Things you're tired of seeing in movies

[Oddmar]

Miniguns mounted on the Ironman suits. Where exactly are you storing the ammo? With an Arc Reactor I can see unlimited energy weapons.
I love how John Wick reloads, press-checks, runs out and throws the gun to create a momentary distraction so he can close to grapple, or dive for cover.

 

[p51]

I get that there's not enough time to show it being done, but just once, I'd like to see someone getting ready for an EVA on a space craft going through the breathing of pure O2 to purge themselves of as much nitrogen as possible before going to a very low pressure inside the suit. Instead, you have people breathing the normal vehicle environment and just putting on their helmets at the last moment before the depress happens in the airlock. That never, EVER happens like that!
The Netflix series, "Away" was especially eye-rolling for a lot of reasons (did they even do a crew compatibility check or decide to store anything extra in the cockpit before they left?), but they'd do EVAs by walking into the airlock without so much as their gloves or helmets on until after they got in there. Hello, leak check, anyone???

I just watched Top Gun and I realized that this stuck out to me: When pilots pull of their mask that blows PURE OXYGEN so they can "breathe better."

God, don't even get me started in how may aviation movies have the crews with their O2 masks hanging off to one side so you can see them emote better.
In a jet scenario, especially on a high performance fighter, you have the O2 mask on from the moment it starts pumping O2 out, until you're rolling toward the ramp after landing. Now, on approach to final, sometimes people will yank the mask off as they're low to the ground and won't be encountering anything but 1G during approach. Even then, that's rare from what I saw in the military (Army, mind you, but I watched a lot of jet jockeys and got one ride I'm still not supposed to discuss in detail).

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I'm tired of seeing military hardware that isn't shielded against an EMP. I watched Pacific Rim again and that one Kaiju knocks out the robot with an EMP. You can't tell me they'd spend the resources building a giant robot and it wouldn't be shielded against EMPs!

 

[Riceball]

I'm getting tired of reading and hearing POTUS getting used all of the time. It seems that you can't watch or read anything that involves the President where they throw in that acronym pronouncing it like a word. When did we go from the President to POTUS? Does anybody even actually use POTUS in real life? I'm just waiting for some screenwriter of author who doesn't know anything use POTUS as the Secret Service code name for the President.

 

[p51]

I'm getting tired of reading and hearing POTUS getting used all of the time. It seems that you can't watch or read anything that involves the President where they throw in that acronym pronouncing it like a word. When did we go from the President to POTUS? Does anybody even actually use POTUS in real life? I'm just waiting for some screenwriter of author who doesn't know anything use POTUS as the Secret Service code name for the President.

I was nearby two Presidents on two different occasions and heard references to the office when I was in the Army several times. In each event he was always referred to by his title and name each time it came up. I never heard the term "POTUS" until I started watching the TV series, "The West Wing"...

 

[Strikerkc]

When they're introduced or spoken to it's gonna be president or mr. President.

In government work, POTUS is one of the most common ways to refer to or write the name.

 

[Zombie_61]

...Does anybody even actually use POTUS in real life?...

I currently use P.O.S., but that has a very different meaning.

 

[CT1138]

When they're introduced or spoken to it's gonna be president or mr. President.

In government work, POTUS is one of the most common ways to refer to or write the name.

I've really only ever seen it used in press release and in news materials for quicker abbreviation. "POTUS" is shorter in a headline than "President XYZ".

 

[joberg]

POTUS is another acronym like we use here/on line not to type the whole damn thing...humans always use shortcuts in their communication with others...universal human nature! Hence the word briefing : a brief meeting originally.

 

[Riceball]

POTUS is another acronym like we use here/on line not to type the whole damn thing...humans always use shortcuts in their communication with others...universal human nature! Hence the word briefing : a brief meeting originally.

I realise the use and value of POTUS when writing but when and why did it become something spoken? What ever happened to simply saying, the President? As in, the President is on the phone, the President wants to talk to you, and so on? Now a days on every show and movie where you have the President as a character or mentioned it's always, the POTUS this or the POTUS that.

 

[Laspector]

In movies when a car gets hit by a train. The train never stops, just keeps on going. I realize it takes a while to stop a moving train, but it is like there is not even a person in the engine. No one in the train saw that car just get demolished? No one is going to even try to put on the brakes?

"Oh well, we're a train. We hit cars all the time. No need to stop."

 

[joberg]

I have a friend who`s a train conductor...no need to say that with the million tons they pulling, it`s impossible to break on time, nor to stop short of a full runway and more Talk to those guys and you`ll hear the horror stories they have about stupid drivers!

 

[Laspector]

I'm not suggesting they could stop in time, or even over a few miles, but in the movies they don't stop at all. Surely these real conductor's don't just demolish a car and/or people and just keep on going until their next stop. Surely there is some kind of law on this.

 

[Cephus]

Legally, a train must stop if they hit something, but because of the mass, it may be miles and miles later before they can. They're going to be long gone for a long time before they can come to a stop.

 

[Riceball]

Legally, a train must stop if they hit something, but because of the mass, it may be miles and miles later before they can. They're going to be long gone for a long time before they can come to a stop.

And that's almost certainly why we never see trains stop after hitting something on TV or in the movies. It takes so long, in terms of both time and distance, that the director would be wasting a lot of time and money keeping the cameras rolling until the train finally comes to a stop, or at least starts to slow down.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I realise the use and value of POTUS when writing but when and why did it become something spoken? What ever happened to simply saying, the President? As in, the President is on the phone, the President wants to talk to you, and so on? Now a days on every show and movie where you have the President as a character or mentioned it's always, the POTUS this or the POTUS that.

Well you'd have to talk to someone really in the govt. to see how much its verbally used, but POTUS is two syllables vs saying the whole thing. So it's easier for, for example, the Secret Service to say "Where's POTUS currently?" than saying that whole thing, which would take a little longer.

 

[dbuck]

I had a friend who was a train engineer. Had, because his brain snapped from too many people jumping in front of his train to commit suicide, the kicker was a woman who ran the gates with her little kid in the car and he had to watch his train kill them. And yes, the train stopped about three miles down the tracks and he and all the commuters on the train were waiting for the investigators. None of those deaths are his fault, but he couldn’t handle it, ended up on disability, and walked away from his wife and kids. Again, had a friend, because he also left them high and dry for money and I cannot abide how he treated his family, no matter how much he was hurting inside.
So yes, trains can’t even slow down by the time they see something in front of them. I once engineered an F7A locomotive and I totally understand.

 

[CT1138]

Well you'd have to talk to someone really in the govt. to see how much its verbally used, but POTUS is two syllables vs saying the whole thing. So it's easier for, for example, the Secret Service to say "Where's POTUS currently?" than saying that whole thing, which would take a little longer.

To be fair, though, the Secret Service usually uses a codename designated for discussing the POTUS.

 

[p51]

I'm not suggesting they could stop in time, or even over a few miles, but in the movies they don't stop at all. Surely these real conductor's don't just demolish a car and/or people and just keep on going until their next stop. Surely there is some kind of law on this.

Oh, there's laws, all right!
I volunteer as a brakeman on a local tourist RR and I had to pass the GCOR test before running trains.
Federal RR Administration regulations require that the moment an emergency has happened or is clear will happen (as in a car clearly parked on the tracks that doesn't appear will move in time), the engineer has to put the train into emergency by dumping the air from the brakes, which applies full brake application. The crew would then radio the dispatcher to tell them what has gone on. If an accident happened, then the bosses have to come out with the law and it's then a big thing. If the disaster is averted, the dispatcher will tell the crew to proceed when safe to do so.
Yeah, a long freight train going fast takes some time to stop, but you should see and hear the brake application as soon as the person at the head end hits the train brakes (and if on a modern diesel, applies dynamic brakes).
That scene at the end of BTTF3 where the DeLorean suffers its catastrophic disassembly by Ventura County Railway # 11 (an old ALCO S6, formerly Southern Pacific #4641 and later #1277, if anyone cares), that is a short train trailing. It wouldn't take too long to stop that as it's only moving around 20-25 MPH from the look of it, at best. The back end would have been stopped by the time the last car was out of sight at the crossing.
Watch this, starting at a few seconds before 2:00:

The popping sound is a brake line getting severed (most likely, the air line connections between cars hit something on the tracks and it popped the metal fittings apart). A long freight moving at least 30MPH is stopped dead in less than 40 seconds!

So it's easier for, for example, the Secret Service to say "Where's POTUS currently?" than saying that whole thing, which would take a little longer.

The Secret Service has a different code word for each person they protect (usually inspired by something specific to the person). They wouldn't say POTUS at all.
President Trump is referred to as "Mogul" as his Secret Service code word. The First Lady is called, "Muse". Vice President Pence's code word is "Hoosier".

 

[Laspector]

Chain link fences in movies. They never have those little criss-cross Xs across the top like real ones do. Which are there specifically to keep you from doing what they do in the movies, namely rolling right over the top of the fence.

In real life, I can't ever recall seeing a chain link fence that didn't have those Xs on the top.