That's just cutting out the boring parts. Why waste film showing every second of a helicopter winding its rotor up to speed?

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

But everyone on the ship has the exact same tolerance for radiation exposure? Isn't that like a thousand people, including children and aliens?

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

The safety standards would assume the minimal lethal level for those aboard. TOS, had 400 healthy adults, no children and only one Vulcan aboard.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

These days even swords go "shing." Not just the scrape when they are drawn (what is this fascination with all-metal self-sharpening scabards?) but even when a bit of light reflects off it. "Shing!"

(See "Audible Sharpness" entry in the "Television Tropes and Idioms" pages.)

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"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

I don't know if this is a cliche exactly, but it bugs me. In many martial arts movies, or scenes from non-martial arts movies where martial arts are implied (Worf) There are two things that get done a lot. One is the "Hollywood Back-knuckle" which I've ranted about before. Basically, if you miss you can tear your rotator cuff. The other is the "Pose of Death" Van Damme is the main offender with this one, but it was in Enter the Dragon as well. A fight can go on for a long time, bu you know it's over when the hero lands a blow and holds it in place as the bad guys falls away. Usually the hand of foot is shaking slightly as it's suspended in the air.

Another one that got on my nerves in last season's 24 was the implication that everyone had a the ability to recall any phone number they heard, no matter what.

"We just killed a man in your living room. His partners have your husband and are trying to get him to help them set off a nuk-u-lar bomb (Jack Bauer can't say nuclear). Your son is missing and wounded. Call 867-5309 and tell them that I'm on my way to 8915 vista way. Got that?" And she does.

BTW, I understand the need for the 555 numbers, but they actually do bug me. Usually, I'm actually really into a show and they pull that number out and all the other crappy shows I've ever seen pop back into my head. In the US 555-1212 is used for interstate directory assistance.

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek with think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

How about, "Can't give the person you're talking to a straight answer."

Engineering: "Captain!"

Captain: "Go ahead, Scotty. What's the emergency."

Engineering: "Let's just say you better get down here and see for yourself."

(Fade to Blackout)

***

Man: "Call 911!"

Woman: "Why? Is there a problem?"

Man: "There's about to be!"

(Fade to Blackout)

1xx exchanges are not used in NA either, and probably will never be, since the telephone system uses "1" to designate a long-distance call. As far as 555 goes, apparently things are changing: "...only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are now specifically reserved for fictional use, with the other numbers having been released for actual assignment..."
--from 555 phone numbers WP

Bruce Almighty evidently forgot, however: "...God contacts Bruce, via pager, using an actual phone number rather than a number in the standard fictional 555 telephone exchange. The original telephone number was 776-2323...[s]everal people and groups sharing this number have received hundreds of phone calls from people wanting to talk to God. Oddly enough, some of the calls went to a church..."
--from Bruce Almighty WP

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"WARNING: Being launched into space is hazardous."--Lonewulf

Triplebrick is no longer birdable. It was fun while it lasted.

"N'oubliez pas: l'ours n'est pas un nounours!"--Nounours de Salmonberry

Just to clarify: The helicopter rotor spin-up refers to those times when the good guy is being closely persued by the bad guy. (S)He jumps in the chopper, hits the start button and is in the air ten seconds later.

I suppose the Inertia Canceller is used at these times.

Which does resurrect the whole question of variable inertia in media.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

And speaking of rounds, magazines and firearms, how about an empty 1911-style automatic that doesn't lock the slide back when the mag is empty and repeatedly goes "click" as the actor repeatedly pulls the trigger on an "dry" pistol?

Don't know if it's been addressed already - if so, my apologies - but the SILENCED revolver! Yeah. Really quiet, that one.....

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"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it." - Florence Ambrose

How long DOES it take for a helicopter to get its blades up to speed in an emergency? I've watched launches up close, but they weren't emergencies, and the engine in each case seemed to be idling at a constant speed while the pilot went through a pre-flight checklist, then cranked up to lifting speed in the last few seconds after he put down the clipboard.

Generally this is true, but it is possible: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagant_M1895

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits

This used to be a common idiom/cliche, then faded from sight, then became The Bourne Supremacy: the character gets Amnesia. A lot of older shows had an "amnesia" episode.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Been browsing BaBB lately?

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

In a few years, will heroes consider it safe to ride on private spacecraft?

And if we mentioned amnesia, we have to add these other "psycological" gems:
Switching brains.
Getting shocked by a special machine or zapped by a laser that can make you evil.

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Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Well, the best way to find out is to go there and, find out. - Raven's Cry
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

It's that Russian one. The one that really is made to fit a silencer. They ALL are...

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Captain Dallas: "Is Major Tom there?
Mission Control: "Ahhh...No. He's missing. Can I take a message?"
Captain Dallas: "Missing? Well where is he?"
Mission Control: "If we knew where he was he wouldn't be missing, now would he!?"

Sex Kittens from Mars,
Brian Wild, Director/Playwrite
Captain Dallas, Buck Hacke
Mission Control, John Eichenlaub...aka Ichabod

Hypnosis gives total control.
Oh, please.
A hypnotist can't even make you scratch your nose if you don't wish to.

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Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Well, the best way to find out is to go there and, find out. - Raven's Cry
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

You're getting sleepy.......sleepy......

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"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it." - Florence Ambrose

Unless it's Kryptonian Hyper-Hypnotism.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

More a TV cliche that a movie one: the Mental Ward episode. Every fantasy or sci-fi series seems contractually obligated to have a "you're just crazy, it was all a delusion" episode. Smallville, Buffy, both Stargates, Charmed...

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort