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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's what's going on with the 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 landings.
01:11Well, 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.
01:46Walt Disney did plenty of dubious things in his life, but the most unforgivable of all was
01:51traumatising several generations of children with the death of Bambi's mother. In the 1942 animated
01:57movie, young Bambi has his life changed forever when an evil hunter guns down his beloved mum in
02:02cold blood. This sets the deer on a path of vengeance, as he trains in martial arts with the
02:07sole ambition of enacting his violent revenge. Okay, that didn't happen, but what a movie that would be.
02:12Apart from scarring kids for life, the movie spawned a phenomenon known as the Bambi Effect.
02:18Commentators posit that because of the scene with Bambi's mum, people have turned off the idea of
02:22the hunting or killing of animals that are conventionally cute. However, when it comes to
02:26ugly animals, well, they can all die. That was a joke, by the way. Whether this is a good thing or a
02:31bad thing is up in the air, but it shows that even a kid's movie can have a long-lasting effect on
02:36society at large. Number 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
02:50he chose to make a movie about the killing of John F. Kennedy. With 1991's JFK, Stone explored the
02:56idea that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the only party involved in the shooting, and stars Kevin Costner
03:01as a government agent tasked with finding the truth. The movie was loved and hated in equal measure.
03:06Some praised its performances and cinematography, whilst others lambasted its lack of historical
03:11accuracy. Its subtitle was The Story That Won't Go Away, which is ironic because the files on JFK's
03:17assassination were actually reopened as a result of this film. JFK's popularity sparked a resurgence
03:23in interest in the popular leader's untimely death. As a result, the US government passed the
03:28JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, which allowed for the files on the president to be made
03:32public in 2017. Without this film causing such a paid specter. Enough time has passed now that we
03:38can officially see the story of John F. Kennedy. The story of John F. Kennedy. The story of John F. Kennedy.
03:45Characters were completely forgettable, and Blofeld as Bond's brother? Get out of town!
03:49One of the lone high points of the movie comes right at the start, when Daniel Craig's Bond chases down a
03:55member of the titular organisation in Mexico City. The action is fast and furious, thanks in part to the
04:00elaborate Day of the Dead parade going on around the two men. The celebration looked so good that
04:05it actually inspired an uptake in people visiting the city around Day of the Dead time. There was
04:09just one problem. This parade didn't actually exist. It had been entirely fabricated as a setpiece for
04:15Spectre, leaving the Mexican government in quite a pickle. Rather than send all the tourists and their
04:20money away, they decided the easiest thing to do would be to make the fictional festival a reality.
04:25And so, in October 2016, Mexico City hosted its first ever Day of the Dead parade. Mission
04:31accomplished, Mr. Bond. Number 6. Anti-nuclear activism. The China Syndrome. On March 16th,
04:381979, a film called The China Syndrome came out. In it, Jane Fonda played a journalist investigating a
04:45nuclear power plant when suddenly the facility goes into meltdown. There's a line in the movie that says
04:50this could render an area the size of Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable. Why is that important?
04:56Because on the 28th of March 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant actually went into
05:02meltdown. And where was Three Mile Island? Pennsylvania. You couldn't make it up. The film
05:07already had an anti-nuclear agenda before the incident. Star Jane Fonda was firmly and famously opposed to the
05:13idea. However, its proximity to a real-life disaster led many others to change their stance on the subject.
05:19Co-star Michael Douglas described his revelation as a religious awakening, whilst the China Syndrome
05:25also made believers out of prominent campaigner Tom Hayden and media mogul Ted Turner. Few could have
05:31expected the immediate impact the China Syndrome would have on the world. It actually seems too good
05:36to be true. I mean, maybe it is. Has anyone looked into what Fonda was up to on the 28th? Was she in
05:41Pennsylvania by any chance? Number 5. Inspiring freedom fighters. Rambo.
05:46The 2008 film, just called Rambo, is honestly one of the better instalments in the blood-soaked
05:52franchise. Although that isn't saying much, considering that Last Blood does exist.
05:56Sylvester Stallone returned as the titular veteran to rescue a bunch of missionaries who have become
06:01tangled up in the Saffron Revolution in Burma. Burma was what it was called at the time. The country's
06:06name is now officially Myanmar. Whilst the movie was a fairly standard action affair, with Stallone going
06:12ahhh as often as humanly possible, it had some rather unintended consequences in the actual
06:17country it was set in. The Saffron Revolution was a very real conflict in Myanmar against the ruling
06:22military government. One of the groups involved in challenging their authority was the Karen Nation
06:27Liberation Army. Karen as in an ethnic group of people, not those women who want to speak to the
06:32manager. The KNLA saw the film as an endorsement of their struggles and were given a huge morale boost
06:37off the back of it. They even adopted lines from the movie into their rallying cries. Not bad for
06:42a cash cow, eh? Number 4. Being used as a legal defence, 2001 A Space Odyssey. 2001 A Space Odyssey
06:50is one of the absolute granddaddies of sci-fi. Stanley Kubrick's surrealist voyage is one of the most
06:56important and influential films of all time, as well as home to one of the most chilling baddies ever
07:01captured on film. Sentient supercomputer HAL 9000 is the most famous piece of technology
07:07in the film, which is littered with futuristic looks at how the world might turn out. Well,
07:12futuristic for 1968. Kubrick's interpretation of Arthur C. Clarke's work was actually more accurate
07:17than you might think, as one major company attempted to demonstrate. Samsung got themselves
07:22into legal hot water over the attempted release of their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer. Apple,
07:28who felt the design infringed on their own iPad, attempted to block the sale of the device.
07:33Samsung countered by claiming that they didn't invent the tablet. This movie did. As part of
07:38their actual legal defence, Samsung attached a screenshot from the film displaying astronauts
07:43using what appear to be tablets. They claimed that this was proof that Apple couldn't own the
07:47rights to the design and that they should be free to sell theirs. I mean, it didn't work,
07:51but you can't blame them for trying. Number 3. Catching a Murderer, The Passion of the Christ.
07:56Mel Gibson. Nothing else to add? Just Mel Gibson. If you don't know about his various
08:00transgressions over the years, then please kindly return to the rock you have been living under
08:04until you've learned your lesson.
08:05One of his more famous crazy ideas was making the biblical epic The Passion of the Christ in 2004,
08:11a film depicting the final 12 hours of Jesus' life. Yeah, that seems like a safe bet for a man
08:17who has a history of religious controversies. Anyway, the film got made and it was of course
08:21controversial. However, there was at least one good thing to come from it. It helped solve a murder
08:26case. In early 2004, 19-year-old Ashley Nicole Wilson was found dead in her apartment in Texas.
08:32She had apparently hanged herself after coming off anti-depression medication, but in reality,
08:37her boyfriend Dan R. Leach had killed her and staged it to look like a suicide. He was going to get
08:42away with the crime until a viewing of The Passion of the Christ caused him to have an epiphany
08:46and turn himself in. Maybe Gibson isn't so bad after all? Number 2. Defecting from North Korea,
08:52Titanic. Titanic has got everything you could want from a movie. Romance, drama, tragedy,
08:58Irish dancing, naughty times in an old-timey car. It really is the full cinematic experience.
09:03But is it powerful enough to inspire someone to escape one of the most isolated and repressive
09:08nations on the planet? Well, as it turns out, yes it is. In 2007, Park Yeonmi and her family fled
09:15North Korea in an attempt to lead a better life. Although she was just a teenager, Park already knew that
09:20her homeland was a dangerous place to live, and that there was a whole other world outside of
09:24its borders. A reason for this knowledge? James Cameron's Titanic. Banned foreign films offered
09:29many North Koreans a previously unseen look at the outside world, and for Park, Titanic was the best
09:34of the bunch. She said that watching the film made her realise something was wrong with her country,
09:39and that was the catalyst for her life of activism. Stories like this are a reminder of the power cinema
09:44has to inspire people around the world. It's also proof that Leonardo DiCaprio's face is the most
09:49powerful force on Earth. Number 1. Almost getting a president killed. Taxi Driver.
09:54An unhinged cabbie from New York City, Robert De Niro's portrayal of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver
09:59is just one of the reasons he is rightly recognised as a legend. But it's not his role in the film we're
10:05talking about today. At just 12 years old, Jodie Foster was cast in the movie as a child prostitute.
10:10Look, we said this film was good, we never said it wasn't without its problems. Speaking of problematic,
10:15John Hinckley Jr. became obsessed with Foster after first seeing her in this film. He moved
10:19house to be closer to where she was studying and would bombard her with love letters and poetry.
10:24Again, it's worth remembering that Foster was an actual child when Hinckley first saw her. In his
10:28deteriorating mental state, Hinckley decided that the best thing he could do to win Foster's favour
10:33was shoot the President of the United States. And so he did. In 1981, he shot and wounded President
10:39Ronald Reagan, all to impress the actress. It's one of the maddest stories of all time, and one that
10:44almost certainly did not come up in the pitch meeting for Taxi Driver. And that concludes our
10:49list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments below. And while you're there,
10:53don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell. Also head over to Twitter and
10:57follow us there. And I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:01I've been Ellie with WhatCulture. I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.
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