Questions tagged [realism]
The general attempt to depict things accurately in films and tv shows.
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Does After Earth's sci-fi jargon have any basis in reality or is it complete gibberish?
One of the most quoted lines from After Earth is:
Graviton buildup could be a precursor to mass expansion.
This phrase is not only very memorable, but it's also quoted in many reviews as ...
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Realism of the responsibilities of the senior staff in the West Wing
I am in the middle of a West Wing marathon and I was wondering regarding the powers and responsibilities that the Communications director and Deputy Communications director, as portrayed in the series....
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Can the police lie to make a suspect confess?
In The Mentalist S6 Ep 17 "Silver Wings of Time" they construct an elaborate deception to trick the real killer into confessing.
How realistic is this concept?
Can the police actually lie and trick ...
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Stock Footage of Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff?
In The Right Stuff (1983) lots of stock footage is used. There's one scene in particular that I'm pretty sure uses stock footage. But I'd like a confirmation. It's the scene when Alan Shepard is about ...
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Are the events depicted in FX's Fargo TV series really true?
The first episode of FX's Fargo series begins with the disclaimer-
THIS IS A TRUE STORY.
The events depicted took place in Minnesota in 2006.
At the request of the survivors, the names have ...
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Is it really possible to create a mind palace?
In Sherlock the BBC TV series the protagonist Sherlock and the villain Magnussen are able to recall information from their mind similar to searching for a file in Windows.
Is this really possible?
If ...
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Does the Discovery show 'Moonshiner' show the truth?
I love Discovery channel because it's so American and most of the time there's such a drama for nothing, but I have to admit that seeing Moonshiners was some kind of a surprise.
I guess that people ...
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Upto what extent do foreign sitcoms/drama shows exhibits 'real culture' of those countries?
Looking at sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and other ones, up-to what extent do they reflect the culture of America? Is it good to make a statement about other countries' ...
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How realistic is the portrayed mentalism?
In the 2013 film Now You See Me we see a group of four magicians performing tricks. Many of them are explained in the film (the crimes themselves), others you can deduce (the chosen card appearing in ...
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Do people swear by river Thames in the UK?
In India we consider rivers to be holy and respect them. Sometimes swearing by them to prove a point. But in Namastey London, Bebo Malhotra (an UK based NRI) swears by river Thames to vouch for her ...
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The hydrazine incident: could both astronauts have been saved?
In Europa Report, two of the astronauts (James and Andrei) are coming to the end of a space walk (and are low on air) when there's an emergency in the form of an explosion. Andrei finds a tear in his ...
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Would NASA have known about the oncoming debris in Gravity?
In the film, Gravity, the protagonists are warned early on of destruction headed their way.
My question is: shouldn't NASA have predicted this beforehand? I'm not a rocket scientist, but wouldn't ...
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How plausible is Elysium in terms of realistic science?
I know Elysium (2013) happens more than a century from now, but really, how plausible is it to:
Survive a full dose of nuclear radiation
Store data in brains
Shoot a missile from Earth out of a ...
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Is it possible to activate two vocal cords together as stated by the prosecutor?
In The Exorcism of Emily Rose, for the explanation of voices in tape, the prosecutor says that humans have two vocal cords and Emily had activated the other one too, which made her sound like two ...
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Why didn't the electric charge affect Holmes when he attacks Dredger?
I saw the movie Sherlock Holmes.
In that movie, there is a scene where Holmes and Doctor fights with Dredger in Ginger Midget's place.
To attack Dredger, Holmes used a weapon which contained ...
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How real are Bear Grylls TV shows? (Ultimate Survival in particular)
In Ultimate Survival on Discovery channel, we see Bear Grylls do amazing stuff, hunting dangerous animals, climbing dangerous mountains and all that fun stuff.
There was another similar show on that ...
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Did Liam Neeson use exact science in order to know his location?
This is how Bryan Mills knew his location in Taken 2, so lets not discuss that as it's discussed in a previous question.
I want to know if he used exact sciences, did the director hire some ...
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How realistic is House MD series with respect to medical science?
Since I have been watching House MD, all the episodes seem to be a bit unrealistic. Does this series have any close actual relevance to medical science?
The series is about cases that most doctors ...
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Why no repercussions of assassinating the Secretary?
While extracting Ethan Hunt, unidentified assailants rain bullets on the car in which Ethan, William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) and the Secretary (IMF) are traveling. One of the bullets hits the Secretary ...
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Is a blood analyst's salary enough to pay rent for two houses and other expenses in Miami?
In Dexter, Season 4, Dexter keeps two houses, one of his old one for secret works and one for Rita and his children. Similarly in Season 5, He returns to his old house but still keep's Rita's house ...
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Is the 10th man rule purely fictional, or is it based in fact?
In World War Z, one of the characters described something called "the tenth man rule."
After several disasters that NO ONE thought could happen, the Council decided that if a vote was unanimous ...
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Of the movies 'Volcano' and 'Dante's Peak', which is more scientifically accurate?
In 1997, two volcano movies were released with big-name actors, Volcano and Dante's Peak.
Both movies were fun to watch, but I'm curious, of the two gems of moviemaking, which were more ...
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Calvin Candie's "dimples in the skull" theory
In Django Unchained, Calvin Candie tells Django and Dr. Shultz a theory about the dimples in the skull of human beings. He says that due to the location of these very dimples which is different in ...
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Is the healing technique of Karate Kid practically possible?
In The Karate Kid (2010), Jackie Chan uses some fire technique for healing Dre's wounds. I want to know if that technique is real or complete fiction.
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In Spartacus, can gladiators break a Roman formation?
In the series Spartacus, season 3 episode 6, it appears that a small group of 3-4 gladiators (with just swords) manages to break a tight wall formation of 6-8 Romans attacking them with roman shields, ...
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Is Captain Jackson’s accent authentic?
In BBC detective drama Ripper Street there is an American character, captain Homer Jackson (played by American actor Adam Rothenberg): former U.S. Army surgeon, ex-Pinkerton agent etc. For the story ...
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Is the Unix operating system featured in Jurassic Park real?
When the film Jurassic Park came out, and I saw that scene where Ariana Richards is sitting in front of the computer and says;
This is a Unix system. I know this. It's the files for the whole ...
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How realistic is V The Serial?
V The Serial is an Indian soap opera based on the real life of Indian TV actors. How much of the show is real? Are there any non-celebrity character that are also played by the same person? How real ...
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What did Hannah use to escape?
In the season 7 finale of Dexter, Hannah has Arlene slip her some sort of drug that seems to have a delayed effect of causing serious seizures and lasts long enough only to allow her to the hospital ...
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Was the last play in The Longest Yard(2005) completely fair?
After the trick-play (Fumblerooski) to level scores against the guards, the Mean Machine go for the two-point conversion. Here, they start talking among themselves and Crewe with Scarborough to ...
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Is this mask really possible?
Sometimes we see a mask is used by an actor of a film by which he drastically changes his face. I was under the impression that only after plastic surgery one can change his face. I stumbled upon this ...
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How far advanced are today's robots with respect to those shown in Real Steel?
Several high-tech robots are shown in the movie Real Steel. Robots that can follow voice commands and even having shadow recognition and voice recognition there. I was wondering:
Do these types of ...
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Why doesn't the bomb cause radiation poisoning to Gotham City?
The ending to me makes no sense.
Batman put his plane on auto pilot that was carrying the bomb away from the city, but they should be affected for many years to come just like Hiroshima.
How come ...
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How closely does "First Blood" portray the contemporary attitude towards war veterans?
How closely does the movie "First Blood" (1982) portray the contemporary public attitude towards the returning Vietnam War veterans?
Does this trend still continue?
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Can JARVIS be for real?
I know how naive I seem asking this question but was far too fascinated by the character JARVIS in the Iron Man movies to not ask this.
Well JARVIS is nothing but Tony Stark's personal assistant ...
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How realistic is the surveillance in the movie "Enemy of the State"?
I was watching "Enemy of the State" last night and at one stage I was convinced some of the stuff (such as the satellite tracking) was a bit far fetched. But given the age of that movie and the fact ...
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Could a fire hose really support the weight of a falling man?
In the movie Die Hard, near the end, John McClane ties a fire hose around his waist and jumps off the roof of the Nakotomi plaza building.
Would a fire hose really be able to support the weight of a ...
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Is Eisenheim's sword illusion realistic?
Eisenheim performs a sword illusion in The Illusionist (2006). Is this illusion realistic? Could it be practiced in real life?
Here is a YouTube video showing what I mean:
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Why didn't the bomb cause a tsunami in Dark Knight Rises?
As far as I know, even smaller earthquakes measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale in Japan have triggered tsunamis. Was the atom bomb used in The Dark Knight Rises not this powerful?
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Is the electric track the tour vehicles follow on in Jurassic Park actually possible?
Based on the image above and examination while viewing Jurassic Park, it appears there is no physical connection between truck and track (though there may be).
Is the proposed method of moving the ...
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Is the brain sequence similar to reality or not?
In Saw 3, a sequence is shown where Dr. Lynn Denlon performs an operation on John (Jigsaw) using a drill and other similar tools.
My first question is, how can they perform an operation where ...
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Is this incident realistic in Vacancy?
In Vacancy (2007), David Fox is stabbed at night (supposedly after midnight), and at the end of the film (in daytime), it turns out he's still alive. Is it possible in real life that a person is ...
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Is kelp tape real?
In season 2 episode 7 of Archer, Rona Thorne suggests using a kelp tape cleansing technique. I was able to find some reference to kelp as a cleanser on the Google, but nothing mentioning 'tape' ...
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How could Eisenheim achieve those reflections on the scene in that era?
In The Illusionist (2006), how could Eisenheim achieve those reflections (visions) on the scene? Even in one of the scenes, there was a (ghost) boy walking through the audience. Given that the film ...
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Why are computer hackers shown to either be geniuses, or show them doing it in fantastic ways?
I was watching The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Lisbeth Salander was really good at hacking computers as well as other security breaking skills, to the point where it was way too easy to do from a ...
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How credible is the ending of Collateral?
Here's what happens at the end of Collateral (2004):
The taxi driver manages to defeat a highly skilled hitman.
Is it mere luck? Should we accept this as a screw-up on the part of the movie ...
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