Boards definitive list of Movie Cliches

Kingp35

OK so lets create the definitive list of Movie Cliches. Ill get us started.

- Nearly all Asian characters are martial arts experts.
- The hero of an action movie always seems to have a gun with unlimited ammo.
- Its an action movie, you are in a warehouse, and you are fighting someone. You will be thrown into a pile of boxes - WHICH ARE ALWAYS EMPTY!
- Some horror movie cliches. The victim will be walking backwards towards camera, a hand will appear on their shoulder to cause a fright but it will only be a friend (of course this is accompanied by some loud noise). When a person is being followed by a ghost or something they turn around to see if its behind them and its gone, but when they turn back around there it is.
- Glasses on + hair up = sh1t ugly geek, Glasses off + hair down = prom queen

Feel free to add to the list

Chardee MacDennis

child flying for the first time by his(her)self!

in fact most things in Snakes on a Plane...

mike65

The false ending, then the er SHOCK moment Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Mike.

Rhyme

Enemy soldiers can't shoot for sh*t.

You probably won't recognise Gary Oldman.

M. Night Shyamalan movies: all of your assumptions about this film are wrong but you'll be disappointed/thrilled anyway.

"What a twist."

johnny_ultimate

If teenagers decide to venture into the woods on their own, they will promptly be murdered for some reason. Probably because it's the anniversary of their best friend's death in mysterious circumstances / they read from a book which had a clear warning: "Warning! Book of the Dead! Do not read! Otherwise teh spirits will eat you!"

In any given romance, something will always happen to split the couple up. Naturally, this only serves to enhance the running time, and all will be hunky and/or dory a few moments later.

Movie batteries suck all kinds of ass, and you wouldnt particularly want to have one on you if some kind of weird monster thingie is chasing you - which it inevitably will.

Most people have no need to eat or urinate in movie land.

qwertplaywert

there WILL be a token black guy......even if a movie is set in an otherwise all white school

Necronomicon

When there's a serial killer in town, the most logical option is to organise a high school beach party or the like.

qwertplaywert

if there is a noise heard outside, the best option is to go out and investigate

if your going to check on something suspious , of course dont tell anyone where you are going

Shryke

Horror movies:

'Lets split up' :rolleyes: Oh Christ...

The cute couple always survive.

EVERYONE is semi-retarded.

Benny-c

There is always a street parking space outside the Restaurant/Destination.

Every House/Aparment in Paris has views of the Eifel Tower.

Cops always get killed the day before they are due to retire.

British people always wear bow ties.

In WW2 movies, German Troops always talk english amongst themselves.

In horror movies the female lead goes downstairs in the skimpiest nightie to investigate the noise.

Shryke

A few more...

Aerodynamic spacecraft.

Noise in space.

The protagonist can never just be shot. That would be too easy. The villian must contrive some rediculous James Bond like scenario to do him in, which (:eek: ) fails.

If the protagonist fights in a certain way then every other person in the movie will also fight in the same style. And no one will pull a gun... maybe the main baddie, look to the above point for that. He'll hold him off with the gun, sure. Maybe watch him get beaten up a bit. Then leave the room feeling smug.

The villian is the one with the british accent.

Not a cliche really but is anyone else sick of the obligatory love interest? It just pisses me off.

Retr0gamer

Lately Sean Bean/Liam Neeson will end up dead before the film ends.

Protanganist or bit on the side, if shot, will be shot in the shoulder with the only side effect being a tingling pain.

Dont be at yourself

The kid will talk and act like an adult.

When driving down a perfectly straight road the driver will constantly turn the wheel from left to right.

The villain will always spend a large amount of time describing his intricate plan in detail to the bound hero who will mange to free himself and stop the villain.

All prostitutes are really nice people forced into the life style.

A dieing character will always hang on just long enough to dictate a vital plot element before passing away.

Chardee MacDennis

cliched hesit team:

http://www.doubleviking.com/diy-build-your-own-heist-team--5875-p.html

RobertFoster

- Light bulbs and electricity are both very expensive and you must use neither when investigating that strange noise upstairs.

- If you open the mirror in the bathroom, there'll be someone/thing behind you when you close it. Either you'll notice and scream/jump/run, or you'll not see it and go off and do something else (probably with very little lighting).

- The safest escape route is to run up the stairs, not out the hall door you pass on the way.

- True love. The dork/geek/socially inept/shy guy will always get the girl.

- Everything will work out in the end.

- The smartass/asshole/generally disliked, but not really, guy will sacrifice himself for the good of the team when everything seems lost.

Newaglish

When getting chased by a bad guy, all cars you try to use will malfunction until the very last moment. Not to worry though, because they do ALL work in the end.

The more evil you are, the slower you walk and the more damage you can withstand without dying.

Glasses are sufficient disguises for superheroes. Failing that, a mask will work and nobody will recognise your voice. Even you friends & family!

Forests are full of little snags for ladies to trip over and hurt their ankles on. Men seem to have no such problems with tripping over.

Two people survive horror movies; the girl and her boyfriend. The exception to this rule is where the boyfriend turns out to be evil, in which case, only the girl survives.

The famous rap artist/RnB singer will not be the first to die but will definitely be dead by the end of the show.

Miguel_Sanchez

Every member of the audience will wish Rob Schneider was dead before the end of a Rob Schneider movie.

Ibjiba

You never have to lock your car, nor do you have to say goodbye on the phone.

Wacker

My least favourite one of all:

Something crazy will happen on a street (an explosion, aliens marching down the road, Coke gets turned into Pepsi, etc). A wino will see it. He will look at his bottle with a look of "My god! What have you done to my brain?!?".

I hate that so much.

Wacker

Ibjiba wrote:

You never have to lock your car, nor do you have to say goodbye on the phone.

Did you ever notice that in the movie Heat (which features at least seven phone calls) no one ever says goodbye! Not once! Lunacy.

Average-Ro

Wacker wrote:

My least favourite one of all:

Something crazy will happen on a street (an explosion, aliens marching down the road, Coke gets turned into Pepsi, etc). A wino will see it. He will look at his bottle with a look of "My god! What have you done to my brain?!?".

I hate that so much.

+1. i HATE that.

irishash

somebody will be dragged off to die/be in a exploding building-car-bus-bush/be stabbed and taken to hospital/die off-screen/etc/etc.....

if you are only told they are dead or did not see them physically die on the screen, you just know they will be back at the end to say "aha !! it was me pulling the strings all along" or "arent you glad i am alive !! what would you do without the comic relief"

aurel

I don't think anyone has mentioned one of the most obvious ones.

The chalk and cheese pairing of characters who are grudgingly forced to work together against a common enemy. Their opposing characteristics provide hilarious back and forth schtick throughout the film until a life and death situation forges an unwavering bond between them. Once the danger has passed the schtick returns but with an unmistakable underlying respect for each other.

humanji

The soldier who shows his buddy the picture of his sweetheart that he'll "be seeing as soon as he gets home" will be the first to die.

That snippet of information that was mentioned at the start of the film and seemed completely out of place at the time, will somehow be of incredible importance at the end.

When arriving in a new area and the locals all give them sinister looks, instead of grabbing their stuff and running, the sexy teens will assume that the locals are "just a bit odd" and hope that everything will be fine.

When scared and alone, walk backwards into rooms. If you can't see them, then they obviously can't see you!

Also, when scared and alone, the first closet you open will have a cat that will leap out at you, even if there's no way the cat could of gotten in there, (actually, I always assumed it must be the killer who puts the cats in closets. It must be an obsessive compulsive thing they do). The sexy teen will then drop what ever weapon she had even though it's obvious the cat didn't make all the noises that startled her.

dulpit

If people organise to meet somewhere on the phone (e.g. a date or something) they never ever organise a time, they just say i'll see you tonight (if even that)

There is always one bad guy who will appear to die but then for some inhuman reason survive, only to get killed again...

If an old guy helpss out hero at some stage in film, he will die by the end...


Also, not so much a cliche but an annoyance, when only like 2 people survive a horror film, from the 10 or so who started it, that constitutes a happy ending...

Pigman II

dulpit wrote:

Also, not so much a cliche but an annoyance, when only like 2 people survive a horror film, from the 10 or so who started it, that constitutes a happy ending...

Cos they are the best looking two. It's like watching evolution right up there on the screen.

qwertplaywert

if it is an adam sandler movie, there WILL be one moment in the movie where soft music is played,and sandler crys[or is on the verge of tears] and everyone but you will feel for him

Bodhidharma

Sports movies where a rag tag bunch of losers come together under an unconventional but inspiring coach to defeat the "evil" champions.

The ugly nerd who becomes stunning by removing her glasses.

Any modern film where you hear Arabic wailing to denote the vast difference from America.

"I'm getting too old for this s**t"

Father doesnt like daughter's boyfriend but accpets him in the end.

But come on....everyone secretly likes these things, thats why they put them in. When the blonde bimbo runs up the stairs instead of out the door, you think "I wouldn't have done that" - thus improving your opinion of yourself. Pleases everyone.

Duggy747

Computers always have to make a stupid "Whirr" or "Beep" noise in case you're not bright enough to realise someone is on a computer. I still have to see a computer that makes all these noises, isn't there amute option in the volume control panel?

If a computer is high-tech and is used to locate / give information about something there is ALWAYS some small meaningless writing scrolling up and down the screen at a pace that's too quick to read. These so-called high-tech machines always strangely sound like dot-matrix printers!

Everything has an OVERRIDE function (A door, password, etc)

In any war / action movie, a guy with the most promising life / plans will get brutally killed.

Aliens are pretty good at english. (How could they sometimes use a translator? Wouldn't someone need to translate the entire english language into theirs?)

Dogs can, er, sense evil.

A drop of water or coffee can make someone pissed out of their mind sober as judge again.

Computer geeks can crack through anything by doing something stupid. (Blow into a mobile phone with a comb and the person gets free calls for life.......what!?!)

qwertplaywert

the soldier with the hottest wife will die

quickbeam

One cough signifies a terminal illness.

qwertplaywert

if voodoo is involved, the loner local black guy is never who he seems

Jello

Some very good ones here.

weemcd

A dell laptop, seemingly without an internet connection anywhere in the world can be used to hack the pentagons files.

When you hide behind a car door in a shootout it is absolutely bulletproof.

when a man and women are talking after a sex scene the covers take a mysterious L shape to cover the womans cleavage \/


If a barrel is accidentally shot at, it contains the most inflammable source of material known to man. Cars are also mysteriously powered by this extremely explosive fuel, engulfing them in a fireball if the fuel tank is hit.

The police sergeant is in Italian/Irish/Spanish hard talking ball breaker, with an annoying assistant telling him to take his ulcer medication.

il post more as i think of them.

Good thread!

ClarenceOveur

Everyone is standing right behind their front doors when someone rings the doorbell, and people seem to lose all patience when ringing doorbells

*ring*

Wait < 1 second

*ring ring ring* "C'mon" *knock knock knock*

faceman

* most bad characters wear leather jackets n most of the time have greasy hair or a greasy fringe.
* everyone has perfect teeth in medieval and older flicks
* when driving a car a car on a straight, you must wobble the steering wheel left and right to go straight
* when driving, as soon as you look away to have a row with your passenger, there will always be a massive truck to driving head on only when you look at the front again
* when protagonists are in a crash, the culprit of the hit n run never gets out of his car or stops.

Wacker

A secondary character's phone rings, while the main character watches. It is answered. One milisecond after "hello" is uttered by the person taking the call, he has received a query or piece of news which gets a thirty second long answer."

Example: in Batman Begins, when Bruce Wayne first returns to Wayne Towers, and he approaches the receptioinst. She takes a call as follows:
"Hello, Mr Earle's office?"
*half a second long pause*
"Yes, Mr Earle is confirmed for the lunch."


Sure is a fast talker on the other end.

Mitch Connor

Rhyme wrote:

Enemy soldiers can't shoot for sh*t.

You probably won't recognise Gary Oldman.

M. Night Shyamalan movies: all of your assumptions about this film are wrong but you'll be disappointed/thrilled anyway.

"What a twist."

Ah come on - 6th sense and the village had twists. Signs definately didn't, Unbreakable didn't (imo) and Lady in teh Water or whatever the last one was called didn't have a twist either!

Newaglish

Nobody ever sends you a text message. You only ever receive calls, and you are 50 times more likely to receive a call when hiding from a murderer. Oh, and your phone is probably a bit too far away to get to.

When caught in an awkward looking situation, people always make up insanely embarrassing excuses, even when the truth is perfectly reasonable.

faceman

Newaglish wrote:

Nobody ever sends you a text message. You only ever receive calls, and you are 50 times more likely to receive a call when hiding from a murderer. Oh, and your phone is probably a bit too far away to get to.

and text messages are always centred. and the network coverage in the US is ****e too

Feral Mutant

Hitting someone on the back of the head will immediately knock them out with no concussion or injury of any kind.
Also, if rendered unconscious by other means, (gas, tranquiliser ... etc) people will fall harmlessly onto their backs finding a clear spot to fall down. They will never hit or land on their head and will always land safely, even if falling on concrete.
No matter how important a facility may be to a villian, the guards are apparently instructed to capture prisoners and never kill on sight.

left_behind

In horror movies theres a creepy kid who is the answer to the whole movie

In sports movies we have the montage of them playing great together showing of there great skills which they learnt during the training montage.

The two players who hated each other at the start but then become great friends and come up with a crazy play that usually wins the semi final.

Just before the final game the secret about their star is revealed he runs away. The team get hammered at the start of the game. The star returns after his life changing experience scores the winning points with shot he could never do before.

The sidekick will get injured/locked up/kidnapped/captured, and the hero will be forced to rescue him.

weemcd

Newaglish wrote:

When caught in an awkward looking situation, people always make up insanely embarrassing excuses, even when the truth is perfectly reasonable.

Every scene Mmartin Lawrence is in when he has an argument with his wife

EamonnKeane

2.4% of real-world American doctors are black; this rises to about 40% in TV and films.

kelator

When innocent person on run from police, he will turn on tv at the exact time a news story regarding him is on.

When hero is surrounded by henchmen, they will attack him 1 by 1 rather than all dive on him.

pixelburp

Hmmm you know, maybe I'm blind but I think we have missed one of the classic cliches, especially for horror movies:

If you don't see the body, they ain't dead!

kevpants

If a movie starts off with a married couple really in love who look at eachother with big smiles and obvious infatuation...... one of them has cancer and doesn't know it or will be killed in a car crash.

TheTubes

Soldiers always smoke, even if they didnt at the start of the movie, by the end of it they will.

Vic Vinegar

Whenever someone is shot in a film and they are wearing a bullet proof vest, they must always open up their jacket/shirt or whatever to show everyone it's there.