If you’re an avid moviegoer, most likely you already noticed the same clichés repeating everywhere. Whether it’s a comedy, a romantic movie, a thriller, or a horror, the scenes appear repeatedly. To fight this lack of inspiration that seems to hit directors occasionally, today we are going to have a look at the top 10 worst movie clichés we identified.
10 Movie Cliches that Spoil Any Production
1. Airport Love
One of the most common movie clichés is the airport love. You couldn’t have escaped this one, even if you don’t normally watch romantic movies. The scenario is simple: a he and a she get together, then argue, then they realize they love each other just as one of them is on the plane to leave. Surprisingly, the other partner gets easy access to the plane (or the take-off lane) and manages to stop them just in time. Sometimes, it seems that the plane has already taken off, but you don’t need to stress too much. Soon after, we see that the one who was supposed to leave changed their mind and stayed. Some of the movies where you can find this cliché are The Wedding Singer, The Holiday, Love Actually, etc.
2. Helicopters Must Blow Up
If you’ve watched enough thriller movies in your life, then you probably know what we’re talking about. One of the worst movie clichés (and predictable at the same time) is the one that has every helicopter blow up spectacularly by the end. We feel sorry for all the pilots in the movies who aren’t main characters since we can already tell the helicopter they’re flying will blow up.
3. The Last Job
Another entry on the worst movie clichés list is the last job. How many times have you seen in the movies the typical situation where a boxer, a career criminal, or a cop declare that they plan to do only one job before they go straight or retire? Most of the time, such a situation only leads to drama, plenty of explosions and/or lots of trauma. Usually, we just end up wondering why didn’t they just retire or quit their career altogether.
4. One Second to Doom
We all know this scenario: whenever a bomb is close to exploding, the hero comes and saves the day when there’s only one second left until explosion. In the beginning, this was a good way of stimulating the tension in a movie and making people eager to see what happens next. However, once everybody was already aware of this cliché, its purpose was never reached again.
5. No Waiting for Cabs or Trains
Whenever one of the main characters needs to get a cab to go somewhere fast, there will always be one available on the street. He will just get out of the house and see a cab passing. Following the same ideas, whenever the good guy in a movie is fighting bad guys in a train station, there will be a train that leaves the exact instant when they need to run away. The bad guys in the movie will just get there a couple of seconds too late and watch the one they were following get away from them.
6. Splitting Up
If you’re like us, most probably you were annoyed at some point by this cliché as well. Whether you’re watching a horror movie, a thriller or just an action one, the two or more main characters decide it’s time to split up and see what’s happening. Usually, this is one of the worst decisions they could have taken, since this leads to them being attacked or killed, sometimes even without the other character knowing.
7. The Cliffhanger
At some point in your life as a movie watcher, you must have seen a scene where the main character falls off a cliff or from a very tall point. For a second there, everybody thinks he died. But don’t worry, soon you will find out that they found a root or a gnarled tree to hang onto and save their lives. Moreover, if you continue watching the movie, you will notice that they get help at the exact moment when the handhold they had found breaks.
8. The Kiss in the Rain
Yet another one of the worst movie clichés we are getting tired of is the kiss in the rain. Soon after the couple in the movie has an argument, they realize they can’t live without each other. So it happens that at the exact moment when they meet outside and hold long speeches about life, love, and their relationship, it starts raining. But this doesn’t stop them from realizing they’re perfect for each other, so they make up and kiss in the rain. There may be some variations to this cliché, but you will surely recognize it when you see it.
9. Technology Fails
The cliché with the technology used to appear more in the ‘90s movies, but you can still find it in modern ones as well. When the hero most needs it, technology fails them. Whether it’s the battery that drains just in that moment, the lack of reception, the dead landline, or anything else, you can be sure technology is not in favor of the protagonist. You can see this in Cloverfield, Jurassic World, Star Trek, or in the movies that also contain the airport dash cliché.
10. Kissing the Dog
Finally, the last entry on our list of the worst movie clichés is kissing the dog. It’s a universal thing that whenever a character dreams they are kissing someone, in fact, they’ll wake up and see there was an animal licking their face. We must admit that this was funny in the beginning, but like all clichés, it has kind of lost its savor.
To draw a conclusion, these are the worst movie clichés you can find in any production. For those of you who are avid moviegoers, most likely you’ve already seen them all. Naturally, there are plenty others, but these are the ones most directors seem to be fond of.
Images source: depositphotos.com
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