Reddit Asks: What Things Used To Be Common In Movies That You Just Don’t See Anymore?

One of the easiest ways to chart the evolution of our society, culture, and technology is through the medium of television and film, which can perfectly capture a moment in our world. But on the other side of the coin, filmmakers also have to constantly adapt to the changing landscape, which means that over time certain plot contrivances eventually become extinct.

Perhaps the most noticeable example of this is the prevalence of cell phones, which has only been a thing for the past 15 years or so — even less when you add smart phones into the equation. How many plot points in movies over the decades would have been rendered completely moot by a character being able to dial up anyone or access virtually any information with a device at their fingertips?

Such has become the subject of a recent Reddit thread that poses the question, “What used to be extra common in movies that you just don’t see in movies anymore?” The answers are both surprising and not at all at the same time, starting with the obvious.

Another person pointed out that intercepting loved ones at the airplane gate — or as one commenter put it, “9/11 killed romcoms.”

The 1980s, we’re looking at you:

Drunk driving is also nowhere near as charming as it once used to be.

Nor is smoking!

We’re also not sobering up hobos as much anymore these days — or referring to the homeless as “hobos,” either, for that matter.

Cities also used to look way more realistically gritty:

Literally every film trailer:

Or just opening credits for that matter:

Another user just wants to now what the heck ever happened to Geena Davis?

For the record, unlike some of these other contributions, Ms. Davis, at least, alive and well. She even has a movie coming out with Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell, so let’s not just lump her in with opening credits and 9/11 just yet, people.