Questions tagged [realism]
The general attempt to depict things accurately in films and tv shows.
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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 it make any sense to bribe the whole FBI in Ozark season 4?
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, Maverick and Rooster are intercepted by two enemy fighters one of whom communicates with Maverick and Rooster using gestures, trying to identify friends from foes.
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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 ...
user95711
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Is living inside the Matrix actually a bad thing?
I have to create a video essay in school about a topic of my choice, and I have decided to talk about why living inside the matrix is actually not that bad.
In my opinion living inside the matrix is ...
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Is it realistic for Beck to chew out Roman in the beginning of The Negotiator? [closed]
The Negotiator (1998) begins with a short hostage situation unrelated to the film's main plot. Once the crisis is resolved, the lead tactical cop (Beck / Morse) chastises the hostage negotiator (Roman ...
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Is tinfoil possible to prevent missile tracking radar?
In the beginning of The Bourne Legacy (2012), Aaron Cross was in training in Alaska, and met with another agent. There's a scene when Aaron ran out of the cabin, and the missile destroyed the cabin. ...
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Is it realistic for so many planets to have breathable atmospheres?
Lost In Space showed many planets as having breathable oxygen in their atmospheres. How realistic is it for all these planets to have breathable atmospheres?
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How can Beth call in sick for school when she is a national celebrity?
In episode 3 of The Queen's Gambit, Beth and her adoptive mother travel the country to compete in many chess tournaments. During their travels, Beth is acquiring more and more fame all the while she ...
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How much of Twister is true?
Obviously I know that it's a story but . . .
Has anyone actually successfully placed an instrument package into a tornado and received scientific data?
In this respect, was the film Twister (1996) ...
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How is the "light" trap at the beginning supposed to work?
In the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones encounters a trap where blocking a shaft of light with his hand causes spikes to shoot out of the wall next to him:
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How realistic is Flash of Genius?
I recently watched Flash of Genius (2008), and I'm curious how close it stays to the real-life story of Robert Kearns, the man who invented the intermittent windshield wiper in 1969 before having the ...
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If you pour buckets of gasoline on mattresses and shoot one pistol bullet at mattresses, will mattresses fire up?
In The Enemy Below (at 1:21:18/1:37:35), the USN XO fires one round from his pistol into mattresses that sailors have poured gasoline on. Next these mattresses fire up. Is this scientific?
user91864
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Why did US Navy sailors apologize for swearing, even in front of C.O.?
USN sailors apologizing for swearing, accurate? Why apologize? Don't sailors cuss?
USN sailor said "Son of a bitch ricocheted off the surface" in front of Commander Ernest Krause. Then ...
user91864
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Apple TV "See" series - are the knots a real form of communication?
In the Apple TV Series "See", are the strings they read real? I think the last episode or 2 I heard them called knots.
Just curious if it's a real way of communications or made up. Doesn't ...
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How does the ending of "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" make sense?
From movie mistakes:
Erin Bruner (Laura Linney) loses her case and Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson) is found guilty. But as the judge is about to tell Father Moore his sentence, one of the jury members ...
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Would a Royal Navy submarine Commanding Officer be OF-5 or OF-4?
I fully hrok the distinction between the RANK of OF-4 (Commander) v. Commanding Officer, the official title of the skipper of a ship.
BBC's Vigil, Season 1, Episode 4 has a continuity error that ...
user13434
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Could Hank really have pulled footage of Jesse's RV from the ATM?
In Season 3 Episode 4 ("Green Light") of Breaking Bad, Hank is able to determine what Jesse's RV looks like by pulling footage from a gas station ATM camera:
It was my understanding that ...
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Can a lone gunshot flip over a moving SUV?
In The Marksman (2021), Liam Neeson's character fires two gunshots at a Chevrolet SUV. The first penetrates the windshield and kills the driver.
Where exactly does he fire the second shot at? The ...
user13434
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What is the programming language seen in The Martian?
In the "systems shutdown" scene in The Martian, they show some code. Is that a real programming language (best guess Haskell) or just some hacking-movie-fake-code-with-random-math thing?
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Do they really have apartments that vibrate with trains in New York?
In the movie, Se7en, Detective Mills and Tracy live in an apartment that vibrate when a train comes by.
How realistic is it? I would imagine building quality inspector would have disapproved its ...
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Between Frasier and Niles who can actually afford their lifestyle and dwelling?
So after doing a little digging and taking a look at the possible earnings for both Frasier and Niles I'm still not sure as to who can actually afford the standard of living shown in the show. Frasier ...
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Does this method really work to catch rats? [closed]
In Manu (2018), Manu use this method to catch rats:
A strong rope, three tomatoes, a cycle bar, some oil and an iron box.
It's the only trap to catch rats safely. They smell the tomatoes,
crawl onto ...
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Why do the agents knock on the doors?
While watching The Mentalist I observed that whenever the agents went to the families for interrogation, they always knocked on the door of the house to declare that they were there. In some of ...
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Ending of Cruella
At the end of Cruella (2021):
Is this according to the law? That is, does a woman who murders her daughter, go to prison and lose her fortune to her daughter's heir? According to Wikipedia, the movie ...
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Why do the children not cry when they are taken from their homes?
Some spoilers may be found ahead
At the end of season three, when the kids are walking to the plane, it appears to me as weird that none of the kids are crying or protesting, because they were ...
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Is the protective armour in the shooting scene in Wrath of Man realistic?
There is quite a long shooting scene in the movie, where antagonists wear some sort of protective armour that is capable of protecting them from numerous bullet hits from the relatively close range. ...
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Why does the roadrunner say "beep beep"?
What is the reasoning behind having the roadrunner say "beep beep" constantly? Do real roadrunner birds make a similar sound?
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Why are they not wearing safety belts while driving an armoured truck?
In this movie Wrath of Man, when Bullet is informing H that their truck will be jacked soon and warn H not to resist; I noticed Bullet is not wearing his safety belt.
I am wondering if this scene is ...
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Is it real that USA military find specialists to help in specific disaster situations?
In many Hollywood movies (specially movies with catastrophes like earthquakes, aliens, tsunamis, tornadoes...) military personal always wake up some scientists at their houses and take them (sometimes ...
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Was the Norwegian container house based on a real building?
In The Midnight Sky, the main character finds an abandoned container-like house in the Arctic landscape where they take shelter.
This container has a Norwegian flag and some text on it.
Is it based on ...
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Why does the boy say stamps cost $30?
In the second episode of the first season of Resident Alien, there is the following dialog between a boy and an alien:
-- If you work at the post office, how much does a stamp cost?
-- $100.
-- I ...
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Did the Romans have any other sources of news announcement apart from this speaker? [closed]
In the TV show, Rome, this news announcer delivers news to the public.
I am wondering if the Romans had any other ways to spread the news?
For news to be passed on ...
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How much money did the local sheriff manage? [closed]
In any western movie, the bounty hunter is paid his money on the spot, amounting to hundreds to thousands of dollars. That was a lot of money, and I have a hard time believing that the small town ...
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How realistic is Kidd's job as a news reader?
In the movie, News of the world, Kidd travels around and makes a living by reading the news to others.
I understand back then in the USA, people were likely to be illiterate. But did people really ...
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Why was Captain Ranvijay Singh's dead body released in the sea in the movie "The Ghazi Attack"?
In Ghazi (also called The Ghazi Attack), after Captain Ranvijay Singh died, his body was released in the sea.
Is it due to religious reasons or is a naval code?
This page mentions
Cremation is the ...
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Why isn't Robin Williams in Sean's military photo?
In Good Will Hunting (1997) during the scene where Will and Sean have their first session, Will notices a photo of Sean and his buddies in Vietnam. The photo is shown below. My question is why Robin ...
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Did The Wire invent the "Jump 5" cipher?
This is a version of a question I asked on Security.SE, this time with a focus on the TV side of it.
In S01E05 of The Wire, at around the 45:00 mark, it's revealed that:
In more detail:
Each digit ...
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Did the actors in All Creatures Great and Small actually have their hands in the animals?
During the holidays I started watching the old BBC show, All Creatures Great and Small again. Some scenes in the Yorkshire stables seem a little strange. Did Christopher Timothy actually have his hand ...
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Is Jack and Rose's love story real?
In the film Titanic, did the story of Jack and Rose actually happen in real life?
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How realistic is it for a democratic decision to be concluded by listening to aye and nay?
In House of Cards, there are several occasions that a democratic decision is reached by asking people to yell out Aye in agreement or Nay in disagreement.
There is a particularly occasion in Season 4, ...
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Did they allow smoking in the USA Courts in 1960s?
This is the scene from The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020):
Did they allow smoking in the USA Courts?
user84701
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Are public speeches in The Crown accurate?
The Crown tries to present a dramatisation of Queen Elizabeth's rise into power (or rather, the early years, at least in the first two seasons, I am aware that it will jump into a later period in ...
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How did Jack get the boom to swing across and hit Will?
In the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, when Will and Jack are having a debate about whether Will's father was a pirate, Jack turns the ship's wheel, causing the boom to swing across and hit Will,...
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Why do people show their backs to The Queen all the time in The Crown?
I've heard that you should never show your backside to the Queen. That means that leaving the room you walk backwards, and so on.
Yet in The Crown the vast majority of characters, and not just the ...
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How real is to have Muscovites gather on the doors of the tournament center to see the chess players after their matches?
In the 6th and 7th episode of The Queen's Gambit, Beth plays the Moscow Invitational, an important chess tournament (that is fictional) in Russia. Some of the best players from around the world play ...
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Do people really open wine bottles with an army sword?
In Hannibal, season 3, ep 1, Antipasto,
There is a scene where waiters open sealed wine bottles with an army sword by cutting them open.
Do people really do this in real life? I am not even sure this ...
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Is it true that police only do an outline of a body with chalk if that person is alive and taken to hospital?
Season 1, Ep 3, Hannibal, Abigail returns home after waking up from her coma and sees the word "cannibals" painted on their garage door.
Then Abigail asks Will if a place is where her mom ...
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Would messmate really be helping gun crew during the battle?
In the Greyhound movie, we can see a black messmate (or is it "messman"?) Cleveland regularly bringing food to the captain. When the U-boats attack, there is a moment, when we can see ...
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Colonizing Mars with Crops
In The Martian, after Mark Watney reestablishes contact with Earth, he says this:
I’ve gotten e-mail from rock stars, athletes, actors and actresses,
and even the President.
One of them was from my ...
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