- 20/06/2025
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? Pennsylvania.
05:14You couldn't make it up. The film already had an anti-nuclear agenda before the incident.
05:19Star Jane Fonda was firmly and famously opposed to the idea. However, its proximity to a real-life
05:25disaster 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
05:36prominent campaigner Tom Hayden and media mogul Ted Turner. Few could have expected the immediate
05:41impact The China Syndrome would have on the world. It actually seems too good to be true.
05:46I mean, maybe it is. Has anyone looked into what Fonda was up to on the 28th? Was she in
05:50Pennsylvania, by any chance?
05:52Number 5. Inspiring freedom fighters, Rambo
05:55The 2008 film, just called Rambo, is honestly one of the better instalments in the blood-soaked
06:01franchise. Although that isn't saying much, considering that Last Blood does exist.
06:05Sylvester Stallone returned as the titular veteran to rescue a bunch of missionaries who have become
06:10tangled up in the Saffron Revolution in Burma. Burma was what it was called at the time. The
06:15country's name is now officially Myanmar. Whilst the movie was a fairly standard action affair,
06:20with Stallone going,
06:21Ah! as often as humanly possible, it had some rather unintended consequences in the actual
06:26country it was set in. The Saffron Revolution was a very real conflict in Myanmar against the
06:31ruling military government. One of the groups involved in challenging their authority was the
06:35Karen Nation Liberation Army. Karen as in an ethnic group of people, not those women who want to speak
06:41to the manager. The KNLA saw the film as an endorsement of their struggles and were given a
06:45huge morale boost off the back of it. They even adopted lines from the movie into their rallying
06:50cries. Not bad for a cash cow, eh?
06:52Number 4. Being used as a legal defence, 2001 A Space Odyssey.
06:572001 A Space Odyssey is one of the absolute granddaddies of sci-fi.
07:02Stanley Kubrick's surrealist voyage is one of the most important and influential films of all time,
07:07as well as home to one of the most chilling baddies ever captured on film.
07:11Sentient supercomputer HAL 9000 is the most famous piece of technology in the film,
07:17which 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.
07:30Samsung got themselves into legal hot water over the attempted release of their Galaxy Tab 10.1
07:36tablet computer. Apple, who felt the design infringed on their own iPad, attempted to block
07:41the sale of the device. Samsung countered by claiming that they didn't invent the tablet.
07:45This movie did. As part of their actual legal defence, Samsung attached a screenshot from the
07:51film displaying astronauts using what appear to be tablets. They claimed that this was proof that
07:55Apple couldn't own the rights to the design and that they should be free to sell theirs. I mean,
07:59it didn't work, but you can't blame them for trying.
08:02Number 3. Catching a Murderer, The Passion of the Christ.
08:05Mel Gibson. Nothing else to add? Just Mel Gibson.
08:08If you don't know about his various transgressions over the years,
08:11then please kindly return to the rock you have been living under until you've learned your lesson.
08:14One of his more famous, crazy ideas was making the biblical epic The Passion of the Christ in
08:192004, a film depicting the final 12 hours of Jesus' life.
08:24Yeah, that seems like a safe bet for a man who has a history of religious controversies.
08:28Anyway, the film got made and it was of course controversial. However, there was at least one
08:33good 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
08:43coming off anti-depression medication. But in reality, her boyfriend Dan R. Leach had killed
08:48her and staged it to look like a suicide. He was going to get away with the crime until a viewing of The
08:53Passion of the Christ caused him to have an epiphany and turn himself in. Maybe Gibson isn't so bad
08:58after all?
08:59Number 2. Defecting from North Korea, Titanic.
09:02Titanic has got everything you could want from a movie. Romance, drama, tragedy, Irish dancing,
09:08naughty times in an old-timey car. It really is the full cinematic experience. But is it powerful
09:13enough to inspire someone to escape one of the most isolated and repressive nations on the planet?
09:18Well, as it turns out, yes it is. In 2007, Park Yeon-mi and her family fled North Korea in an
09:25attempt to lead a better life. Although she was just a teenager, Park already knew that her homeland
09:29was a dangerous place to live and that there was a whole other world outside of its borders. A reason
09:34for this knowledge? James Cameron's Titanic. Banned foreign films offered many North Koreans a previously
09:39unseen look at the outside world. And for Park, Titanic was the best of the bunch. She said that watching
09:45the film made her realise something was wrong with her country, and that was the catalyst for her
09:49life of activism. Stories like this are a reminder of the power cinema has to inspire people around
09:55the world. It's also proof that Leonardo DiCaprio's face is the most powerful force on Earth.
10:00Number 1. Almost getting a president killed, Taxi Driver.
10:03An unhinged cabbie from New York City, Robert De Niro's portrayal of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver
10:08is just one of the reasons he is rightly recognised as a legend. But it's not his role in the film we're
10:14talking about today. At just 12 years old, Jodie Foster was cast in the movie as a child prostitute.
10:19Look, we said this film was good, we never said it wasn't without its problems. Speaking of
10:23problematic, John Hinckley Jr became obsessed with Foster after first seeing her in this film. He moved
10:28house to be closer to where she was studying and would bombard her with love letters and poetry.
10:33Again, it's worth remembering that Foster was an actual child when Hinckley first saw her. In his
10:37deteriorating mental state, Hinckley decided that the best thing he could do to win Foster's favour
10:42was shoot the President of the United States. And so he did. In 1981, he shot and wounded
10:48President 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.
10:57And that concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments
11:01below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
11:05Also head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
11:09just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture. I hope you have
11:13a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.
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