10 Things That Happened in the Movies That Are Far, Far From Being True

Films
3 years ago

Sometimes, when we watch a science fiction movie, we just assume that traveling at the speed of light, like people do in Star Wars, is possible. Or whenever an adventurer archeologist like Indiana Jones finds a new tomb, he just lights a torch that is supposed to be thousands of years old and we think it’s normal. We constantly believe these “white lies” without much questioning, because these stories are so well written that they captivate us and we stop paying attention to these tiny details.

But Bright Side wanted to take some time to review some of these strange details that we all believe just because we’ve seen them in the movies. So we wrote this article for you, just in case you also come across a tomb, you won’t be surprised to see that old torches can’t light up.

1. Viking helmets did not have horns in real life.

In many movies and shows that talk about these famous “Germanic” people, you can them wearing a sort of horned helmets. But actually, the look of a real Viking was very far from what we’re used to seeing. Evidence found in Gjermundbu, a place north of Oslo, Norway, suggests that the Vikings did wear helmets, but without the famous horns.

2. Pocahontas and John Smith did not fall in love.

We’re sorry to ruin your childhood memories, but according to the real story, Pocahontas and John Smith did not fall in love, like we all saw in the Disney movie. In fact, the woman we know as Pocahontas was actually called Matoaka, and was renamed Lady Rebecca Rolfe when she married John Rolfe in England in 1614.

3. William Wallace did not paint his face.

One of the most striking features in the appearance of the Scottish hero William Wallace in the movie Braveheart were the blue stripes painted on his face. While it’s hard to imagine Wallace without them, according to the traditions of the time in which the film is set, there is no way in which the hero would have used that type of war paint. That’s mainly because these marks were used by the Picts, a Celtic people who were called so by the Romans because of the paintings and tattoos on the bodies of their members.

4. Traveling at the speed of light

In many science fiction movies like Star Wars and Star Trek, traveling at the speed of light and even much faster than that is just a simple as taking a car and driving through the highway nowadays. But according to the current laws of physics, specifically Einstein’s theory of relativity, there are certain conditions that make it possible to travel almost at the speed of light, but technically, you can never even reach, let alone exceed that speed.

5. Aliens

Extraterrestrials and aliens are a very common theme in space adventure and science fiction movies. They can be cute, threatening, smart, or they can just be plants. However, most of the time they have humanoid or animal-like features, some of them very similar to beings that lived or still live on our planet. The big problem in imagining the existence of creatures from a different world is that the only reference we have to that life is our own and the one we see around us. So it’s hard to tell whether these beings could look like us or not.

6. Torches in Hollywood

Whenever characters like Indiana Jones discover an ancient tomb, there’s one thing that they always do. They immediately take an old torch from the place, light it, and that’s it, they have light immediately. Of course, this would not really be possible in real life, mainly because, just like any other organic materials, oils have an expiration date. In addition, wood also becomes damaged over time, and you’d have to consider the state of the humidity in the newly found place.

7. Time travel

As science reporter Quentin Cooper explains, time travel is an unlikely possibility, at least in our universe. If it were possible, going to the past would risk altering the continuity of events that led to the present in the first place. That’s why such a possibility is ruled out, at least according to the current laws of physics we know.

8. Newborn babies

Whenever there is a newborn baby in a movie or TV series, and the camera finally gets to see him or her, they appear to be so big and clean. It’s like they’re instantly cute. Nothing could be further from the truth. Newborn babies are smaller and don’t come out nearly as clean as they appear on the big screen. This is mainly due to a certain U.S. legislation that regulates the work of minors in movies. For example, one of the regulations that is in place says that the baby cannot be less than 15 weeks old if he or she is to appear on TV.

9. Jack and Rose’s hypothermia in Titanic

There has always been debate about Jack’s tragic death in the film Titanic. However, something that has to be considered when discussing this topic is that, actually, both he and Rose could have survived on the door until help arrived. In an experiment carried out by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, hosts of The Discovery Channel’s MythBusters, proved that both characters could have been saved from the freezing waters after the sinking of the Titanic... Guess the debate is settled!

10. Surviving a fall from a very high waterfall

We’ve seen characters throw themselves from a very high waterfall and safely fall into a river or a lake countless times in adventure movies, and even in animated series or films. But let’s take, for instance, a fall from a waterfall like Niagara Falls. These famous waterfalls are about 51 meters high and are pretty powerful. In reality, falling from there could be lethal. Some experts have given some advice on what you should do if you want to survive when falling from a waterfall under certain conditions.

What other white lies from the movies have you believed so far? How did you learn they weren’t true? Do you know another myth that movies have told over and over again that wasn’t necessarily true?

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Number 5 about alien appearance- Shane on Buzzfeed Unsolved believes aliens could possibly look like anything and not necessarily have human-like features. He said fo all we know they could look like clouds. I am not sure if I believe in aliens but he makes an interesting point, that the “evidence of life” has particular conditions and may be off when it comes to other planet- like how are we defining life?

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