Films are highly entertaining, but they’re fiction for a reason. On the always chatty subreddit r/AskReddit, Reddit user u/Best_Professional226 asked: “What injury is commonly shrugged off as a minor flesh wound in the movies but is completely fatal in real life?” The answers flew in faster than a stunt double into a glass window. Here are some of the top responses:
1. “Getting hit over the head.”
“Concussions and losing consciousness are super bad for you! Like months to years to never recover in some cases.”
2. “‘WE HAVE TO GET THE BULLET OUT!’ No, no, you don’t. In fact, it’s almost always better to leave it in. It’s already in, it isn’t doing more harm by being in there, and you’ll definitely cause more harm taking it out. Also, Hollywood seems to think pretty much any cut will stop bleeding if you just slap some gauze on it. I had a small cut from a very, very sharp knife on my finger once. Bleed through multiple band-aids. Gauze. After two hours, we had to cauterize it (meaning burn it closed).”
3. “Catching someone who’s falling at speed, especially by one arm. Either they’re going to pull you down with them, or everyone is getting an arm dislocated at best. If your chest is halfway off, chances are good for some broken ribs. It might not always be fatal, but definitely isn’t minor.”
4. “An explosion that knocks you over, never mind one that throws you.”
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5. “Injuries caused by Kevin McCallister’s booby traps in Home Alone.”
6. “Sliced palms. Whenever people in movies need to draw blood in a quick situation, they take any blade available and slice across their entire palm. Then they wrap it with a strip of dirty fabric and go about using their hand like normal as if being a hand surgeon isn’t a whole surgical specialty.”
7. “Shipwreck scenes in which the character goes unconscious but eventually ‘wakes up’ washed up on a beach. In the real world, that’s known as drowning and is 100% fatal…Especially in a violent ocean storm.”
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8. “Whenever action takes place in wild environments like rainforests or the mountains, the actors get all cut up and just wrap a dirty piece of fabric over it. In the wild, infection happens quickly.”
9. “Indoor gun battles. I’m not talking about bullets. But after a couple of people empty mags at each other across a room, neither of them will hear anything. You could walk up behind them in chain mail, and they wouldn’t know. Never mind following someone or listening for footsteps. You’re deaf. For hours. Partially forever. People way underestimate how loud guns are.”
10. “If something hits you with enough force to send you flying, that is ER at minimum.”
11. “In Prometheus, one character has to undergo an emergency abdominal surgery after discovering a deadly alien worm growing inside her abdomen. The procedure cuts through multiple layers of skin, muscle, and tissue. Minutes later, the character in question is sprinting, climbing, jumping, fighting for their life, and even taking blows to the stomach as if nothing happened. As someone who’s had abdominal surgery, that scene almost completely took me out of the movie. I could barely stand up without assistance for days. Forget running, jumping, or getting punched in the abdomen. I get that it’s a sci-fi movie, but it was absurd. The alien was believable compared to her recovery time.”
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12. “Jumping and rolling out of a car. :(“
13. “Anyone falling off a building and then getting up to continue chasing is full of sh*t.”
14. “Punching glass. That sh*t can mess you up real bad.”
15. “Untreated cuts that get an infection.”
16. “Gunshots…of all things.”
17. “Falling from a tall building onto a car.”
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18. “GSW (Gunshot Wound) to the leg. There are a lot of major blood vessels that, if not controlled
19. “CPR. You are NOT okay after that, if it was effective enough to save your life.”
20. “Car crashes.”
“Even if you are ‘only’ bruised, it is going to take 5-10 mins to get up and get moving. In movies, characters spring out of rolled cars and immediately start running whilst returning fire. IRL, you sit by the gutter shaking and trying to get over the percussive shock.”
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21. “Falling down the stairs. They have a motherf*cker do a little roll hop right up and carry on running. Falling down stairs is not a parkour stunt in real life.”
22. “Arrows. They mess you up.”
23. “You cannot tuck and roll through a plate-glass window scratch-free. You will be shredded.”
24. “There’s always the ‘just shoot him in the leg.’ Like the femoral artery won’t just kill you in seconds if it gets nicked.”
25. “Getting hit in the head with frying pans, dumbbells, kettlebells, and baseball bats … and walking it off (or continuing fighting).”
26. “Getting shot in the shoulder area apparently. I’ve heard it’s damn near a death sentence in real life.”
“Brachial artery. Not quite as big as the femoral in the leg, but if a bullet hits it, you’re going to bleed out in similar fashion and rapidity.”
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27. “Cold water is a death sentence in the wild.”
28. “Stamina. People don’t fight for long.”
29. “Rotted teeth. Don’t neglect your dental hygiene, folks.”
30. “Being branded with a branding iron. While it may not always be fatal, it CAN be if it’s deep enough and gets infected. There are so many videos online of idiots getting branded. But we never learn what happens afterward.”
31. “Guy gets his neck ripped open, blood everywhere.. seemingly dies. Then, not 30 seconds later, he’s back on his feet, lurching about and going on about brains. It’s unrealistic.”
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32. “Having a piano dropped on you, and the keys poking out of your mouth like teeth.”
33. “Losing your arms and legs in a fight using broadswords.”
What’s a movie trope that has you saying, “Nah, that guy’s dead dead” while eating your popcorn? Comment below!
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