A few months ago, I wrote about a Reddit thread that asked, "Reddit, what instantly ruins a movie for you?" Then, the comments on my post were filled with even more things that ruin movies for people.
So here are 36 of the small things that movies do that ruin them for people.
1. "Working-class single mom, two to three kids. Lives in a $2 million house."
2. "Empty suitcases! Characters on their way to the airport lift suitcases into the car with one finger. Spot it every time."
3. "When there just happens to be a missing person’s poster that JUST showed up right before the wanted person walked in the door. Or the wanted person’s face is on the TV RIGHT when they walk in the store."
4. "When people are texting, and there's no chat history. It's very clear that this isn't the first time they've texted this person, so why make it look that way?"
5. "Someone's hair/makeup magically looking good when it makes no sense. It's so unrealistic and takes me out of the scene."
6. "Houses are immaculately decorated with new furniture. At Christmas time, every door and window are surrounded with garlands. Thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of garlands. But, 'We may have to move out tomorrow because mom doesn't have the rent.'"
7. "Ridiculously unrealistic hackers."
8. "I don't like the portrayal of dissociative identity disorder (previously known as split personalities) in the media. It's always used as an excuse to have a violent killer alter, when in reality most people with DID are more likely to be victims of violence."
9. "In every historical movie, you have the Cough: the surreptitious look at the handkerchief followed by them quickly hiding the handkerchief. We all know it’s got blood on it. OH LORD, IT’S THE CONSUMPTION!"
10. "When someone says, 'This isn't a movie. It's real life.'"
11. "Random destruction that holds no weight and is never mentioned again."
12. "When a character starts reciting a line from a book or poem and another character finishes it, and then all of a sudden they're in love."
13. "When straight couples lie in bed, the woman always has to cover her boobs, unlike the man. Don’t understand our obsession (or fear apparently) of females' nipples."
14. "Women in action movies ALWAYS have the same 'injury': just a small cut on their upper cheek after being basically thrown out of a helicopter. Just enough to make her look 'tough,' but not enough that it'll ruin her beauty."
15. "How about movies where teenagers are able to solve a crime before seasoned detectives can?"
16. "Incorrect medical jargon, particularly medications."
17. "I hate that when a building falls and you're supposed to run, the characters just stand there until the building almost falls on them, and then they start running. When the building falls, I'm like, 'Ugh, just run, why the hell are you still standing there???'"
18. "I've been in pretty brutal wreckage and damage. I've never walked on a neat pathway cleared through it."
19. "When they try to explain the science in science fiction, it always makes it less believable."
20. "When teenagers are played by unrealistically hot grown-ass adults."
21. "It’s the random shower scene that has nothing to do with the story for me!"
22. "Carrying or pretending to drink from obviously empty coffee cups. Hate it."
23. "When people in movies wake up looking immaculate, with perfect hair and makeup, no greasy skin or bags under their eyes, and just generally look amazing. No one that I know wakes up looking that perfect. It’s so unrealistic."
24. "For me and most fellow veterans I know, it's whenever they have characters in military uniforms. Unless they have done their research, there will probably be something wrong with the uniform that most people who have been in the military will spot instantly."
25. "When the monster shows up and kills some extras instantly but just picks up the main character to throw them across the room, and then the main character doesn't have any injuries."
26. "It's a small thing, but when the plants are very obviously plastic, it kind of bugs me."
27. "I hate when there's a 'smart' character, and then a hot character we didn't know was smart comes by and is like, 'Hey...are those numbers?' And the smart one is like, 'OMG, you've heard of numbers before??? No one else here knows what numbers are. I'm in LOVE!!!!'"
28. "Someone pushing open an access panel in an elevator to climb into the shaft to do something heroic. Been in loads of them; never seen one where you can do that."
29. "Female throws up. Boom, must be pregnant. Zero symptoms before the vomiting or has no idea until a friend says, 'Maybe you're pregnant.'"
30. "The way mental health wards are portrayed; people in straitjackets or bouncing off the walls. It is not like that, and that reinforces very dangerous stereotypes most people have about serious mental illness. I have worked in mental health wards where we have movie nights or cook together or just hang out. It infuriates me!!!!"
31. "Movies based on books that had NO romance or romantic plots, but then they're shoehorned into the movie anyway and usually take over the main plot."
32. "I hate when there’s water on the camera lens. Like, it’s raining, and they make a point of showing water dripping down the lens. I don’t want to be reminded that this is a movie???"
33. "'If you kill them, you'll become just like them!' So all those countless goons who were slaughtered don't count, huh?"
34. "When people have to take medications and they are always carrying a pill case around, shake out a couple, and just swallow them dry during random moments."
35. "Female (and male!) characters always being perfectly groomed — clean hair, perfect white teeth, smooth hairless pits and legs, etc. — even when they’ve been marooned on a desert island for months or when the film is set in the 1500s. Puhlease."
36. And finally, of course, "Not saying goodbye on a phone call. Bugs me every time! I swear it must be a Hollywood inside joke at this point to just have characters hang up. They know how much it annoys us and keep doing it anyway!"
Note: Answers and submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.