chaz Guevarra? He hangs out at the pool hall on 47th. He’s usually there from 5:05PM to 8:16PM. Then he goes around the corner for a shawarma. If he’s not there he’ll be at his girlfriend’s house on 84th. Most nights he sleeps there.”
*Hero knows exactly where all those places are*.
Image source: EddieRando21, Lokman Sevim
#17
Someone getting their throat cut. In reality a torrent of blood erupts from the carotid arteries. Everyone involved would be covered. And these guys that walk away from fights with no bruises or broken teeth. Having worked on ambulances I know, unfortunately, what things really look like.
Image source: jaildoc, cottonbro studio
#18
Everyone has their evenings and weekends off. Even chefs, grocery workers…
Image source: sonia72quebec, Louis Hansel
#19
Cars exploding when they run into something.
Image source: Bubbaganewsh, Gen Pol
#20
Graves, there’s always a headstone immediately. You’ve got to let the ground settle for about six months before you can put one up.
Image source: HamsterBorn9372, Brett Sayles
#21
Birthing. Also coffee cups. We know there’s nothing in them!
Image source: Franksandbeens7211, Dilara Doğar
#22
Labor and delivery! They always have this huge six month baby with no umbilical cord. Woman is usually smiling and happy afterwards and it’s not always like that. Some of us are getting stitched up and shaking from being so cold.
Image source: FlutterShyed, Jimmy Conover
#23
Courtroom scenes. A surprise witness shows up with stunning testimony, everyone gasps, and the “good guy” wins/ There are no surprise witnesses. All witnesses and a brief summary of their testimony must be disclosed prior to trial.
Image source: MikeBear68, Saúl Bucio
#24
A gun silencer (actually its called a gun suppressor) are not that quiet.
they are still pretty loud.
Image source: anon, Ketut Subiyanto
#25
Bullet penetration. The couch/table/car door isn’t bullet proof.
Image source: Thatdoobie, Velizar Ivanov
#26
Running. If you don’t go running regularly, you will gas out in a couple 100 meters, even if you are perfectly fit otherwise.
Image source: God_of_Trepidation, Fellipe Ditadi
#27
Many things about school, but here are two that always annoy me:
Teachers are always shown being interrupted by the bell in the middle of a lesson, which never happens. We time things out, and usually use the last couple minutes to put things away, etc.
Also, principals are always referred to in movies as “Principal ______” when in real life, they use the same titles as teachers (Ms., Mr., Dr., etc.); administrators don’t get special prefixes of their own.
Image source: Samuelabra, Kobe –
#28
If you hit someone on the back of the head or karate chop the shoulder, you will not cause them to become unconscious. The person you hit will get angry and punch you in the nose.
Image source: VapoursAndSpleen, Thao Lee
#29
Laboratories. They are always super white and minimalistic to look more science-y and sterile I guess. In reality there is (almost) always a bunch of equipment and various materials out on the bench top or visible on shelves. Real labs are often pretty cluttered and can look dirty because a lot of colors turn yellow/brownish after being sterilized in an autoclave.
Image source: ChichenNuggests, Chokniti Khongchum
#30
Fires in buildings. Firefighters putting out those fires. The effects that the people would go through while in the fires.
A lot of the movies will have hundreds of degree fires blazing around them and they aren’t blistering or even coughing. Most of those peoples throats would be closed in minutes due to the swelling.
Image source: ImAtThePokeStop, Chris Karidis
#31
You don’t hack into computers by guessing the password on the third try, and the computer never makes that “deedly deedly dee” beeping sound while slowly printing out text line by line.
Image source: brock_lee, Mika Baumeister
#32
Pregnancy and childbirth are always romanticised as this easy, clean, sanitised process, when in reality its a moody, screaming, bloody, messy, poop-filled mess of a miracle.
Image source: drax3012
#33
Injecting someone with a needle. You don’t freaking strike a needle through a vein in a 90 degree angle. Like what are you trying to do? Go trough the arm?
Image source: Spacedude2187
#34
Visiting anyone in prison. No, you cannot have your earrings, your necklaces, your watches, your jackets. Everyone has to go through a metal detector and get patted down, even the kids had to go through a metal detector. The kids could not wear short shorts, their shirts could not ride up over their shorts showing their back when sitting, they couldn’t wear flip flops, closed-toed shoes only.
Image source: MollyXDanger502, Getty Images
#35
Space, in so many ways.
– Even in the middle of an asteroid field, those things are still miles apart.
– Why do all spaceships have the same side up? It’s spaceships, not aircrafts. Also, the artificial gravity in Star Trek, Star Wars and similar scifi makes no sense.
– If aliens do exist, they probably do not look remotely human. Even hair, four limbs or teeth have developed so late in our evolution that the chances of them having it are negligible.
– NO! SOUND! IN! SPACE!
Image source: Lvcivs2311
#36
Women going through something traumatic displayed as sitting on their couch in sexy underwear with a glass of wine while being completely styled, maybe a bit smudged mascara.
Image source: gettin_tired_of_you
#37
Military custom & courtesy, which would be easy to write into any scene, but they don’t even bother to salute properly, let alone address each other or navigate chain of command. They never use communications equipment properly or securely. And there’s never any support in the field– maybe one supply guy.
Image source: hmmm_thought_pig
#38
How easy it is to meet women and get a date. The women never act like you’re creepy. Sure you can give me a ride home on the deserted road I love on in the country, I mean we’ve talked for over 2 minutes now.
Image source: CarlJustCarl
#39
Parties. A character has 2 friends and there are 50+ people at their birthday party. Also who are these people sharing their d***s with folks they just met? Never once have I walked into a party & been offered c*****e by a cheerful stranger. NOT ONCE!
Image source: everythingsfun, John Arano
#40
Bullying. Movies always show bullying as either tamer than it really is, or overly cruel.
Image source: Mario_without_Luigi, Mikhail Nilov
Follow Us
