Movie Cliches

[kateln]

A classic but...

"Cough...cough..." its never just a cold, or something in your throat--nope, in the movies if you're coughing you've got incurable TB or Lung Cancer.

[Deleted]

In all cases except in Zoolander

"I think I have the black lung."

[redemma]

Oh, I hate the Cough of Impending Death. I could barely sit through Finding Neverland because Kate Winslet's consumption cough sounded exactly my asthma cough, and I kept wanting to get the woman an inhaler.

[esoterica]

People who think they're gay, but turns out they're actually straight: You know...some guys pretending to be women for some reason, one of them befriends a girl, who thinks she just "so comfortable" with her/him, becomes strangely atracted and falls in love, thinking she then must be gay...but she's not! Because the girl is really a guy!!!

Whaa? That's a new one for me. Does anyone have an example?

[starskin]

Tootsie springs immediately to mind for that cliche, esoterica.

[chiqui]

Re the cough of death: TB really was a serious disease before the 1960s, when new drugs are developed. Even today it is, because to cure it for good, a very strict drug regimen has to be followed for many months, during which your ejected sputum is still contagious.

[kateln]

chiqui said:

Re the cough of death: TB really was a serious disease before the 1960s, when new drugs are developed. Even today it is, because to cure it for good, a very strict drug regimen has to be followed for many months, during which your ejected sputum is still contagious.

True, and during the early late 19th/early 20th century immigration rush, there were quarantine camps for people from countries with higher TB rates to help keep it from spreading into the US.

That being said--if TB/lung cancer/cough of death diseases were as common/easily spread as the movies would have us believe--we'd all be dead now. But, we'd have died looking beautiful. Pale, and luminous with the fever, having imparted some great wisdom before we went. Sure we'd have coughed up some blood--but just a trickle...into a pure white handkerchief.

[Maddiemoo]

Tootsie springs immediately to mind for that cliche, esoterica.

It happens in Sorority Boys, too.


...not that I've ever seen it.

[Deleted]

When people with sinister, violent, or criminal intentions are waiting in a parked car, no one will take notice of them. The car is usually turned off and they are not talking or doing anything other than staring at their intended victims from 50 feet away, but this doesn't arouse any suspicion, even when there are four or five men in the car. This lack of suspicion ensures that their plan will go off on time and with minimal screw ups. However, this cliche only applies when the lead actor/protagonist is in the car. When the car is full of unknown actors and their intended victim is the male star/protagonist, the male star/protagonist will always notice them and take evasive action. Female stars/protagonists never take evasive action because they are always oblivious of their surroundings, even when employed as CIA agents.

See: "Munich", "Ronin", too many cop and spy films to count

[chiqui]

And during the evasive action, should the victim be chased, the street will be empty of people; no one will even open the door or poke their head out of a window at the sound of multiple running feet, shouted curses, and gunshots. The moment the victim is down, however, the street will be full of people who stop and stare, conveniently ignoring the perpetrators who are making their escape.