Related: chairs over the head will generally kill people.

Actually saw something on Court TV or something about this, and much of the picture enhancement stuff does work the way they show in CSI. CSI has also suggested new ideas for forensics that are actually used in practice today.

Seems simple enough to me. Studio buys like a dozen phone lines and allows Screenwriters/Directors use one at random in their films. Then simply have the lines hooked up to answering machines loaded full of audio film trailers for the idiots who call the numbers.

HAHA!! Almost exactly what I was going to say! Seriously, who watches a movie for realism? I can just wake up every morning and walk out the front door and experience real life! It's funny because almost all of the situations above are exactly what I love about movies and that's because they aren't real.

Not that im a Magnolia fanatic or anything but the phone number they used in that film (not a 555 one) was an actual number and if you called you got the Tom Cruise schpiel (sp) from the movie, i think it costs some extra bucks to reserve a number for a couple years and most companies say screw it give them a 555 number

completly agree with you on the "any number when heard enough will be remembered" but i'd rather wind up hearing a series of fake numbers then saying "there's that fucking 555 nonsense again" because it would seem a little more real. it'd be like remebering a pizza hut number or something, and it's not like you'd see the same number every movie. there'd be several.the difference between you seeing those commercials and seeing them in a movie would be you don't see them everyday in the exact same way numerous times. i'm live in houston btw, and the one i remember is jim adler, "the texas hammer" 713-LAW-1000. heh. forgot the rest, they always come on channel 20, 26 or 39 during the day time with those court shows i never watch.

"The tough, smart lawyers!"

Adventures of Ford Fairlane.

Dice Clay: My number is 555-_____
Woman: ...hey wait a minute! Don't they only use 555 numbers in the movies?
Dice Clay: No shit honey, you think this is real life?

Somebody set up us the bomb, that's why.

I think Face Off, Heat and Predator 2 are the worst offenders for that cliche':

In "Face Off": Two or three squads of FBI agents in full SWAT gear storm a penthouse. Their opposition is two hookers, about three or four armed goons, a infiltrator posing as the ring leader, a psycho bitch and a little boy.

Everybody except the boy is drugged up to the eyeballs and only armed with pistols, while 40+ SWAT troops are heavily armed and have the element of surprise.

But in the space of ten minutes all the elite federal operatives are dead and the penthouse is strewn with at least thirty bodies, mostly feds. Policemen or federal agents would not suffer 95% casualties in most situations and certainly not against a small group of thugs.

In "Heat": There are about five bank robbers; they are professional, well trained, heavily armed and are not drugged up. At least the writers gave a realistic excuse why these crooks are very dangerous.

But the LAPD are still somewhat dopey and did not call in helicopter or SWAT support and you see normal street cops charge these heavily armed professional criminals with just pistols or shotguns, while the crooks themselves have assault rifles and body armour.

At least twenty cops are killed or wounded because of their reckless stupidity.

In "Predator 2": The LAPD are once again acting in a dopey, reckless manner and are doing a job more suited for the National Guard or State Troopers.

The cops are trying to storm a Columbian drug lair with conventional weapons, while the Columbians are armed with battlefield weapons. The Columbians have apparently wiped out several precincts worth of police officers (it's implied they took out a police chopper too) and they had a enough guns to take over California.

I've always thought that in Heat, they weren't expecting something like that, as it felt to me like they were going to check out a tip, and ended up in a fire fight. I suppose SWAT should have been called in while it was happening. This has never bothered me. And the police don't have automatic weapons.

Well in Heat, SWAT teams, helicopters and more cops should've have been called in much sooner, since they were in the commercial district and most likely only a few blocks away from a police station.

I hate when a dude gets kicked/punched in the nads and then gets up like 10 seconds later and can actually run around. The most recent that I saw this was Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Angelina punches Brad right in the nuts and then he's able to get up in a few seconds and is running around. If you get punched in the nuts you're going to be spewing and down for a good long time.

These days with advertising being what it is, just BUY a real number. It's not that hard - or expensive. Then you set up a recorded message with "Thank you for calling the <movie> information line."

They can even tie it to savings or coupons to see the film again.

And with computers being as good as they are today, you can even create games on the service that link to extras on the DVD (movies like Mission Impossible could use this to generate interest and therefore extra sales).

That's awesome.

... but that's actually a damn good idea. Cheap way of making the numbers seem real AND obtaining cheap advertising.

The part in Transporter 2 where he "removes" the bom from underneath the car...

I also hate how bombs always get disarmed with just 1 second left on the timer.

Well, you know y'all, it's only a movie

If you go by "Terminator 2"...the L.A. SWAT Team.

well that movie wasn't really intended to be realistic but way over the top.

But that doesn't stop people from trying to dial the same number with their own area code. At least the 555-xxxx numbers succeed in eliminating all potential calls to legitimate customers, since regardless of the area code nobody will be holding a 555 number.

-JP

true, but i'm sure if a movie gave the number, area code included, the people would call that number. i'm sure idiots would still probably call their own area code, but i doubt it gets out of hand.

Have you ever actually head butted somebody? I can tell you from personal experience that it really doesn't hurt very much if you know what you are doing. Especially if you headbutt someone in the nose. Your forehead is much harder than the soft cartilage of a nose. So the nose will collapse without you feeling much pain at all. I mean, it isn't a pleasant feeling, but I wouldn't say it hurts that much.

Yeah, but if I had one of those numbers, I wouldn't want to deal with the hundred so people that decided it'd be fun to try to dial (281) xxx-xxxx. I think it's more precautionary than anything...though I really do like the idea of forcing trailers on the jackasses that just have to know who'll answer the number that was mentioned in the film.

Something else to note: for a movie company to use a real number, they'd have to purchase that number and keep it until the end of time (or the end of telephones, or the company, whichever comes first)...because I'm sure that there are people out there to this day watching movies from the 70s and 80s and dialing the numbers that showed up in those films. So you can count it as part of the budget, but imagine if Warner was paying a bill on one phone line for every seven digit number that's ever shown up in one of their movies, and had to pay all of those bills every single month. Eventually that would add up.

-JP

As a former soccer player I can definitely attest to the fact that the forehead can take a pounding without feeling much (if any) pain. When a soccer ball traveling at a decent rate of speed hits you in the temple, or in the top or back of the head...it hurts like hell. When a ball traveling at the same rate of speed hits you in the forehead, though, it doesn't register as anything out of the ordinary.

-JP