ViewAskewbian

So, was watching Die Hard last night and I am reminded every time I see the flick a little thing that bugs me. No, not the fact that there was no ambulance in the terrorist's van at the start of the film but there is at the end or the fact that, hey, why didn't John try EVERYBODY he'd killed shoes instead of giving up at the first one. I mean, surly ONE of those guys had to have shoes that would at least partially fit him. These, to me, are bigger gaffs.

A trivial one?

When John arrives at Nakatomi Plaza he goes to the front desk and asks for Holly McLean. The guy at the desk tells him to type it into the keypad where John discovers Holly is going by her maiden name. When he informs the desk guy he is told "30th floor. They're the only people left in the building". Ok, then, asshole, why did you make me look it up?

Now, it's bugged me for many a viewing but I figured, ok, it's a plot device to explain something that will take place later on when Hans pieces things together. We, the audience, needed that info first. Got it. Buttttt, last night I realized that little desk exchange was not needed at all because, in the next scene, John reads Holly using the name Gennero on her office door. Really, that would have sufficed, especially because they hammer it home again during her first exchange with Hans.

Again, trivial, but that desk keypad scene really coulda' been nixed.

While on the topic of Die Hard, in Die Hard 2 my trivial thing is McClean saying the line: "“I can't fucking believe this. Another basement, another elevator. How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?"

What basement?

Of course we all recall the elevator in Die Hard but, unless John Call's Parking Garages basements, that's the closest thing I can think of.

Trivial, but surly they could have popped something else into that line: "Another Christmas" "Another terrorist"

andicus

They always seem to use 2 stroke motorcycle sounds for 4 strokes bikes, or vice-versa. Sometimes they switch between them, for the same bike. Very annoying, but to most people, unnoticeable or meaningless.

story

My dad said out loud in the theater, "Oh, diesel fuel would never explode that way..."

Toddarino

The 30th floor bit always bugs me as well.

Eddie W

Whenever they show something that it supposedly coming from a TV source, like a newscast, they use this filter than has huge vertical scan lines like CRT tube TV's used to have. TV's haven't looked like this in a very long time. In fact, they look much like the rest of the movie. that I'm probably watching on a TV.

MLBFan24

When a character is driving on a straight road, they show the camera looking into the car, the driver is moving the steering wheel left and right multiple times. Nobody drives like that. Ever.

Crocker Jarmen

The countless horror movies where the priest or person who is supposed to be the Biblical expert refers to the book of "Revelations" when it's "Revelation".

Ash Ketchum

When they sit down to breakfast or dinner and then don't eat, either because they get called away or because they simply forget to. I'm constantly calling out to the screen, "Eat something first!" Or at least get it boxed or bagged so you can eat it on the way.

kd5

^ I've noticed that in alot of movies. Why does no one ever get to eat their food?

Toddarino

I always yell at the screen when watching Home Alone. You little bastard! It’s right there.

DJariya

I think it’s more done in TV. But when a couple has sex and the next morning when they wake up, both are clothed either with underwear or pajamas.

JeremyM

The 30th floor bit is foreshadowing that red tape and regulations are going to continue to get in his way as the film progresses i.e. the policy was you had to look up the person you were visiting on the computer and there was to be no deviation just like the FBI guys running the standard terrorist response playbook.

Or something.

SmackDaddy

Hotel room doors that are never self-locking. Someone goes looking for someone at their hotel and the door always opens without a key.

30 speed manual transmissions during chases scenes or race scenes along with the magical downshift that gives them a super speed boost instead of grenading the engine, lol.

GoldenJCJ

Highly trained special ops soldiers/Navy SEALs/military commandos/etc. have zero trigger discipline and run around with their finger on the trigger at all times.

story

Only Brad Pitt.

Crocker Jarmen

I'm guessing it's a mix of continuity concerns, the actors not wanting to eat take after take all day, and the food being artificial props instead of real.

Nick Danger

Mrs Danger's old car was like that. Driving it was like herding the car down the road. It needed constant steering input to keep it in the lane.

Nick Danger

You have to grit your teeth when you downshift and floor it. Then it works.

RichC2

Agreed about not eating. Makes it all the better when someone does it right.

Draven

A minor one but you'll never not hear it again - every car in a movie has squeaking brakes. Every single one.

My dad always hates when people pull up in vehicles for a stealthy mission and then get out and slam their car doors. A few movies make a point of showing them left open and I always notice that.

A big one for me is when news is "live". Like the camera operator puts it on their shoulder and then the reporter immediately goes "we're live". That so far from how it actually happens that it makes me laugh every time.

Defibrillators don't shock stopped hearts back to beating from a flatline and the fact that it is STILL depicted in movies and TV shows all the time is actually insane to me.

Count Dooku

In Anchorman, Fred Willard as the station manager says (twice) that they are adding a woman to the news team because their affiliates want to see diversity.

As a local San Diego station, they are an affiliate of a national broadcast network. Maybe the network chiefs in NYC would like to see more diversity in their affiliate stations, but none of the other local stations in the US that are affiliated with KVWN Channel 4 give a damn, or have a say, in what's happening with Ron Burgundy's newscast.

It drives me crazy because I can't believe no one on that production is familiar with a fundamental thing about American broadcasting like that.

Runaway

For me it will always be elevator doors. When someone jumps in last second on a closing elevator, while people are chasing him and the doors don't open again.

SmackDaddy

Ok, this just came to me watching The Firm (a minor instance in that movie). The good 'ol FREE parking spot in front of any main building in the most crowded cities. Going to police headquarters, city hall, the building that drives the plot? No problem, here's your single spot right in front, and best of all, it's not metered or a tow away zone!!

BobO'Link

People playing a musical instrument. They rarely are and almost always "playing it" incorrectly.

The computer expert sits down at the keyboard and *instantly* pulls up whatever obscure data is asked for.

A shot of a license plate from hundreds of yards away is blown up to poster size and is in perfect focus.

Anything having to do with TV news production. It's *never* shown correctly. It's even wrong in Network - a movie *about* TV news.

Tires having a "rubber on asphalt squealing sound" when on dirt/gravel surfaces.

Bad guys with a scoped rifle who can't hit the broadside of a barn while the hero pulls out a revolver and hits a moving target hundreds of feet away while barely aiming.

jfoobar

FWIW, that has been the case with both my wife and my ex-wife. Both were pajama wearers and they don't not sleep in pajamas just because they got some before they went to sleep. I always put my undies back on afterwards as well.