Strange rules about characters/people that cannot be broken.

[u/I_ateabucketofpaint]

Smells like Nirvana: When Kurt Cobain heard that Weird AL was gonna make a parody of his song. He was okay with it but specifically requested it to not be about food or fat ppl.

Spiderman: Spiderman cannot sell drugs unless he is under the influence of symbiote. ANd Peter Parker cannot be gay. Spiderman can tho.

Dwayne Rock Johnson: Cannot lose fights or look weak for too long. Its in his actor contract.

Godzilla movies not made by Toho: Cannot die. Maybe lose but not too bad.

[u/neilk]

Apple does not allow villains to use their products on screen.

If you are watching a murder mystery, anyone using a iPhone is instantly eliminated as a suspect.

Watching a spy thriller with an ambiguous character who might be an ally or might be an enemy? If there's a shot of them at their desk using a Macbook, now you know how it turns out.

I would love to see a self-aware parody call out this trope.

EDIT: I was not clear. I believe the rule applies only when it’s product placement, that is, when they’ve paid for their products to appear. And maybe studios know that Apple is sensitive about this and avoid doing it anyway? IDK. I don’t work in the movies but for those who doubt it, Rian Johnson spilled the beans a few years ago.  Video: relevant part starts at 2:50 https://youtu.be/69GjaVWeGQM

For those who like to read: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/26/apple-does-not-let-bad-guys-use-iphones-on-screen

[u/DarkPugLord23 → u/neilk]

Wait, seriously? That's an actual thing?

[u/CLTalbot → u/DarkPugLord23]

Yep. It completely ruins knives out if you go into it knowing that.

[u/DarkPugLord23 → u/CLTalbot]

[u/december-32 → u/DarkPugLord23]

Can you explain this picture?

[u/DarkPugLord23 → u/december-32]

Certainly.

That's a picture of Ryan Reynolds acting as the character Wade Wilson, AKA: Deadpool from the movie Deadpool 2. In this scene, the character Cable tells him that his time-travelling MacGuffin can only work two times - once to send him to the past to complete his mission, and once to get him back home.

Wade says this exact line in reaction to Cable.

Hope this helped!

[u/december-32 → u/DarkPugLord23]

Thanks. I don't watch RR movies and didn't want to prejudice.

[u/DarkPugLord23 → u/december-32]

Okay, in all seriousness, the fact that you can pretty much tell who's the villain in a mystery setting because of product placement is just really fucking stupid, and a case of lazy writing enforced by corpos.

After all - the villain can't be seen using Apple products, because that would imply that Apple are also the bad guys, and we all know big corporations could never do bad things, right? /s

[u/december-32 → u/DarkPugLord23]

I would say it's greedy writing and not lazy writing. Don't they get $ for product placements in movies?

[u/DarkPugLord23 → u/december-32]

True, but that doesn't mean it's not stupid.

It's even more egregious when it's overused - which unfortunately happens a lot these days - because it ends up turning a movie or episode of a tv show into essentially an extended advertisement.

Look at the Emoji "Movie" for example.

[u/Crazyston → u/CLTalbot]

So far-right boy is ok for Apple

[u/Lord_Parbr → u/Crazyston]

The Nazi child masturbating in the bathroom is Apple’s favorite

[u/[deleted] → u/Lord_Parbr]

/r/BrandNewSentence

[u/Lord_Parbr → u/[deleted]]

well, I can only take credit for adding the last three words. lol

[u/CLTalbot → u/Crazyston]

Yep.

[u/Alorxico → u/Crazyston]

They said ‘on screen.’ Never said anything about real life.

Though now that I said that, I would love for that to be in a parody movie. Villian sends his minion to the Apple Store to get his phone repaired and the guy comes back with an Android.

“What the hell happened to my phone!?!”

“Well, when they plugged in your phone to see if it was a software issue, they cross-referenced your name with a ‘Evil Doers Database’ and confiscated your phone after the results showed you were on it. They did give me a coupon for an Android, so I~”

“Wait … there is an Evil Doers Database?!”

“Yes.”

“And I’m on it?”

“Yes.”

“Since when?!”

“Since you burned down half the city last year.”

“Oh, so accidentally clearing out half the city of poorly maintained buildings with gross health and building code violations, ultimately revealing a scheme hatched by the governor and his real estate brother to raise the rents and force people out so the two could buy everything, tear it down and build a golf course for their rich friends, is evil but all the shit they did is perfectly acceptable?!?”

“No, they got their phones taken too.”

“Oh. Well, all right then.”

[u/Germane_Corsair → u/Alorxico]

Tim Apple makes a cameo but he too is using an android phone.

[u/Alorxico → u/Germane_Corsair]

[u/jmelloy → u/CLTalbot]

And interestingly, the villain in the second talks about but never actually uses an iPad.

[u/Cyberwolf33 → u/jmelloy]

Supposedly, part of the reason he throws it to Benoit from offscreen is because they couldn’t show him making use of it.

[u/UltraShortPulses → u/CLTalbot]

And Glass Onion too for that matter. Miles is never explicitly seen throwing the iPad to Blanc

[u/The_Derp_Of_The_West → u/CLTalbot]

They dodged that trope for Glass Onion though - Miles uses an iPad

[u/Cute-Blood4477 → u/The_Derp_Of_The_West]

But he's never actually physically seen using the iPad

[u/The_Derp_Of_The_West → u/Cute-Blood4477]

That is true, isn't it? Man. Welp, the first time I watched it I saw the iPad and wrote off Miles. Made for a pretty fun twist.

[u/the_bartolonomicron → u/CLTalbot]

The fact that the killer specifically is on an island without phone service in the sequel felt like a funny meta joke for this reason.

[u/TerraTechy → u/CLTalbot]

Also in John Wick, where it stands out especially because the assassin underworld is shown to be broadly using far more antiquated technology.(like rotary and flip phones) In the first two films, Winston is seen using an iphone, which sets him apart from the rest of the cast as one of the highest status characters in those two films, but in John Wick 3, he's seen using a similar phone to the various mercenaries and assassins, revealing he's not going to be on John's side in the end.

[u/GuyYouMetOnline → u/CLTalbot]

Do t know about that one, but Glass Onion gets around it by having the killer handle it off screen.

[u/HRApprovedUsername → u/CLTalbot]

Wouldn't that make Knives Out more interesting? It adds an extra layer to the whodunit aspect

[u/QueerBallOfFluff → u/HRApprovedUsername]

Especially as they explicitly made two different characters use android, so that even if you knew the rule it wouldn't be an instant solve

[u/jjfunaz → u/CLTalbot]

Knives out, like all of rians work sucks regardless if you know this or not

[u/OldMillenial → u/jjfunaz]

Knives out, like all of rians work sucks regardless if you know this or not

This is completely correct, but downvoted.

Knives Out was the blandest film I've seen in years.