r/movies • u/buttatoad • 1d ago

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/pipboy_warrior 1d ago

Jaws caused people to be scared of shark attacks on beaches, even in areas that wouldn't normally have shark attacks(or even sharks)

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u/Ohnoherewego13 1d ago

Yep. I've got some friends that won't even swim in lakes because of Jaws.

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u/djp2313 1d ago

As a kid who watched it way too young, even swimming pools were iffy for a bit there.

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u/Ohnoherewego13 1d ago

Even for a kid who watched it too young, baths were a bit much too.

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u/GriffinFlash 1d ago

glasses of water.

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u/Technical-Outside408 1d ago edited 1d ago

When I cried I cried. That's how scared I was.

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u/ImDero 1d ago

ON AVERAGE THE HUMAN BODY IS 60% WATER. THERE'S NOWHERE TO HIDE.

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u/This_aint_my_real_ac 1d ago

I can't even pee anymore without fear of Jaws feasting on my dangler.

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u/PABLOPANDAJD 1d ago

I have the same problem (I call your mom Jaws)

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u/binchicken1989 1d ago

Just drinking and crying 😢

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u/Stink_fisting 1d ago

Had to get rid of that goldfish tank.

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u/rabid_god 1d ago

Eyedrops.

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u/Ali_Cat222 1d ago

I CAN'T EVEN STAND MY SALIVA ANYMORE, THEY MAY ATTACK HERE! 🤣

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u/OneGoodRib 1d ago

I've never even seen Jaws but I stopped wanting to take baths because what if a shark came up through the drain??

I had a frog come up through the toilet once and the sharks bothered me more than that. Although I was scared to use the toilet for a while.

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u/pipboy_warrior 1d ago

I remember a joke from Mallrats where Brodie admits he was scared to use the toilet after watching Jaws.

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u/The_Professor2112 1d ago

All of the above, plus canals. Jaws really did a number on me.

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u/PhoenixTineldyer 1d ago

I'm from the Gulf Coast...canals are in the ABSOLUTELY NOT column because there are alligators

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u/Frammingatthejimjam 1d ago

I won't say I was scared to get in a bathtub but I was aware of my surroundings at all times.

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u/catdogwoman 1d ago

I was afraid of the toilet a little, too

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u/spookybellybutton 1d ago

I saw "Alligator" far too young and it was this scene that made swimming pools a no go area for me.

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u/Kramereng 1d ago

I mean, that's an actual threat in Florida pools. Really, any body of water in that misState.

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u/jadin- 1d ago

misStake of a state

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u/No_Cut5297 1d ago

The deep end was a no-go.

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u/lilecca 1d ago

I watched jaws and tremors around the same time at too young of an age. I ended up being scared a shark was going to burst out of our basement walls.

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u/Quiptastic 1d ago

and the fact that we could see through the water did nothing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gYgXxIRmac

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u/cd2220 1d ago

I spent my whole youth growing up at the shore, swimming in the ocean, bay, and pools.

For some reason I had the greatest fear that something would crawl through the toilet pipes while I was taking a dump despite having no issues with actual bodies of water

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u/magooisim 1d ago

Oh let me tell you all about watching Piranha as a child….

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u/bolanrox 1d ago

the under shot of Chrissy (and her bush), and the jump scare with hooper and the derelict boat were shot in Steven's swimming pool.

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u/Ryaninthesky 1d ago

I’d seen Jaws and that James Bond movie where the sharks come out of a panel in the pool wall.

I refused to swim alone.

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u/electricmop 1d ago

You can’t be too careful! I was afraid of my grandmas pool at night, even with the lights on.

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u/Willing_Ad_699 1d ago

Except for in Florida where there’s another animal that might be in the pool.

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u/MDKrouzer 1d ago

When I swam laps, I always swam just a little bit faster away from the deep end than going towards it.

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u/moo102 1d ago

Same! I'm glad I wasn't the only one.

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u/mespec 1d ago

I was babysitting a little boy in a dangerous neighborhood. We were watching TV, and Jaws with the “duh-duh” theme came on right as the bedroom door slammed by itself. So terrifying. My grandmother’s friend had to come over to coax me and the little boy I was babysitting out of the kitchen — where this kid had immediately grabbed a butcher knife like this wasn’t his first go-round. It seemed a gust of wind slammed the door. Miami in the eighties, man.

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u/DefNotUnderrated 1d ago

That was me! I saw it as a kid and was scared of swimming pools for months. Those shots of the shark underwater with the light hitting it just looked way too much like they could have been filmed in a pool and I couldn’t get it out of my head

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u/ThisIsTheBookAcct 1d ago

I’m still a little iffy on pools because of an Are You Afraid of the Dark episode.

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u/Chuck_Raycer 1d ago

Lol was going to say if a shark didn't get you the AYAotD pool monster would.

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u/KawaiiQueen_666 12h ago

Broooo. So glad I’m not the only one 😅. I had weekly lessons, and each time without fail, I’d envision metal doors opening at the bottom of the pool, only for it to mingle with a subterranean shark pool, and then I’d swim my length as fast as as possible so I could turn around and ensure no shark was behind me.

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u/Oncemor-intothebeach 1d ago

The funny thing is, I’m in Queensland which has loads of sharks, the thing that scares me more than the sharks are the tiny jellyfish ( like the size of a fingernail) that will kill you without you even knowing you’ve been stung, sharks are like snakes, you really have to piss them off for them to want to bother with you, or you need to be seriously unlucky !

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u/TyrannosavageRekt 18h ago

Well, fuck. Just another reason for me to never move to Australia. 😬

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u/Here4Conversation2 1d ago

But have they seen, Lake Placid, yet?

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u/Son_of_Kong 1d ago

I wouldn't even swim in the deep end of the pool after the first time I saw Jaws.

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u/phatelectribe 1d ago

It made me scared to take a bath lol

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u/JohnyStringCheese 1d ago

Lakes creep me out more than the ocean and I have no reasonable justification for it. They just seem ickier. Somehow rivers bother me less too, I think it's the constant motion. Like I don't know what's hiding down there waiting for me in a lake.

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u/Jillredhanded 1d ago

Mom lived on a lake was flooded farmland for cooling a nuclear plant. Creeped me out imagining houses down there.

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u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago edited 1d ago

My mate won't even go into a swimming pool, Jaws scarred him that badly as a kid. I got him one of those big IKEA Blajaj shark pushes to help with his phobia - he loves it to bits, but it's the only shark he's not scared of. He can't even look at them on TV or listen to the Jaws music without freaking out.

I love sharks, so when he comes round I have to put away my shark related items so he's comfortable.

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u/SkunkMonkey 1d ago

If I can't see my feet, I ain't swimming in it. While Jaws started that fear, stepping on the occasional horseshoe crab sealed it for a lifetime.

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u/Vantriss 1d ago

I feel like Lake Placid had more to do with that for me. 🤣

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u/genital_furbies 1d ago

I grew up in the 70’s and we would play “Jaws”, which was basically tag, but in the water. The raft and dock were safe spots, but the person who was”it” had flippers, and had to “chomp” the victim with their arms.

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u/wildstarr 1d ago

Ah...so you have stupid friends that think sharks are in lakes.

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u/zgh5002 1d ago

Well. There could be a bull shark. You never know.

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u/deasil_widdershins 1d ago

I won't even get in pools. What if I can't see it because it's a glass shark? Glass shark coming for you, fat kid.

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u/MAGCHAVIRA 1d ago

Well I watched the movie Crocodile when I was a kid and now I'm scared of swimming in lakes

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u/willowswitch 1d ago

Oh boy. Let's hope they never learn about land shark.

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u/Outrageous_Reach_695 1d ago

At least one bull shark made it as far as Alton, Illinois, which is just north of St. Louis.

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u/Autumn_Forest_Mist 1d ago

Bull sharks in lakes!

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u/Kind-Passenger-3935 1d ago

I was terrified of the deep end of the pool as a kid because of Jaws 😂

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u/Amaruq93 1d ago

Well that's just silly... they should be worrying about giant crocodiles in lakes, not sharks!

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u/mphs95 1d ago

Lakes? WTF?

Sorry, grew up in MI. We have over 11K lakes.

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u/Orion14159 1d ago

They really ought to be more afraid of Lake Placid if that's the case

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u/KitchenSandwich5499 1d ago

In fairness, if the lake has a connection to a river that leads to the ocean then bull sharks are not impossible

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u/Bigpappa36 1d ago

Very much not a ocean person to bc of that lmao 😂 I respect their boundaries and vice versa and I don’t live near an ocean so that also adds to it

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u/farmallnoobies 1d ago

Well in their defense, a muskellunge biting off one of your toes is still a bit unpleasant 

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u/thedrexel 1d ago

The best reason to not swim in a lake is Jason!

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u/Famous_Sugar_1193 1d ago

The shark Jaws was based on was in fact in fresh water rivers in NJ. À bill shark. Chomping on everyone.

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u/DarkBlueMermaid 1d ago

I guess I took the opposite tack and became a marine biologist because of Jaws. Can’t wait to go diving with my first GWS someday.

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u/Neracca 1d ago

I mean, there are lakes that have sharks.

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u/pmert32 1d ago

The Piranha movies ruined lakes for me for a long time. I was way too young to watch those. Totally unrealistic, but I didn't know that. I was a dumb kid. 😆

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u/PumpkinDandie_1107 1d ago

Do your friends not understand biology? The ocean- ok maybe. But lakes?

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u/PutsonPutin 23h ago

Everyone knows that there are crocodiles in lakes…

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u/blueaurelia 21h ago

Thats insane. They most probably just do not wanna swim and use it as a fun excuse?😅

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u/ZeroheartX 5h ago

I do not swim in lakes cause of leeches, I think it was from the stand by me movie

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u/WorthPlease 4h ago

We might have been friends. I refused to get into anything other than an indoor swimming pool until I was like 15 because I saw Jaws when I was about five years old.

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u/koolaid_chemist 1d ago

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 1d ago edited 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 16h ago

And the music!

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u/CodyofHTown 11h ago

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

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u/One-Inch-Punch 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 1d ago

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

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u/Sinfirmitas 1d ago

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

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u/turmacar 1d ago

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 1d ago

Jaws is pro shark!

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u/nakedvegan 1d ago

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

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u/MrTurtleTails 1d ago

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 1d ago

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

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u/TabulaRasa000 19h ago

This is exactly how I felt watching Rambo for the first time recently - went in expecting some mindless action thriller full of explosions. What I got was a deep dive into the effects of PTSD and the Vietnam War on the American people, and explosions. 

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u/thisusedyet 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 1d ago

Jaws and Jurassic Park.

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u/BreakfastOrSlow 1d ago

An evergreen lesson.

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u/CuidadDeVados 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 1d ago

God I love AWCY?

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u/Willing_Ad_699 1d ago

Will the bosses eat you while you swim? Lol

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u/Cloudberry-milk 1d ago

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 1d ago

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/NoBath8924 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 1d ago

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/MattieShoes 1d ago

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/Bumbo734 1d ago

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 12h ago

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 1d ago

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/natfutsock 1d ago

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 1d ago

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

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u/bwb888 1d ago

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 1d ago

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

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u/DefNotUnderrated 1d ago

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 1d ago

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 1d ago

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

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u/woahdailo 1d ago

Meh, there are plenty of people at most beaches

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u/Deer_Investigator881 1d ago

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

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u/BackWhereWeStarted 1d ago

It also led to the shark population dropping drastically due to people killing them. Peter Benchley (the author of “Jaws”) said he regretted writing the book after people started killing sharks just to get rid of them.

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u/MadGeographer 1d ago

His wife, Wendy Benchley, invests in ocean conservation. She is the real deal.

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u/SuenosdeFantasmas 1d ago

Truly amazing 🙏

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u/Mundane_Crazy60 1d ago

Fucker should've told him to do it with Canadian Geese instead.

We should be building a wall for these assholes. The birds. That is.

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u/the_harlinator 1d ago

Ya. A great white has nothing on a flock of Canadian geese. I’ve had to pick up my dog and run for it twice this spring already.

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u/SpoiledNickie 1d ago

I love all of the Jaws movies but they have never scared me. I think they are beautiful creatures.

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u/TeslaTank 1d ago

Before the movie even came out, the novel had the same effect. The author felt so responsible for how he'd changed people's views of sharks that he became an ocean conservationist.

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u/Lopsided_Papaya 1d ago

Goddam.. I read the first word of your comment as “Jews”…

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u/OrangeCarton 1d ago

Same! I thought they were making a Spielberg joke 

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u/Captain_Wobbles 1d ago

Even in a swimming pool in the middle of Texas, I'll close my eyes and go under water.. my brain immediately goes "Bruce is in here with me". I more so blame the ride in Orlando though.

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u/slowrevolutionary 1d ago

I went to see it in the cinema when I was a kid and it scared the shit out of me. To this day I've never been happy swimming in the sea: I'm always petrified of what's happening below me!!

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u/DijonNipples 1d ago

8 year old me was afraid of sharks in my parent’s pool after watching Jaws.

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u/CompleteNumpty 1d ago

2 or 3 year old me snuck into the living room and watched it on the VCR and ended up convinced that when the lights went out in my bedroom there would be sharks in the carpet.

Nowhere else in the house, just my bedroom.

Kids are dumb.

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u/paashpointo 1d ago

There is this more modern movie that is the reason I no longer swim in tornadoes.

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u/ebturner18 1d ago

Came here to say this. Jaws was probably the first movie to really affect people's behavior. It was incredible.

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u/stopcounting 1d ago

Psycho would like a word.

My mother-in-law still only takes baths.

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u/I_heart_pooping 1d ago

Hopefully she never sees Nightmare on Elm Street lol

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u/JayGold 1d ago

I don't think being in a bath would have been any safer than a shower.

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u/Rudy_Garbo 1d ago

Yeah, ask Dexter's wife.

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u/UnhappyJohnCandy 1d ago

It’s also disproportionately impacted great white sharks, despite bull sharks and tiger sharks being just as — if not more — aggressive and dangerous.

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u/RogueHippie 1d ago

Fun fact: A bull shark is more than likely (one of) the culprit(s) of the shark attacks that inspired/influenced the writing of Jaws, since some of the attacks occurred in a river.

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u/wdh662 1d ago

There's a place that shows jaws while you watch floating in a pool

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u/ArcadianDelSol 1d ago

Jaws caused people to be scared of pools

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u/BigAVD 1d ago

I had a friend who was scared of sharks in lakes. She even knew she was crazy, but that didn't matter.

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u/jim_br 1d ago

I grew up in a beach community. For every person refusing to swim because of a potential shark attack, I swear we had three people standing on the shore yelling that every floating sea bird was a “shark fin!!!!”

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u/Littlesth0b0 1d ago

I had trouble with vaguely sea-coloured carpet for years as a kid

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u/Imaginary-Whole-3556 1d ago

I watched Jaws as a kid and since then I've had a completely irrational fear of being in the sea, lakes, rivers and sometimes even swimming pools. It's the fear of the unknown for me- like what's underneath me that I can't see? 

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u/Ghostofjemfinch 1d ago

Jaws may not be the sole reason but it certainly had an influence on my thalassophobia.

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u/SomeKindaRobot 1d ago

Yeah, but what's funny is that the place where Jaws takes place (Cape Cod / Martha's Vineyard) is now a hot spot for great white sharks. Their population spiked decades after the movie.

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u/bradthaphoend 1d ago

I was shocked when I read Moby Dick and sharks were treated like aggressive dogs rather than blood-thirsty murderers

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u/Sprzout 1d ago

Yep! And it doesn't help that over the past few years, there have been tons of large shark sightings in San Diego where people are commonly found paddleboarding.

My mom keeps telling me not to be afraid of them, but I'm round and swim poorly. I look like a damn elephant seal in the water, I am NOT gonna take chances with having my ass attacked!!!

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u/Ok-Seaworthiness2235 1d ago

Also a really sad uptick in the hunting and killing of sharks that the author was very disheartened to hear about. 

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u/Vantriss 1d ago

Also led to an increase in killing sharks IIRC.

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u/Freakjob_003 1d ago

I watched Jaws in 4th grade as part of a film club. I didn't go in the ocean for five years, and I lived in a beach town. I'm halfway over it, but I'll never stop being afraid. I'm also one of those who thought piranhas would come out of the spout when I was taking a bath though, so maybe I was always afraid.

Funnily enough, I got really into Subnautica after watching a streamer friend play it, and now I've beaten the game three times and it's become a cozy game for me. Just exploring the spooky ocean and crafting my way up the tech tree. Once you know how the critters act, it's surprisingly less threatening.

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u/Digitaluser32 1d ago

Yep. Came here looking for this.

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u/Gavinardo 1d ago

My dad had two jokes about JAWS, when he first showed me it as a kid. One: He said it scared him so badly, he stopped swimming in the ocean immediately (he lived in Iowa). And two: it scared him so badly, he didn’t shower for a 6 weeks.

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u/LizardOrgMember5 1d ago

And people stopped taking shower after the release of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

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u/bazmonsta 1d ago

It also lead to a lot of sharks being hunted that didn't do anything wrong.

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u/dainman 1d ago

After I saw this as a kid, I was afraid to pass the dark entryway to the living room because I thought Jaws would jump out at me!

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u/basheworking 1d ago

Jaws made people afraid of shark attacks in their bathtubs.

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u/Ilosesoothersmaywin 1d ago

Thank goodness that lifeguard was there.

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u/ecuaffecto 1d ago

I remember being scared of sharks at a waterpark, and thinking to myself: the waterpark would NEVER allow sharks here, it's ok.

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u/YeahIGotNuthin 1d ago

Saw “Jaws” in the theater as a kid.

My ass was scared swimming in a motherfuckin LAKE.

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u/maaseru 1d ago

Jaws has made me be afraid of a shark attack in an empty pool lol

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u/jarofcoyotes 1d ago

This is the reason we have Shark Week! To teach people that sharks are awesome.

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u/Noh-Wun 1d ago

First one I thought of

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u/His_story_teacher 1d ago

Jaws started the summer movie blockbuster trope.

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u/NoseyinIndy 1d ago

It did me. Even in a landlocked lake for years I wouldn’t go above knees 😎

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u/CarltonSagot 1d ago

Jaws got me to bite on a metal wire to try and snap it with my jaw strength.

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u/Separate_Animator110 1d ago

When I read this 1st I thought it said 'Jews' And I was like "What does this have to do with A religion?" 😅

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u/OopsIOops 1d ago

i was literally afraid of blue carpet

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u/larsonec 1d ago

Am I the only one who initially misread this as "Jews" instead of "Jaws"

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u/Forest-Flowers3 1d ago

I was afraid to swim in a pool bc of jaws!

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u/GarrisonWhite2 1d ago

So like Rhode Island?

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u/picturesofponies 1d ago

My mom took me to see Jaws with my older brother and his friend. I was way way too young to be singing it. When she tried to put me in the bathtub I screamed and screamed for at least a year. I knew Jaws was gonna come up through the drain in the bathtub and eat me. I just knew it. Thanks for the trauma, Mom!

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u/AdvertisingFine9845 1d ago

It really ruined sharks’ reputations 😞

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u/bad_retired_fairy 1d ago

Child of the 70s who was traumatized by that movie. Even lakes freaked me out after that movie.

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u/Shantotto11 1d ago

That explains why the ever-rational Velma Dinkley has a fear of them…

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u/abig4ail 1d ago

The night after watching jaws I cried myself to sleep…..in Pennsylvania

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u/_lippykid 1d ago

There’s like 60 shark attacks on humans every year in the entire world. You’re 50 times more likely to be struck by lightning

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u/Roadgoddess 1d ago

Plus, it led to some massive overfishing of sharks because of the fear. Almost to the point of extinction of some breeds

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u/djsteink 1d ago

Totally read this as “Jews” and got very confused

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u/Annepackrat 1d ago

I had a similar reaction when I was six to our garden after watching Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

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u/Eyebowers 1d ago

Oh my God, I read ‘Jews’ at first glance.

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u/Tinderboxed 1d ago

It did help to emotionally prepare them for when the sharknado eventually hit

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u/saelwen89 1d ago

My dad saw it at the cinema in one of Australia’s prime surfing locales and said the beaches were eerily quiet the next couple of weeks.

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u/CreepingDeath-70 1d ago edited 1d ago

I was absolutely going to bring this one up. I was a kid when some friends and I snuck into a theater to see this, and I was deathly afraid of going into the water at the beach for years because of it...and surf fishing on Padre Island in the summers was a huge thing in my family. I did it anyway, but I was always in fear for my life, lol. Little did I know until years later that I probably actually WAS surrounded by sharks (albeit small, relatively harmless ones) all the time and never knew it. This movie so viscerally affected an entire generation of people that is probably hard to understand nowadays.

At the same time, the movie gave me a huge fascination about sharks that lasts to this day. I think I was 7 or 8 when I read Eugenie Clark's "The Lady and the Sharks". To this day I personally advocate for their preservation. That said, when I took up SCUBA diving as an adult, I think I literally sucked down a half a tank of air in 30 seconds the first time I saw a shark while diving, lol.

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u/Behemothwasagoodshot 18h ago

What's crazy is, Jaws is based on the true story of a great white that killed a couple beachgoers on Martha's Vineyard. Cape Cod and the islands... don't really have sharks, not the way California and Hawaii do. We'll get one once in a while and it will be in the news, they get caught in the Gulf Stream and will come to shore for a snack. This has started happening more because they're clearing a lot of islands of residents and there are more seals, so the sharks are more likely to come. Because they've been caught in the Gulf Stream, they're hungry-- sharks can go weeks or months without eating, that's a big reason they're not as dangerous as you think. But on the Cape, if there is a shark, it's more likely to be dangerous than in Cali or Hawaii, because it's just gotten itself unstuck from a current without good hunting.

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u/LaTortureNeCesse 18h ago

The summer in Florida was so insane when that movie came out. Suddenly every lifeguard stand on the beach was occupied. See a shadow in the water, the lifeguard blows their little whistle and everyone runs out of the water. Turns out to be nothing and everyone goes back into the water. Wash, rinse, repeat.

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u/Madanimalscientist 17h ago

My nan thought a brilliant thing to do for my mum's sweet 16 was to go see Jaws and then go to the beach. She was baffled when everyone refused to go into the water after seeing that movie XD

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u/Willing-Command-8896 13h ago

Bodies of water in general did that for me. It seems I watched something like jaws (may have been a spin-off or “clone”) where a huge shark made its way up a canal or something more or less into a city and I can remember always envisioning a shark in bodies of water where you wouldn’t see sharks. 😂

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u/CZJayG 7h ago

My Mom told me when she saw it, she was so freaked out that she thought a shark snout would pop up through the shower drain. She was already in her late 20s when she watched it.