Questions tagged [realism]
The general attempt to depict things accurately in films and tv shows.
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After surfacing between 2 allied destroyers, how did U-boat's gun crews stay alive so long, firing their guns?
As soon as the U-boat surfaced, 'Dicky' and 'Greyhound' would have started shooting it. I know that the U-boat slipped under the destroyers' mounted naval guns, but a destroyer crew can still shoot ...
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What is the significance of the sun shade with “Need help please call police”?
In the 2023 movie The Killer, there is a scene (around 50:39) where The Killer (Michael Fassbender) parks his car in front of a house, and puts up a windshield sun shade that has "Need help ...
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Did Native American fighters really manage to sneak up to European trappers by climbing / jumping trees?
In the movie, The Revenant, Hugh and his group of trappers were ambushed by Native Americans after a fruitful pelt hunt.
There was at least one Native American fighter who had climbed onto a tree and ...
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In the US, are the assets of a vulnerable elderly person transferred to the custodian?
After I watched I Care a Lot, this question came to mind.
In the movie, a woman (Marla), who is a scammer, locates wealthy old people and convinces the court to give her guardianship over them and ...
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Why is a cash store named as such?
In the movie, Ballad of Buster Scruggs, there is a store in the town called Cash Store. (To the right of the mirror in the screenshot)
It is often to see Cash only as a way of accepting payment in ...
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Do nightclubs have scoreboard for waitresses?
In Molly's Game (2017), Dean, who is regular to the club, speaks to Molly, a waitress at club:
Dean: People seem to take to you. How would you like to get paid to
go to grad school and get an MBA in ...
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Why do some Chinese shows avoid using real toponyms?
While watching the 2023 Chinese tv adaptation of Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem with English subtitles, I noticed a peculiarity:
Instead of using actual place names, the show appears to use ...
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Why does Robin Williams have a dark beard in the poster?
In the poster of 1997 movie Good Will Hunting Robin Williams' character Sean Maguire has a dark beard compared with the movie itself:
Why is there this difference?
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How genuine are the threats in "Alone"?
I've only seen the UK Channel 4 version of Alone, a survivalist game show where contestants must last as long as possible alone in the wilderness.
Aside from the threat of hunger and sickness or minor ...
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Could bulletproof glass stop a sniper?
In the TV show the "The Punisher" (s01e07) there is a scene where Frank Castle attempts to kill a man standing at a window using a sniper rifle:
To his ...
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Left side steering wheels in "MI: Dead Reckoning"? [closed]
In the new Mission Impossible movie, all the vehicles, even distinctly European ones, have American (left side) steering wheels. Why is that?
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Was this event in S03E05 credible/possible in the UK?
In Happy Valley S03E05, Tommy Lee Royce escapes from the witness stand box by:
Two thugs sitting around outside the courtroom beat up some guys, causing a commotion and setting some alarm off
Royce (...
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Why using planes instead of drones or other unmanned devices?
In Top Gun: Maverick (2022), the plan is to use two fighter jets to breach and destroy a bunker.
The US forces know exactly the shape of the canyon that leads to the bunker, yet instead of sending ...
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How can the canyon at the flight training base exactly match the target one?
In Top Gun: Maverick (2022), the pilots are training to match the terrain they will get at the place where the plant is located. The path they must take closely follows the canyon they need to fly ...
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Are Moira Rose's Wigs Actually Made of Real Hair?
In 'Schitt's Creek', I'm fairly sure that Moira says that her wigs are made of real human hair.
Is this in fact true, i.e. are the props also made of real human hair? Is there any proof of this?
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Accuracy of Hellfighters Trailer Claim of just three
The original trailer of Hellfighters(IMDB) claims that there were "only three people" fighting oil fires this way when it came out in 1968.
As far as I realize, John Wayne's character is ...
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Do EMPs really have this property in the real world?
In The Matrix (1999), the resistance uses EMPs to help them fight the machines:
Trinity: Electromagnetic pulse. Disables any electrical system
in the blast radius.
Do EMPs really have this property ...
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How does signing a non-disclosure agreement work?
In the TV show Succession, Ep 1, Season 1, Roman Roy teases a boy by promising one million dollars if this boy could hit a home run in a baseball game. It ends up with Roman tearing up the one million ...
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Can the setting for Howl be considered an authentic\accurate depiction of the UK?
The movie Howl (2015) featured a British cast, and was filmed on location in London and Buckinghamshire.
Outside of its initial premise (a horror movie featuring Werewolves), can the movie be ...
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Why does the police officer manually pull back the charging handle to release a spent shell?
From this movie clip, from 3:04 ~ 3:07, a police officer shoots a single round that kills a robber.
We can see the weapon this police officer uses is a fully automatical assault rifle, so why would he ...
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Do the quotes from the "Bottom Half of the Internet" exist?
In Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Goodish, once per episode he performs a "Found Poem" as he calls it. This is a compilation of humourously angry and nonsensical comments about an ...
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Why does Eli have a heart attack in the "wrong" place of his body?
Disclaimer: I am fully aware that Desperate Housewives has no intention of being scientifically accurate, so I would prefer not to have this information as an answer.
In the episode "The Best ...
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Is it realistic for an actor to act in four movies in six months?
Watching Once Upon a Time in Hollywood which, as I understand it, is mostly a pretty realistic portrayal of Hollywood in 1969.
One thing that doesn't feel right, though: the part where the actor is ...
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Does anything like this toy vinyl record topper featured in Season 3 of Evil exist in the real world?
During multiple episodes of the third season of the TV series, Evil, Leland Townsend gifts Dr. Kurt Boggs with a vinyl record of the French children's song, Aloutte.
(...
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Are the computers in Severance real?
Is this computer, as in hardware, fictional? It has a very strange keyboard layout.
Everything with the computers is wrong, given the high-tech background of Lumon Industries.
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Prince Philip's knife holding
In S5 E6 of The Crown, ca. 23m44s, Prince Philip (played by Jonathan Pryce) is shown eating with the handle of his knife resting on top of his hand, as opposed to 'inside', covered by his hand.
I ...
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How can someone readily know the sky Rose saw when the Titanic sank?
When Neil deGrasse Tyson went to the Joe Rogan Experience, he told the story of how he noticed the sky was wrong, and also the left side was a mirror reflection of the right side.
To know the sky you ...
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Is NYC taxi cab number 86Z5 reserved for filming?
I was just watching Jessica Jones and noticed the cab she was riding in was number 86Z5. Immediately afterwards I watched an episode of The Leftovers set in NYC, and one of the characters also hailed ...
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Is the character Johnny based on a real person?
According to the film's Wikipedia page, Armageddon Time by James Gray is "inspired by his childhood experiences".
In the movie, there is a character named Johnny Davis, a rebellious African-...
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What is supposed to be ominous about the 1976 Philadelpha Flyers?
In The Simpsons episode 1F04 "Treehouse of Horror IV", Devil Flanders summons the "Jury of the Damned" to sit in judgment of Homer. The jury consists of "Benedict Arnold, ...
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How can Joey hold his weight and Ross's weight at the same time?
I am talking about this scene in the TV series, Friends
when Joey and Ross were stuck on the roof of the building and they wanted to go down the building another way.
In this scene, Joey was holding ...
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Why have there been no birth defects to all children born of close relative marriages?
It is well known that children born of close relative marriages are very likely to have birth defects.
But all children in the Game of Thrones universe do not suffer any birth defects, given they are ...
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Why wouldn't soldiers eat meat of cows killed by their enemies?
In the movie 1917 (2019), there is a scene in which Schofield takes a ride with a group of fellow British soldiers in a truck/lorry.
When they see dead cows lying around the road they are travelling ...
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Can you drive anything on the roads in the U.S.?
In many American reality TV shows about fixing, modifying, or restoring cars, one can see the mechanics just taking a half-built car on the road for a test drive.
For example, in the first episode of ...
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Vader is immune to laser beams?
Ok, I just noticed this: Han Solo shoots laser beams at Darth Vader who apparently is completely immune. Ok, so if Jedi are immune to laser beams, why even bother to deflect them with a light saber? ...
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Why use a slide rule and not an electronic calculator?
In Season 2 Episode 2 of The Wire at around 31:30, we see a guy (forensic medical examiner?) use a slide rule. Why not use a normal electronic calculator? I'm not really familiar with the show - is ...
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Is it plausible that Walt was hit without feeling it?
In the final episode, he notices the blood and this seems to be the first time he knows he has been hit.
Is there a way a huge round like that could hit a person anywhere without them feeling some ...
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In S3 of Veronica Mars, Wallace buys previous exam papers & answer keys. Is his subsequent treatment consistent with realistic university policies?
In season 3 of Veronica Mars when Veronica and Wallace go to university, Wallace buys previous exam papers and answer keys. Apparently, this is cheating.
In my alma mater, this was being resourceful: ...
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How realistic is it to have maggots to remove dead flesh?
In House of the Dragon, S01E02, the maester is giving King Viserys I a very unique treatment for his pinky finger.
By burying it into a swamp of maggots.
The purpose is to allow maggots to eat away ...
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Do prisons offer electricity to inmates 24/7?
In the TV show, Black Bird (2022), Jimmy is given the case file of a serial killer in prison and he starts reading it during one evening in his cell.
I am not really sure how realistic this is. I ...
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How realistic is it for OJ to ride his horse the way he did with the horse hooded and its eyes covered?
In the final act of Nope (2022), OJ covered his horse with a hood to prevent it from looking at the alien. Can you really ride a horse like that with its eyes covered? Or did I read the scene wrongly?
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Why did the electric bike flip in "Nope"?
Why did the electric bike flip when its power got cut off by the alien in Nope (2022)? Wouldn't its wheels continue spinning as it loses speed until it comes to a stop?
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Is the device Beca uses in Pitch Perfect 3 a real musical device?
In the Pitch Perfect 3, Beca creates sounds "Ah~ Oh~" with this loop pedal device that don't have labels. I don't know what's name and I haven't been able to find anything by searching for ...
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How realistic is it for Gus Fring to dig a tunnel between two houses across the road?
In Batter Call Saul, season 6, we have seen multiple times that there is an underground tunnel between Gus Fring's personal residence and the house opposite to his house across the road.
The two ...
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How do buried land mines really work?
This happens in many movies. A guy steps into a mine then does a clever trick and escapes. It seems bad design if you have a land mine, and it doesn't explode.
A similar thing happens with Claymore ...
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Would police answer a girl's call based on her dream?
In the horror movie The Black Phone, Gwen keeps having dreams about her brother's abduction and finally she decides to call the detectives to inform them about the house she sees in her dream.
How ...
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Ruth's motive to steal from Marty?
In Ozark (2017-22), Ruth gets waterboarded by Helen and her associates when it appears she may have been an informant.
After this, Ruth (with the urging of her father) attempts to steal "Marty's ...
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Does the concept of bribing the whole FBI in Ozark season 4 make any sense?
In Ozark season 4, the plot relies on the fact that the FBI top officials want to keep the seizures happening, apparently as a source of money benefiting the FBI itself. In the story the Cartel boss ...
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How realistic for jet fighter pilots to communicate via gestures instead of wireless comms?
In the movie Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Maverick and Rooster are intercepted by two enemy fighters one of whom communicates with Maverick and Rooster using gestures, trying to identify friends from ...
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Could Michael have used the e-mail surveillance program to stop the distribution of his photo?
In the episode Email Surveillance, Michael is given the ability to monitor e-mails. We can clearly see Reply, Reply to All Foward and the X for delete.
He's monitoring Stanley's inbox when these ...
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