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The drama, the action, the explosions—movies have always been slightly, or even wildly different from reality in some ways or others. But even though a lot of popular movies do not provide an exact representation of what’s truly real, we still get a kick out of them, because of how we, as an audience, relate to the plot, the characters, and the various scenarios that occur. The distance between the audience’s perception of reality and the point of the film is usually big enough for us to escape that reality for the duration of the running time, if not longer, or it is smaller—in which case we do heavily relate to what’s on the screen.
On the other hand, there are scenarios where, on an individual or group basis, we will be annoyingly detached from the fictional narrative at hand, because we know that it is a bit too far from our reality. One such example would be people with a certain job or profession watching a movie and thinking that it’s not how their job is done at all. A user on Reddit asked a question that very much relates to this—what movies get wrong about different kinds of jobs that real people do. Here at Bored Panda, we have collected 30 of some of the more interesting responses. Scroll down to view the whole list, upvote the posts you perhaps relate to and leave a comment!
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Taxi driver for 2 and a half years. No one has ever asked me to follow that car :(
It could be argued that, a lot of the time, the professions we do not have much direct contact with will not be well understood, and that counts for movie makers as well. People behind movies aren't always going to have deep knowledge about doctors, engineers or lawyers, and even if they have access to people from those professions that can consult them, the end result will still likely be changed for the cinematic or dramatic effect. So it could be said that it's not the movie maker's intention to deceive us when it comes to what people really do with their professions, but that's rather the by-product of trying to make the movie as concise and interesting as possible.
I work with horses. Movie horses are always snorting, neighing, grunting, nickering, or otherwise making noise practically every time they move. In reality, horses aren’t that noisy. They don’t snort or squeal every time they change gaits. I can count on one hand the number of times my own horse has neighed, and he was just screaming for his friends who he couldn’t see over the hill and who wouldn’t answer him.
fire_foot , Hans Splinter Report
Most prey animals don't tend to be very chatty. If they are, they become an entrée very quickly.
I.T. I don’t know everything. I can’t hack. If I don’t know the answer from experience I use google. But I do wear cargo shorts every day so they got that right.
Jeans and T-shirt unless visiting a client.
It could be said, though, that some movies don't even try to be realistic with their portrayals of various jobs, to the point where even people unrelated to the profession might cringe a little. For example, the way software development or hacking in movies is shown brings out not fascination, but rather a laugh, as the "hackers" or "programmers" on the screen assemble 3D shapes, smash their keyboards and type out gibberish.
In sci-fi movies when they rig up a massive, complex experiment and it works the first time.
otter_pickles , Luigi Selmi Report
Or they write 2 years worth of error-free code in 45 seconds despite never having used the system.
If you stop CPR to pound on the patients shoulders, yell at them to "come back goddammit", and give 'em a kiss, they'll probably die.
If your doing CPR they're probably already dead and they don't just spring back to live like in the movies either.
I'd say that one big drawback of inaccurate portrayal of jobs in movies is that it gives a skewed perspective on those professions to people that might actually be interested in working in those fields. From kids to adults, movies will commonly show either the most exciting or the dullest parts of a certain job, when in reality, elements of both can be found in pretty much any line of work. Police officers have to do paperwork, lawyers don't scream at the top of their lungs in the courtroom, and builders aren't just background characters who just walk around pretending to build stuff.
Mental Health Technician here. We do NOT like giving injections unless absolutely necessary. Too much paperwork. Also, most of us aren't complete controlling a******s that ignore or abuse patients. Everyone I work with is kind, patient, and respectful of our patients.
most mental health workers are very good...sadly a few can totally ruin all the effort the good ones make
I’m a bomb tech, we will blow up 20 robots before we send the most junior guy down to cut the red wire.
If your bomb disposal robot does not work do you try switching it off and on again?
All in all, as with some things, movies probably aren't the best resource for helping you pick out the job of your dreams. That being said, it doesn't mean they don't entertain and bring us laughter and joy, even if some things are portrayed completely wrong.
Being a lawyer is 3 months of paperwork and research and one day of trial... and we don’t yell at or intimidate witnesses - if I did what you see in movies I’d be disbarred pretty quickly.
wynnduffyisking , Seattle Parks and Recreation Report
You can't handle the truth!
You are definitely not, ever, going to roam around the building through the ductwork.
Not a homes ductwork, well at least only around 30ft of it you can. I've installed ductwork. Industrial/commercial settings you can stand up inside some of those things and easily room to crawl.....for hundreds if not thousands of feet
Coding takes a really f*****g long time. I don't care how much of a genius you are. Whacking out 10k lines of code, debugging, testing, setting up environments to make sure it all works the way you want it takes ages.
I love the fictional databases on cop shows, "give me a list of everyone in the city who is an accountant, with a 16 year old son that plays soccer and has debt problems!" 2 seconds later "we have 3 people that fit that profile!"
Bookshop manager. I haven’t actually read all the books in my shop, nor do I know the personal history of every single author. However, there’s a decent chance I can find you that book you want that you don’t remember the name of but it’s blue.
I used to know this awesome guy who ran a used books' store. The place was TINY and absolutely everything was crammed with books, shelves had rows of books in front of books in front of books so you only saw a fraction of them. If you asked the guy if he had this obscure ancient greek grammar text book he wouldn't even look up from what he was reading and tell you it's in this row, that shelf, behind this and that book. He also managed to call me one day to tell me he tracked down the book I was looking for. I never gave him my last name, my number, and I'm not listed... He was either a wizard or a spy. One day he told me about this woman who was looking for "3 meters of red books" . She just had a fireplace installed and it would look so "smart" to have a row of red books above it... Guy sold her an insanely expensive encyclopedia series. It was red.
I am a cameraman, and yeah, I got the shot, so don't keep asking me if I got the shot because it is my job to get the shot and I got the goddamned shot.
miurabucho , Kārlis Dambrāns Report
Yeah, yeah... But do you get the shot?
Truck driver here. When an air line gets cut or broken, the truck loses air and the brakes f*****g engage. The truck will stop. It will not lose its brakes like you see in the movies.
I have seen that smoke show. The truck may simply disappear for a second while the brakes engage.
Whenever I see someone welding in a movie I always notice how they aren’t wearing anything to cover the skin on their arms or body. That’s how you get serious arc burn that’s like a super bad sunburn. Hurts like hell.
sweaty girl welding in thank top sells
Bar musician. We're not all depressed and hoping some big talent scout from a label shows up. Some us enjoy playing in bars.
As a friend of mine once said, "The song ended, the crowd went nuts! They LOVED it! Oh, the team on the TV just scored..."
Fun fact, archivists do not wear white gloves all the time like the movies show, especially not when handling paper documents since they can do more harm than good. I'm looking at you, National Treasure.
I'm an archivist. Can confirm the gloves are usually 100% unnecessary as long as your hands are clean and dry.
Car mechanics usually don't lie on a little board beneath the car. They lift the car over their head using hydraulic elevators.
They lie a lot though
As a restaurant cook/food handler. I have never done nasty stuff to someone's food, no one does. Even real a*****e customers that everyone doesn't like, their food is just food. Your server might let it sit around while they ignore you for treating them like a dog. But no one is spitting in your food in a real kitchen.
Don't tell people that - the fear of staff messing with their food is the only thing keeping some people from being complete asshats to the staff
That blackjack dealers have no personality. We live off tips. Even if you lose, we still try to entertain. Every famous casino movie show the dealer on the casinos side. We don’t want the house to win, we make money when you make money.
Now this I agree with. The tables I've sat at had dealers that were always personable and friendly.
I'm a wildlife biologist. "Tranquilizers" (which is an incorrect term for the immobilizing agents we use) do NOT work immediately like movies make people believe. If drugged for the correct dose and depending on the drug you use, an animal can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes to be completely immobilized if administered IM. Simply darting an animal and expecting them to drop right then and there just simply does not happen.
running_chipmunk , GeorgeTan#1...Off permanently Report
Hah! Read that all the people outraged over Harambe not being tranquilized!!! (Yes it was horrific and yes the parent should have been arrested, yes it was a terrible waste of a beautiful animal but it wouldn't have been done that way unless it was absolutely necessary! And yes I also hate children apart from my own)
Almost everything about forensic science is sped up/made up technology in the movies. Gives a jury a really unrealistic set of expectations.
I was on a jury just after the OJ murder trial. They mentioned blood evidence and we all groaned.
EMTs never run into the Emergency Room. When we do visit the ER, we usually slowly walk in with a 450lb dialysis patient or intoxicated college student on the stretcher.
I can't watch medical shows, they get so many things so wrong that it drives me crazy
Probably one of the last things you will do in a library as a librarian is read books.
garfe , Eden, Janine and Jim Report
Do you have your hair up in a bun though? And shake it free when the hero comes through the door?
Helicopters do not blow up as often as portrayed. Shocking I know.
If there is a helicopter in a film, it has to explode. When Bruce kills the helicopter with his car, that is my favourite exploding helicopter.
The Army. It isn't always about shooting and blowing stuff up in the Middle East. We actually garden (Get off SgtMaj's grass!), sweep the motorpool, and do janitorial services around our work area.
Filipino_Buddha , Valerie Hinojosa Report
I am heartbroken that all of the myths have been exploded! You are just regular people...
When I worked at the jail people would be a******s and they wouldn’t be given a phone call. They would argue about how we legally have to do it and we would have to explain to them that we actually don’t.
All fire/ems calls are not major incidents. Usually it’s the call because Grandma fell again. Also most of the calls on those shows would actually deplete an entire county’s (or more) resources.
One of my brothers is with cave rescue. The 57-hour rescue in Wales a couple of months back took ALL their resources, and a sizeable chunk of surrounding SAR organisations. They needed to set up a crowdfunder to get some back
A wedding planner. I don’t walk around with a headset 24/7, nor do I “cue” violins to play at a precise moment. That’s things that have already been determined prior to the big day. I trust my staff knows what they should and need to be doing. That includes my “contracted” staff.
N5t5 , Steve Parker Report
You never see anyone else with a headset, so who are they talking to anyway?
Movies always act like police officers never have to do paperwork and aren’t reprehensible for the damage they cause.
Police officers are totally reprehensible for the damage they cause.
That fashion designers make money. Better income to work for someone else and have them slap their name on it. My friends call me a “ghost designer” because I described it as “ghost writing, but with clothes”.
I love ghost designer, because it could also be understood as 'You design clothes for ghosts?'
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Žygimantas is a Bored Panda writer and content creator. He has recently graduated with a degree in Journalism & Communications from Cardiff University and has a professional background in Public Relations. During his spare time Žygimantas makes electronic music, codes, tinkers with electronics and aspires to be a great bass player.
Lab technician: experiments using cells or tissues take days and getting results isn't a "press-this-button-to-get-your-answer" procedure. You design and perform an experiment and get numbers from that experiment, the analysis of which will let you draw a conclusion. More often than not, the conclusion isn't or is only partly what you were looking for, and that scientific paper you're reading took people months or years to put together.
Amen, hallelujah, and 1000 upvotes. MD, did research mostly (Covid shifted things), and you aren't hopping puddles. You're plodding a loooooonnng trail. Which, alas, will sometimes end in a dead end.
Yeah, and we don't have that magic centrifuge all scientists/doctors have in movies. You know, the one that does anything from sequencing to producing viruses or vaccines ? I so wish I had that centrifuge. All mine does is turn around...
And all in under an hour too!
Same, I want a magic centrifuge :( Also, you work days and weeks just to produce one graph that FINALLY confirms what you've been chasing after but had to deal with too many technical aspects of the experiments to get it to friggin' work.
Once CSI had the same minicentrifuge on their bench top that I had and I was so excited I clapped.
Sounds like a ballet waiting to be written. (A la "Magic Flute")
For R & D that would be true but in a QC setting putting samples in and hitting buttons to get results is what I do for 12 hours a day every day lol.
Also, a lot of labs (not all) are ugly. Drop ceilings and fluorescent lights.
We don't crack open chests in the ER every other minute. And it doesn't take 10 seconds. It's horrible, messy, awful. TV/books never show the *blood*. Or the smell. It's just.... Not that clean. Also, in medical research, we don't just go diving into a topic and find a solution alone. It's *always* a team effort. And it takes time. Shout it out to the grad students, the techs, the people who didn't get their name on the articles/headlines.
Organic Chemist: We don’t pump colored water through condenser coils. The glassware in movies is almost always set up wrong, often upside down. Multi step synthesis takes month if not year (especially new syntheses). Organic chemistry doesn’t usually have bright colours.
I am a radiochemist. No bright colors here either. That's why when we have visitors in the lab, especially film teams, we use either KMnO4 (a pretty shade of purple) or the ink of a neon highlighter in water. We also bought a very dope multichannel pipette just to look more scientific. Magnetic stirrers are also a favorite among visitors.
Haha, we once put dry ice into a beaker with a little soap - just for fun. In this moment we got visitors (scool class) nobody told us about - they seemed to be deeply impressed. However in our Bioengineering lab we do have some flourescent proteins to impress visitors if needed. 😉
DRY ICE! I forgot about that. Once I worked in a lab that had a pretty big dry ice storage (for transportation of organic samples) and each year I would put a little of it in the sink and run some water over it to impress the interns.
Biochemistry; I sometimes use bright colors but you gotta shoot a laser at it first :')
Niiiice. See, that's why I love science. :-)
I do titrations with bright colors everyday. Breaks up the monotony of having to look at clear or mud colored samples all day lol.
Lab technician: experiments using cells or tissues take days and getting results isn't a "press-this-button-to-get-your-answer" procedure. You design and perform an experiment and get numbers from that experiment, the analysis of which will let you draw a conclusion. More often than not, the conclusion isn't or is only partly what you were looking for, and that scientific paper you're reading took people months or years to put together.
Amen, hallelujah, and 1000 upvotes. MD, did research mostly (Covid shifted things), and you aren't hopping puddles. You're plodding a loooooonnng trail. Which, alas, will sometimes end in a dead end.
Yeah, and we don't have that magic centrifuge all scientists/doctors have in movies. You know, the one that does anything from sequencing to producing viruses or vaccines ? I so wish I had that centrifuge. All mine does is turn around...
And all in under an hour too!
Same, I want a magic centrifuge :( Also, you work days and weeks just to produce one graph that FINALLY confirms what you've been chasing after but had to deal with too many technical aspects of the experiments to get it to friggin' work.
Once CSI had the same minicentrifuge on their bench top that I had and I was so excited I clapped.
Sounds like a ballet waiting to be written. (A la "Magic Flute")
For R & D that would be true but in a QC setting putting samples in and hitting buttons to get results is what I do for 12 hours a day every day lol.
Also, a lot of labs (not all) are ugly. Drop ceilings and fluorescent lights.
We don't crack open chests in the ER every other minute. And it doesn't take 10 seconds. It's horrible, messy, awful. TV/books never show the *blood*. Or the smell. It's just.... Not that clean. Also, in medical research, we don't just go diving into a topic and find a solution alone. It's *always* a team effort. And it takes time. Shout it out to the grad students, the techs, the people who didn't get their name on the articles/headlines.
Organic Chemist: We don’t pump colored water through condenser coils. The glassware in movies is almost always set up wrong, often upside down. Multi step synthesis takes month if not year (especially new syntheses). Organic chemistry doesn’t usually have bright colours.
I am a radiochemist. No bright colors here either. That's why when we have visitors in the lab, especially film teams, we use either KMnO4 (a pretty shade of purple) or the ink of a neon highlighter in water. We also bought a very dope multichannel pipette just to look more scientific. Magnetic stirrers are also a favorite among visitors.
Haha, we once put dry ice into a beaker with a little soap - just for fun. In this moment we got visitors (scool class) nobody told us about - they seemed to be deeply impressed. However in our Bioengineering lab we do have some flourescent proteins to impress visitors if needed. 😉
DRY ICE! I forgot about that. Once I worked in a lab that had a pretty big dry ice storage (for transportation of organic samples) and each year I would put a little of it in the sink and run some water over it to impress the interns.
Biochemistry; I sometimes use bright colors but you gotta shoot a laser at it first :')
Niiiice. See, that's why I love science. :-)
I do titrations with bright colors everyday. Breaks up the monotony of having to look at clear or mud colored samples all day lol.
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