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Played out tropes in TV and Film


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12 hours ago, GordonD said:

Never understood how they're able to identify a body by dental records. If they don't know who it is how do they know who its dentist is?

They assume there's a magical digital record of everyone's teeth, like they do for bullet markings to identify a gun. All US gun records are held on paper in a leaky basement, by order of Congress.

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10 hours ago, welshbairn said:

They assume there's a magical digital record of everyone's teeth, like they do for bullet markings to identify a gun. All US gun records are held on paper in a leaky basement, by order of Congress.

@Detournement can tell us about the secret dental database the CIA keeps on the world's population.

Saw a video about the American gun record paperwork basement a while back, deliberately made as useless as possible. It's very apparent that a substantial number of folk over there think there's a decent chance that they might decide to shoot somebody at some point, and want to give themselves a fighting chance of getting away with it.

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Is the trope not usually that the body is so decomposed, disfigured or burnt that a normal visual  'identify the body' process won't work so they use dental records to confirm the ID rather than a family member?

 The CIA doesn't need dental records when hundreds of millions of people sent their DNA to private companies doing PCR tests. Not to mention the NHS selling us all out to Palantir. 

Edited by Detournement
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Somebody is kidnapped and taken to a remote location such as an old cabin in the middle of nowhere.  They are left alone and guess what.  They manage to escape.

All for nothing.  The first person they encounter after they escape is either the kidnapper or an accomplice.

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On 31/12/2022 at 11:13, BFTD said:

Alright, this is a weird one. There was once a horror film with a scene where somebody went to get something from a fridge - when they closed the door, ARGGH! There was something scary on the other side! I'll be damned if I can remember which film originally did this, but it must have had one hell of an impact at the time.

Since then, it's become a trope to have characters go to the fridge, spend a bit of time rooting about to give the audience time to think "shit, there's going to be something bad behind the door when it closes", only for there to be nothing there. Possibly there'll be something non-threatening for a mild jumpscare, like the character's friend. It's been happening for a few decades at least, as I remember The Ring doing it at the beginning, and I've seen it a few dozen times since then. You can virtually guarantee that, if a fridge is opened and the camera starts to slowly zoom in, or the sound suddenly goes quiet, absolutely f**k all is about to happen.

It feels really peculiar to have a trope about something not happening!

Its always kids behind the fridge door, usually middle of the night when the adult is getting a drink for some unknown reason, the kid will be standing silent behind fridge door not making a single noise

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  • 3 weeks later...

Kid behaves badly, kid is sent away to live with their estranged dad/gran/ whatever family member. Does this really happen? Does a kid get into a fight at school and then that’s that and wee 12 year old Timmy is away to the other side of the country forever. Why is the family member willing to take in a child who’s a wee dick and who they had no involvement with before?

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17 hours ago, The Golden God said:

Kid behaves badly, kid is sent away to live with their estranged dad/gran/ whatever family member. Does this really happen? Does a kid get into a fight at school and then that’s that and wee 12 year old Timmy is away to the other side of the country forever. Why is the family member willing to take in a child who’s a wee dick and who they had no involvement with before?

 

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4 hours ago, KirkieRR said:

Frantic race to defuse time bomb (or whatever). The heroes manage to to stop it just as the countdown has reached just 1 or 2 seconds. Never 10 seconds or twenty or five minutes or an hour.

 

Yes, Spooks, it's you I'm looking at.

There’s at least one bond film that plays with the audiences expectations of that trope by having the timer stops at 0:07 

and when bond films are taking the piss out of a trope for being tired and predictable that really says something about it

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5 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

There’s at least one bond film that plays with the audiences expectations of that trope by having the timer stops at 0:07 

and when bond films are taking the piss out of a trope for being tired and predictable that really says something about it

Goldfinger.

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11 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

There’s at least one bond film that plays with the audiences expectations of that trope by having the timer stops at 0:07 

and when bond films are taking the piss out of a trope for being tired and predictable that really says something about it

 

5 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

Goldfinger.

Though the dialogue refers to "three more clicks" showing it was a late decision.

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On 31/01/2023 at 14:57, Mr. Brightside said:

The guy also just uses the switch to turn it off instead of defusing it, and it's not even Bond that does it. There's another two tropes it subverts.

Naked gun 2 and 1/2 when he trips over the bombs plug wire and pulls it out the socket stopping the countdown 

Not really in with the discussion but it reminded me of that bit and how funny it was

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It is all very simple. If it is too quiet then there is a chance the bomb will go off. By contrast if there is a lot of loud bombastic music then you will succeed.

If I ever became a bomb disposal expert I would have my own orchestra with me to ensure I succeeded every time.

 

 

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