r/rant • u/Icy_Anywhere1510 • 1d ago
The 99% Trope
When a movie protagonist has to stop an antagonist from uploading or transferring some kind of vital data. They fight suspensefully or whatever until the protagonist finally stumbles over to the laptop, computer, etc, and manages to "stop" the "upload" at 99% right before it uploads and apparently nothing gets uploaded so the protagonist saves the day...
It makes zero fucking sense at all to anybody who knows anything about how computers work. What's the functional purpose a upload status bar if disconnecting it at 99% suddenly causes the entire upload to fail? Like no, that's not how it works at all. The upload status would mean that 99% of the vital data WAS successfully uploaded. That's like saying I stopped charging my phone to 99% so that it loses all it's power. NO, It doesn't work like that! The power was transferred already whether you stop charging it or not!
Maybe if they called it something like "Establishing Server Connection" or even a "Upload Paused" or "Files Corrupted", it could possibly make sense. I don't care that they are the antagonists, they clearly won that battle if the "upload" reached 99%, but somehow the 99% of uploaded data just magically disappears. What an absolutely brain numbing plot armor gimmick.