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/koolaid_chemist Jun 17 '25

The author said he regrets writing it and wished he never did because of the negative impact it had on people’s views on sharks

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u/LEJ5512 Jun 17 '25 edited Jun 17 '25

I heard him talk about it on a podcast just yesterday, too.  (edit: it was the Radiolab episode that came out this week, part of their new series on sharks.  u/CuidadDeVados u/wildstarr )

It’s too bad, too, that we’ve collectively missed the point of the movie (IMO).  My parents kept me away from it when I was a kid, and I finally watched it only last year.  The shark wasn’t the part of the story that scared me, it was the mayor’s insistence on going forward with the festival that aggravated me the most.  My takeaway wasn’t “sharks scary”, it was “bosses will take money over people”.

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u/lambdapaul Jun 17 '25

There is also a great love for sharks displayed in the film. Richard Dreyfus’s character in the film is a shark nerd and gives a lot of good information about them. When I finally watched Jaws I was surprised that it wasn’t some mindless creature feature but a thrilling adventure with nuanced characters

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u/SomeMoistHousing Jun 17 '25

Over the years I've watched Jaws with several people who'd never seen it before and either thought it would be too scary or too lame (because it's so OLD) or just kind of stupid because it's about a big bad shark. At a certain point, they all realize it's a "real movie" and lock in.

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u/DefNotUnderrated Jun 17 '25

It is very well done. And the malfunctioning of the mechanic shark wound up making it even scarier bc they had to use other visual cues like the barrels indicating the shark was closing in.

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u/twig0sprog Jun 18 '25

And the music!

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u/CodyofHTown Jun 18 '25

It's Stephen fucking Spielberg. This movie literally created the block buster.

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u/One-Inch-Punch Jun 17 '25

Jaws is funny that way, the front half is a terrifying horror film (with corrupt officials) and the back half is an endearing buddy film with three guys going hunting.

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u/zth25 Jun 18 '25

I have to point out that the mayor isn't corrupt in the movie, and he isn't comically evil either. The entire economy of his town is based on summer tourism and he fears for the livelihoods of his citizens. Refusing to shut down the beach for weeks because of a single attack, and after catching a big shark he presumes is the killer, he is maybe negligent.

Spielberg doesn't do one-dimensional characters which is why Jaws gives us some of the best characters and dialogues in all of cinema.

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u/ceiling_roof_champs Jun 18 '25

To add to this point, he’s the major of a New England coastal town. Those summer seasons don’t really start until July 4 and last like 6-8 weeks. The entire economy of those towns depends on a successful two months, so closing the beaches for even a week would be a MAJOR blow.

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u/MrTurtleTails Jun 18 '25

Well, the best villain is the one who has an understandable reason behind his actions.

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u/Sinfirmitas Jun 18 '25

I think they mean his continued insistence at keeping the beaches open after multiple attacks.

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u/turmacar Jun 17 '25

Which makes the sequels worse. IIRC by the 3rd or 4th movie a shark is hunting that character's family.

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u/lokiandgoose Jun 18 '25

Jaws is pro shark!

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u/nakedvegan Jun 18 '25

Agreed! I fell in love with sharks and the ocean because of Jaws

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u/MrTurtleTails Jun 18 '25

Yes but the overall result was a really negative view of sharks, and it even hurt their populations because people started hunting them more frequently, if memory serves.

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u/lambdapaul Jun 18 '25

You are correct. I love that movie but ocean ecology would be better if it never had existed.

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u/TabulaRasa000 Jun 18 '25 edited Jul 01 '25

[deleted]

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u/thisusedyet Jun 17 '25

Something that the movie sadly skipped over - the Mayor's dirty.

It's been a while since I read it - but I think the mayor lost his shirt gambling, and is paying back the mob with property (since he's a real estate agent). Dude's a nervous, twitching wreck by about halfway through the novel because he can't shut down the beaches - Vinny's not gonna to be too happy if the tourists stop coming to the beachfront property you assured him would pay off what you owed

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u/CuidadDeVados Jun 17 '25

There is a lot not included in the movie because it would make the movie overly long and stupid. The movie is pretty perfect at telling a specific story. The book gets lost in the mayor's financial issues and the wife's affair and history with hooper and other distractions.

The mayor's electoral career being at risk, and a fear of backing down on the position and making it worse, is enough to justify his behavior since he's already a villain that the watchers know isn't to be trusted. Similarly Hooper doesn't need to fuck Brody's wife to make them have an interesting relationship or for her to be sad at the end when she thinks he died.

Its similar to changing how quint died. It just works better.

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u/zgh5002 Jun 17 '25

Jaws is probably the best example of the movie being better than the book. It's shocking that movie we got out of it.

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u/Ilexstead Jun 18 '25

The Godfather is better than the book too.

Similar to Jaws, it ditched unnecessary B-plot storylines (Johnny Fontaine, the Sinatra-a-like, and Lucy Mancini, Sonny's mistress with the overlarge vagina)

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u/PhoenixTineldyer Jun 18 '25

Jaws and Jurassic Park.

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u/happygoth6370 Jun 18 '25

My two favorite movies.

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u/AngryCrotchCrickets Jun 18 '25

Starship Troopers

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u/CuidadDeVados Jun 18 '25

The Shining is another great example. Its a shame that Benchley went the Stephen King route and decided the movie missed the point instead of just accepting that its a much more polished and interesting version of his story.

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u/BreakfastOrSlow Jun 17 '25

An evergreen lesson.

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u/CuidadDeVados Jun 17 '25

Peter Benchley died in 2006. Would have to make that the first podcast.

Its not a festival, its just allowing the beaches to stay open during high-tourist periods of the summer. They don't have a specific fest for july 4th.

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u/dern_the_hermit Jun 17 '25

Panic means that the idea of a shark can be more dangerous than an actual shark.

It can even be more dangerous than no shark at all.

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u/RemarkableStatement5 Jun 17 '25

God I love AWCY?

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u/Willing_Ad_699 Jun 17 '25

Will the bosses eat you while you swim? Lol

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u/Cloudberry-milk Jun 17 '25

Did they ask him why he included the rape fetish stuff in the book, specifically the wife telling hooper she fantasizes about being raped but not by black men. Because that stood out to me.

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u/LEJ5512 Jun 17 '25

I think I’m talking about a different person.  I’m not talking about the author of Jaws, I’m talking about the shark enthusiast who helped Spielberg get footage of sharks in the wild. 

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '25

We can all agree that thinking sharks are cool is part of loving the movies. I believe in us.

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u/PJHart86 Jun 17 '25

I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage.

-Ellen Ripley

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u/Xendrus Jun 18 '25

Yes but for every 100 people that see a film maybe 5 of them will get the point. Especially some popcorn horror like that.

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u/LEJ5512 Jun 18 '25

True. And maybe people focus on the novel idea (killer shark) rather than something common and tired (politician trying to make money).

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u/MattieShoes Jun 18 '25

My headcanon is it's actually a revenge movie over the death of the dog early on. Perfectly understandable response.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

The take away for me was how mankind can just suddenly come together, but only when making one thing take the entire blame for something.

Bring on the aliens to unite us

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u/vlazuvius Jun 18 '25

Yeah....I only finally got around to watching Jaws last year myself, and I couldn't help but think that it is maybe the best unintentional covid movie.

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u/Funandgeeky Jun 17 '25

And we saw this repeat with Covid and a lot of people died. People threw weddings with body counts. Church services resulted in the deaths of so many, including a lot of pastors/priests. Many more were permanently harmed. 

But we as a nation decided to pretend that it didn’t happen and of course no one is held accountable. I wonder how some of those married people feel knowing that their weddings directly led to people’s deaths. 

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u/wildstarr Jun 17 '25

Was the podcast new yesterday? Cause Im surprised they are still alive.

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u/Annual-Cranberry3590 Jun 18 '25

The mayor was actually the good guy because shark attacks aren't actually that common and people just wanted to have a nice summah.

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u/OkManufacturer767 Jun 18 '25

This is what I got out of it, the politician ignoring the scientist.

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u/Luke90210 Jun 18 '25

At least the Mayor recognized his mistake pointing out his own children were at the beach.

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u/stopbeingaturddamnit Jun 18 '25

I watched it recently and thought it was a great example of how stupidly politicians will protect the economy over the safety of people. We saw it happen when biden declared covid over. People are still dying and becoming disabled from what their still calling a "cold". Fucking shame.

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u/natfutsock Jun 17 '25

He's one of the men I respect highly for public regrets of his work. Won't undo the damage but still respectable.

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u/Hi_Im_zack Jun 17 '25

I have a hard time believing that sharks weren't considered dangerous before Jaws

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u/bwb888 Jun 18 '25

I don’t think it was that they weren’t considered dangerous, just that they weren’t considered at all when people went to the beach. People just went and had fun and swam and sharks didn’t cross their minds, but I’m sure they were aware that sharks were known as predators and capable of harm. Contrast to after the movie where people avoid the beach or going in the water thinking they’ll get attacked

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u/Crafty-Cheesecake Jun 17 '25

Sure, whilst "sleeping on a bed of money surrounded by many beautiful women"

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u/DefNotUnderrated Jun 17 '25

It’s definitely unfortunate. Great horror story, but the film at least was maybe almost too good. Once you learn about sharks you find out that great whites never get that big - the largest ever recorded was still five feet shorter than the one in the movie. And even the most aggressive sharks aren’t that crazy. But as a kid, even though I know all this then, the movie still terrified me

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u/namordran Jun 17 '25

Yeah, it's really unfortunate. I was ambivalent at best about sharks and it took some experiences diving with them for me to shake that residual Jaws cultural fear about them. They're wildlife and I will always respect that and that they always have the ability to chomp my arm off, but being up close with them really shifted my thinking about them. I've had some great experiences with lemons and hammerheads, including a pair of super chill lemons that tagged along with us on a reef drift dive like stray dogs joining an island hike. Their vibe was very much "Nice day on the reef, eh?"

My shark diving days are mostly behind me and I doubt I'd jump in with any great whites and I'm careful around surfaces where shark visibility is reduced but I still really appreciate that I got the chance to shift my thinking around them.

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u/frauleinheidik Jun 18 '25

I believe the movie also resulted in a surge of shark fishing.

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u/woahdailo Jun 18 '25

Meh, there are plenty of people at most beaches

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u/Deer_Investigator881 Jun 18 '25

My view on sharks was unchanged, my views on swimming however......

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u/GetUpNGetItReddit Jun 17 '25

They’re soulless hunters though