My friend Rawson points out his most-hated movie cliché, one that’s due for a moratorium:
Jack continues mouth-to-mouth, but Lara shows no sign of coming around.
JACK
(desperate)
Breathe, damnit!
A beat, then Lara suddenly COUGHS back to life, spitting up a palm-full of water.
She looks around, disoriented. Then sees Jack looking down at her. Smiles.
Double negative points for saying something quippy after being revived.
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October 22nd, 2009 at 11:20 am
Can we also put a stop to “DON’T YOU GIVE UP ON ME!” in the same situation?
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:21 am
Worst possible addendum to the above scene:
LARA
You saved my life.
JACK
Couldn’t let you die. You still owed me from that poker game.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:26 am
LOL… indeed. I hate it! As well as the questions “Where am I? What happened?” (they make a joke of it in Twilight – ok, not the best example, but they do) argh
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:26 am
It’s slightly better than characters who come back to life thanks to a well-placed teardrop.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:26 am
This should have died after THE ABYSS did it in ’89.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
Also worth a moratorium: “I threw up in my mouth a little” jokes.
Of course, alter it a bit and put it right after “Breathe, damnit!” and you’ve got something special. Lara comes around. Jack looks in her eyes and says, “You threw up in my mouth a little.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 am
Well, if we’re moratoriuming this one, if Lara does die, could we please not have Jack continue to beat on her chest?
Could we pretty please not have Jack’s friend say “It’s over. Let her go, man. LET HER GO!”
And could we super pretty please not have Jack say “NOOOOOO!!!!” And then thump her one more time on the chest before collapsing on her in tears?
Thank you, The Management
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:32 am
I tweeted this, but I did a whole list once of cliché dialogue that needs to die. http://kevinlehane.com/2008/09/15/the-definitive-list-of-cliched-dialogue/
P.S. I’m not sure if it’s bad netiquette to link to your own blog on someone else’s post? Forgive me, if it is.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:32 am
TLA tried theatrically releasing a package of films successfully last year with a bunch of their pickups (including the doc WRANGLER), and Sundance Channel did a package of 4 movies (including Charles Busch’s hilarious DEAD RINGER drag-sendup DIE MOMMIE DIE) a few years ago. I heard great things about MYSTERY TEAM out of Sundance… and I think ASSASSINATION was a Sundance title as well? There’s definitely a market for themed traveling film fests as a defacto theatrical release, I hope this catches on!!
The only thing I’d say is that there should be a “blanket” ticket for all the pics at about fifty bucks. And the DVDs, posters, and T shirts should be for sale on the way out.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:39 am
LMAO…. so true, so true!
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:42 am
Yeah as someone mentioned, The Abyss used this cliche but it worked for that movie because of the buildup and the stakes.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:50 am
Special dispensation for The Abyss, though. A scene that embraces cliché so thoroughly, dives headfirst into it, takes it further than you’d dare, and comes out tearful and triumphant on the other side… “You bitch, you never backed away from anything in your life, now fight!” Come on, admit you teared up!
But, yeah. Any script that does that scene post-1989 better find a way to Take it Even Further. Hey, maybe that should be your next Screenwriting Challenge?
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:16 pm
But how can I breathe when I’m…
Cold…
So very cold…
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Worse… Highly qualified data analyst tells “Jack” she needs 3 minutes to accomplish task. He yells “I NEED IT NOW!” Seconds later it’s done. HUH?!
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:43 pm
What? That’s how I was trained in CPR.
“Annie, Annie are you okay?” Look, listen, feel Call 911 2 rescue breaths Yell and swear at victim If victim is does not regain consciousness, begin compressions without checking a pulse or anything. Use a defibrillator if you have one: it’s always a good idea to give it a go.
Actually, incorrect defibrillator use is my favorite. It’s like they’re magic or something.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Damn formatting. :(
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
The terrible thing about “today’s” cliches is that sometimes it even makes classic movies (at no-cliche-times) look crappy : ( So funny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4v1hAnfy1I
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Can we add the whole “Lara places her (sentimental piece of jewelry) in Jack’s palm, closing his hand with her own”-bit to the pile? For some reason, it drives me bonkers…
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Before any mouth-throwing-up can we please get rid of ‘DON’T YOU DIE ON ME’?
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:46 pm
R.I.P. and good riddance.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I knew it was old when I heard Hawkeye say it on an episode of MASH, and even then, I cringed (specifically he said “Live, dammit, LIVE!”).
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
My friends and I are rewatching Lost in preparation for the final season and now when we call each other and our calls break up, we yell “Don’t you die on me!” at each other. That show is a big fan of CPR scenes.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:10 pm
This scene is the entire premise of Flatliners. What a gem that one was.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Substitute a cute beagle for Lara, and you got yourself some real stakes! no one wants to see Rover actually bite it
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I’m glad The Abyss has been mentioned several times, because that scene was the first thing I thought of. Of course, this movie is now (gulp) twenty years old (?????). And as has been mentioned, it worked perfectly in this movie.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Does this walk the line (question also applicable to Kevin’s Cliche Dialogue) of being a trope?
“Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members’ minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés. The word clichéd means “stereotyped and trite”. In other words, dull and uninteresting. We are not looking for dull and uninteresting entries. We are here to recognize tropes and play with them, not to make fun of them.”
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
That scene in The Abyss was excellent for the chance it gave the cast to facially emote. Especially Kimberly Scott who really did well with expressing shock, surprise and sadness all at once.
Annie, Annie, are you okay Annie?
What happened?
You’ve been hit by a smooth criminal.
I’m going to strangle you when I get out of the hospital.
I’ll take some funny attempts at it if it means something cool and action-adventure like an 80s film. Who doesn’t want to see something that’s very Lethal Weapon or the like? I mean, after all the post-everything films we’ve seen lately, it would be a breath of fresh air. A deadpan insertion of all the cliches would suit me fine. Air ducts, cell phones, all of it.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Isn’t she supposed to spit out a minnow or other type of small, seafaring creature?
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Actually, cell phones don’t work well inside air ducts. There you go.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Yeah, first thing I thought of was Lost, when Jack revived Charlie. Though they did manage to avoid most of the bad cliches in that — Jack actually gives up, then starts up again before it works. So the scene is more about his obsessionism than Charlie’s revival. Nice tweak.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I think CPR scenes in general should get a pass, if nothing else because I can visualize myself reacting the exact same way if faced with a non-breathing person I’m fond of. Plus, if CPR is not a cureall, its the closest thing the layman knows of to one in emergency situations.
That being said, I’m for the ban if it applies to emergency personnel working on people they don’t know.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Amen on The Abyss thing!
I had that EXACT same thought. “Nobody is ever going to be able to do that again. – That was perfect. – Anything beyond this is Covering Stairway.”
You can’t do better than Zeppelin.
Its like the bullet holes being shot through the hotel room wall in Blood Simple (Coen Brothers masterpiece). Ladies and gentlemen… it has officially, been done. – And how.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:20 am
Can we also put an end to calling leading men Jack?
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:42 am
I don’t think that the simple fact something it’s been done before automatically renders it cliched, like the bullets through the wall in Blood Simple. As long as it is true to the story and the characters, you can write just anything, no matter if it’s happened in some other film. On the other hand, you try to hard to be original and may end up with characters of situations no normal human being could relate to. That annoys me more than any cliche I can think of. You could even go as far as having your trio of sexy spies do a burlesque show for no apparent reason, if it somehow feels true to the story… or the producer’s view of it -some pun intended-.
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:10 am
My father LOVED this scene on the Abyss by James Cameron. He commented that for years: “don´t you die on me, you bitch!” or something like that
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:00 am
What about stroking two wires together to start a car?
“Come on… Come on…”
If it were that easy… There’d be a lot more car thieves.
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:08 am
We need a scene challenge in which all cliche’s must be used.
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:13 am
More love for The Abyss. Absolutely. I saw that movie when I was 12 and remembered that scene a couple years later when I saw Raging Bull for the first time. Not for any specific similarity but because I thought it reached levels equal levels of raw emotion. Ed Harris is so intense in that scene it’s uncomfortable.
And it works on so many levels! I mean, one of the most amazing things about it is you realize that to some extent, Bud is giving vent to his darkest, most horrible feelings toward Lindsay….that all through their relationship and subsequent break-up there must have been a lot of times when, deep down, he wanted to just haul off and backhand her right in the mouth. So when he starts slapping her and saying, “You bitch, you never backed down in your life!”, he’s both acting on all the resentment and anger he must have at things she’s said / done, and exorcising those urges too. It’s almost the culmination of all the fights they’ve had: he’s saying, you never backed down FROM ME. At that moment, they’re exploring the deepest abyss of the human heart.
It’s also probably worth mentioning that filming that scene supposedly really took it’s toll on the cast and crew….Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio reportedly finally just stormed off the set, screaming at Cameron that she couldn’t take it anymore, and Ed Harris is said to have burst into tears while driving back to the hotel that night.
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:33 am
what’s worse is the character’s parenthetical (desperate) — well, yeah, the character’s trying to revive someone. do you really need to add that direction?? that’s soooooo annoying…
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:26 am
Just discovered another cliché while watching Swing Vote…
“I wanna know everything about him! What he eats for breakfast, the name of his teacher in elementary school, what color his socks have…”
I just made this enumeration up, but the cliché is obvious. Just have a picture of Tommy Lee Jones in my head saying it a dozen times. *G
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:49 am
@JJ:
Very true. The fact that that scene is very difficult to watch makes it all the more incredible, and defining. Nothing manufactured about it, unlike virtually all its imitators.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
You know, the last minute revival due to CPR scene is so common that I always expect a character to come back to life at the last minute whenever I see a scene like that, and am actually surprised when they actually die.
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/funny-pictures-squirrel-gives-friend-cpr.jpg
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:51 pm
If I watch one more TV show where they say “we need talk,” I’m gonna throw up a little in my mouth.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Came here to mention The Abyss too, but it looks like we’ve covered that pretty well.
I think Cameron is a master at upping the ante on familiar if not cliche scenes. True Lies being my favorite example.
October 24th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Wait! But what if it is all done in extreme slow motion? I mean, then it’s totally okay, right? :)
October 26th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Having a medical background, the thing that bothers me is when someone needs CPR, the heart starts beating again and the person is fine. Other than near drowning, if you heart stopped beating, your a sick puppy. CPR may stabilize you, but it won’t heal you. John Connor’s desert heart transplant this summer in Terminator:Salvation ruined the whole movie for me. (That’s not a spoiler, is it?)
October 28th, 2009 at 7:51 am
On top of this, they never do the mouth-to-mouth correctly.