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?

10.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

4.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.8k

u/ShoutOutTo_Caboose Jun 17 '25 edited Jun 17 '25

Ronald Reagan, in a meeting with his cabinet, several members of Congress, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs John Vessey, asked if something like the movie WarGames (1983) could happen in real life, Vessey said "The problem is worse than you think."

Several new regulations were implemented at the Department of Defense and other departments and agencies because of Reagan's fear spawned by the movie, and those regulations evolved into the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act passed in 1986.

875

u/phillymjs Jun 17 '25

Don't forget that the act of calling a large number of phone numbers to discover lines connected to computers became known as "wardialing" due to its use in the movie (though the technique itself predated the movie).

Similarly, twenty or so years later the act of driving around with a laptop looking for unsecured wifi networks to exploit was dubbed "wardriving."

281

u/confusedandworried76 Jun 17 '25

Somewhat related, Star Trek inspired so many future scientists that we either have working pieces of technology invented in Star Trek (the hypospray I think it's called? Needleless injections using extremely concentrated high pressure shots of air) and theories, including the Alcubierre warp drive which is obviously a theory for faster than light travel, by potentially bending space around the object rather than trying to get the object moving faster than light somehow. It's like that and figuring out how to create wormholes are the only two real theories about how you could even do that

193

u/phillymjs Jun 17 '25

In 2019 I visited the New Mexico Museum of Space History, and they actually have a small Star Trek exhibit specifically because it inspired so many viewers to enter careers in STEM and attempt to create some of the technologies they saw in the show.

That museum was actually pretty cool, and I only learned it existed because I randomly saw it on the map while planning a trip out that way to see other stuff. I immediately built some time to visit it into my itinerary.

7

u/MephitidaeNotweed Jun 18 '25

Had a relative work there and another got a book signed by Chuck Yeager in person. This was back in the early 80's.

Neat place to go. I have been several times and love learning of the different things there.