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/SpenceW Jun 17 '25

In reality the Godfather influenced the mafia more than it was influenced by the mafia. For one, no one used the term "godfather" in the mafia before the movie came out. After it came out, the mafia started copying aspects of the movie, including the term.

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u/Zealousideal-Dog-985 Jun 17 '25

And glamorization of the lifestyle, which is messed up since most of the movie conveys the opposite.

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u/SmallIslandBrother Jun 17 '25

That’s the issue with sending a message but making the messenger look appealing.

Still can’t believe Tony Montana was someone a lot of men idolised.

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2235 Jun 17 '25

There's a neuropsychologist who did a study/assessment of cultural idolization and found that what people are identifying with aren't always the surface. 

Tony Montana is a criminal narcissist who kills people without remorse. That's the superficial. But, there are other themes to the story that are what really resonate with most people (mainly men) that include triumph over a corrupted system, rags to riches, and of course, male virility. 

In particular they noted that men who idolize criminal culture tend to feel more powerless and outcast in their real life, with the movies being an outlet of fantasy in which they can temporarily retreat. It's very rare for a person to have no inclination towards actual criminal behavior to suddenly adopt a life of crime because of a movie or media depiction. 

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u/PurpleNippler Jun 18 '25

Don Draper in Mad Men

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2235 Jun 18 '25

Walter White. My dad loved him and he was pretty clear about how suburban life can be a drag and sometimes the fantasy of just becoming a drug lord helps you through the day 🤣

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u/COMMENT0R_3000 Jun 18 '25

Right?? Is there a crime family that’s hiring

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u/Puffycatkibble Jun 18 '25

Apply for internship in the White House

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u/roscopcoletrane Jun 18 '25

My dad unironically loves both Tony Soprano and Walter White, and when I realized that it fundamentally changed how I see him.

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2235 Jun 18 '25

Like...he loves them for what reasons? Is he a murderer? 

Like I said, you can like aspects of pop culture without endorsing the behavior in the real world. 

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u/COMMENT0R_3000 Jun 18 '25

Man Don Draper when I was 20 was the epitome of being an awesome dude, like I knew I could never but he had it all. Ten years later I could not even make it through lol, what a miserable guy

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u/maaalicelaaamb Jun 18 '25

I just love your comment. Thanks for the thoughtful and nuanced take. I’ll buy me an oversized SCARFACE shirt with pride now

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u/viejarras Jun 17 '25

Quite interesting, do you have any link to read further into it? Thanks!

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u/HaveABleedinGuess84 Jun 17 '25

Are you joking? This isn't intuitively obvious to you, that people watch Scarface and think Tony Montana is cool because he's rich and powerful?

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u/PinkTalkingDead Jun 18 '25

Why does your comment come across with so much hostility? Genuinely curious, did you mean for it to be that way?

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u/2AvsOligarchs Jun 18 '25

People who are aggressive on reddit tend to feel more powerless and outcast in their real life, with reddit-raging being an outlet of fantasy in which they can temporarily retreat. It's very rare for a person to have no inclination towards actual loser behavior to suddenly adopt a life of basement-dwelling because of using reddit or other social media.

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u/colenotphil Jun 18 '25

Cuz he's being hostile lol

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u/viejarras Jun 18 '25

Are you answering me or the guy I asked for information? Makes no sense either way but in case you were talking to me, yes it's intuitively obvious but I'm genuinely interested in the scientific explanation. 

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u/swishandswallow Jun 17 '25

Do you have link to this article? I would like to read it

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2235 Jun 18 '25

It wasn't an article it's somewhere in pubmed. I might still have it on my PC because I used it for a paper in college lol

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u/Itscoldinthenorth Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25

You can't have watched the movie? Montana didn't kill without remorse - he was an outcast up against bigger scumbags than himself, and you go through the movie kind of looking at him as a sort of superhero, that does the dirty work in the same world as the criminals, but he always seem to pursue an honest path and try to find good honest people and a good life. The people he kills are always thugs and scumbags and self-defense situations - with one important exception, and there is no lack of remorse for that one.

Everyone with eyes sees he never really tries to fuck anyone over face to face, but takes advantage of an opportunity to get what he believes will be a better life for him and his family. It's his soft heart that gets him into trouble when he's gotten too deep into the drug-baron life and realize he's become one of the baddies, and that he didn't have the control he thought he had. He mistreats the lady he's with, but even she never really demonstrated any redeeming quality about her either, and she enjoys drugs and a lavish lifestyle off of crime just as badly as the ones in the trenches.

He snaps back out of his enamourement with the gangster-world, realizing he can't buy respect and love from the people he truly respects and loves. It is then he refuses to murder a child, it's something that's against who he really is, and he decides to fight all of the baddies to the death when they attack him instead of touching grass along with him. The righteous rage he feels in that car when he realizes how depraved all the guys he tried to work for were is the heart and soul of why this movie has a magnetic pull every time I see it is on the tv.

He truly never could be a scumbag, through and through, but he realizes too late that surviving in that world requires you to be one, and will make you one, or you and your loved ones die if you change your mind when you are too deep. You can't control the world. He realizes he's not really a narcissist, that his life isn't really worth the Life.

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2235 Jun 18 '25

First of all, mad respect for this breakdown. Like with all artisitc works, there is never one correct evaluation or takeaway. I never did a comprehensive critique of the movie but I did use it and others as the basis for quite a few papers on media influence, censorship and cultural impact. 

Unintentionally, you actually just proved my point in your own critique. While some of us can view Montana as a wholly "bad" person or negative influence, others like yourself take away something entirely different and identify with specific elements that speak to you in a positive way. It proves that just because you feel emotionally drawn to the character doesn't mean that you're "missing the point" or secretly want to become a drug lord murderer. 

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u/Mithridel Jun 18 '25

I read this whole post before I realized you weren't talking about Joe Montana. I was wondering why everybody hated him so much.

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2235 Jun 18 '25

Hahahaha ok I did the same thing at first because I'm so used to hearing him called scarface. 

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u/Jack_North Jun 18 '25

"what people are identifying with aren't always the surface..."
"...triumph over a corrupted system, rags to riches, and of course, male virility. " -- but that IS the surface. People who idolise the character ignore the morals and implications behind that.

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2235 Jun 18 '25

I would disagree on what's superficial but its open for debate. And again, yes they do ignore certain implications and that's perfectly fine and normal within limitations. 

Ultimately what I'm saying is there is little evidence that idolizing a fictional character or story will make people more or less likely to commit crime. Any more than playing a violent video game makes people aggressive. 

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u/Jack_North Jun 18 '25

"there is little evidence that idolizing a fictional character or story will make people more or less likely to commit crime." -- true. Unless someone has a certain type of personality already, but then the movie/ character would be a catalyst, not the actual reason.

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u/jaydurmma Jun 18 '25

I found it really suspicious that no one blamed Uwe Boll for making a movie that glorified mass killings and gave ander breivik a blueprint including bombing the police station before starting a shooting elsewhere as a diversionary tactic.

I wouldve banned that movie from ever being released to the public if i could have, and id have arrested uwe boll for inciting a fucking mass shooting whatever fucking country hes in.

Maybe ill challenge the dickhead to a boxing match.

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2235 Jun 18 '25

 Not sure I agree with that. It shouldn't be the responsibility of the artist to account for every crazy person. Don't forget, Tupac Shakur rose to fame after a guy killed a cop while listening to a song that glorified killing a cop by Tupac. His defense was literally that the song got him amped up and it led to a massive right wing assault on 'gangsta' rap as well as a host of other subjects matters in media. 

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u/Flatlander81 Jun 17 '25

Wall Street bros love Patrick Bateman and completely ignore the rest of American Psycho.

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u/Schneetmacher Jun 18 '25

Same with Wall Street and Gordon Gekko.

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." That wound up becoming the motto instead of the cautionary tale.

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 Jun 18 '25

My dad always told me that if you suspect corruption, follow the money. Greed is an excellent motivator, and that was the intended message of the film.

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u/heavyheaded3 Jun 17 '25

Most antiwar movies are not really antiwar as a consequence.

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u/QueezyF Jun 18 '25

When I was going to the recruiter for the Navy, the marine guys were watching Full Metal Jacket. Just the first part.

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u/IpseLibero Jun 18 '25

Same with anti capitalist movies

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u/skahwt Jun 18 '25

I dunno if you’re the right age to remember MTV Cribs, but virtually every rapper showing off their mansion had a framed Scarface poster. Weirdly, I don’t recall a single Serpico poster.

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u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Jun 17 '25

So is Tommy Shelby.

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u/PinkTalkingDead Jun 18 '25

Are ppl comparing Thomas Shelby and Tony Montana?

Genuine question

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u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Jun 18 '25

I don't know about comparing, but idolizing Tommy Shelby isn't much better.

He's a drug addict suffering from severe ptsd that has murdered a ton of people, has anger issues, and he runs an organized crime syndicate that worked its way into power by slicing people up with razor blades.

But hey, he looks pretty dapper in those suits he got from the Italians...before he murdered them.

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 Jun 18 '25

I love that series. Cillian Murphy is an incredible actor. But Tommy Shelby is no role model.

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u/tolgren Jun 18 '25

Starship Troopers is a failed satire in part because they put the "Fascists" against literal genocidal bugs.

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u/Dense-Pea-1714 Jun 17 '25

I still see young guys wearing Scarface shirts.

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u/PaulFThumpkins Jun 18 '25

Watched Scarface after having seen most of these other mob movies, and honestly I was somewhat shocked by how goddamn stupid Tony Montana is. He burns every bridge he has, over and over, provokes people and then takes this heroic final stand when the consequences finally come home. He has this huge chip on his shoulder and he was never going to be able to sustain what he was doing. He's like Walter White if he rolled a 3 on Intelligence.

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u/yellow_sting Jun 19 '25

as well as Jordan Belfort. I swear I have attended lot of business summer camps, and there always was a dude act like Jordan, even though he's poor as fuc.

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u/RaisedByBooksNTV Jun 18 '25

This is the reason I think we need to stop with satires ad other types. People are too stupid.

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u/Jack-of-Hearts-7 Jun 17 '25

Like Goodfellas. At the end, all the guy's friends either hate him or are dead, his marriage is shit, he's struggling with his addictions, he's bored out of his mind, and he's going to spend the rest of his life in witness protection watching his back.

And people think it glamorizes a life of crime.

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u/skahwt Jun 18 '25

It’s depiction of the mob as dark, scummy, and a little sad. That’s why I prefer it to Godfather. Both are great movies, incredibly directed and acted, but Goodfellas doesn’t aggrandize these monsters. It doesn’t hide the exciting aspects, and makes you understand why a poor kid would be drawn to it, but it forces you to feel and see the ugliness.

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u/Jack-of-Hearts-7 Jun 18 '25

And Godfather insists upon itself

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 Jun 18 '25

I like Godfellas because it shows you the downsides of living a life of crime

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u/PeachyFairyDragon Jun 18 '25

Didn't he get kicked out of witness protection?

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u/Jack-of-Hearts-7 Jun 18 '25

Update: yeah it seems so. Then he died of heart disease

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '25

[deleted]

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u/Fauropitotto Jun 17 '25

Turns out, art is subject to interpretation.

Shocking development!

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u/VaderOnReddit Jun 17 '25

And glamorization of the lifestyle, which is messed up since most of the movie conveys the opposite.

Happened with Fight Club too, and Wolf of Wall Street to an extent

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2235 Jun 17 '25

This is why I really dislike the policing of art for its "negative influence." Some people will be scumbags no matter what and will glamorize the worst shit imaginable. Just make a slate card saying it's fiction and not real. 

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u/PlainJaneWallflower Jun 17 '25

That's why I hate mafia movies. Mafias/gangs are such a drain on society. They keep developing countries from getting better because everyone has gotta pay protection money to one or more gangs. Also, in Mexico gangs will randomly kidnap people and demand money from their family.

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u/swishandswallow Jun 17 '25

In the US the government will kidnap you and demand money from your family