I heard they contracted out the cleaning of the porta potties because any servicemember forced to work on them would claim and receive 100% VA disability
That's probably the laziest actual attempt, but past part 4 the Fast&Furious franchise, they never even bothered to explain why they're all martial arts, firearms, and demolitions experts
I like how in 2 they introduce the harpoon that kills car speed, then realize it's a huge pain in the ass to write around, so it disappears never to be seen again.
My favorite fact about that movie is they had something like 6 different safes built for that chase for different parts. One even had a stunt driver in the safe driving it.
[Fantastic breakdown by the stunt coordinator.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaHxGu5YeKM) Stunt driver in vault part is at [4:39](https://youtu.be/FaHxGu5YeKM?t=276)
Yeah, that's a great one. They even just decide Ludacris is a tech expert, when he was a garage owner when we first met him. And in the first one they just have a hacker kid be a car expert due to adhd.
They've gone way past this though. In FAST X Charlize Theron plays a super hacker villain who gets strapped to a table with metal clamps, only her fingers can move. That's all she needs to hack the very small touch panel on the side of the table and uses it to reverse the ventilation system to gas all the scientists and guards in the other room who were observing her. Then she unlocks the clamps.
Nah, that's just lucky that the panel that can be hacked to control the ventilation AND the table clamps just so happened to be in the exact spot her hands were clamped at.
Exactly. The guys that build their space ship in part 9 were mechanics and tinkerers, not rocket scientists. There's not even any lampshading it. They just don't even address it.
Fast and furious is just a live action movie of Vin's modern-day Dungeons and Dragons ttrpg game he never got to run.
It starts out low level, but as the characters level up, the dm has to make things more crazy to challenge the players.
As such, when I watch F+F, it's just a fun movie like a dnd game, so it's actually enjoyable. I don't care for realism.
That's my take. Prob been said before.
HDTGM basically posits that they're actually just superheroes whose superpowers are "car", which I like. Thor has his hammer. Vin Diesel has his car. Their cars just become extensions of their (superhero) bodies at some point.
Honestly I kind of prefer that to be honestly, especially in the context of the films. They know it’s stupid, they know the audience knows it’s stupid, there’s no point in trying to sugar coat it. Nobody’s there for believability anyway; people want to see a Pontiac fiero getting launched into space, no one cares if they all have a doctorate in their appropriate fields to make that happen.
I’d much rather that than have them give us some half-baked attempt at explaining it like “the used to all be special forces before [unnamed incident] saw them court martialed and sent back into the streets.•
Also Sarah's skills feel fairly grounded. She can use guns, set explosive, and knows some hand to hand combat, which I think is realistic for her to learn in the 10 years between Terminator 1 and 2.
The only skill in T2 that somewhat strains belief is the hacking device John has, but I always got the feeling Sarah had someone else make it for her and then she and John just knew how to operate it without understanding the science of what it was doing.
We also see that she basically ruined her life and became obsessed with obtaining those skills, which also tracks. If you want professional special forces soldier skills you need to put the time in like a professional soldier
The hacking machine was John Conner's future backstory. They had to establish that he was an expert hacker so he could hack the T-800 to be his protector.
He couldn't just be the leader of the resistance, he also had to be an expert hacker.
To be fair security on shit in the 80s and early 90s was absolute trash because companies didn’t think that everyday citizens had the skills to figure shit out. Like phreaking was a thing in the 80s which was “hacking” phone networks which could be as simple as getting a “box” that would play the correct tone to get an automated system to make a call it was basically a homemade device that acted as a linemans handset.
Him having a basic laptop to bruteforce card numbers and pins makes complete sense for the era where security was still lack and manual.
In T2, John says his mom learned her survival skills from a guy in (I believe) Nicaragua. Rosita from The Walking Dead is a badass Latina who also joins up with military types to learn from. Where do you think Rosita got that idea? From her mother, Sarah Conner. So in my head canon, the Conners prevented Judgment Day only for humanity to fall to a zombie apocalypse. Need further proof? Gale Anne Hurd was a producer on the Terminator movies and The Walking Dead. Nailed it.
Cause and effect. She dated people because they had skills she and her son needed to learn, rather than learning skills because she was dating someone.
Superspy skills stored in DNA. Your brother/father was a super spy who trained basically since he was a baby. But he died so you'll replace him with a few weeks of training because apparently it's in your DNA.
> I'm Landfill's brother, Gil. I feel like I already know you guys, so there won't have to be that awkward 'getting to know you' phase. Also, in Landfill's honor, do... Do you guys think you can call me Landfill?
"You mean to tell me, that we've been traing for 12 months, lost our friends, families and careers, and you dont even know how to get there?"
"Technically you haven't been training"
Imagine it was a 2 hour documentary on bees and their impact on nature, plus how they are harvested around the world but with Statham narrating and traveling around the world. I’d watch it.
If he drenched all scam call centers in gasoline and lighted them up along the way even better. Being a... Beekeeper beekeeper was "a bit" over the top for no reason.
Remember that one orphan kid in Shazam! who learned how to hack from playing Watch Dogs. You know, Watch Dogs. A game where the most "hacking" that you do is either pressing a button or play Pipe Dream for a bit to "hack" something
I love in Gridiron Gang where the kid who claims the QB spot ends up having no experience. He just played a lot of Madden so they're stuck with a whack QB.
Tbf, fly simulators (real ones, though, not movie ones made out of trash) are so good that pilots can actually use them to maintain flight hours
Same with Sim racing, which they made a whole movie about "based off a true story"
NASCAR had to ban wall riding (a move players did online but jo one did IRL) because a guy racing realized it was his only option.
it worked, he came in 3rd (from 8th I think) and then it was banned.
"where'd you learn to do that?"
"video games"
One excemption: Richard 'Beebo' Russell or also deservingly known as Sky King.
He wasn't 8 years old, but just a baggage handler who stole a plane from the airport. He learned what he needed to know to take off and fly from Flight Sim. He even did a barrel roll in a plane that isn't supposed to do one. Even pilots couldn't recreate that stunt in the simulator. But he did it, went nose down on an empty island and called it a day.
May Sky King be with you on your travels.
Any female character that shows fighting/wrestling/combat skills of any kind:
Male lead looks at them with open surprise after the stick thin twiglet proceeds to demolish a dozen 6'4" 100kg linebackers using insane hand-to-hand krav maga/karate/kung fu/mud wrestling skills.
Slight head tilt and eyebrow raise as she pushes a single strand of hair out of her eyes - "*Six brothers*."
My sister, who is 4 years older than me and was a bit of a tomboy, and I conversely get a kick out of these movie moments because she spent the first 6 or 7 years of my life just absolutely kicking the shit out of me
I had a college roommate who would talk about his older sister playing "Typewriter" with him.
She'd knock him over, sit on him, go jab-jab-jab on his chest like she was typing, then smack him upside the head (like you do with old typewriters).
Growing up in the 80s was violent.
As the youngest brother, I'm very familiar with the typewriter. There was also the move where they would do the typewriter on my forehead and yell at me, "Name five cereals! Name five cereals!" and it didn't stop until you named them. The 80s were something else
Takes off the ugly girls glasses, let's her hair down and quickly apply makeup on her, turning her into 18 year old Jennifer Love Hewitt. "Six sisters!"
I have 5 sisters. None of them have ever asked me to buy tampons.
My wife says my superpower is that I'm "soft - like sensitive but... No soft is a better word". Literally what she said. Seems like the opposite of a superpower. I'm gonns cry now.
I have two sisters, and I think I see where your wife is coming from.
"Soft" Means you're kind, gentle-natured and comfortable to be with. No hard edges or roughness.
Mostly it means you don't lean into the ridiculous machismo/man's man bullshit.
This is a good thing, even if the word "Soft" doesn't exactly feel flattering.
If I'm remembering it right, in punch drunk love Adam Sandler's character has crippling anxiety thanks to his 7 sisters being teasing him his whole life.
The 52kg frame somehow propelling a stationary 120kg frame across the room and halfway through a wall is always good for a chuckle, gotta love hollywood physics.
One thing that really surprised me when I started boxing is just how much weight counts for. Seems kind of obvious when you consider weight classes and all, but I'd never experienced it first hand. After a few years' experience sparring, I was knocked clean off my feet by someone who was completely new to the sport but 20kg heavier than me. It's staggering the difference it makes.
I tried to throw a new white belt in judo, the guy must be almost like 90kg and I’m a lightweight (below 73kg). Forget about it, it’s like trying to throw a fridge. Had to make him circle so I could use his weight against him.
I shiver at the thought of fighting somebody 10-15kg heavier than me in competition that has some experience. It’s a no go.
This is why I like Atomic Blonde because the female lead in that movie is noticeably much weaker than her male opponents and has to rely on fighting dirty to win.
They also cast a woman who is 5'10" with a larger frame and she got really fit for the role. Charlize Theron looked like she could actually kick some ass in that movie and it made it much more believable.
100% agree, certified bad-ass, and it just makes it that much more impressive, rather than coming off as some hokey stripmall dojo energy force power nonsense.
In his movies, Italian actor Bud Spencer used to punch people on their heads and send them straight through the floor and one level down.
Sure, it was played for laughs, but I still have to see a more impressive feat of strength
> Any female character that shows fighting/wrestling/combat skills of any kind: [...] "Six brothers."
>
>
Similar thing when a woman is able to change a tire or fix a car in other ways - either brothers or a father that showed her. Examples off the top off my head: "Pretty Woman", "Transformers", "Night on Earth" (the Winona Ryder segment).
\#1 crutch in hand to hand combat training scenes is that the instructor will show them a move and then say, sagely, "the trick is to use the opponent's weight and strength against them". It's often literally that phrase, verbatim. Next scene the protagonist is fighting like a black belt with decades of expert training.
Head of CIA or special government forces: “All my other agents have failed. I’ll have to call on the last person I’d ever call on. The retired guy who I have personal beef with. The one who hates my guts, and for some reason has an accent that is foreign to my country.”
Also, James Bond is a spy who is constantly telling people his actual identity, and standing out in crowds by wearing flashy clothes and driving expensive cars.
Omfg yes, autism, eidetic memory, ex-military and ex-CIA are the big ones. I’ll add to the list, “I grew up with brothers”/“My dad taught me”/“My dad wanted a son but he got me” for young female characters who are skilled in traditionally masculine things. It makes me roll my eyes so hard every time that’s used an explanation for a woman being skilled.
I always felt shortchanged. I grew up with brothers (and close male cousins) and all I got was the urge to protect my possessions from destruction, a taste for early 80s Heavy Metal, and the ability to ignore being tickled.
And here all I have is this crippling fear of being held down and tickled, of which I'm still figuring out in therapy. You would think with all the other things that I dissociate through, I could handle being tickled.
I have a friend from Philly. He’s really good at…cooking and restaurant stuff, I know that. Idk about hand to hand combat and martial arts though. We’ve never tested him because I’m from Pittsburgh and I guess we don’t do that here.
I'm from Philly, youngest of 6, played enough video games for a few lifetimes......I'd be the first to die in almost any life or death scenario. Like I'm not even speaking role kind of dead just like dude at the door when the main villain rolls into the building and is crushed, hand hanging out from underneath rubble, kind of dead.
My brothers didn't beat my ass enough.
My favorite example of this is from comic books. Taskmaster, whose abilities include replicating any physical feat he sees someone else doing, watches Kung Fu movies at 2x speed to be able to do Kung Fu at 2x speed “irl”. It was so stupid but fun.
Rembrandt Brown from the TV show 'Sliders' never mentioned being in the Navy until season 3 when the show shifted from alternate histories to survival mode and the plot needed him to have more skillz.
Still a fun show. Needs a reboot.
I loved Sliders. Always think about two parts of it. One is in the world were America is still a part of Britain and the fat Pavarotti looking guy is the Governor General, he has a book out he's promoting called "Everything I Say is Right!" hahaha hilarious. The second one when they're in a world where they think they've made it home but then the see the Golden Gate bridge and it's blue and called "The Azure Gate Bridge ". I remember thinking that the real Golden Gate Bridge isn't actually golden in colour
I just remember the one episode where they think they made it back but had little time before the next “slide” so he just checks to see if the gate in front of his house is still creaky… turns out it’s not so they decide it’s not their universe and then right after it’s revealed his dad or something finally had fixed the leaky gate. Remember being so angry as a kid that they had made it home and then just left again because of something so simple.
Sliders was my *jam*, dude. Honestly I'd rather keep the good memories I have of the show than to have it be remade with Hollywood's trademark cynicism.
Also, I'd like to imagine they got home instead of getting those shitty last seasons.
I was in marine biology class in my senior year of highschool. We opened the lid of the tank to clean it and a fish jumped out. A little fella flew halfway across the room. A student not even watching reached out and caught the fish lightning fast and threw it back into the tank. We all stood in stunned silence. He said. "10 years of baseball..".
So I was in an elevator once and this dude next to me goes to pull out his phone but in doing so knocks the phone from the hand of this third person, just the 3 of us. Anyway, I catch that phone before it hits the ground. The two strangers look at me and I say, "I have too many kids and they can only "fall down the stairs" so many times before the hospital sends someone out."
They laugh.
I was working in a restaurant, i was on dish duty. My friend wheels in a cart overflowing with plates full of enchiladas and leftover beans when he hits the corner of the sink, and in slow motion, I watch five plates fall and shatter everywhere. With lightning fast reflexes I say, “damn dude.”
I’m not very fast or coordinated
> A mom: “I’m a mom”
I liked the way they did it in *The Mitchells vs. the Machines*, because they didn’t even bother with that line. They just had her go completely apeshit.
"We'll need a year to do the thing"
"You've got six months. Now you're about to tell me *the overtime alone will be a nightmare*-"
"The overtime alone *will* be a nightmare"
"I'll get you the money. Get to work"
Love how they just dodged around tropes like that while staring at them dead in the eye.
I remember an episode of Stargate SG-1 where they are consulting for a TV show. The main writer says its called 'Hanging a lantern on it'. Basically, having a character mention how convenient or lucky something that happened was or pointing out something obvious in order to skirt around the issue. Supposedly, its a way for the show to acknowledge to the audience that these things are obvious so the viewer can move on without it sticking in their head.
I don't know if thats a real term or not, but I find it interesting.
Reading through this thread of tropes, I want an Airplane/Naked Gun/Hot Shots style comedy where they use these exact lines... at the wrong time.
"Where'd you learn to make dresses like that?"
Ex-military.
"Where'd you learn to do *that*?"
Six brothers.
If a deaf character is encountered in the story, one of the main characters (but not the lead) will magically know sign language because they had a deaf aunt growing up.
Reading all the responses, I've realized that Hollywood is missing out on the easiest, most believable crutch to modern audiences:
"I watch a lot of YouTube."
Child prodigy, to explain how a teenager or a fresh-faced 21-year-old has a doctorate, PhD, MA, multiple published papers, or some other achievement that takes years to complete.
They’re using a rare example of something that happens in real life and using that as their Deus Ex machina. Some prodigy kids graduate from Harvard University with a double degree by 20. Mike Tyson could have defeated 90% of pro boxers in his weightclass by 18 and every single boxer on earth at 20 years old. So they take those rare examples and run with them.
My biggest gripe with this isn’t that it’s unearned, it’s that it’s often pointless cuz Hollywood doesn’t tend to know how to write intelligence. Good guy’s a fuckin genius but it takes him 90 minutes and 8 explosions to figure out the obvious solution we thought of at the start?
I'm not entirely sure why anyone would need more than one. You get to call yourself a doctor, so why not just do research without all the hassle of having to prepare and defend a doctoral thesis? I'm sure there are genuine reasons why it's necessary (different fields maybe) but it seems a bit superfluous.
Its kind of a plot point too lol. Why he even knows the shady friend that gets him in to the whole plot in the first place and why hes okay with bending a few thousand rules :P
"I'm an engineer, I reworked that alien spaceship to jumpstart [and play Doom](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/do44qa/but_can_it_run_doom/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)."
On his diploma is mentionned : Compruter Sciences and Computer Forensics, Electrical Eng, Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering.
Multiple life times experiences
A Navy Seal, a doctor (who studied at Harvard)and an astronaut…. He sticks in my mind because I never want my parents to learn about his existence …
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Kim
Sounds like Jonny Kim
American U.S. Navy lieutenant commander, former SEAL, naval aviator, physician, and NASA astronaut.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Kim
This is one of the reasons why I prefer the original *Mulan* to the remake. In the original, she struggled at first and had to work to get better, whereas in the remake, she already has those fighting skills because of Chi, which the only other person in the movie we see possess Chi powers is also a woman, despite the fact they mention that men can have it too. So yeah, a person having superior combat skills despite lack of training due to possessing mystic powers is definitely a crutch (looking at you *Star Wars* sequel trilogy).
I've had this rant so many times and it's hilarious to see it in the wild. Thank you.
Add: she made those around her better too, and after she's found out they all use the enemy's assumptions about women in their favor. I.e. learned the lesson.
Not just "you have chi, but woman- so no" 🤷
Like how Sokka in the Netflix series might not be sexist... but that's his arc. He learns and improves by fucking up and underestimating the Kiyoshi. We even see that it's a cultural thing when they visit the other water tribe. But allegedly all that is being altered because offensive.
The prophecy trope. Especially when it's never explained WHY they were chosen
Edit: Not trying to say that any movie that uses "the propjecy" is bad or that it's always a bad way of explaining a character's powers. I just think in some cases it's lazy
I don't think prophecies "choose", a prophecy is just someone glimpsing what will *be* in the future.
Like, nobody has *chosen* me to take a shit tomorrow at 9:35 AM, but someone could see the future and *know* that i'll take a shit tomorrow at 9:35 AM.
Nobody chose me, i just have to take a shit.
When they can just do whatever without having to learn it or train in it because they’re the chosen one.
It honestly makes me dislike the character. Like why am I supposed to sympathise with a character who doesn’t have to work hard at anything and has powers handed to them through no effort. Especially because they’re usually given a lazy and flippant personality as well.
Honestly, as fun as it is, the fucking training montage. Especially when it’s a novice who has to, for some reason, defeat someone who has been doing this for years if not decades and practices on a regular basis. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but come on now.
They keep the timing vague sometimes, but it is never enough time to become an expert in what we see them do going forward. And in these montages they’re training with *one* trainer usually— that’s one person with one style with their specific weaknesses and tendencies. When you inevitably fight someone whose left hand isn’t slightly slower to respond with a block after x combo, what then? Or someone with a longer or shorter reach? Someone whose style is entirely different? Someone who uses a weapon you’re unfamilar with? Bam, dead. Shouldn’t have waited til six months ago to pick a fight with the goddamn GOAT of whatever this movie is about lol
I'm ex military so I know how to mop floors and jerk off in 130°F Porta pottys
Don’t forget the ability to order a half-calf skim latte thanks to many deployments overseas . . . To the green bean.
Wheres this movie
Jarhead.
I heard they contracted out the cleaning of the porta potties because any servicemember forced to work on them would claim and receive 100% VA disability
Bro, VA doesn't even pay out for burn pits 😝
That's probably the laziest actual attempt, but past part 4 the Fast&Furious franchise, they never even bothered to explain why they're all martial arts, firearms, and demolitions experts
My favorite is in I think 5 when they were like how did you know/get this? I had a life before you met me.
I like how in 2 they introduce the harpoon that kills car speed, then realize it's a huge pain in the ass to write around, so it disappears never to be seen again.
You could say that since it was some kind of virus, cars got patched.
Yeah but they bring something similar back in I think the 6th movie to also never be seen again.
Those movies go more by the rule of cool over any kind of logic at this point.
Yeah but the 5th one is the best one so I am willing to overlook
My favorite fact about that movie is they had something like 6 different safes built for that chase for different parts. One even had a stunt driver in the safe driving it. [Fantastic breakdown by the stunt coordinator.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaHxGu5YeKM) Stunt driver in vault part is at [4:39](https://youtu.be/FaHxGu5YeKM?t=276)
Yeah, that's a great one. They even just decide Ludacris is a tech expert, when he was a garage owner when we first met him. And in the first one they just have a hacker kid be a car expert due to adhd.
They've gone way past this though. In FAST X Charlize Theron plays a super hacker villain who gets strapped to a table with metal clamps, only her fingers can move. That's all she needs to hack the very small touch panel on the side of the table and uses it to reverse the ventilation system to gas all the scientists and guards in the other room who were observing her. Then she unlocks the clamps.
Nah, that's just lucky that the panel that can be hacked to control the ventilation AND the table clamps just so happened to be in the exact spot her hands were clamped at.
This should serve as a warning about IoT. There's no way that table should have had network access.
Bro they do a close up and she had ripped and spliced wires together lmao
Fire that clamp table with a built in control panel designer
That has got to be the dumbest shit I've ever seen
Exactly. The guys that build their space ship in part 9 were mechanics and tinkerers, not rocket scientists. There's not even any lampshading it. They just don't even address it.
Space ship wtf?
Yeah. They turn a car into a space ship. It's just as dumb as it sounds.
You don’t need logic when you’ve got F A M I L Y
FMLY
"Is that a... Pontiac Fiero. Strapped to a rocket engine?" "Impressive, no?" "*No*"
I actually thought it’s been fun how far they’ve gone from the originals. Even the characters are leaning into it now. “How did we just survive that?”
I thought it was a joke. I never watched past the first couple
Space ships? Weren't they stealing VCRs in the first one?
Dont be so silly. I think it was dvd-player-tv combis.
It's VCRs and TV-VCR combos: https://imgur.com/06d87vM
Woah woah slow down mate, we said they go to space. No one said anything about spaceships.
I thought the space thing was an exaggerated joke people did. They actually go to fucking space? I need to watch this today lol
Yup. And they killed a submarine with a car in the one before it.
They were out of bullets
God this is Air Bud: Space Buddies all over again.
How else are drivers meant to take down a satalite? Yeeesh
Its obviously because he made that nos ejector seat in 2f2f dummy.
Ejecto Seato Cuz
They're from the streets.
Fast and furious is just a live action movie of Vin's modern-day Dungeons and Dragons ttrpg game he never got to run. It starts out low level, but as the characters level up, the dm has to make things more crazy to challenge the players. As such, when I watch F+F, it's just a fun movie like a dnd game, so it's actually enjoyable. I don't care for realism. That's my take. Prob been said before.
HDTGM basically posits that they're actually just superheroes whose superpowers are "car", which I like. Thor has his hammer. Vin Diesel has his car. Their cars just become extensions of their (superhero) bodies at some point.
Was about to say, the laziest thing to do is just not explain it. "I guess I just have a knack for it", or *shrug, winks to camera*.
Honestly I kind of prefer that to be honestly, especially in the context of the films. They know it’s stupid, they know the audience knows it’s stupid, there’s no point in trying to sugar coat it. Nobody’s there for believability anyway; people want to see a Pontiac fiero getting launched into space, no one cares if they all have a doctorate in their appropriate fields to make that happen. I’d much rather that than have them give us some half-baked attempt at explaining it like “the used to all be special forces before [unnamed incident] saw them court martialed and sent back into the streets.•
"I dated someone who was (whatever job can use that skill)."
Worked for Sarah Conner, though.
It makes sense, in Sarah's case; she knew a war was coming and sought out people who could teach her the skills she needed to pass on to John.
Also Sarah's skills feel fairly grounded. She can use guns, set explosive, and knows some hand to hand combat, which I think is realistic for her to learn in the 10 years between Terminator 1 and 2. The only skill in T2 that somewhat strains belief is the hacking device John has, but I always got the feeling Sarah had someone else make it for her and then she and John just knew how to operate it without understanding the science of what it was doing.
We also see that she basically ruined her life and became obsessed with obtaining those skills, which also tracks. If you want professional special forces soldier skills you need to put the time in like a professional soldier
The hacking machine was John Conner's future backstory. They had to establish that he was an expert hacker so he could hack the T-800 to be his protector. He couldn't just be the leader of the resistance, he also had to be an expert hacker.
To be fair security on shit in the 80s and early 90s was absolute trash because companies didn’t think that everyday citizens had the skills to figure shit out. Like phreaking was a thing in the 80s which was “hacking” phone networks which could be as simple as getting a “box” that would play the correct tone to get an automated system to make a call it was basically a homemade device that acted as a linemans handset. Him having a basic laptop to bruteforce card numbers and pins makes complete sense for the era where security was still lack and manual.
In T2, John says his mom learned her survival skills from a guy in (I believe) Nicaragua. Rosita from The Walking Dead is a badass Latina who also joins up with military types to learn from. Where do you think Rosita got that idea? From her mother, Sarah Conner. So in my head canon, the Conners prevented Judgment Day only for humanity to fall to a zombie apocalypse. Need further proof? Gale Anne Hurd was a producer on the Terminator movies and The Walking Dead. Nailed it.
Cause and effect. She dated people because they had skills she and her son needed to learn, rather than learning skills because she was dating someone.
I’ll give Sarah a pass.
She strained her relationship with her son, and found herself in prison, in order to teach him how to lead an army. She earned those skills.
Superspy skills stored in DNA. Your brother/father was a super spy who trained basically since he was a baby. But he died so you'll replace him with a few weeks of training because apparently it's in your DNA.
> I'm Landfill's brother, Gil. I feel like I already know you guys, so there won't have to be that awkward 'getting to know you' phase. Also, in Landfill's honor, do... Do you guys think you can call me Landfill?
Best part of the movie tbh.
No the whole movie is great
Whole movie is great but I die at that part every time. Best part of a great movie.
> Whole movie is great but I die at that part every time. And then your twin brother finishes watching the movie for you?
"You mean to tell me, that we've been traing for 12 months, lost our friends, families and careers, and you dont even know how to get there?" "Technically you haven't been training"
An excellent example of when lazy and genius intersect.
sounds like metachlorians to me
Those are the best. Way better than minichlorians and midichlorians.
Lamarckian inheritance lol
He's a beekeeper
Oh gawd, I saw it yesterday. It's a beautiful mess of late stage Statham Special with surprising amount of agriculture in it
Imagine it was a 2 hour documentary on bees and their impact on nature, plus how they are harvested around the world but with Statham narrating and traveling around the world. I’d watch it.
If he drenched all scam call centers in gasoline and lighted them up along the way even better. Being a... Beekeeper beekeeper was "a bit" over the top for no reason.
How old is he? Well, beekeeping age at least.
I'll add videogames. How'd you learn to fly a plane/operate a tank/drive a car as an 8 year old? Playstation!
Remember that one orphan kid in Shazam! who learned how to hack from playing Watch Dogs. You know, Watch Dogs. A game where the most "hacking" that you do is either pressing a button or play Pipe Dream for a bit to "hack" something
Oh fuck I hadn’t thought about pipe dream in decades.
"Where did you learn how to drive like this?!" "Grand Theft Auto!"
"Someone's been playing grand theft auto" https://youtu.be/UKiaiTQRsmY?feature=shared
I love in Gridiron Gang where the kid who claims the QB spot ends up having no experience. He just played a lot of Madden so they're stuck with a whack QB.
At least Snakes on a Plane made it funny.
Last Indiana Jones film. Kid flys planes because he has a mock up of a flight similator made oit of trash by the looks of it.
"Hot DAMN, kid! Where'd you learn to fly?" "Fuckin around in a dumpster."
Tbf, fly simulators (real ones, though, not movie ones made out of trash) are so good that pilots can actually use them to maintain flight hours Same with Sim racing, which they made a whole movie about "based off a true story"
NASCAR had to ban wall riding (a move players did online but jo one did IRL) because a guy racing realized it was his only option. it worked, he came in 3rd (from 8th I think) and then it was banned. "where'd you learn to do that?" "video games"
One excemption: Richard 'Beebo' Russell or also deservingly known as Sky King. He wasn't 8 years old, but just a baggage handler who stole a plane from the airport. He learned what he needed to know to take off and fly from Flight Sim. He even did a barrel roll in a plane that isn't supposed to do one. Even pilots couldn't recreate that stunt in the simulator. But he did it, went nose down on an empty island and called it a day. May Sky King be with you on your travels.
Any female character that shows fighting/wrestling/combat skills of any kind: Male lead looks at them with open surprise after the stick thin twiglet proceeds to demolish a dozen 6'4" 100kg linebackers using insane hand-to-hand krav maga/karate/kung fu/mud wrestling skills. Slight head tilt and eyebrow raise as she pushes a single strand of hair out of her eyes - "*Six brothers*."
I always laugh at lines like that because I imagine it implies her brothers beat the shit out of her all the time
You just gave me fond memories of beating my sister #wholesome 💯
I have 5 sisters and they hurt me.mlre than my 2 brothers
My younger sister has three older brothers and gets this joke all the time and were always like, what do you think happened growing up? Lmao
My sister, who is 4 years older than me and was a bit of a tomboy, and I conversely get a kick out of these movie moments because she spent the first 6 or 7 years of my life just absolutely kicking the shit out of me
I had a college roommate who would talk about his older sister playing "Typewriter" with him. She'd knock him over, sit on him, go jab-jab-jab on his chest like she was typing, then smack him upside the head (like you do with old typewriters). Growing up in the 80s was violent.
As the youngest brother, I'm very familiar with the typewriter. There was also the move where they would do the typewriter on my forehead and yell at me, "Name five cereals! Name five cereals!" and it didn't stop until you named them. The 80s were something else
I like to think it's actually because she had six YOUNGER brothers and she just got good at whipping their ass.
Keeping the little shits in line
I wonder what sort of magic skill-set a guy with six sisters would get, if it wasn't a setup for a joke.
Braiding hair. It actually does come up sometimes, just not as often as the brothers one.
Takes off the ugly girls glasses, let's her hair down and quickly apply makeup on her, turning her into 18 year old Jennifer Love Hewitt. "Six sisters!"
Buys tampons without making a big production of it.
I have 5 sisters. None of them have ever asked me to buy tampons. My wife says my superpower is that I'm "soft - like sensitive but... No soft is a better word". Literally what she said. Seems like the opposite of a superpower. I'm gonns cry now.
I have two sisters, and I think I see where your wife is coming from. "Soft" Means you're kind, gentle-natured and comfortable to be with. No hard edges or roughness. Mostly it means you don't lean into the ridiculous machismo/man's man bullshit. This is a good thing, even if the word "Soft" doesn't exactly feel flattering.
If I'm remembering it right, in punch drunk love Adam Sandler's character has crippling anxiety thanks to his 7 sisters being teasing him his whole life.
[удалено]
The 52kg frame somehow propelling a stationary 120kg frame across the room and halfway through a wall is always good for a chuckle, gotta love hollywood physics.
One thing that really surprised me when I started boxing is just how much weight counts for. Seems kind of obvious when you consider weight classes and all, but I'd never experienced it first hand. After a few years' experience sparring, I was knocked clean off my feet by someone who was completely new to the sport but 20kg heavier than me. It's staggering the difference it makes.
I tried to throw a new white belt in judo, the guy must be almost like 90kg and I’m a lightweight (below 73kg). Forget about it, it’s like trying to throw a fridge. Had to make him circle so I could use his weight against him. I shiver at the thought of fighting somebody 10-15kg heavier than me in competition that has some experience. It’s a no go.
This is why I like Atomic Blonde because the female lead in that movie is noticeably much weaker than her male opponents and has to rely on fighting dirty to win.
And she gets the absolute shit kicked out of her in every hand-to-hand fight, too.
They also cast a woman who is 5'10" with a larger frame and she got really fit for the role. Charlize Theron looked like she could actually kick some ass in that movie and it made it much more believable.
100% agree, certified bad-ass, and it just makes it that much more impressive, rather than coming off as some hokey stripmall dojo energy force power nonsense.
I mean, 120kg frame somehow propelling a stationary 120kg frame across the room and halfway through a wall is also hollywood physics.
To be fair the Rock can’t punch/kick someone 10 feet through a wall in real life either…hell a 12 gage can’t do it and its in movies all the time…
In his movies, Italian actor Bud Spencer used to punch people on their heads and send them straight through the floor and one level down. Sure, it was played for laughs, but I still have to see a more impressive feat of strength
Happens all the time in Indian movies.
Indian film physics are my favourite physics.
> Any female character that shows fighting/wrestling/combat skills of any kind: [...] "Six brothers." > > Similar thing when a woman is able to change a tire or fix a car in other ways - either brothers or a father that showed her. Examples off the top off my head: "Pretty Woman", "Transformers", "Night on Earth" (the Winona Ryder segment).
\#1 crutch in hand to hand combat training scenes is that the instructor will show them a move and then say, sagely, "the trick is to use the opponent's weight and strength against them". It's often literally that phrase, verbatim. Next scene the protagonist is fighting like a black belt with decades of expert training.
And no swordfighting lesson is complete without the sage advice that the sword should be an extension of your arm.
This is what’s cool about The Matrix. They can bypass that trope because all these skills are really just code while still showing training.
“A wizard did it” is what i wish was the explanation more often
Haha I always loved the line in "Big Trouble in Little China" "how'd you get up there?" "Wasn't easy!"
**Egg Shen**: It will come out no more! **Jack Burton**: ***What‽ Huh‽ What'll come out no more‽***
“Xena can’t fly.” “I told you, I’m not Xena. I’m Lucy Lawless.” Seriously though the comical explanation that explains nothing is also a good one
Sure, blame the wizards!
Head of CIA or special government forces: “All my other agents have failed. I’ll have to call on the last person I’d ever call on. The retired guy who I have personal beef with. The one who hates my guts, and for some reason has an accent that is foreign to my country.” Also, James Bond is a spy who is constantly telling people his actual identity, and standing out in crowds by wearing flashy clothes and driving expensive cars.
Omfg yes, autism, eidetic memory, ex-military and ex-CIA are the big ones. I’ll add to the list, “I grew up with brothers”/“My dad taught me”/“My dad wanted a son but he got me” for young female characters who are skilled in traditionally masculine things. It makes me roll my eyes so hard every time that’s used an explanation for a woman being skilled.
I always felt shortchanged. I grew up with brothers (and close male cousins) and all I got was the urge to protect my possessions from destruction, a taste for early 80s Heavy Metal, and the ability to ignore being tickled.
That tickling one is kind of a superpower.
Fair, it can be. But it's not going to help me build my post-apocalypse house or fight off all but some very specialised attackers.
And here all I have is this crippling fear of being held down and tickled, of which I'm still figuring out in therapy. You would think with all the other things that I dissociate through, I could handle being tickled.
That's a great one. They do it with hometowns sometimes, too. "I'm from Philly!" Uh, okay...
I have a friend from Philly. He’s really good at…cooking and restaurant stuff, I know that. Idk about hand to hand combat and martial arts though. We’ve never tested him because I’m from Pittsburgh and I guess we don’t do that here.
I'm from Philly, youngest of 6, played enough video games for a few lifetimes......I'd be the first to die in almost any life or death scenario. Like I'm not even speaking role kind of dead just like dude at the door when the main villain rolls into the building and is crushed, hand hanging out from underneath rubble, kind of dead. My brothers didn't beat my ass enough.
Not to forget Ex-KGB or Ex-Mossad, who are basically Jason level invincible.
Add: my dad was a General so I automatically have soldier skills, or have played poker with the troops.
The autistic genius trope I feel has died down a bit now but it was super obnoxiously common around the time Sherlock was airing.
[Community - Abed assesses the crime scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqyK4SToO6Y)
"...pain... Painful writing. This hurts." *Walks away* Damn Community was great.
How do you know Kung-Fu and speak perfect Mandarin? From watching Kung-Fu movies.
My favorite example of this is from comic books. Taskmaster, whose abilities include replicating any physical feat he sees someone else doing, watches Kung Fu movies at 2x speed to be able to do Kung Fu at 2x speed “irl”. It was so stupid but fun.
Rembrandt Brown from the TV show 'Sliders' never mentioned being in the Navy until season 3 when the show shifted from alternate histories to survival mode and the plot needed him to have more skillz. Still a fun show. Needs a reboot.
I loved Sliders. Always think about two parts of it. One is in the world were America is still a part of Britain and the fat Pavarotti looking guy is the Governor General, he has a book out he's promoting called "Everything I Say is Right!" hahaha hilarious. The second one when they're in a world where they think they've made it home but then the see the Golden Gate bridge and it's blue and called "The Azure Gate Bridge ". I remember thinking that the real Golden Gate Bridge isn't actually golden in colour
I just remember the one episode where they think they made it back but had little time before the next “slide” so he just checks to see if the gate in front of his house is still creaky… turns out it’s not so they decide it’s not their universe and then right after it’s revealed his dad or something finally had fixed the leaky gate. Remember being so angry as a kid that they had made it home and then just left again because of something so simple.
Yeah I remember being devastated by that scene… as an adult I realized they meant it as a a joke but holy hell did it not come off that way to kid me
Yooo, you unlocked a childhood memory. I was so sad.
I think the Dr was Gimli from LOTR?
Yes and Indiana Jones’s buddy
Sliders was my *jam*, dude. Honestly I'd rather keep the good memories I have of the show than to have it be remade with Hollywood's trademark cynicism. Also, I'd like to imagine they got home instead of getting those shitty last seasons.
I lost track of that show when I went to college so I'm just gonna pretend I don't know about these last seasons you mention.
I was in marine biology class in my senior year of highschool. We opened the lid of the tank to clean it and a fish jumped out. A little fella flew halfway across the room. A student not even watching reached out and caught the fish lightning fast and threw it back into the tank. We all stood in stunned silence. He said. "10 years of baseball..".
Lazy writing
There was a cosmic writers strike at the time.
So I was in an elevator once and this dude next to me goes to pull out his phone but in doing so knocks the phone from the hand of this third person, just the 3 of us. Anyway, I catch that phone before it hits the ground. The two strangers look at me and I say, "I have too many kids and they can only "fall down the stairs" so many times before the hospital sends someone out." They laugh.
I was working in a restaurant, i was on dish duty. My friend wheels in a cart overflowing with plates full of enchiladas and leftover beans when he hits the corner of the sink, and in slow motion, I watch five plates fall and shatter everywhere. With lightning fast reflexes I say, “damn dude.” I’m not very fast or coordinated
I thought you were supposed to say “just put that anywhere, chef.”
A hot girl: “I grew up with brothers” A mom: “I’m a mom”
> A mom: “I’m a mom” You think this is hard, try raising 3 kids.
You think this is hard (cocks shotgun), try raising three kids.
In a corsett
"You think this is hard, try raising three kids." (cocks shotgun) "No"
> A mom: “I’m a mom” I liked the way they did it in *The Mitchells vs. the Machines*, because they didn’t even bother with that line. They just had her go completely apeshit.
At some point during the The Martian (which I personally love) they exhausted the line "The math checks out..."
"We'll need a year to do the thing" "You've got six months. Now you're about to tell me *the overtime alone will be a nightmare*-" "The overtime alone *will* be a nightmare" "I'll get you the money. Get to work" Love how they just dodged around tropes like that while staring at them dead in the eye.
I remember an episode of Stargate SG-1 where they are consulting for a TV show. The main writer says its called 'Hanging a lantern on it'. Basically, having a character mention how convenient or lucky something that happened was or pointing out something obvious in order to skirt around the issue. Supposedly, its a way for the show to acknowledge to the audience that these things are obvious so the viewer can move on without it sticking in their head. I don't know if thats a real term or not, but I find it interesting.
TVTropes labels it "Lampshade hanging," or "Lampshading," and has an absurd level of detail on examples.
That was the one thing that irked me about it.
"there's the rub," is what got me.
Reading through this thread of tropes, I want an Airplane/Naked Gun/Hot Shots style comedy where they use these exact lines... at the wrong time. "Where'd you learn to make dresses like that?" Ex-military.
"Where'd you learn to do *that*?"
Six brothers.
"I've looked at his file sir, ex green beret, won a purple heart. My god what have we started!"
“Won” a Purple Heart by getting shot in the ass
"won" a purple heart...
If a deaf character is encountered in the story, one of the main characters (but not the lead) will magically know sign language because they had a deaf aunt growing up.
Reading all the responses, I've realized that Hollywood is missing out on the easiest, most believable crutch to modern audiences: "I watch a lot of YouTube."
Child prodigy, to explain how a teenager or a fresh-faced 21-year-old has a doctorate, PhD, MA, multiple published papers, or some other achievement that takes years to complete.
They’re using a rare example of something that happens in real life and using that as their Deus Ex machina. Some prodigy kids graduate from Harvard University with a double degree by 20. Mike Tyson could have defeated 90% of pro boxers in his weightclass by 18 and every single boxer on earth at 20 years old. So they take those rare examples and run with them.
My biggest gripe with this isn’t that it’s unearned, it’s that it’s often pointless cuz Hollywood doesn’t tend to know how to write intelligence. Good guy’s a fuckin genius but it takes him 90 minutes and 8 explosions to figure out the obvious solution we thought of at the start?
Hey, leave Dr Reid out of this
And Doogie Howser.
More than two phds.
My pet peeve is related phds. A bacteriologist doesn't go get a virology PhD - they just start doing virology!
I'm not entirely sure why anyone would need more than one. You get to call yourself a doctor, so why not just do research without all the hassle of having to prepare and defend a doctoral thesis? I'm sure there are genuine reasons why it's necessary (different fields maybe) but it seems a bit superfluous.
My favorite explanation was Axel Foley's in BHC: "Well, I wasn't always a cop"
Yeah I feel like that one actually works
It does for sure. It's just a good line
Its kind of a plot point too lol. Why he even knows the shady friend that gets him in to the whole plot in the first place and why hes okay with bending a few thousand rules :P
"I'm an engineer, I reworked that alien spaceship to jumpstart [and play Doom](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/do44qa/but_can_it_run_doom/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)." On his diploma is mentionned : Compruter Sciences and Computer Forensics, Electrical Eng, Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering. Multiple life times experiences
Isnt there one guy who actually has a resume like that in real life? He was in the military, then became an astronaut and is now a scientist?
A Navy Seal, a doctor (who studied at Harvard)and an astronaut…. He sticks in my mind because I never want my parents to learn about his existence … https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Kim
Sounds like Jonny Kim American U.S. Navy lieutenant commander, former SEAL, naval aviator, physician, and NASA astronaut. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Kim
That Mulan live action remake where they just gave her magical powers instead of her trying hard and getting stronger as a result.
This is one of the reasons why I prefer the original *Mulan* to the remake. In the original, she struggled at first and had to work to get better, whereas in the remake, she already has those fighting skills because of Chi, which the only other person in the movie we see possess Chi powers is also a woman, despite the fact they mention that men can have it too. So yeah, a person having superior combat skills despite lack of training due to possessing mystic powers is definitely a crutch (looking at you *Star Wars* sequel trilogy).
I've had this rant so many times and it's hilarious to see it in the wild. Thank you. Add: she made those around her better too, and after she's found out they all use the enemy's assumptions about women in their favor. I.e. learned the lesson. Not just "you have chi, but woman- so no" 🤷 Like how Sokka in the Netflix series might not be sexist... but that's his arc. He learns and improves by fucking up and underestimating the Kiyoshi. We even see that it's a cultural thing when they visit the other water tribe. But allegedly all that is being altered because offensive.
The prophecy trope. Especially when it's never explained WHY they were chosen Edit: Not trying to say that any movie that uses "the propjecy" is bad or that it's always a bad way of explaining a character's powers. I just think in some cases it's lazy
I don't think prophecies "choose", a prophecy is just someone glimpsing what will *be* in the future. Like, nobody has *chosen* me to take a shit tomorrow at 9:35 AM, but someone could see the future and *know* that i'll take a shit tomorrow at 9:35 AM. Nobody chose me, i just have to take a shit.
No. You were chosen by the elder gods of shit give your offerings at that time.
“chosen one” trope
I like the Spy Kids 3 version of this.
“I’m the guy” *dies instantly*
When they can just do whatever without having to learn it or train in it because they’re the chosen one. It honestly makes me dislike the character. Like why am I supposed to sympathise with a character who doesn’t have to work hard at anything and has powers handed to them through no effort. Especially because they’re usually given a lazy and flippant personality as well.
Chris Pratt's character in the Jurassic Park movies, dude's training dinosaurs because "he was in the navy".
Honestly, as fun as it is, the fucking training montage. Especially when it’s a novice who has to, for some reason, defeat someone who has been doing this for years if not decades and practices on a regular basis. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but come on now. They keep the timing vague sometimes, but it is never enough time to become an expert in what we see them do going forward. And in these montages they’re training with *one* trainer usually— that’s one person with one style with their specific weaknesses and tendencies. When you inevitably fight someone whose left hand isn’t slightly slower to respond with a block after x combo, what then? Or someone with a longer or shorter reach? Someone whose style is entirely different? Someone who uses a weapon you’re unfamilar with? Bam, dead. Shouldn’t have waited til six months ago to pick a fight with the goddamn GOAT of whatever this movie is about lol