20+ Film Clichés That Make Us Grumble and Are No Longer Fooling Us

Life in movies tends to be kind of perfect. The situations we see on screen, even the most bizarre or absurd, are always resolved in some way. But we know that everything that happens in an hour and a half in the movies is not true. In fact, reality can not only be imperfect, but even cruder than any cliché.

• Lying on the grass with your sweetheart in the movies is usually the most common thing to do, with all that nature around... In real life, it can also be very romantic — until the bugs start doing their thing.

• In a musical, a character suddenly interrupts the scene to spontaneously start singing in the middle of the audience.
• Digging a hole in cartoons looks very easy. The soil slides in smoothly and the hard work is accomplished in seconds. We’re sure that in reality, none of that happens.

• Superhero landings: ouch, the knees!
• When moving, at a moment’s notice, the characters paint and repair the house or apartment with all the budget in the world.
• And what about the hardcore training scenes: characters exercising, dieting, and suddenly having a perfect body. In reality, transformation is a long process. There are no fast breakthroughs or background music to inspire you.

• In long-running romantic dramas, there is a lot of conflict and angst that, in real life, is sometimes resolved within 10 minutes of discussion during a phone call.
• If a character goes to a theme park, the movie doesn’t show them having to wait more than an hour to get into the best rides or how expensive the food is there.
• High school students in the movies have long breaks between classes and spend their time having fun in the classrooms or partying in the hallways. In reality, we, ordinary people, spend time in high school rushing to get to class on time. Sometimes we don’t even get a bathroom break.

• When a couple of characters are in a coffee shop, we don’t hear any of the other conversations in the background, as the extras barely move their lips. Sorry, but Starbucks at 9 in the morning is much louder than that.
• Jobs in movie fiction often seem more interesting than in reality. People say stuff like, “I write postcards,” as if such a job could earn enough to even pay the rent. Why?
• Not to mention what Hollywood thinks an archaeologist does every day...

• Fictional families get together in the morning for breakfast and in the evening for dinner. In real life, sometimes the only soul we run into in the kitchen is the dog.
• In the scenes inside the cars, drivers never complain about the state of the roads.
• Babies in movies are often unusually well-behaved. They’re kidding, right? Real babies cry over anything.

• Are all kitchens really as neat and clean as in the movies?
• Waking up from a nightmare in fiction is all dramatic. In reality, there’s a bit of drooling and snoring.
• We could open a whole thread about how tasty Thanksgiving turkeys look in movies.

• We will say only one thing: fights on the roof of a train.
• Walking away slowly as something explodes in the back...
• Throwing a big party at home, with the whole school invited, sounds like a teen movie cliché. And it is: in reality, that means a lot of dirty dishes and trash to pick up.

• Kissing immediately after waking up. In real life, well...
• Breaking a window with your fist is so rough and easy at the same time in the movies. In real life, it surely lands you in the emergency room.
• In the movies, doing anything in the snow seems wonderful; those scenes of all-white landscapes and people being happy in them are nothing like reality. The truth is that snow is not only very cold, but it also causes runny noses and foggy goggles, and it’s not always fluffy, sometimes it looks more like dirt than snow.

• In movies, rich and educated men fall in love with modest poor girls. Do you think in real life a simpleton should wait for a princess?
• In the movie, when lying in a coma in the hospital bed, the heroine looks perfect. Our makeup and hairstyle don’t look that good even after going to the salon.
• In frustration, heroes always eat ice cream or chocolate. Does that mean that people when grieving don’t crave something different like chips, pizza, or a three-story sandwich?

What other clichés do you think Hollywood has sold us about things that, in real life, happen in a very different way?