“Uh, It Doesn’t Work Like That”: 40 Unrealistic Movie Moments That Require Viewers To Suspend Their Disbelief

We reached out to the Reddit user who started this conversation in the first place, u/czp55 or Ryan, and lucky for us, he was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. As far as what inspired him to ask this question, the OP shared that he's been over-analyzing media for as long as he can remember.

"I had watched one film in particular that day which prompted the question, but I honestly can’t remember what it was now," he noted. "Could have been one of the Fast and Furious movies, but I might be wrong. I definitely never expected the question to pick up activity the way it did. I had to silence notifications for a while."

We also asked Ryan which scenes he always has a hard time taking seriously in TV shows and films. "As a Software Engineer by profession, I’ll go with almost any scene with a 'computer expert' in it showing off their 'skills,'" he says. "There were several great comments to that effect in the thread which explain the problems with those scenes much better than I could."

On the other hand, we also asked the OP if he could share any films that he appreciates for how surprisingly realistic they are. "This movie is fantastic for many reasons, but I loved the unexpected depiction of iterative design in How to Train Your Dragon, when Hiccup is creating a replacement tail fin for Toothless," Ryan shared.

"The first few times he tries, he runs into problems, which he designs around before trying again. He eventually figures out he needs unique positions for different maneuvers before having a complete working product," the OP explained. "There was a surprising amount of experimenting and redesigning for a fictional, animated movie. Contrast that with most movies treating first generation prototypes as flawless artifacts that work perfectly."

Ryan also told Bored Panda that the responses his post received were amazing. "I found myself nodding furiously at most of them as they came in," he noted. "One that sticks in my mind is the mention of a certain GI Joe movie scene where they torpedo icebergs, which then sank. There was also a fantastic reply to it: 'I have the perfect scientific explanation for this: That movie sucked.'"

Ryan shared that he actually posted the question shortly after he started writing his first novel several years ago. "It certainly helped motivate me to do my fair share of research for certain aspects of my story, and I hope it’s better for it," he told Bored Panda. "I published the novel in 2022, and I’m working to publish the sequel soon. Having delved into the art of writing a fair bit more now, I can confidently say that, for fiction at least, we all generally want realism to take a backseat to effective storytelling."

"There was one comment that mentioned unnaturally perfect dialogue without stuttering or pauses for instance, which is absolutely true, but depending on the genre and tone of the story, the audience may appreciate the efficiency of the dialogue to allow time for other things," he went on to explain. "Still, even when we appreciate the trade-off, it’s always great fun to harp on everything stories get wrong!"

To gain even more insight on this topic, we also reached out to film expert Don Shanahan, founder and writer of Every Movie Has a Lesson. Don shared that, aside from being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, he's also a fifth grade school teacher by day. "That makes me notice movies have inaccuracies or impossible conveniences that take place in school settings," he told Bored Panda. "For example, there are so many movies (Back to the Future, the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, Ender's Game) where outside, non-active student characters somehow just infiltrate a school and wander the hallways undetected or unstopped by school personnel."

"In today's day and age, especially in this sensitive era of school shootings, visitor security protocols would never let that happen," Don explained. "That and the staff know everyone. No stranger would get through without getting spotted and questioned by even the most low-level school employee."

"Another school setting inaccuracy are those moments when a big speech scene that interrupts a school event is allowed to happen with all kinds of bystanders," the film expert continued. "Take the big graduation public confessional that goes down at the end of Crazy, Stupid Love. The number of school staff members or witnessing parents would squelch and shun those moments in a heartbeat."

We also wanted to know if Don ever has a hard time taking scenes seriously, when he knows they're extremely unrealistic. "I tend to pride myself on suspending my disbelief and letting things play out," he shared. "In most cases, those examples I'm talking about are done with humor where the fish-out-of-water or public spotlight circumstances make for good laughs. I may chalk them up to lazy research or uninspired screenwriting, but they don't take me out of the movie like I know they do for others with more sensitive antennae for accuracies."

As far as scenes Don has noticed were done quite accurately, he shared, "Sticking with the school teacher hat I wear and the education setting, one of the best examples of a realistic school teacher was Woody Harrelson's character Max Bruner in The Edge of Seventeen, written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, who's an awards contender this year for Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret."

"Harrelson's blunt honesty and callous expectations in his interactions with Hailee Steinfeld's Nadine Franklin are spot-on for high school teachers," Don explained. "Yet, his stern and sarcastic persona still balances an available empathy that 99% of teachers have and never lose when it comes to supporting their students. He's far more realistic than the usual book-smart, naive idealist stereotypical traits they lather on actors and actresses playing school teachers. Give me more movie teachers like Max Bruner."

If you'd like to hear more of Don's thoughts on popular films, be sure to check out his site Every Movie Has A Lesson!