While Hollywood loves to entertain us with thrilling stories & jaw-dropping scenes, it often stretches the truth. The movie execs are simply trying to keep us hooked! However, it’s important to know just how the movies bend reality for dramatic effect so we don’t end up believing lies. Here are ten times where Hollywood misrepresented how things really work in the real world. Life is nowhere near as interesting as the movies make it out to be!
Featured Image Credit: DmitryPoch/Depositphotos.com.
Cars Exploding After Minor Collisions
In so many blockbuster films, a tiny fender-bender creates a huge explosion that sends cars flying—yet cars don’t blow up that easily. Automakers design fuel tanks to withstand crashes without bursting into flames. In fact, the chances of a car exploding from a minor accident are incredibly low & it takes a lot more than a dented bumper to set a car ablaze. Thank goodness for that!
Silencers Making Guns Whisper-Quiet
Lots of movies love showing spies & assassins using silencers to make gunshots sound like soft puffs. However, the truth is that suppressors are nowhere near as effective. Even with a suppressor, a gunshot may be around 130 decibels—about as loud as a jackhammer. The idea of guns firing silently is pure fiction and you’d definitely hear a shot from far away.
DNA Test Results Coming Back Instantly
On TV, detectives seem to get DNA results back in no time—sometimes within the same day! Yet in reality, DNA testing is a complicated process that takes much longer because labs have to extract DNA & amplify it. Then, they have to compare it to databases, all while following strict protocols. They’re also probably dealing with a backlog of cases so they can’t simply drop everything!
Like our content? Be sure to follow us on MSN.
Hackers Breaking Into Systems in Seconds
While hackers might pound away at keyboards and break into top-secret systems in mere seconds in the movies, it’s nothing like that in the real world. Hacking is neither that quick nor that flashy. In fact, it usually involves hours, days, or even months of planning, coding & exploiting vulnerabilities. Hackers need to find weaknesses—that takes a lot of skill. As such, the rapid typing & cool graphics we see on screen look good but that’s about it!
Defibrillators Restarting a Stopped Heart
We’ve all seen those hospital scenes where a patient flatlines and the doctor yells “Clear!” before shocking them back to life with a defibrillator. However, defibrillators don’t restart a stopped heart. Instead, they correct irregular heart rhythms like ventricular fibrillation and when someone’s heart has stopped completely, they’ll need CPR & medications. Electric shocks don’t help.
Enhancing Blurry Images to Crystal Clarity
Many crime thrillers show detectives taking a grainy photo and “enhancing” it to reveal a clear face. How unrealistic is that?! You can’t pull out details that aren’t there because image enhancement software is only able to do so much. It can’t invent pixels. Rather, the quality of the image depends on the original resolution—if it’s poor, then the picture will be, too.
Falling in Love at First Sight Leading to Lifelong Happiness
Rom-coms love having couples lock eyes, then instantly falling into perfect, everlasting love. Of course, you might feel an immediate spark—but real relationships take time to grow. They need communication & work from both people. Naturally, movies often skip over the everyday stuff that makes up real love because it’s not interesting for the big screen. It doesn’t make it any less important, though!
Chloroform Knocking People Out Instantly
You’ve probably seen a film or two when someone sneaks up with a chloroform-soaked rag, covers a person’s face—then they’re unconscious within seconds. It’s not true. In reality, it takes several minutes of inhaling the fumes to knock someone out so the victim would likely struggle. This would make it far harder to keep the cloth in place.
Sneaking Through Buildings Via Air Ducts
Despite what the movies might show you, it’s practically impossible for people to crawl through air vents to move around undetected. Air ducts are usually too small for a person to fit inside. Even if they were big enough, they’re not designed to support human weight & also have sharp edges that may cause injuries.
Bulletproof Vests Making You Invincible
Any characters wearing bulletproof vests in films get shot & keep going like nothing happened. While these vests might stop bullets from penetrating, they don’t eliminate the force of the impact and getting hit may result in broken ribs or severe bruising. Also, bulletproof vests don’t cover the entire body. Your head, arms & legs are still vulnerable!
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
Like our content? Be sure to follow us on MSN.
