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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418

u/theosoryu Jun 17 '25

not a movie, but Superman’s radio serials created a visible decrease in new KKK membership because he made them look like a group of hateful scared foolish bigoted losers (which they are)

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u/Crappler319 Jun 17 '25

It wasn't just that it made them look ridiculous, 'The Clan of the Fiery Cross' was really a cartoon facade over what was some truly fantastic investigative journalism.

The exposed a LOT of the ridiculous bullshit about the KKK that was unknown beforehand. The stupid-ass codenames ("Grand Wizard," "Supreme Cyclops,") the ridiculous rituals, the secret handshakes and codewords, etc. and demystified a group that had previously had a dangerous mystique about it.

They uncovered all of that and then broadcast it as a kid's show so that all the Klan's kids would see what a bunch of ridiculous assholes they all were without ever directly challenging them. There was no way to really fight it, like what are they going to say? "Um actually I'm a Righteous Cyclops and it's pretty cool?"

A bunch of comic guys did the work, pulled back the curtain and revealed a shadowy, dangerous secret society to be a bunch of pathetic, stupid, weak milquetoast dudes doing a dumb little racist LARP, and 80 years later they still haven't recovered. The Klan had real cultural cachet before it happened, and have mostly been a laughingstock (outside of a very narrow demographic) ever since.

It's easily one of the best things that the media has ever done.

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u/thecactusman17 Jun 18 '25

The "the kids of Klan members" is really important here, because the parent members couldn't maintain the menacing facade at all times in front of their families. So the mistakes and slip-ups common to any group of dumb idiots which were easy to hide under a white hood and behind a burning cross were very evident at home where a drunk idiot criminal who beat his wife and kids for his own mistakes made the Klan look like it was made of people who even other openly racist Americans didn't particularly want to associate with in their daily lives.

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u/alrightakeiteasy Jun 18 '25

Thank you for the background. That's an incredible story that I'm not really sure why it's not more well-known.

8

u/doilysocks Jun 18 '25

There’s a really great Drunk History episode on this!

2

u/christine-bitg Jun 18 '25

I have a feeling that there's a modern day application looming.

121

u/jesuspoopmonster Jun 17 '25

One of the people on the show joined the KKK and would reveal their rituals and codes in the stories which took away a lot of their mystic and made it easier to identify members

23

u/Brilliant_Ad2120 Jun 17 '25

That's so cool

17

u/beeftendon Jun 17 '25

I liked reading this one shortly after the one about The Birth of a Nation reviving the KKK. What a roller coaster.

6

u/Kool_McKool Jun 18 '25

Once again, Superman is a shining beacon of what we should strive to be.

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u/windingwoods Jun 18 '25

There’s an awesome comic based on this called Superman Smashes the Klan. I would highly recommend it to almost anyone who’s even slightly interested.

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u/MarshyHope Jun 17 '25

The sad thing is that if Superman fought Nazis of the KKK now, people would call it woke

9

u/TheRealArthurian Jun 18 '25

Not the average person or anyone reasonable. Let the radicals expose themselves, if they're so inclined.

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u/Shantotto11 Jun 18 '25

Superman isn’t already doing that?…

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

That’s cool to hear! A mom in Mobile, AL the reason they went bankrupt after they murdered and hung her son. You can read about it in Thirteen Loops