10 Ridiculous Movie Tropes So Common People Think They're Real

3. Poison Can Be Sucked Out Of A Wound

The Trope

If a character gets poisoned, either injected by a malevolent party or simply bitten by a venomous animal, often the advice will be to find a close friend who might be willing to suck the poison/venom out of the offending wound.

The trope has been the ripe source of comedy in countless films, most recently Grimsby, where Nobby (Sacha Baron Cohen) has to suck poison out of his brother Sebastian's (Mark Strong) balls, and the infamous "suck the venom!" scene from 2011's Your Highness.

The trope was played bizarrely straight in Twilight, however, when Edward (Robert Pattinson) sucks the venom out of Bella (Kristen Stewart), albeit with a massive dose of unintentional hilarity.

The Reality

But in real life trying to suck poison out of a wound isn't just useless, it can be actively harmful to the sucker themselves.

Where snake venom is concerned, it will disperse into muscle tissues too quickly to be sucked out, and instead immediate medical assistance from a professional equipped with anti-venom must be sought.

Furthermore, depending on the nature of the venom, the sucker may risk damaging their own oral tissue, and if they have any cuts in their mouth, perhaps even spreading it through their own body.

No matter how fond you are of someone, if they've been poisoned, don't start sucking the wound, even in pure desperation.