Exactly. Hollywood always gets it wrong--shocking a non-beating heart does nothing (in fact, the whole purpose of the machine is to *stop* the heart!). The ma

Exactly. Hollywood always gets it wrong--shocking a non-beating heart does nothing (in fact, the whole purpose of the machine is to *stop* the heart!). The machines look for improper, useless beating and will not fire unless they see it. It's still possible to get the pads sufficiently wrong that the shock is wasted, but there's no way to shock someone who doesn't need it. For a non-beating heart the only treatment is CPR until the docs can deal with whatever caused it not to beat in the first place.