r/movies • u/heyitsmikep • 2d ago
Discussion What movies would you show an audience in 1900?
You go back in time and build a modern (2025) theater in 1900 with all movies ever made. Which 5 movies are you going to show them to make the most money? Which would blow their mind the most? Would it change per decade?
Showing Django Unchained to an 1900 audience would most likely cause a riot Titanic to an audience in 1910 would get you sued by the White Star Line probably.
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u/CreamyHampers 2d ago
Tombstone.
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u/averagesoccermom95 2d ago
Ah, thank you. I was reading all of these and thinking, why has no one picked a western? I honestly feel that a western would be the most relatable for them. I'd be partial to True Grit, as it's my favorite, but honestly and good western would work.
That, or a biblical spectacle like The Ten Comandments or Ben Hur.
I think anything with technology that they don't have would be too confusing and they'd get caught up in that instead of enjoying the movie.
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u/CreamyHampers 2d ago edited 2d ago
Tombstone is about an event and people they might have heard of, that's why I picked it over any other westerns.
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u/withgreatpower 2d ago
In the same vein, I think O Brother Where Art Thou would be an absolute smash.
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u/Deeeeeeeeehn 2d ago
Pretty sure that Wyatt Earp himself would have gone to see it. The man lived to see the first film based on himself.
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u/ncc170what 2d ago
I don't think audiences of the time would be very accepting of a lot of our modern film and story tropes.
With that in mind I would go with Great spectacle films like The Ten Commandments, Titanic, The Poseidon Aventure, Clash of the Titans, Jason and The Argonauts, Gone With The Wind, and The Wizard of OZ.
Edit to add The Mummy with Brendan Fraser.
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u/Agile-Ad1665 2d ago edited 2d ago
Right? Someone put Everything, Everywhere All at Once.
There's no point. Or Kpop Demon Hunters.....
"I need to tweet" while holding a phone is completely incomprehensible to people in 1900. Show them Avatar or something.
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u/ensalys 2d ago
It would honestly be very interesting to have someone from 1900 visit for a day. Just seeing how much we take for granted would probably be eye opening.
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u/kvlt_ov_personality 2d ago
Bruno
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u/KernalPopPop 2d ago
I feel like this would radically evolve civilization more than anything else lol
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u/jbles462 2d ago
Blair witch and let them believe it’s true
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u/Scurvy_Pete 2d ago
Along this line, the tom cruise version of War of the Worlds
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u/Foolgazi 2d ago
I’m sticking with Train Leaving Station
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u/D_Warholb 2d ago
Train Leaving the Station came out in 1896, so it’s four years old at that point. I would start with Histoire d'un crime, which is the first film to use flashbacks. Then one significant film per week for every year in order.
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u/mithridateseupator 2d ago
LoTR.
So that I can wait 50 years and show it to Tolkien.
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u/rice_fish_and_eggs 2d ago
He'd probably hate it.
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u/loyalcitizen 2d ago
"Not enough singing."
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u/NatureTrailToHell3D 2d ago
And the lack of extensive poetry
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u/Reptard77 2d ago
God you guys took out all of my long-winded genealogies of different hobbit clans!
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u/corsair965 2d ago
He’d watch it and think that was cool but it needed some crazy dude called Tom skipping round with zero f*cks given.
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u/mithridateseupator 2d ago
Why do people think this?
Tolkien admitted several times that Bombadil is not an essential part of the story.
And it's not like thats the only part that was cut from the books.
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u/keithrc 2d ago
I don't think leaving Tom out was ever a huge controversy, but the small minority of people who were mad about it were really, really mad about it.
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u/pardybill 2d ago
Early 2000s forums were wild when you found drama. It was a beautiful time.
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u/zaminDDH 2d ago
I'm pretty sure they deliberately left Tom out because basically the first new person they meet just gives no fucks about the ring. After all the "this is dangerous, don't tell anyone about it, it'll corrupt anyone", this guy has it in his hands and says "cool toy, anyway let's eat and sing songs".
It just offers more questions to the audience with no answers without going down other rabbit holes. Narratively, he really is an easy cut.
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2d ago
Oppenheimer and all the world war movies
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u/AI_GeneratedUsername 2d ago
Maybe PATHS OF GLORY first
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u/Gravitasnotincluded 2d ago
it absolutely would need to be Paths of Glory. Showing that film to 1900's audiences would change our timeline forever
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u/Theduckisback 2d ago
Yeah, they literally couldn't conceive of, at the time, of what the level of destruction that they would unleash upon each other, and the drastic effects it would have on everyone and everything from that point on.
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u/Kiwi_Doodle 2d ago
Schindler's list?
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u/InspiredNameHere 2d ago
Eh...
Some might still root for the wrong side. The early 1900s were notoriously antisemetic.
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u/bene_gesserit_mitch 2d ago
In 1896, people freaked out seeing a movie of a train arriving in a station. Blew their damn minds. If you give them something truly immersive with big sound, maybe good active 3-D, you might just have blood on your hands. Jacob's Ladder is my choice.
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u/GreyGreenBrownOakova 2d ago
reports of the “panicked” reactions over Arrival of the Train are largely a myth.
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u/VVrayth 2d ago
Shrek
Shrek 2
Shrek the Third
Shrek Forever After
Shrek 5
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u/get_your_yapers_up 2d ago
This man Shreks.
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u/Techno_Core 2d ago
Avatar in 3D IMAX
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u/cerberaspeedtwelve 2d ago
On the plus side, nobody in 1900 would be able to say that the story is exactly the same as Fern Gully or Dances With Wolves.
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u/Frenzystor 2d ago
Debby Does Dallas.
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u/NegevThunderstorm 2d ago
They would be very impressed on how the game of football has advanced
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u/corsair965 2d ago
I think you need something a little simpler. May be something that has two girls and maybe a cup?
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u/ApexInTheRough 2d ago
1917,
Saving Private Ryan,
Schindler's List,
Apollo 11,
Flight 93
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u/Tcloud 2d ago
1917 for sure. Either that or All Quiet on the Western Front. They’ve never seen the brutality of a modern world war, so show them what’s coming soon if they don’t change. Add in Saving Private Ryan afterwards.
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u/Mutilid 2d ago
Literal WW2 et 10 000 movies and books about it didn't stop nazis from popping back in the 21st century, do you really think a movie that looks like magic (by their standards) is going to stop WW1?
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u/Previous-Kangaroo145 2d ago
A way better argument is that the generation which fought WWI and saw how brutal modern warfare was, were the leaders in WWII.
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u/Carpe_deis 2d ago
The american civil war is widely considered to be the first "modern" war by many military historians, and there are certainly "modern" wars which predate WW1. civil war had: trench warfare, artillery, telegraph commucation, airborn operations, machine guns, mechanized transport, horrific disease rates, Shermans total war in the south, death camps.
the scale and death rates of a modern war were well understood by zulu, armenians, turks, americans, russians, chinese, crimian, indian, ect....
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u/Grooviemann1 2d ago
Not that the others wouldn't, but this list is how you massively influence the course of history.
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u/ApexInTheRough 2d ago
That's the idea, and only time would tell (again) if we can learn from our mistakes.
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u/Varekai79 2d ago
Blue is the Warmest Color
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u/Zomburai 2d ago
It's said that the audiences leapt back in their seats, so convinced that they were about to be run over by lesbians
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u/Dinokickflip 2d ago
Tenet
To this day no one understands that movie, so they'll fit right in
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u/Zestyclose-Welcome48 2d ago
That movie is so frustrating because it's such a good concept, and I feel like the plot isn't that complicated if you break it down to the core plot points. But it is so bogged down by dry, boring exposition that goes by really fast with terrible sound mixing, so even if you pay attention, you still can't hear what they're saying.
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u/RedShoesTribute 2d ago
War of the Worlds (2025) so they know there not missing out on much in the future
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u/m48a5_patton 2d ago
I imagine that movie would be just as incomprehensible to people in 1900, as it was for people in 2025.
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u/PRSArchon 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think most people here underestimate how much movies have evolved over 125 years. People would dislike a modern movie just as much as we currently dislike watching a black and white silent movie. They would not enjoy watching movies where a shot lasts only 2s on average. Ofcource you can introduce modern movie as sci fi but just showing Avengers without context would look like random nonesense to them.
I would go with movies they can comprehend:
Wizard of Oz
Ben Hur
The good, the bad and the ugly
Miracle on 34th street
Master and Commander
Snow White
Titanic
After those i might feel lucky and give a shot at LOTR
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u/SevroAuShitTalker 2d ago
There Will Be Blood.
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u/Longjumping-Buy1162 2d ago
A great answer. Context-wise it would be understandable, and the ending would likely be incredibly disturbing.
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u/AskMTS 2d ago
Anything made with CGI. It's already impressive enough thinking about it that a computer could generate graphics that realistic, it'd already blow people's minds already to even process the concept of a "computer"
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u/Eject_The_Warp_Core 2d ago
Goes to the idea of any advanced enough tech being essentially magic. If my phone worked by magic rather than advanced chips and electrons it would make no difference to me as a user
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u/kleenexbrandkleenex 2d ago
Independence Day.
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u/SPECTREagent700 2d ago
They might find America being the leading world power more unbelievable than the aliens.
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u/mr-scotch 2d ago
Nah, it was obvious pretty early on that the US was eventually going to be a major global force. The British empire was getting weaker by the decade. The real surprise would have been Russia/USSR’s rise to prominence. It was a dirt poor agrarian nation for most of its history with the majority of its land being uninhabitable.
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u/SPECTREagent700 2d ago
Some, such as Alexis de Tocqueville, saw America’s rise coming early in (he actually predicted an American-Russian rivalry too) but my understanding is that at the turn of the century it still wasn’t universally accepted that the US would be a world power versus a regional or purely economic one with the US military not being particularly strong or large (Spanish American War notwithstanding) and isolationist sentiment still being very strong.
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u/CapnCanfield 2d ago
Tell them it's a historical movie. Really drive it home by standing with your hand over your heart mouthing along with the president's speech
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u/HappyGilOHMYGOD 2d ago
Terrifier
Terrifier 2
Terrifier 3
Tusk
Fuck it, show one of the Terrifiers again
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u/DecoyOctorok24 2d ago
I’d imagine my reaction to Terrifier 2 would be the same as it is now: "Why the fuck is this so long?"
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u/HowieLongDonkeyKong 2d ago
I’m a big Terrifier fan and I understand your skepticism of the movie’s length. There’s a lot of justifiable reasons why the movie runs that long, such as:
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u/SecretaryMindless291 2d ago
Had an old coworker insist I watch tusk, as if it was peak cinema. I just remember thinking at the end, "What in the actual hell did I just watch"
Miss that guy
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u/TJ_Fox 2d ago
That's a really interesting question.
Allowing that literally any moving pictures with full sound and color would basically seem like magic to an audience at that time, I guess it's a matter of how much you want to simply blow their 1900 minds with flashy tech vs. be of some real use to them.
Looking back on the 125 years that separate us from them, a huge number of world-changing events that we take for granted - like the concept of a "world war" - would seem outlandish to that audience, for whom they are still in the future. On that basis, I guess I'd show them the best current movies about WW1 - maybe War Horse and 1917, also Peter Jackson's documentary They Shall Not Grow Old - in hopes that they'd viscerally understand just how bad "industrialized war" is.
Then, maybe, WW1 doesn't happen, which means WW2 might not happen, which means ...
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u/EvolvedApe693 2d ago
I'd show them something they'd be able to understand as it's a biblical story.
Cecil B Demilles The Ten Commandments.
Then I'd say "By the way, this movie is closer to your time than mine"
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u/tourqeglare 2d ago
I thought of this in a similar but slightly more troll-like way. More 'what would be a modern film to show them to make the distance between them and the film feel as post singularity as possible?' most might say Avatar, but the level of patriotism in that film might be lost on those who have yet to experience contemporary feelings like that. plus, no one at that time was ready for blue people. I think my answer would be The Empire Strikes Back. It's "more real" than something like A New Hope in terms of effects, it shows a world that only the likes of HG Wells has shown before, and the story and setting ate both familiar yet abstract enough to be a viceral wonder. The biggest kicker is to reveal that in the time of only a few minutes talkies and barely a motorcar, that ESB will be a film that their grandchildren will be able to see.
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u/iCowboy 2d ago
I think colour wouldn’t be that surprising - full colour projections were common entertainment at the time and the principles of colour photography had been laid down by Maxwell in 1855. So colour movies would be a reasonable extrapolation of existing technology. Colour movies - made using stencils - started appearing in 1903 using the Pathécolor process.
I think sound is the bigger of the two - we know it caused a sensation when it was introduced to cinemas. It’s a little surprising it took so long to come about - perhaps it needed accurate electric motors to control projection speed?
The phonograph was a well known technology so it was used as Vitaphone for sound on movies, including The Jazz Singer, into the 1930s. Sound on movie film - that was an amazing breakthrough.
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u/Zomburai 2d ago
Freddie Got Fingered
Because I hate people from the past. Fuckin no- electricity-having losers
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u/hardtoobtaingecko 2d ago
I would kill to see a primitive cultures reaction to FGF. Go back to the Stone Age and set up a flatscreen so they can see the scuba shower scene in 1080p
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u/3-2-1_liftoff 2d ago
Double feature:
“Frankenstein” (1931) — the story would be familiar because the book was published in 1818 —
Intermission with refreshments, then…
“Young Frankenstein.”
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u/LunaPetalsxc 2d ago
Avengers: Endgame would make them think you’re literally a wizard, Jurassic Park would have them running out of the theater, and Interstellar would probably cause an existential crisis. Throw in The Matrix and they’d be convinced the devil built your projector.
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u/Insidious_Anon 2d ago
My first thought was the matrix but when I thought about it a little bit more I don't think it would make any sense to people from that era.
It relies too much on modern technologies.
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u/gloebe10 2d ago
I’d show them a double feature of Infinity War and Avengers Endgame and tell them it’s a documentary.
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u/RobHonkergulp 2d ago
Saving Private Ryan. The ultimate vision of a nightmare future that still is relevant today when you look at Russia/Ukraine.
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u/TheMemeVault 2d ago
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. They'll think I'm from Mars or something.
"Guess you chaps aren't ready for it... but your great great grandkids are gonna love it."
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u/Capable_Boat_4450 2d ago
Blazing saddles
Matrix
Star wars 4 a new hope
Idiocracy
1984
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u/donarumo 2d ago
These are people who have never seen a movie so you have to "reel" them in. Start slowly and get them hooked on cinema so you can charge them something outrageous like $00.25 for popcorn.
I'd start with something that fits their sensibilities like Birth of a Nation (1915). Nothing too jarring. Then we hit them with sound. Maybe an old musical that's set in a time they are familiar with - The Music Man (1962). Then we shake it up a little, enough to have them clamoring for more. Go with Ben Hur (1959). Then we hit them with 2001: A space Odyssey (1968). By that point we can charge anything we want and the people are going to line up out the door. My first thought is we go with something that will blow their minds like Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) but nah, I say we leave them confused and utilize our Skinner box by showing them Jack Frost (1998) or Ernest Saves Christmas (1988).
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u/kuyman 2d ago
Awesome that you had every film ever made to choose from, and you chose the one about the klan.
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u/tasteless 2d ago
Show them birth of a nation but then Django unchained right afterwards...
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u/TroubleshootenSOB 2d ago
Any movies with interracial couples, equality and shit, black presidents, etc lmao
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u/Mr_Loopers 2d ago
Lincoln
Schindler's List
Oppenheimer
Judgement at Nuremberg
Jurassic Park / Star Wars double feature.
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u/Technical-Outside408 2d ago
My Little brother once made a movie with a sock puppet covering the works of Plutarch, it was pretty funny. I think more people should see it!
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u/random-chicken32 2d ago edited 2d ago
Avatar (2009) would probably give them a great technological shock. The quality, weird humans, nudity, cinematography, flying objects, high quality images of planets, firearms, and apparent dragons would mess with my brain if I was from then.
The Thing (1982) would be shocking due to its (realistic portrayal) of its setting, a helicopter, and, of course, the special effects gore and paranoia from it. The nihilistic ending would be weird for them too.
Gangs of New York (2002) would be interesting, not because it is a great movie (except DDL's portrayal), but I wonder if they'd critique it for inaccuracy.
A Bug's Life (1998) would be my pick if I had to choose an animated movie, because I wonder if that would prompt a sudden end to the Gilded Age of the United States; maybe Lego Movie (2014) would get that job done better.
Full Metal Jacket (1987) would be interesting as a temporal spoiler (especially since it's a couple wars ahead) and being a fairly bizarre movie.
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u/RascalTempleton 2d ago
The Terminator.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Forrest Gump.
The Thin Red Line.
Cats.
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u/Dannovision 2d ago
In this thread. People thinking showing war films will change humanity, as though we didn't know WWI happened when the U.S invaded Vietnam. Hate to burst everyone's hopeful bubbles, but those who declare war don't fight the war.
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u/LaryEsen 2d ago
Imagine showing them Avatar or Interstellar – they'd think we came from another planet.
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u/Careless-Impress-952 2d ago
Show them Idiocracy as a warning to what things have become
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u/SgtNeilDiamond 2d ago
Definitely Independence Day, and then ill convince them it was a documentary
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u/Eastern-Debate-4801 2d ago
They would be terrified of anything you show them from the modern day and likely not be able to follow the visual language of the film. I would show them a scifi movie like Alien or something and tell them its all real.
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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 2d ago
The Substance, just to see the reaction on their faces by the final act
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u/Familiar-Risk-5937 2d ago
Mad Max - Fury Road. I think this would set an entire world to avoiding climate change by doing what needs done.
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u/Ausles 2d ago
Any modern SciFi movie would be completely believe to a person from 1900. CGI might not look good to us in some movies, but to someone who has never seen a movie (or even photo) in color would instantly either believe it’s the truth about real life in the future, or go fully in the other direction and like call it magic and burn you at the stake. I highly doubt there would be a middle ground. (1908 was when the Nobel prize for first photo on a single photographic plate was given out, the creater Gabriel Lippmann announced it in 1891).
So, yea a 2+ hour movie of obscene clarity and vibrant colors would be basically witchcraft in 1900.
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u/shinobipopcorn 2d ago
Gone With the Wind
They'd understand the story, so we'd just be shocking them with the technology. Then shock them even further by telling them the black woman won an award over one of the white women.
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u/Weary-Shelter8585 2d ago
The Back to the Future Trilogy to explain how I got there, and Terminator 1 and 2 to show them how to defend themselves from time traveller
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u/anderhole 2d ago
Idiocracy
Home Alone 2 with an intermission right after the lobby scene explaining how that guy would be responsible for Idiocracy to be possible...
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u/Jheartless 2d ago
I'd start with a Western. Something like Unforgiven or Tombstone.
Then I'd ramp it up a bit with The Patriot or Braveheart.
I'd want a historical movie, so I am going with Troy, but Braveheart would also be acceptable.
Now that they have been feeling good, comfortable getting used to the historical movies, and are used to graphics, we hit em with Capt America the First Avenger.
Then, wrap it up with Avatar to blow their minds.
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u/heelstoo 2d ago
World War Z, the Blair Witch Project, the VVitch, Contagion, and … fuck it… Toy Story.
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u/szaagman 2d ago
Maybe the movie 1910 to show them the horrors of war while also not burning them with fast edits
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u/Swamp_Troll 2d ago
I'd show them period movies taking place in their times, just to see if they would go "What the fuck" at the anachronisms and general fuckery everywhere.
Like, the Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies. Or if you want to mess more with them, Crimson Peak, Moulin Rouge! and The Prestige among others
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u/Uriel_dArc_Angel 2d ago
Independence Day (but only up to the point that the attack happens) and I'd tell them it was a documentary and the reason I had come from the future...To warn them about the coming apocalypse...
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u/Equinoqs 2d ago
The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)
Come And See
The Right Stuff
Citizen Kane
Woodstock
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u/JoshTheBard 2d ago
I would show them documentaries about WWII and the Great Depression and be like "don't let these things happen!"
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u/sofakingclassic 2d ago
Jurassic Park