"It Costs Lives": People Are Sharing The "Facts" TV Shows And Movies Taught Us That Are — Surprise! — Total BS

Hollywood likes to...embellish things. Whether it's waking up with a fresh blowout or having shaved legs during an apocalypse, movies and TV shows aren't always accurate. Sometimes, though, we don't notice their inaccuracies. From silly little lies to seriously dangerous ones, here are some movie myths you probably believed until now:

Comments were pulled from this Reddit thread.

1. "That holding a lighter up briefly to a sprinkler will somehow set the entire network off and flood the building. Sprinklers aren't smart, networked devices. It's a pipe network full of (disgusting, stagnant) water, plugged at the sprinkler heads. Rising temperatures will melt the plug (or break a glass tube, depending on the sprinkler type) and open the valves. It's a very simple and reliable design, but it works best when the building is actually burning and when there's substantial ambient heat. Waving your little lighter around won't do fuck all."

Disney

2. "When defibrillators are used to restart a flatlined heart. They don't... They just fix irregular beats by delivering external electrical pulses. Can't work on a flatline."

Sony

3. "How easily people regain consciousness during CPR. That's the one that really annoys me. It costs lives because well-meaning people do CPR but give up after about five minutes or so because nothing appears to happen. People die that maybe could have lived had CPR been continued. It was drummed into us on the last first aid course I attended. When doing CPR, the patient will not wake up (in most cases). You have to keep going until paramedics arrive and take over."

4. "Labor in movies always starts with the water breaking, and then takes about 30–60 minutes to complete. A birth of less than 60 minutes is actually very uncommon, especially for first-time moms, and is also quite a bodily trauma (been there, done that)."

5. "Newborn babies are huge in movies. Just use a doll and don't show it clearly. A 17-pound 'newborn' just looking right at the camera is weird. My mother and I have always joked about this. If we happen to watch a show or movie together with giant babies, there is always a comment. 'That poor woman,' 'That's a second-grader,' 'That baby can drive.'"

6. "That doctors won’t stop till they figure out what is wrong with you and fix it. Unfortunately, if you have a chronic condition, most doctors will stop looking if it’s not the usual condition they deal with. I had a cardiologist tell me that my best bet is to find a doctor who enjoys puzzles, as most will give up the moment it gets hard."

7. "...The same is true for police work. Not a chance in hell the average police department becomes so emotionally invested in every case as you see on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. If they can’t solve it in a few days, the perpetrator usually gets away with it. Not worth their trouble because it’s just a job."

8. "In movies, chloroform on a rag can instantly knock you out when it's held over your nose and mouth."

9. "If you try hard enough, the girl will say yes in the end. Just keep trying. Visit her at her job. Stalk her. Find out her address and send flowers. It's romantic!"

10. "For me, it's every time I see people climbing through ductwork. I'm always like, 'Nice of the contractor to have built that from the inside out.'"

11. "Grenades exploding into fireballs. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia did a good segment on what most grenade explosions actually look like. They just spread shrapnel."

12. "When guns send people flying backward. The bullets weigh a few grams, and people weigh tens of thousands. Newton's third law does not allow for this deception."

13. "When tranquilizer guns knock out the animal immediately, not just confuse them and make them crazy for half an hour before they eventually pass out."

14. "That 'zoom and enhance' actually works. It doesn't; it just makes the pixels bigger. You aren't turning a two-pixel picture of a license plate taken from half a mile away into a clearly legible plate."

15. "When science labs test DNA, random chemical residues, and other crime-scene findings within hours. It can take days just to do some of the extractions needed to put a sample on an instrument."

16. "That we only use 10% of our brains. This myth is based on a debunked theory from over 100 years ago."

17. "Waitresses in NYC who appear to work four hours a week and have a suspiciously large apartment with on-street parking directly in front of it."

18. "That the US is a great country with a great military full of great people who bring peace to the world."

Did you ever think any of these "facts" were true? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments or through this anonymous form.

Note: Comments have been edited for length/clarity.