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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
00:44Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks, 1998's Saving Private Ryan started the
00:50much-loved trend of people spending inordinate amounts of money attempting to rescue Matt Damon.
00:55Along with its gripping story and likeable roster of characters, the movie was praised for its
00:59ultra-realistic depiction of the horrors of World War II. Right from the get-go, the film pulls no
01:05punches in depicting the conflict as hell on Earth, with its remarkable recreation of the D-Day
01:10landings. Well, it was praised by some. For others, it brought back a whole host of unwanted memories.
01:15Some real veterans of the battle on Omaha Beach who saw the film reported that they were unable to
01:20finish it, as the sequence brought on traumatic flashbacks. In fact, the United States Department
01:25for Veteran Affairs created an entire hotline dedicated to those affected by the movie.
01:31In the end, it's probably for the best that these horrors were shown as accurately as possible.
01:35Fear is a powerful deterrent, and it would have been a greater insult to those who fought in the
01:40war 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 have turned off the idea of the hunting or killing of animals that
02:24are conventionally cute. However, when it comes to ugly animals, well, they can all die. That was a
02:28joke, by the way. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is up in the air, but it shows that
02:33even a kid'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, so it's not a surprise that
02:47he chose to make a movie about the killing of John F. Kennedy. With 1991's JFK, Stone explored the
02:53idea that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the only party involved in the shooting, and stars Kevin Costner as
02:59a government agent tasked with finding the truth. The movie was loved and hated in equal measure.
03:03Some praised its performances and cinematography, whilst others lambasted its lack of historical
03:08accuracy. Its subtitle was The Story That Won't Go Away, which is ironic because the files on JFK's
03:14assassination were actually reopened as a result of this film. JFK's popularity sparked a resurgence
03:20in interest in the popular leader's untimely death. As a result, the US government passed the JFK
03:25Assassination Records Collection Act, which allowed for the files on the president to be made public in 2017.
03:31Without this film causing such a commotion, those files would still be under lock and key today.
03:37Are we any closer to finding out what actually happened that fateful day in Dallas? Well, no, but at least
03:41we've got something else to read. Number 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 dog poo.
03:52The narrative was convoluted, the side characters were completely forgettable, and Blofeld as Bond's brother?
03:57Get out of town! One of the lone high points of the movie comes right at the start, when Daniel
04:02Craig's Bond chases down a member of the titular organisation in Mexico City. The action is fast and
04:08furious, thanks 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 around Day of
04:17the Dead time. There was just one problem. This parade didn't actually exist. It had been entirely
04:22fabricated as a setpiece for Spectre, leaving the Mexican government in quite a pickle. Rather
04:27than send all the tourists and their money away, they decided the easiest thing to do would be to
04:32make the fictional festival a reality. And so, in October 2016, Mexico City hosted its first ever
04:38Day 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 the 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, then please kindly return to the
08:12rock you have been living under until you've learned your lesson.
08:15One of his more famous, crazy ideas was making the biblical epic The Passion of the Christ in 2004,
08:20a film depicting the final 12 hours of Jesus's life. Yeah, that seems like a safe bet for a man
08:26who has a history of religious controversies. Anyway, the film got made and it was of course
08:30controversial. However, there was at least one good thing to come from it. It helped solve a murder
08:35case. In early 2004, 19-year-old Ashley Nicole Wilson was found dead in her apartment in Texas.
08:41She had apparently hanged herself after coming off anti-depression medication. But in reality,
08:46her boyfriend Dan R. Leach had killed her and staged it to look like a suicide. He was going to get
08:51away with the crime until a viewing of The Passion of the Christ caused him to have an epiphany and
08:56turn 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
09:05movie. Romance, drama, tragedy, Irish dancing, naughty times in an old-timey car. It really is the
09:11full cinematic experience. But is it powerful enough to inspire someone to escape one of the most
09:15isolated and repressive nations on the planet? Well, as it turns out, yes it is. In 2007,
09:21Park Yeonmi and her family fled North Korea in an attempt to lead a better life. Although she was
09:27just a teenager, Park already knew that her homeland was a dangerous place to live and that there was a
09:31whole other world outside of its borders. A reason for this knowledge? James Cameron's Titanic.
09:36Banned foreign films offered many North Koreans a previously unseen look at the outside world,
09:41and for Park, Titanic was the best of the bunch. She said that watching the film made
09:45her realise something was wrong with her country, and that was the catalyst for her life of activism.
09:50Stories like this are a reminder of the power cinema has to inspire people around the world.
09:56It'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.
10:23Speaking of problematic, John Hinckley Jr. became obsessed with Foster after first seeing her in
10:27this 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
10:36saw her. In 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,
10:47he shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan, all to impress the actress. It's one of the
10:51maddest stories of all time, and one that almost certainly did not come up in the pitch meeting
10:56for Taxi Driver. And that concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in
11:00the comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that
11:04notification bell. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various
11:08social medias just 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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