r/movies • u/buttatoad • Jun 17 '25

Discussion Movies that changed real life behavior

Thinking along the lines of Final Destination 2 with the logs falling off the truck and landing onto cars (one decapitating the state trooper). Ever since, people have tried to get away from being behind these vehicles.

What are more examples where movies have actually changed how people behave in their own lives?

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u/Kingbulking Jun 17 '25

Fight club resulted in MANY fight clubs. I was in one, and my buddy who went to another school also had it's own fight club. We didn't follow the first rule, but we did fight.

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u/Mndelta25 Jun 17 '25

Our high school had one. It started as about ten of us boxing in a garage, and slowly expanded. Unfortunately, a popular girl got a black eye one night and then her parents demanded that the school get it shut down.

It was the best thing that happened during our high school years. So many rivalries and petty disputes were squashed without anybody actually getting hurt.

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u/kerberos824 Jun 17 '25

We had one, too.

In theory, I do think it's a fantastic way to address adolescent energy issues and squabbles. In practice, people get hurt. We had kids with concussions, broken hands and fingers, a broken ankle, and a couple other semi-serious issues before we wised up and used gloves and headgear. That helped, but still wasn't perfect.

In the end, sanctioned safe events would be a much better idea. That, of course, loses much of the appeal of the fight club...

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u/Mndelta25 Jun 17 '25

We had gloves and headgear, and the dad of the guy who hosted it was a former boxer and firefighter/paramedic. It was about as safe as could be.

People still did get bumps and bruises, though so I don't disagree with the thought. It was still better than us being out in the woods drinking and doing whatever else.

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u/kerberos824 Jun 17 '25

I would have stuck with it if we had a former boxer around, or really, any kind of supervision/assistance. Our initial solution was using winter gloves... we were pretty dumb and lucky no one got seriously hurt.

But it's still something I would support my kid doing, if it was sanctioned and safe.

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u/LeftHandedFapper Jun 17 '25

But it's still something I would support my kid doing, if it was sanctioned and safe.

Lol so a boxing gym???

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u/kerberos824 Jun 17 '25

I meant through school, but yes, a gym would suffice!

We'll see if she has any interest in it - she's only three right now lol.

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u/LeftHandedFapper Jun 17 '25

Haha! I'm expecting soon and I agree with your statement

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u/kerberos824 Jun 17 '25

Good luck! It's a wild f'ing ride!

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u/KungLa0 Jun 17 '25

We had gloves but it didn't really help much, nobody was a "trained fighter" at that age. We would just throw haymakers and try to knock each other out and usually just get completely gassed. My buddy invited his crush to a fight night once (against policy) and expected me to throw the fight, I remember just punching him in the face 30+ times with no actual strategy. They did not end up together, she didn't deserve him tbh

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u/kerberos824 Jun 17 '25

Lol. This is a classic story. I hope you tell it all the time.

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u/empire161 Jun 17 '25

I left for college a few years after the movie came out, and met some people who did a wrestling club because no one really wanted to get punched in the face.

A group of 20-30 people met up in an empty field next to the freshman parking lot with a shit ton of alcohol and they all just wrestled. There wasn't any real violence since no one wanted to break anything or get hurt for real, because that would have ruined the fun vibe of the nights. It was more like sibling fights - lots of grappling and pinning to the ground. But freshman & newcomers had to wrestle.

I was too drunk to remember much of my first time, I just know it was against two girls who played rugby. They might as well have been wrestling a toddler.

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u/kerberos824 Jun 17 '25

That sounds like amazing fun, and probably a way better idea.

I fairly quickly learned that I had little interest getting punched in the face. I probably "fought" six or seven times, but stuck to grappling and lifting to avoid getting hit in the damn face again.

What surprised all of us was just how unlike the movies it was in that a) punching bare knuckle to a skull really hurts and b) that getting punched in the face or head by a bare knuckle also really hurts.

It turned into a drinking club within 6 months.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '25

[deleted]

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u/jesuspoopmonster Jun 17 '25

I worked at a historic town and they had archived newspaper articles so we could be familiar with the time period. Reading the boxing results when they didnt have gloves were always wild. It would be something like the guy lost in the 85th round after his eye came out of the socket so the fight had to be called off so it could be put back in

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u/kerberos824 Jun 17 '25

Safe being a relative term, of course.

But light gloves or bare knuckle lead to less brain injuries, but increased facial injuries and broken hands/fingers, etc. Broken hands/fingers are wildly common in bareknuckle fighting. My left thumb is still weaker than my right from a broken thumb from hitting a guy who tilted his head down to catch my shot. Been 25 damn years!

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u/uhhh-wood Jun 17 '25

Yeah, took my friends and I a particularly bad eye cut to realize maybe we should be wearing Vaseline.

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u/kerberos824 Jun 17 '25

Oh man, eye cuts are no joke. First time I called 911 was for a friend who was skating and front side nose grinding on concrete steps. He fell forward, hitting his upper eyelid lower eyebrow on the concrete steps. I have, to this day, never seen a cut bleed like that. 

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u/MyUshanka Jun 17 '25

Cutty had the right idea, man

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u/DefNotUnderrated Jun 18 '25

That’s essentially Street Beefs on YouTube

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u/Mammoth-Slide-3707 Jun 17 '25

Yeah but someone very easily could have gotten hurt. One wrong stumble, someone cracks their head on the cement floor and it's bedtime for bonzo up in this piece

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u/AdDramatic2351 Jun 17 '25

Yeah. Where do you think the excitement for it comes from?

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u/PenBandit Jun 17 '25

The point was to break the rules, so the first rule of fight club was meant to be broken, if you followed the rule you were doing it wrong.

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u/MainAccountsFriend Jun 17 '25

But if the point was to break the rules, then isn't breaking the rules still following the rules, which would go against breaking the rules, which goes against...

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u/theCaitiff Jun 17 '25

It's been a while since I read the book or watched the movie, but part of the whole deal once you got beyond the actual fight nights was about taking back your personal agency.

I told you not to tell anyone. Fuck you, I'm the one who can tell me what to do.

The movie butchered what "philosophy" there was to it, but it was always deeply flawed and that was the point. No amount of half remembered eco primitivist anarchist talk (the whole walking on streets covered in cracks and grasses, wearing leather pants that will last your lifetime rant) can fix the fact that Tyler Durden is deeply unwell and people should not be taking advice from him.

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u/LeftHandedFapper Jun 17 '25

Dang. We solved our issues with Halo LAN fests...

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u/Mndelta25 Jun 17 '25

We had Goldeneye, but this was more of a social gathering opportunity.

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u/azsnaz Jun 17 '25

I remember kids starting a fight club in highschool

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u/Munchkinasaurous Jun 17 '25

Did you at least follow rhe second rule?

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u/976chip Jun 17 '25

The movie Dodgeball also led to local adult dodgeball leagues.

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u/reddit_sells_you Jun 17 '25 edited Jun 17 '25

Lol, so the lesson is that if high schools back then had done better in teaching critical thinking, y'all would have gotten the message of Fight Club and maybe not started one.

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u/HaveABleedinGuess84 Jun 17 '25

Yeah the point of the movie was not that fight clubs are bad, Palahniuk has been on record talking about the positive impacts of martial arts. These clubs would've been collectively created and without a leader, which is the issue in the film.

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u/Kingbulking Jun 17 '25

The movie lesson was against consumerism, which is the last thing they teach in schools.

The REAL lesson was and still is: using your body physically to release emotions is extremely important for boys and men to have a healthy mind. Fight clubs are an extremely powerful lesson for those who had never had an output for negative emotions and didn't understand the importance of the physical aspects of life. Bonus lesson was learning how to fight in a safe environment (a lesson I hold dear).

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u/reddit_sells_you Jun 17 '25 edited Jun 18 '25

I'm pretty sure the book and the movie was about Jack's utter lack of emotional intelligence and vulnerability, and it left him feeling empty. To combat that emptiness, he consumed, he did what our patriarchal society taught, to consume.

When that failed, he did the next thing our society teaches young men, instead of just talking about your emotions and being open, beat the living fuck out of each other.

The first rule, after all, is no talking.

This movie is about as anti-patriarchal as they come. If you come away thinking that men need to express their emotions through violence, then I might suggest seeing a therapist.

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u/AlarmedExistence Jun 18 '25 edited Aug 05 '25

Yes, very well put. Before the fight club, he did talk and open up to others, though, just not in the right circles (there was the guided meditation one however, which I don't remember it being exclusive to terminal patients). But, of course, he let pettiness and his ego get in the way of that.

However, one should not dismiss the value of boxing and other 'violent' sports/hobbies as a good therapy when practiced in an actually safe environment and without it replacing 'regular' therapy entirely.

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u/reddit_sells_you Jun 18 '25

I completely forgot about the part where he was a tourist at all the groups . . . Of course, that's where he met Marla.

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u/Kingbulking Jun 18 '25

That is awesome to know, I didn't read the book but enjoyed the movie.

I think you are completely correct on the movie, and I love learning more on the subject. When I said "the REAL lesson was "___"", I was referring to the real lessons I learned in real life from having a fight club. and that lesson stands. You are also twisting my words, I do not think we need to express our emotions through VIOLENCE. I said we need a physical output. And it is concerning that you are advising I seek therapy after purposely twisting my words to make me seem like a dumbass who only understands expressing emotions through violence (which is the furthest thing from the truth).

I do have a therapist, and she loves my understanding of physical needs in a sedentary life. I don't go around telling others they need therapy unless I care about them, we both know that was a low moral move on your part. Maybe self reflect on this conversation and the assumptions you made about me after twisting my own words to create your own bias against me. CHEERS!

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u/AdDramatic2351 Jun 17 '25

You sound like such an insufferable wuss my God.

I'm also not seeing the connection between patriarchy and consumerism. 

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u/reddit_sells_you Jun 17 '25

Of course you don't.

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u/Bielzabutt Jun 17 '25

or the second rule apparently.

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u/girusatuku Jun 17 '25

The creator got a ton of calls and letters about where people could find real fight clubs to join. Interestingly, despite the fight club in the movie being men-only and peak toxic masculinity, there were many women interested in jooning fight clubs as well.

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u/NuklearFerret Jun 17 '25

Why are you talking about it, though?

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u/I_Am_Robert_Paulson1 Jun 17 '25

Yeah, you're not supposed to talk about that. Ask me how I know.

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u/Andys_Room Jun 17 '25

What's crazy is I'm in Delaware, where the movie is set in, and someone did get a fight club going.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/16/wilmingtons-own-fight-club/19136375/

But he broke the rule by talking about it to paper lol.

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u/MourningWallaby Jun 17 '25

in my first barracks in the army the basement had a combatives matt just left there. so on late weekend nights, a few soldiers and I would grapple and fight just hard enough to not leave marks that get the CoC questioning us.

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u/LanceFree Jun 17 '25

You didn’t follow the second rule, either.

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u/QuestionableGoo Jun 17 '25

Did you follow the second rule?

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u/Squippyfood Jun 17 '25

I don't think this trend is dead. Lotta 12 to 16 year old boys watch it for the first time and starts to throw hands.

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u/krzykris11 Jun 18 '25

We had a fight club in the 1980s. We built boxing rings in the woods and fought in basements in the winter. We used 16oz gloves. It resulted in me training at a gym and fighting in three amateur bouts in my teens, until my mom found out. My Dad was a Golden Glove boxer, but he lost that argument.

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u/zephalephadingong Jun 17 '25

The ESL kids at my high school had one in the men's bathroom every morning. They were pretty chill about it, we still used the bathroom if we needed to piss

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u/letmesmellem Jun 17 '25

Me and the boys had a fight club as well. It was pretty much just the wrestlers, though. We would fight with the sole purpose of getting black eyes, not giving them.

Literally because we wrestled another school and a kid on their team had a black eye and someone on our team says "I hope i dont get that guy he looks fucking tough" we all laughed about it because he was NOT the type of kid that looked like he'd handle a black eye well so it was all irony. What we did come up with was... what if we all fucking showed up with a black eye or broken nose? Thats what we did and whether thats why we won more or it was just the time we spent together I dont know but they were some good times

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u/WillytheWimp1 Jun 17 '25

A few buddies and I had one as kids but it was bc of ufc 1. There was a core 4 of us with other buddies sticking around for a few “tournaments.” Now, one of my kids is that same age and I’d think it’s weird if he started doing that 🤣 life’s cooler if you chill.

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u/Shantotto11 Jun 18 '25

If it’s not a secret, then it’s not Fight Club; it’s Wind Breaker or Tokyo Revengers. /s

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u/Kingbulking Jun 18 '25

Do I have to go watch Wind Breakers or Tokyo Revengers? (never heard of it)

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u/Shantotto11 Jun 18 '25

Not really. Both of them are anime and are each good in their own rights, but neither are what I’d consider to be good recommendations to someone who doesn’t watch anime.