Things in movies and TV that really make you wonder

This is sort of a take-off of the Shields and Sparks thread, but I wanted to expand it to include other oddball phenomenae.

Here are some things that make me scratch my head;

Why do robots have fist fights?
Ever since I watched Transformers as a child and then the new movies, I've wondered what the purpose was of having them slug it out. As fas I know, robots don't have pain receptors (except for the fleshy bits of terminators that translates inputs as pain), so what's the point of having robots punch each other and wrestlin' around? They don't feel pain, seems like a waste of energy. At least shooting them can cause some kind of damage.

---Transformers gripe #2
If the robots are animated bits of earth junk (like the Nokia phone in the booth), how do they generate an endless supply of ammunition? Let's say that the cube gives them the ability to generate rail gun technology using the magnets in the speakers - how many bullets can the robot make before it starts having to canabalize important parts, like arms or legs. But considering that the phone-bot had an RPG, where the hell did it get the material to make gunpowder (as determined by the smoke trail it left behind)?


Where do vampires go to learn Tae Kwon Do?
How is it, that everyone who turns into a vampire, knows some sort of martial arts? Traditionally, they all seem to know Tae Kwon Do. Do existing vampires hang out, outside of dojos biting people they think would make good vampires? Or, after they get bit, do they get a coupon for 5 free lessons from Master Wang's House of Midnight Martial Arts?


I know there are a lot of weird, similar gripes out there - let's hear them.

-Fred

I wanna know what Vampires do to make a living...Do they have a night job, or do they just steal the money from their victims (although Ive never seen a movie ever show a vampire mug their victims)

In the 70's they also had a bad habit of showing high speed car chases on dirt roads but yet the tires would screech as though it were on asphalt.

60's and 70's film also had the same old gunfire sound FX tracks.
3 or 4 shots were fired and the 5th shot always included a ricochet sound....They must have stopped using that track in the 80's or something.

In the G1 cartoon and comics Transformers can feel pain as they have the machine version of a nervous system and such. As for vampires I'm not sure. I could see a few having picked it up while alive or over the years but there is no reason they all need it. As for Transformer gripe #2 I just put that up to Bay and his crappy writers but as with the G1 transformer size changing i'd say nanotechnology. I know in the new G1 transformer comics their ability has been explained as using nanotechnology to control it but i haven't paid much attention as it gets me thinking too much.

Why every... single... supervillain doesn't just shoot Bond when they have him.

"Masterminds?" Really? :rolleyes


Kevin

Putting my Jeyl hat on, I just don't believe the old dude/hot girl thing as exemplified by Clint Eastwood and Rene Russo in IN THE LINE OF FIRE and every TV sitcom couple ever. I think the first person to build a show around, say, Megan Mullaney as an angel investor and.. I dunno... who's a hot slice of beefsteak, juno? ...one of the Jonas Brothers...? as an idiot savant programmer and the wacky iGen hijinks they get up to in the workplace has a license to print advertising dollars, if not actual money.

Gigatron said:

Here are some things that make me scratch my head

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They shouldn't. Apparently there are people willing to watch that type of... uh... programming.

---------------

After watching tonight's episode of Mythbusters (tire replacements and fishing reels), here's one more...

The set-up is that you're out in the woods or some place where you have no cellphone service and you blow a tire and haven't got a spare. So, how do you improvise? The only plausible method, to me, is the hay stuffing.


Now, the methods that make me wonder...

Carving a tire out of a log - ok, I don't have a spare tire, but I happen to have a chainsaw, a fully charged , portable drill, with a large-bore, correct length bit and extra-long lag bolts and nuts? Where the hell was I camping that I had decided to bring this stuff with me? Or did I camp out in the Home Depot?

Storm Drain cover - again, no spare, but I have an acetyline torch and a set of carbide drill bits to drill through a cast iron cover?

I mean, c'mon guys, how can this stuff be considered plausible if the scenario itself is completely ridiculous? It should have been stuff that you can only find laying around, not this "A-Team locked in a fully stocked warehouse" scenario.

-Fred

DARTH SABER said:

I wanna know what Vampires do to make a living...Do they have a night job, or do they just steal the money from their victims (although Ive never seen a movie ever show a vampire mug their victims)

Click to expand...

This was one of the things that I liked about the BBC version of "Being Human" (haven't seen the scyfy ver sion for caomparison) - both the vampire and the werewolf have jobs as overnight orderlies in a local hospital. They need to pay the rent and buy food, so they need jobs.

Other vampires all seem to live in paid-off houses, never seem to have to worry about paying utility bills or property taxes and you never see them shopping for new clothes. Is there a 24 hour "Hot Topic" in vampire infested towns? Do vampires just steal crap from Macy's, after sundown?

Someone needs to write a more realistic vampire series. Vampires that have to deal with the realities of life, like paying bills, buying crap for the house or paying somebody to maintain their lawns. Not every vampire is 300 years old with a long standing bank account that they can withdraw funds from.

That's another things - vampires with "old" money. Doesn't a bank start to wonder how an account is 150 years old and the same guy has been withdrawing from it the entire time?

-Fred

SSgt Burton said:

Why every... single... supervillain doesn't just shoot Bond when they have him.

"Masterminds?" Really? :rolleyes


Kevin

Click to expand...

I have an even better idea. I'm going to place him in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.

All right guard, begin the unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism.

...I'm going to leave them alone and not actually witness them dying, I'm just gonna assume it all went to plan. What?

Gigatron said:

This was one of the things that I liked about the BBC version of "Being Human" (haven't seen the scyfy ver sion for caomparison) - both the vampire and the werewolf have jobs as overnight orderlies in a local hospital. They need to pay the rent and buy food, so they need jobs.

Other vampires all seem to live in paid-off houses, never seem to have to worry about paying utility bills or property taxes and you never see them shopping for new clothes. Is there a 24 hour "Hot Topic" in vampire infested towns? Do vampires just steal crap from Macy's, after sundown?

Someone needs to write a more realistic vampire series. Vampires that have to deal with the realities of life, like paying bills, buying crap for the house or paying somebody to maintain their lawns. Not every vampire is 300 years old with a long standing bank account that they can withdraw funds from.

That's another things - vampires with "old" money. Doesn't a bank start to wonder how an account is 150 years old and the same guy has been withdrawing from it the entire time?

-Fred

Click to expand...

True Blood actually does a better job at addressing some of these issues. Bill has Sookie deal with contractors and such to renovate his home since they, obviously, would work during daylight hours. Vampires have jobs at places like Erik's bar and some sell their blood to dealers of 'V' because drinking vampire blood gives humans a high.

It's not vampires, but "Dead Like Me" deals with the 'real life' thing. The characters are all un-dead Grim Reapers who take people's souls before they die, but they still have to live in this world and the characters each deal with that in their own way. Some of them "rob" the dead, some of them have day jobs (like the main character who works at a temp agency).

Another show dealing with Vampires was "Forever Knight" where the main character was a vampire and a cop.

In other shows/movies the vampires rely on human underlings to do things for them during the day - be it a legitimate business or mafia-style crime. The vampires will control corporations from behind the scenes or will run an investment firm, while other vampires will cater to vampire needs - i.e. 24-hour stores, night clubs, etc.

Believe it or not, there are plenty of jobs where a vampire could probably do okay in - and most of them are probably not thinking career-wise, just survival.

My best shot here:
Robots fist fighting Humanizes them and makes it easier for the audience to identify with. If 2 roughly humanoid robots are duking it out, and one pops out some weapon and hits the other, the audience will go "Huh, bet that didn't feel good", NOW let the Robot haul off and kick the other one in the Jubblies, and men and women will cross their legs while wincing, even though said robot wouldn't have the right kind of Nuts to smash.

Acquiring Vampire Language and fighting skills when you are turned. I'll go with the Buffy Explanation - All Vampires are Descended from 1 Demon. When you are turned, some of that Demons Spirit is in you, which is why you can fight, Speak the Vampire Tongue, and lose all vestiges of humanity and decency. Also since Vampires are a Watered down Demon/human hybrid, most other demons can't stand them. Also you may have basic Skills, but need to practice, a lot, to become proficient. New Vamp vs Experienced Slayer = Dust Experienced Vamp vs Experienced Slayer = 50/50 odds.

Vampires generally Steal from their victims. You've just killed a guy, take his cash, sell his watch/jewelry, credit cards and ID to a fence, go to his home, snack on his family, and rob that place. This was how LeStat got his fortune, as handed down by his Sire, a room full of valuables from his victims over the centuries. Long lived Vamps like the Immortals in Highlander, have new Identities created every 50 years or so, usually they inherit their fortune from themselves.

DARTH SABER said:

I wanna know what Vampires do to make a living....

Click to expand...

Compound interest.

Beginning of G1 season 1 ep.1 TF the nattator says "robots who can think and feel." as for other robots, its just like any other non-living but functioning object... Your car isn't alive but it gets damaged if not treated right and shuts down. So robots try to disassemble eachother to where they can't function, T1000 tore up Arnie to where he was shut down cuz of the damage.

Robot to Human pain equivalents:
-Disassemble/damage = human injury
-Shut down entirely = human death
Its all the same end results but interpreted in different ways, yea?

Vamps can have 3 or 4 identities at a time in different continents (with varying ages as well) so they can have multiple bank accounts everywhere. Or like 0neiros said they can put it all in savings, come back years later and call themselves their own son/daughter taking over the account or move it to a new whole account.
They can probly hit up Antiques Road Show sell their original 1700-1800s crap for a couple mil n don't worry bout banks for half a century haha

DARTH SABER said:

In the 70's they also had a bad habit of showing high speed car chases on dirt roads but yet the tires would screech as though it were on asphalt.

Click to expand...

Oh man, I always hated that! :lol


Doug

Gigatron said:

After watching tonight's episode of Mythbusters (tire replacements and fishing reels), here's one more...

The set-up is that you're out in the woods or some place where you have no cellphone service and you blow a tire and haven't got a spare. So, how do you improvise? The only plausible method, to me, is the hay stuffing.


Now, the methods that make me wonder...

Carving a tire out of a log - ok, I don't have a spare tire, but I happen to have a chainsaw, a fully charged , portable drill, with a large-bore, correct length bit and extra-long lag bolts and nuts? Where the hell was I camping that I had decided to bring this stuff with me? Or did I camp out in the Home Depot?

Storm Drain cover - again, no spare, but I have an acetyline torch and a set of carbide drill bits to drill through a cast iron cover?

I mean, c'mon guys, how can this stuff be considered plausible if the scenario itself is completely ridiculous? It should have been stuff that you can only find laying around, not this "A-Team locked in a fully stocked warehouse" scenario.

-Fred

Click to expand...

Always keep a buttload of duct tape in the trunk -- that'd make a serious radial! :thumbsup


Doug

JLeezy23 said:

Beginning of G1 season 1 ep.1 TF the nattator says "robots who can think and feel." as for other robots, its just like any other non-living but functioning object... Your car isn't alive but it gets damaged if not treated right and shuts down. So robots try to disassemble eachother to where they can't function, T1000 tore up Arnie to where he was shut down cuz of the damage.

Robot to Human pain equivalents:
-Disassemble/damage = human injury
-Shut down entirely = human death
Its all the same end results but interpreted in different ways, yea?

Click to expand...

I'd tend to believe that in the "think and feel" category, "feel" was more towards the empathy side and less towards the "ouch, I stubbed my robo toe on nightstandobot". The whole thing with the Autobots is that they were protecting humanity from the Decepticons - that shows an emotional connection, i.e. feelings.

I get the damage aspect, just not the method. Let's say, all things being equal, decepticons and autobots are made from the same space metal. Since they'd both fall in the same range on the Rockwell scale, they both stand the same chance of being damged by a hit. What's the point of punching your opponents face if you could snap off your hand in the process?

Robots don't have muscle - training won't make one stronger than another. As strong as they roll off the assembly line, that's as strong as they're ever going to be - unless they upgrade their hydraulic pumps and lines. And back to all things being equal, if Optimus and Megatron have equal strength and are made of the same material, every fist fight is going to be a stalemate.

Look what happened to Jazz when he tried to take on a larger, "stronger" robot - Megatron ripped him in half. That doesn't mean that Megatron was a better fighter. He just has larger hydraulic pumps which would give him more power.

That's where shooting comes into play. If one can shoot the other in a more strategic area, or even just more often, they stand a better chance of winning a fight, because there's less risk of self-inflicted damage.


The T-800 vs. T-1000 fight makes sense because they're 2 different technologies. The 800 could never win a fist fight against a 1000 because the 1000 has the ability to liquify and absorb the impact of the punch. But the 800 has to take the entire brunt of the 1000's hits, while the 1000 wouldn't sustain any damage from the attack. And that was the entire point in T2 - regardless of the 800's size and strength, he was getting his ass kicked by a smaller, more nimble 1000. It wasn't until the 800 out-smarted the 1000, that he won.

-Fred

Why is it when someone travels back in time - say to the 50's, all of the cars look BRAND NEW - and most of the time they are all from the exact year you are now in.

Adam Sandler could get a girl like Jennifer Aniston to look his way. Seth Rogan could get any girl to look his way.

That girls put any true thought into going out with a guy they just shot down because he's always "been there" for her. Nope.

Does this include video games? If so I want to know how Cole from Infamous takes a shower because whenever he falls into water it electrocutes him.

Jet Beetle said:

Why is it when someone travels back in time - say to the 50's, all of the cars look BRAND NEW - and most of the time they are all from the exact year you are now in.

Adam Sandler could get a girl like Jennifer Aniston to look his way. Seth Rogan could get any girl to look his way.

That girls put any true thought into going out with a guy they just shot down because he's always "been there" for her. Nope.

Click to expand...

Definitely, the whole "moonlight hits the loyal male eunuch of a friend just right and suddenly the girl says 'my god...it's always been you, Steve!' and then they're a couple" thing bugs the HELL out of me.

Another one that gets me: "Happily Ever After." Boy is THAT ever a fairy tale. The tagline alone is a friggin' fairy tale.

Anyone who's been in a relationship (and everyone I've known who's been married) has said that it's WORK and it's HARD and while it's also easy and wonderful, it isn't easy and wonderful all the time. Nor for that matter is it hard work all the time, but still. "Happily ever after" implies that, once you say "I do" and kiss, bang. That's it. Eternal happiness and nothing more to worry about on the relationship front. What a crock.



Ok, here's another one. How is it that no one notices arch-villains (or superheroes for that matter) constructing their hidden layer, full of death-lasers, pressure-plate traps, etc.? And who the hell does the contracting work on this kind of stuff?! There. That should be a series right there. "Superhero/Supervillain General Contractors."

Like, seriously, how did NOBODY notice that Blofeld and SPECTRE were hollowing out a friggin' mountain and installing a bloody shuttle launch assembly, monorail, living quarters, etc., etc., etc.? I mean, really, I think a FEW people happened to notice all the activity when the Maginot Line or NORAD were being constructed!


Another one. When anyone fires off a round into the sky to scare folks....where does it go? CSI actually had an episode about this once. It was pretty impressive. Guy shoots at cans in his back yard, ricochet pings off something, flies several hundred feet into the air, then comes back down at terminal velocity and kills a guy a quarter mile away or something.