8 Of The Most Widespread Movie Myths That Overstep The Boundaries Of Reality

Jessica Wilson
Nov 16, 2022
Nov 16, 2022

There’s no denying, movies can be awesome teachers. They teach us all sorts of things: how to aspire, what to dream about, who to love and how,... But sometimes they simply overdo it and those lessons start to drift away from reality.
Yes, a little bit of movie magic is enough to satisfy millions of people and sometimes even teach them something about how the world works. Unfortunately, there are plenty of suggested "facts" that aren't actually true. Like horrible real events are removed from biopics, these false myth movies are distorting audiences' perception of reality. Maybe the filmmakers don't know either, or they're intentionally ignoring scientific facts that could potentially ruin a movie's plot. And sometimes even famous movies like "Star Wars", "Ratatouille", "Jurassic Park"... include those details. As a result, over time we accept them without ever questioning just how truthful they actually are.
So we rounded up 8 situations when movies overstep the boundaries of reality. Hopefully, this article can help enlighten you just a little bit.

#1 Lasers aren’t visible in space, and they travel much faster

Source: © Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker / Lucasfilm

Have you ever wondered why the "Star Wars" soldiers aren't good fighters? It's not their fault but their weapons which are slower than bullets. In fact, lasers move at the speed of light, and they’re invisible if there are no things that reflect light. In space, there are no such things. So, in the battle in space, lasers are the most powerful weapon.

#2 Sharks can’t sense a drop of blood from miles away

Source: © Open Water / Lionsgate

It is an exaggeration in the movie that carnivores actually have a keen sense of smell. Even though certain sharks are capable of detecting blood across great distances, it is unlikely that they could do it from another continent. Moreover, tests show that they are not particularly interested in human blood, at least not any more so than in the blood of other mammals. But even so, if you have an open wound, we don't recommend getting into the water.

#3 The sun is not yellow

Source: © Sunshine / DNA Films

Sometimes, filmmakers don't like to show things that are different from what people believe. In fact, the sun looks yellow to us because the planet's atmosphere distorts the color. But the sun is actually white in space. However, in movies, even when characters are in space, the sun is usually shown as yellow.

#4 Mice don’t like cheese

Source: © WALT Disney PICTURES / Album / EAST NEWS, © Pixabay.com

It's unclear what gave birth to this myth, but today, rat and cheese seem to be synonymous. But in fact, cheese is the last thing they will eat if given the choice. The BBC carried out an experiment, giving mice cheddar, grapes, and peanuts. The mice always began with peanuts, occasionally with grapes, but never with cheese. Maybe the cheese wasn’t delicious enough for them.

#5 DNA can’t be stored in amber for a long time

Source: © Lebedev4789 / Wikimedia Commons, © CC BY 4.0

In "Jurassic Park", scientists extracted a sample of dinosaur DNA from a mosquito that bit it and lodged in a piece of amber. Of course, this is purely the imagination of the creators as DNA degrades and amber is not the best way to store it. Today, we can't extract the DNA of real dinosaurs, and if we look for it, we won't find it in amber.

#6 There’s no such thing as photographic memory

Like Mike from "Suits" and Lisbeth from "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", many characters in films and television shows possess the ability to memorize everything perfectly. However, there’s absolutely no evidence for this. The only thing slightly comparable is an excellent autobiographical memory, which fewer than 100 people in the world have.

#7 Instant communication over long distances is impossible

Many filmmakers believe that if we can talk to people overseas in real time, we can also speak to astronauts who are out on Earth. We have bad news: They are violating the laws of physics. We may communicate with someone on the Moon. However, if we’re talking about someone who’s on Mars, it would take light about 12.5 minutes to cover the distance between Earth and Mars.

#8 You can’t turn your hair blonde from dark without discoloration

We don't know what great stuff the characters in the movie use, but somehow they don't change the color. They just use the hair dye and their hair turns white. The problem here is that the dye won’t be able to color dark hair instantly. And most likely, you will end up with exactly the same color as you started with. So, don’t do it without gloves as the "Red Sparrow" character did.

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