9 Movie Clichés That Prove Scriptwriters Know Very Little About Real Life
No matter how hyper-realistic a movie is, you’ll always find some clichés that are invalid in real life. Some are incredibly predictable, such as removing glasses to instantly look more attractive, or even 30-year-olds playing teenagers in high school. But some movies simply rely on conventions to keep things rolling (pun intended). 5-Minute Crafts found even more movie clichés that films just can’t run without.
1. Casting adults as teenagers
For moviemakers, it’s easier to cast an older actor because teenage actors may not have enough acting experience to deliver the role as well as adult actors would. However, this move can sometimes make a movie look too unrealistic. As one Reddit user explained, “When all the high school kids look like they’re well into their thirties.” — © WhenAllElseFail / Reddit
For instance, Andrew Garfield was 27 when he put on a Spider-Man suit, Tobey Maguire was 26 when he was cast as Peter Parker in Spider-Man, Leonardo DiCaprio was 27 when he played a 17-year-old con man in Catch Me If You Can, and Rachel McAdams was 26 when she played Regina George in Mean Girls.
2. Hackers can easily hack any system by typing on keys.
Almost every espionage or heist team in a movie has a hacker. According to one Redditor, “The hacker who always conveniently knows everything and is able to break into secure databases by blindly typing at their keyboard.” — © DitDashDashDashDash. Sometimes, very little effort is put into these roles. In reality, successful system hacking requires a lot of skill and effort.
For instance, in the Fast & Furious movies, Tej simply types on keys and hacks the CIA system.
3. Removing one’s glasses makes a character more attractive.
A Redditor claims that many fans don’t like it when actors take their glasses off and suddenly they’re attractive. Through this move, the protagonist gets a great makeover all of the sudden. In The Princess Diaries, Mia also lets her hair down and gets rid of her glasses. The same trope is applied to men as well, like in the movie, Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire gets noticed by his crush, Mary Jane, after he removes his glasses.
4. Every planet has a breathable atmosphere.
One of the clichés in a few sci-fi movies is that every planet has a breathable atmosphere and everyone gets out of their spaceship on the planet with no protection. A Redditor presents the movie, Alien: Covenant, as an example. In reality, as per NASA, if you’re in space, you need a spacesuit to withstand extreme temperatures, carry oxygen to breathe in the space vacuum, avoid getting injured by tiny objects in space dust, protect yourself from radiation, and a lot more.
5. Air vents are extremely large and the character can crawl around freely inside of them.
If the protagonist is trapped in a room, there is a big air vent in the wall. And it’s big enough for a person to fit in and crawl through. Also, the front grill is never screwed into the wall, so they can easily remove it with zero tools. In reality, most air vents are narrow, would need a screwdriver to open, and have no light source inside.
6. The character never has to wait for a cab or train.
The character will always catch a cab easily if they need it. They just step out of a building and see a cab passing that is waiting for their call. Also, if the character is being chased by some bad guys at a train station, they’ll barely get onto the train that just left the station, and the bad guys will show up late by a few seconds, looking at the protagonist angrily as the train departs. We only wish it was so convenient in reality.
7. The stolen clothes always fit.
In order to disguise themselves, the protagonist can steal clothes from someone. Surprisingly, those clothes will always fit them perfectly. For instance, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, everyone drank Polyjuice Potion to become like Harry. But when Fred and George showed up at the Burrow after being chased by the Death Eaters, Harry’s smaller clothes still fit them.
8. Running in heels is easy and comfortable.
As per the actress, Ginger Rogers, “A woman can do everything a man can do, but backward and in high heels.” Action movies show the latter in the literal sense. The characters run as fast as they can, which is really a challenge to do in high heels in real life. But for some reason, the actresses in Jurassic World, Catwoman, and Inferno all manage to sprint without taking their heels off.
9. Long hair never gets in the way.
In comic books, the characters with waist-length hair can still fight crime because they’re just drawings. But in real life or in live-action films, it seems illogical to do so. But Marvel corrected this flaw when it came to Black Widow. When she made her first appearance in Iron Man 2, she had a mane of loose curls that never got entangled. But when her standalone movie, Black Widow, came out, she had a pulled-back braided style, which turned out to be more practical.