Agent Ethan Hunt who is on the run calls back to CIA headquarters on a pay phone and speaks with his superior. All the while Ethan is looking at a large clock watching the second hand tick away. At the same time his superior is trying to keep Ethan on the line long enough so that they can trace the call. The impression that is left in the viewer's eyes is that it must take several minutes in order to trace any call.
7. Another myth that is propagated by the cinema is that narcotics officers taste tests the narcotics that they seize, especially cocaine. In the movie, "Goodfellas," when one of the main characters is finally apprehended by NYPD, they bring him to the office along with the equipment that was seized. One officer asked the suspect if he was baking because of the scale and sifters that were seized. The officer then asked another officer if they were good. The officer put his finger in a sifter that still had cocaine in it. He then proceeded to put his finger in his mouth and then grinned to the other officer and said yeah they're great. This is normally how determining if the drugs are real or not is depicted on television.
8. Movies as well as court dramas on television show that dangerous criminal routinely have their case thrown out of court or not even make it to trial based on a technicality. In the movie Dirty Harry, Inspector Callahan is searching for the suspect known as Scorpio. Scorpio calls the mayors office and informs the mayor that he has kidnapped a girl who is buried and only has 48 hours of air left. Callahan tracks down the suspect and kicks in the door to his abode. He finds evidence such as the rifle used in previous homicides in the room. He catches the suspect after shooting him and then proceeds to question the suspect. In the next scene Callahan is in the District Attorneys office being berated because of his tactics he used to find the location of the missing girl.
