10 Movies with surprising real world consequences
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00:00To a lot of people, films are just an excuse to pop the kettle on and check out of life for two
00:04hours. Whilst that's an important cause in and of itself, many assume that a movie's impact starts
00:10and ends with its audience. Not the case. Not the case at all. The following 10 motion pictures all
00:15had consequences far more impactful than any director, actor or critic could have possibly
00:20imagined. Some inspired people to make huge decisions, some ended up appearing in lawsuits,
00:25and some even nearly got people killed. So next time someone tells you that movies don't matter,
00:30please feel free to direct them to this video. And with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture,
00:36here with 10 movies with surprising real-world consequences.
00:40Number 10. Giving People Traumatic Flashbacks, Saving Private Ryan. Directed by Steven Spielberg
00:45and starring Tom Hanks, 1998's Saving Private Ryan started the much-loved trend of people
00:51spending inordinate amounts of money attempting to rescue Matt Damon. Along with its gripping story
00:56and likeable roster of characters, the movie was praised for its ultra-realistic depiction of the
01:01horrors of World War II. Right from the get-go, the film pulls no punches in depicting the conflict
01:06as hell on Earth, with its remarkable recreation of the D-Day landings. Well, it was praised by some.
01:12For others, it brought back a whole host of unwanted memories. Some real veterans of the battle on Omaha
01:17Beach who saw the film reported that they were unable to finish it as the sequence brought on
01:22traumatic flashbacks. In fact, the United States Department for Veteran Affairs created an entire
01:28hotline dedicated to those affected by the movie. In the end, it's probably for the best that these
01:33horrors were shown as accurately as possible. Fear is a powerful deterrent, and it would have been a
01:38greater insult to those who fought in the war to try and dumb it down for a more sensitive audience.
01:43Number 9. The Bambi Effect. Bambi. Walt Disney did plenty of dubious things in his life,
01:49but the most unforgivable of all was traumatising several generations of children with the death
01:54of Bambi's mother. In the 1942 animated movie, young Bambi has his life change forever when an
02:00evil hunter guns down his beloved mum in cold blood. This sets the deer on a path of vengeance,
02:05as he trains in martial arts with the sole ambition of enacting his violent revenge.
02:09Okay, that didn't happen, but what a movie that would be. Apart from scarring kids for life,
02:14the movie spawned a phenomenon known as the Bambi Effect. Commentators posit that because of the
02:19scene with Bambi's mum, people are turned off the idea of the hunting or killing of animals that are
02:24conventionally cute. However, when it comes to ugly animals, well, they can all die. That was a joke,
02:29by the way. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is up in the air, but it shows that even a
02:34kid's movie can have a long-lasting effect on society at large.
02:37Number 8. Reopening an assassination investigation, JFK
02:42Director Oliver Stone has never been one to shy away from controversy,
02:46so it's not a surprise that he chose to make a movie about the killing of John F. Kennedy.
02:50With 1991's JFK, Stone explored the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the only party involved in
02:57the shooting, and stars Kevin Costner as a government agent tasked with finding the truth.
03:01The movie was loved and hated in equal measure. Some praised its performances and cinematography,
03:06whilst others lambasted its lack of historical accuracy. Its subtitle was The Story That Won't
03:11Go Away, which is ironic because the files on JFK's assassination were actually reopened as a result
03:17of this film. JFK's popularity sparked a resurgence in interest in the popular leader's
03:22untimely death. As a result, the US government passed the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act,
03:27which allowed for the files on the president to be made public in 2017. Without this film causing
03:32such a commotion, those files would still be under lock and key today. Are we any closer to finding
03:38out what actually happened that fateful day in Dallas? Well, no, but at least we've got something
03:42else to read.
03:43Number 7. A Massive Parade, Spectre
03:46Enough time has passed now that we can officially call the 2015 James Bond film Spectre a big pile of
03:51dog poo. The narrative was convoluted, the side characters were completely forgettable,
03:56and Blofeld as Bond's brother? Get out of town!
03:58One of the lone high points of the movie comes right at the start when Daniel Craig's Bond
04:03chases down a member of the titular organisation in Mexico City. The action is fast and furious,
04:08thanks in part to the elaborate Day of the Dead parade going on around the two men. The
04:12celebration looked so good that it actually inspired an uptake in people visiting the city
04:17around Day of the Dead time. There was just one problem. This parade didn't actually exist.
04:21It had been entirely fabricated as a setpiece for Spectre, leaving the Mexican government in quite
04:26a pickle. Rather than send all the tourists and their money away, they decided the easiest thing
04:31to do would be to make the fictional festival a reality. And so, in October 2016, Mexico City hosted
04:37its first ever Day of the Dead parade. Mission accomplished, Mr Bond.
04:42Number 6. Anti-nuclear activism, The China Syndrome
04:45On March 16th, 1979, a film called The China Syndrome came out. In it, Jane Fonda played a
04:52journalist investigating a nuclear power plant when, suddenly, the facility goes into meltdown.
04:57There's a line in the movie that says this could render an area this size of Pennsylvania
05:02permanently uninhabitable. Why is that important? Because on the 28th of March 1979, a Three Mile
05:09Island nuclear power plant actually went into meltdown. And where was Three Mile Island?
05:13Pennsylvania. You couldn't make it up. The film already had an anti-nuclear agenda before the
05:19incident. Star Jane Fonda was firmly and famously opposed to the idea. However, its proximity to a
05:25real-life disaster led many others to change their stance on the subject. Co-star Michael Douglas described
05:30his revelation as a religious awakening, whilst The China Syndrome also made believers out of prominent
05:36campaigner Tom Hayden and media mogul Ted Turner. Few could have expected the immediate impact The
05:42China Syndrome would have on the world. It actually seems too good to be true. I mean,
05:46maybe it is. Has anyone looked into what Fonda was up to on the 28th? Was she in Pennsylvania by any
05:51chance? Number 5. Inspiring freedom fighters, Rambo. The 2008 film just called Rambo is honestly one
05:59of the better instalments in the blood-soaked franchise. Although that isn't saying much,
06:03considering that Last Blood does exist. Sylvester Stallone returned as the titular veteran to
06:08rescue a bunch of missionaries who have become tangled up in the Saffron Revolution in Burma.
06:13Burma was what it was called at the time. The country's name is now officially Myanmar. Whilst
06:18the movie was a fairly standard action affair, with Stallone going,
06:21ah, as often as humanly possible, it had some rather unintended consequences in the actual country
06:27it was set in. The Saffron Revolution was a very real conflict in Myanmar against the ruling
06:31military government. One of the groups involved in challenging their authority was the Karen Nation
06:36Liberation Army. Karen as in an ethnic group of people, not those women who want to speak to the
06:41manager. The KNLA saw the film as an endorsement of their struggles and were given a huge morale
06:46boost off the back of it. They even adopted lines from the movie into their rallying cries. Not bad
06:51for a cash cow, eh? Number 4. Being used as a legal defence, 2001 A Space Odyssey. 2001 A Space Odyssey
06:59is one of the absolute granddaddies of sci-fi. Stanley Kubrick's surrealist voyage is one of the most
07:05important and influential films of all time, as well as home to one of the most chilling baddies
07:10ever captured on film. Sentient supercomputer HAL 9000 is the most famous piece of technology
07:16in the film, which is littered with futuristic looks at how the world might turn out. Well,
07:21futuristic for 1968. Kubrick's interpretation of Arthur C. Clarke's work was actually more accurate
07:26than you might think, as one major company attempted to demonstrate. Samsung got themselves into legal hot
07:32water over the attempted release of their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer. Apple, who felt the
07:38design infringed on their own iPad, attempted to block the sale of the device. Samsung countered
07:43by claiming that they didn't invent the tablet. This movie did. As part of their actual legal defence,
07:49Samsung attached a screenshot from the film displaying astronauts using what appear to be
07:53tablets. They claimed that this was proof that Apple couldn't own the rights to the design and that
07:58they should be free to sell theirs. I mean, it didn't work, but you can't blame them for trying.
08:02Number 3. Catching a Murderer, The Passion of the Christ. Mel Gibson. Nothing else to add? Just Mel
08:07Gibson. If you don't know about his various transgressions over the years, then please kindly
08:12return to the rock you have been living under until you've learned your lesson. One of his more famous
08:16crazy ideas was making the biblical epic The Passion of the Christ in 2004, a film depicting the final
08:2212 hours of Jesus' life. Yeah, that seems like a safe bet for a man who has a history of religious
08:27controversies. Anyway, the film got made and it was of course controversial. However, there was at least
08:32one good thing to come from it. It helped solve a murder case. In early 2004, 19-year-old Ashley
08:38Nicole Wilson was found dead in her apartment in Texas. She had apparently hanged herself after coming
08:43off anti-depression medication. But in reality, her boyfriend Dan R. Leach had killed her and staged it
08:49to look like a suicide. He was going to get away with the crime until a viewing of The Passion of
08:53the Christ caused him to have an epiphany and turn himself in. Maybe Gibson isn't so bad after all?
08:59Number 2. Defecting from North Korea, Titanic. Titanic has got everything you could want from a movie.
09:05Romance, drama, tragedy, Irish dancing, naughty times in an old-timey car. It really is the full
09:11cinematic experience. But is it powerful enough to inspire someone to escape one of the most isolated
09:16and repressive nations on the planet? Well, as it turns out, yes it is. In 2007, Park Yeonmi and her
09:23family fled North Korea in an attempt to lead a better life. Although she was just a teenager, Park
09:28already knew that her homeland was a dangerous place to live and that there was a whole other
09:32world outside of its borders. A reason for this knowledge? James Cameron's Titanic. Banned foreign
09:37films offered many North Koreans a previously unseen look at the outside world. And for Park,
09:42Titanic was the best of the bunch. She said that watching the film made her realise something was
09:46wrong with her country, and that was the catalyst for her life of activism. Stories like this are
09:52a reminder of the power cinema has to inspire people around the world. It's also proof that
09:57Leonardo DiCaprio's face is the most powerful force on Earth. Number 1. Almost getting a president
10:02killed. Taxi Driver. An unhinged cabbie from New York City, Robert De Niro's portrayal of Travis Bickle
10:08in Taxi Driver is just one of the reasons he is rightly recognised as a legend. But it's not his
10:13role in the film we're talking about today. At just 12 years old, Jodie Foster was cast in the
10:17movie as a child prostitute. Look, we said this film was good, we never said it wasn't without its
10:22problems. Speaking of problematic, John Hinckley Jr. became obsessed with Foster after first seeing her
10:27in this film. He moved house to be closer to where she was studying and would bombard her with love
10:32letters and poetry. Again, it's worth remembering that Foster was an actual child when Hinckley first saw her.
10:37In his deteriorating mental state, Hinckley decided that the best thing he could do to win
10:41Foster's favour was shoot the President of the United States. And so he did. In 1981, he shot and
10:48wounded President Ronald Reagan, all to impress the actress. It's one of the maddest stories of all
10:53time, and one that almost certainly did not come up in the pitch meeting for Taxi Driver. And that
10:58concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments below, and while
11:02you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also, head over to
11:06Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias just by searching
11:09Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture. I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.