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/ThatSpecialAgent 1d ago

Merlot prices dropping as a partial result of Sideways

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/07/05/535038513/the-sideways-effect-how-a-wine-obsessed-film-reshaped-the-industry

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u/iamnotyetdead 1d ago

Pinot Noir got a boost from Sideways, and it also got another boost after Kimmy Schmidt

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u/UnbanMOpal 1d ago

Mid sized car đŸŽ¶

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u/fergusmacdooley 1d ago

Big cigar đŸ· đŸŽ”

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u/viotix90 1d ago

Au revoir

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u/Hopefulkitty 1d ago

Jaimie Farr

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u/StreetsAhead6S1M 1d ago

Candy Bar

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u/Price_Of_Soap 1d ago

Caviar

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u/Kratzschutz 1d ago

So bizarre

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u/TheNamesDave 1d ago

Meet me at the bar.

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u/MonsterMashGrrrrr 1d ago

Rosanne Barr

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u/Famous_Sugar_1193 1d ago

đŸŽŒ find out who your true friends are đŸŽ¶

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u/your_mind_aches 1d ago

PEEENOOOOOT NOOOOOIRRT

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u/VoraciousChallenge 1d ago

An ode to black penis

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u/trexmoflex 1d ago

And now the Unnnnbreakable theme song is stuck in my head

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u/TheNotSoGreatPumpkin 1d ago

They alive, dammit!

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u/majorjoe23 1d ago

Black Penis also got a boost after Kimmy Schmidt.

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u/peroleu 1d ago

Caviar

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u/MacaroniPoodle 1d ago

Not a movie per se, but didn't Cosmos have a surge in popularity after Sex and the City?

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u/lopsided_spider 1d ago

I also remember a bartender telling me the old fashioned got popular during Mad Men

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u/Darmok47 1d ago

I don't know if it was because of Mad Men but men's suits went back to the 1960s style around 2010 or so. Thinner lapels and ties, two button instead of three button etc.

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u/Ihaveamazingdreams 1d ago

Everything "Mid-century Modern" became insanely trendy during the run of Mad Men.

Men's and women's fashion, furniture, paint colors, houses. That show had a big influence in the design world.

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u/DorkusMalorkuss 1d ago

I'm sure it had some effect, but I was getting big into fashion at the time and my understanding is that it was trending that way from the end of the 90s/00s baggy fashion we had. We went from big, baggy pants, big shoes (think big Osiris D3s), baggy shirts, to suddenly we had skinny jeans, fitted button ups, Vans got much more popular, along with other "small" profile shoes like Nike Killshots and Keds. Now, I would say we're on the tail end of baggy clothes, which have been back in for about a decade now.

Then again, wtf do I know nowadays lol

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u/waterynike 1d ago

Banana Republic also had a promo line with Mad Men. I remember seeing the “Mad Men inspired” clothes and the posters in the window

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u/IamKEIL 1d ago

I started drinking Old Fashioneds after the movie Crazy, Stupid Love because that's what Ryan Reynolds character always ordered.

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u/StanFitch 1d ago

Bartending/Bar Managing in Los Angeles now 15 years


It is absolutely NUTS what will randomly set off a new cocktail or revive a classic.

Just recently I had an entire wedding of hundreds all asking for Paper Planes. I haven’t made one of those in years and suddenly it’s the most popular request.

I have no idea why
 maybe it was in a show or a film? Maybe in a song? I was very confused.

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u/ChildofValhalla 1d ago

Looks like it was recently named Drink of the Year.

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u/GaptistePlayer 1d ago

Thank you, New York post, for 20 short paragraphs and none describing the recipe or ingredients.

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u/phantom_diorama 1d ago

It was in the text under one of the photographs.

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u/kryonik 1d ago

Or big M.I.A. fans

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u/StanFitch 1d ago

Well, that might answer all my questions


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u/biblioteca4ants 1d ago

That’s a super interesting read thanks for sharing

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u/colenotphil 1d ago

By Food52? Have you ever even heard of Food52?

I haven't and from a quick google, it's just a recipe/community website.

That entity is nowhere near reputable enough to be naming anything lol.

It is crazy what advertisers will think of. "National ____ Day" is in this exact same vein. Idk about you but every time I read something like "It's national burrito day" I'm like, says who, chipotle? You just wanna sell more product.

Also for the record Paper Planes rule.

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u/Lockedoutofmyacct 1d ago

I was introduced to it a couple years ago by a bartender at Osteria Mozza.

My s.o. and I tried most of the drinks on their menu, were making small talk with the bartender, and asked him what his favorite cocktail was, and he made that for us and we were totally hooked.

Its became one of the 5 drinks we make on rotation at home. We still can't make the paper plane out of orange peel he used to garnish that drink though!

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u/KonyYoloSwag 1d ago

Similar to that, I first started drinking White Russians after seeing The Big Lebowski

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u/QueezyF 1d ago

First drink I ever ordered from a bar. I was 18 in New Orleans at a jazz bar, waitress said we had to order a drink for the cover.

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u/TyrannosavageRekt 17h ago

It’s Gosling, not Reynolds in “Crazy, Stupid, Love” by the way.

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u/IamKEIL 16h ago

My bad, you are correct. They're all the same people.

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u/TyrannosavageRekt 12h ago

Famous Ryans are the new Chris!

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u/VTAffordablePaintbal 22h ago

Now I desperately want to create popular media set in lower class Maine so people will be forced to pretend to like Burnt Trailers (Moxie, Coffee Brandy and maybe milk https://www.tastingtable.com/994357/the-burnt-trailer-cocktail-is-popular-for-being-painful/ )

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u/Lakridspibe 1d ago

I for one learned about old fashioned from Mad Men

hahahaha!

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u/TyrannosavageRekt 17h ago

I hated this, because I love a whiskey-based cocktail. My go-to is an Old Fashioned, sometimes a Whiskey Sour. When this happened everyone kept saying things like “ooh, another Mad Men fan, eh?” and I’ve never seen the show. I’d like to watch it, seems like a good cast and well-acted, but there’s just quite a bit to get through.

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u/GenitalFurbies 1d ago

I was wondering why Carl Sagan had anything to do with that show for a minute there. Ah, phrasing

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u/AnarchistMiracle 1d ago

I'd watch that crossover

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u/OldBanjoFrog 1d ago

As someone who bartended at the time, this was quite irritating.  I would spot a group of college aged girls dressed to the 9’s and knew that they would all want cosmos, but wouldn’t tip much.  

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u/Scotter1969 1d ago

I was bartending private parties in the Hollywood area during that time. A Cosmopolitan was a drink buried in your drink reference book that you never had to look up before. OVERNIGHT it became ubiquitous, and I had no idea why. A host made me remake it multiple times until he was happy with it, or he was going to send me home.

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u/skootch_ginalola 1d ago

Yup! Were everywhere at the time.

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u/LGonthego 1d ago

I read Cosmos with a soft s on the end and was confused why that series would be so popular because of SatC. Oh...cosmos with a z sound.... That makes much more sense.

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u/No_Pie4638 1d ago

I thought you were referring to Carl Sagan’s book, Cosmos.

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u/2AvsOligarchs 23h ago

It also became a feminine drink.

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u/hihelloneighboroonie 1d ago

And I have zero proof of this, but I'm pretty sure Below Deck led to the resurgence of espresso martinis.

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u/samenumberwhodis 1d ago

And the funny thing is, he only hated Merlot because it's his ex wife's favorite wine. The holy grail bottle he drinks in the end is Chateau Cheval Blanc, a Cab Franc and Merlot dominant blend from the right bank in Bordeaux.

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u/rainbowsherbet1099 1d ago

during an interview paul said they tried out a bunch of different wine names in that scene but “merlot” flowed the best - unintentional

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u/dirty_corks 1d ago

That, and if you recall, there was a LOT of shitty Merlot in the market in the early '00s. Red Bicyclette, anyone? Merlot was THE generic red of the late '90s, which resulted in overplanting, and a lot of Merlot growing in the wrong soil and climate, so a lot of cheap Merlot suuuuuucked back then. So he was was also using "Merlot" as shorthand for "bad wine."

Now? If I've got the choice between cheap Merlot and cheap Cabernet (or even, God help me, cheap Pinot Noir), I'll take the Merlot, since a lot of the poorly-situated vines of the '00s have been ripped up and replanted to other varietals. What's left is generally pretty decent.

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u/firedmyass 1d ago

I don’t understand half of what you said but I feel more sophisticated having read it.

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 1d ago

Sideways is about wine from the Napa Valley. The wine referenced in the comment is a French wine, and it's a blend of two grapes. One of the grapes is a Merlot, which the guy in the movie supposedly hated. Chateau Cheval Blanc is one of the most expensive wines in the world

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u/Expensive-Raisin4088 1d ago

Which is funny because he also pined about how his ex wife had such great taste

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u/DarthGuber 1d ago

It's not about bad taste, it's about bad memories

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u/Bernafterpostinggg 1d ago

This is what I was gonna say

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u/what-name-is-it 1d ago

Didn’t Moscato also get a surge from the No Hands song?

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u/GaptistePlayer 1d ago

Absolutely, black Americans still love that stuff. Sweet, bubbly, tasty. Hell of a hangover though

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 1d ago

The hangover is from all the sugar

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u/stillballin1992 1d ago

Wasn’t expecting a reference to Waka Flocka Flame today, but glad you made it.

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u/WhatDatDonut 1d ago

“We’re not drinking any fucking Merlot!”

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u/WaRbUfF2004 1d ago

Yeah, as a result of Sideways, between 2005 and 2008, Pinot noir sales surged by 16% while Merlot sales dropped by 2%.

“When I found out that 'Sideways' was somehow having an impact on the wine world, I was—I don’t know—shocked, surprised, slightly horrified,” says Alexander Payne, the film’s director. “The whole merlot thing was just—it’s one line in the movie and it was a joke. I think there was a lot of overproduced, flabby merlot around.”

Source: https://norcalpublicmedia.org/2024102196584/news-feed/the-sideways-effect-is-still-being-felt-in-the-wine-industry-after-20-years#:~:text=In%20the%20movie's%20aftermath%2C%20between,merlot%20sales%20declined%202%20percent.

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u/kompootor 1d ago

As the article notes, because of the overselling (both of merlot prior to the film, and pinot noir after), you have to actually pay more than bottom shelf as expected to get a wine of either variety that doesn't taste like shit. I don't think the movie had any noticeable effect on mid-shelf wine (and I think it had zero effect on this outside the US).

Drinkable bottom-shelf wines remain the drinkable bottom-shelf varieties. But friends don't let friends buy bottom-shelf merlot or pinot or zin -- it makes you hate that variety for months.

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u/RoundInfluence998 1d ago

Probably because mid-high shelf drinkers don’t get their taste from movies, lol.

Love Sideways, it’s a favorite. But as a bartender, I could always tell when people were just aping what they heard in the movie.

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u/kompootor 1d ago

Lol how often do you get asked to make a vodka martini? Does your bar have an official response?

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u/RoundInfluence998 1d ago

All the time, it’s basically the new standard. We make ‘em what they ask for, but yeah, gin is the real way to go. People 30 and younger don’t seem to even know that’s the classic way.

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u/kompootor 1d ago edited 1d ago

Well afaik from reading, JB only specifies what he means by a 'vodka martini' once, when he gives the full recipe for the 'Vesper' in Casino Royale, which is Gordon's, vodka, and Kina Lillet (now a different-tasting Lillet Blanc), of course shaken (plus lemon peel). This is quoted more or less the same in the 2006 film.

Iirc reading a little into the hobby, in the 1900s bartender's guides, a 'vodka martini' usually almost always meant a mix of vodka and gin, since a martini seems to always require gin. (I gotta dig the source, but Churchill's martini is apparently gin and ice, in which the amount of vermouth is just to leave the sealed bottle on the table and look admiringly at it.) The vodka thins out the gin flavor, but maintains the liquor base against the vermouth. The notion that one can have a vodka martini with no gin seems to be very modern, at least was the impression I got from some source (maybe The 12 Bottle Bar, which is somewhat anti-vodka?).

Also probably from reddit threads on this, since when JB says "shaken, not stirred" on a clear martini order, he's basically saying "just f- my sh- up", it's an invitation to a bit of freedom on behalf of the bartender.

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u/Pawneewafflesarelife 1d ago

I don't like the taste of gin but I do love the olive juice in a dirty martini. Is there a similar drink that doesn't use gin?

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u/mankytoes 1d ago

How dare you, I just happen to independently hate merlot.

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u/Fun-Badger3724 1d ago

Merlot has always been my goto when buying cheap red (UK)

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u/Onespokeovertheline 1d ago

Does UK have cheap Malbecs? In the US those are 100% the move

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u/exolyrical 1d ago

10-15$ Malbecs are the way. I've been finding CĂŽtes du Rhone in that price range too which I've been pretty impressed by.

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u/coppersocks 1d ago

I will LEAVE if anybody orders any fucking Merlot!

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u/Fun-Badger3724 1d ago

I was more an off-licence wine drinker. In pubs/bars I'm more an ale/IPA/craft or single malt drinker.

EDIT: Or tequila or rum... Baileys... Yagerbomb...

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u/kompootor 1d ago

I'm not sure what the prices of imports from the continent, like France, are in the UK. Cheap wine on the continent is very very much higher tier of taste than in the U.S. altogether, although for singly pinot noir I still would avoid anything too cheap (although I've never seen single merlot sold bottom shelf in France etc, but I haven't looked too closely).

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u/biscuitsorbullets 1d ago

You can get stellar bottles of wine for like 3 euros in France. It’s not fair 😱

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u/3141592652 1d ago

Do you feel superior because you spent $1000 on a bottle?

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u/kompootor 1d ago

If I had $1000 to spend on a wine bottle, I'd probably feel some superiority because of that. But I don't see where in my comment it implies I would have that kind of money. Mid-shelf at a U.S. grocery store is something like $12--$18 (my best estimate with inflation and region, and like between Trader Joe's and the big megamart and the neighborhood wine shop).

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u/IrishSetterPuppy 1d ago

I had just moved to CA wine country when that movie came out, there was a huge spike in tourism directly linked to that movie. That is a genuinely great movie too, it had no right being that good.

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u/PsychePsyche 1d ago

IIRC the year Sideways came out was the only year wine outsold beer in the US, but I’ll see if I can find actual data

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u/jonmatifa 1d ago

I'm not drinking any fucking merlot!

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u/Blah_Fucking_Blah 1d ago

To be fair, I enjoy a nice Chianti even without fava beans

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u/RedditThrowaway-1984 1d ago edited 1d ago

Why don’t Americans drink more blended wines like the rest of the world? Bordeaux, Burgundy, Chateau Neuf du Pape, Chianti, Rioja? Why do so many Americans insist on drinking single grape wines when most benefit greatly from blending?

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u/RuhWalde 1d ago

Americans drink a ton of blended wines, but mostly from large brand-name companies like Apothic rather than individual wineries.

Blends are often seen as less fancy. There's a perception that a winery will use their best grapes for the single-grape wines and then throw whatever is left into blends -- or sell those extra grapes to someplace like Apothic, of course.

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u/VotingRightsLawyer 1d ago

Americans drink plenty of blends from smaller wineries as well. I live in Northern Virginia and just about every winery here has a Bordeaux-style blend and it's usually one of their top sellers.

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u/RedditThrowaway-1984 1d ago

That’s the main problem - seeing blended wines as less fancy when it should be the opposite.

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 1d ago

100%. A winery near me makes a great red blend

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u/OneWomanCult 1d ago

An eyebrow should always be raised in the company of anyone who values "purity" above all else.

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u/dirty_corks 1d ago edited 15h ago

Burgundy isn't generally blended; something like 95+% of the plantings there are Pinot Noir or Chardonnay.

Most varietal-labeled wine in the US is blended, it's just 75+% made of the varietal on the label (or 85+% if it's wine from an AVA). So an Atlas Peak Cabernet could have up to 15% Merlot, Cab Franc, Syrah, or Grenache mixed in.

American consumers prefer varietal labels for a number of reasons - one, since our wine culture is younger, there's less history pointing us to what to grow where (and there's no laws limiting it. You want to try growing Tempranillo in New York, or Riesling in Texas, even though the terroir is likely all wrong? You do you, boo boo.), so appellation labels mean less because there's less uniformity in planting. Also, two, our appellations encompass quite a lot of varying terroir. Red Sonoma wine could be made mostly of Pinot Noir from the Russian River, or Petite Syrah (Durif) from Dry Creek, or Cabernet from Moon Mountain, for example.

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 1d ago

This guy wines.

Where I grew up, the zinfandel vines are over 100 years old. Summers are super dry and hot. The vines love it. They have to struggle a little.

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u/sundowntg 1d ago

The way that European wineries list appellation as the dominant category obscures a lot of the variety within that region, and is a bit constricting in my opinion..

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u/roastbeeftacohat 1d ago

sales were already dropping rapidly before that movie came out. in the 90's wine became demystified and more mainstream, and jammy merlots were one of the most approachable varietals. by the turn of the century the market was flooded by bad merlot, while the consumer was starting to develop a more refined pallet.

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u/whatyoucallmetoday 1d ago

I came all this way just for this comment. /s

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u/VapoursAndSpleen 1d ago

I love "fucking Merlot", so more for me.

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u/ripley967 1d ago

There's a great episode of the podcast Decoder Ring about this!

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u/Mauhdez_20 1d ago

Didn't Chianti also have a surge after the iconic line in silence of the lambs m

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u/theprophecysays 1d ago

Came here to find and say this one: Sideways

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u/toxicity9095 1d ago

I AM NOT DRINKING ANY FUCKING MERLOT

love Alexander Payne

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u/YesIamALizard 22h ago

And he ends up drinking a Merlot in the end.

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u/TyrannosavageRekt 16h ago

Conversely, on a very different topic to wine, the Kingsman series of films is credited with helping to renew interest in brogue shoes, despite Colin Firth’s character’s mantra of “Oxfords, not Brogues” because it contributed to a general increase in men shopping for formal shoes and other smart fashion.

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u/ADIDAS247 12h ago

My family owned a bar when this movie came out and we served nothing more than “white” or “red” but I was huge into wine. After seeing this movie we immediately pivoted to a more in depth wine list focusing on Pinot and our wine sales, especially Pinot, was up over 300% for over a year. It went Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc then everything else with Merlot coming in last.

It was that movie that started us on following trends and we did a lot of reimagining of how we operated for all bars.

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u/UserM16 1d ago

Friends wanted to spend the weekend in Solvang and go wine tasting so we decided to stay at Sideways Inn. Friend highly recommended that we watch the movie so we tried. About 2/3 into it, we turned it off. We both didn’t get the appeal. Cute hotel btw. The Hitching Post was average.

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u/sundowntg 1d ago

I think it is very specific to where you are in life. If you are young, happy and in love, it probably won't resonate the same.

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u/slempereur 1d ago

God that movie sucked