Neonchameleon
Legend
I'm not sure if that's entirely right for what goes on 'off stage', though - genre conventions apply most strongly to the protagonists and the bubble of events around them. Does Hollywood Physics apply universally in a Hollywood movie universe?Last Action Hero would appear to say yes, but then the Schwarzenegger character is a protagonist, we can't say whether normal folks in that universe expect to be able to smash through glass without getting sliced up.
My impression is that typically GMs and scriptwriters have non-protagonists act as if they expect something much closer to real-world physics to apply, and are surprised when it doesn't. Eg the SWAT team in Die Hard 2 don't realise that as non-protagonists they can all be wiped out in a few seconds of gunfire despite their body armour etc. The real-world physics of gunfights would make it incredibly unlikely; their place in the movie makes it inevitable.
My impression is that it depends on the universe and that there are two related issues here. In a universe with no known supernatural elements like Die Hard they are surprised when things don't act the way real world physics does. In ones where supernatural elements are known and open (e.g. the Iliad, or the X-men universe*) even the mooks expect the supernatural. It's just part of the way the universe works.
And once you have fireballs and dragons you're into open supernatural territory.
* Not counting X-men First Class where the supernatural was new and not yet open.
