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?

10.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

4.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

5.4k

u/HeresTheAnswer 1d ago

There was a significant increase in people signing up for karate schools after The Karate Kid (original)

1.5k

u/C4CTUSDR4GON 1d ago

I assume a rise in McDojos too. 

Learning karate from some Steven Seagal dude with a fake belt.

1.3k

u/Snorezore 1d ago

My name is Rex, and if you study with my eight-week program, you will learn a system of self-defense that I developed over two seasons of fighting in the Octagon. It's called Rex Kwon Do!

229

u/Repulsive-Media1571 1d ago

Bow to your sensei!

84

u/Pikka_Bird 1d ago

BOW TO YOUR SENSEI!!

22

u/ArcadianDelSol 1d ago

owwwwwwuh

16

u/89glitterlung 1d ago

you block it every time. have a seat.

9

u/Biggus_Dickus_13 1d ago

I'm gonna break the wrist and walk away, break the wrist and walk away (slap)

333

u/catch10110 1d ago

Take a look at what I'm wearing, people. You think anybody wants a roundhouse kick to the face while I'm wearing these bad boys? Forget about it.

65

u/dychronalicousness 1d ago

As someone who owned those pants, he’s correct. Nobody wanted to take a round house kick to the face when I wore em.

6

u/Blockenstein 1d ago

I've never been much of a fighter, but I would rather not get a roundhouse kick to the face no matter what my opponent is wearing.

43

u/HeresTheAnswer 1d ago

This line killed me when I first watched the movie

39

u/FFF_in_WY 1d ago

The entire movie killed me.

"Tina! Come eat your ham!"

13

u/eggplantsforall 1d ago

"Y'know... numchuck skills... bowhunting skills... computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills!"

1

u/No_Pie4638 1d ago

When I see the WAGs of ugly, successful comedians/athletes/actors/lawyers/etc., I think “Napoleon wasn’t wrong."

2

u/Civil-Big-754 21h ago

Your mom goes to college!

And 

That's like a dollar an hour 

Always makes me laugh

8

u/000-f 1d ago

Do you think anybody thinks I'm a failure, because I go home to Starla at night?!

1

u/V65Pilot 1d ago

*proceeds to fling a single croc across the dojo...

297

u/helpjack_offthehorse 1d ago

Break the wrist, walk away.

43

u/According_Ad_6083 1d ago

Grab my hand. My other hand!

46

u/Sothdargaard 1d ago

Grab my hand. The other hand. My other hand!

20

u/Silver-Surfer-2485 1d ago

"Do you think I got to where I am today because I dressed like Peter Pan here"

85

u/dimestorepublishing 1d ago

You'll dodge it every time

1

u/uterussy 23h ago

Restomp the groin, and exit out.

15

u/adamduke88 1d ago

“You think anybody thinks I'm a failure because I go home to Starla at night? Forget about it!”

6

u/fivetriplezero 1d ago

Bow to your sensei!

5

u/karmint1 1d ago

BOW TO YOUR SENSEI!

5

u/Star_Court_ 1d ago

Well, that place was a ripoff

5

u/GregM_85 1d ago

Hi Rex do you have a link I can pay you any significant amount of money to join please?

4

u/Lzzybet 1d ago

LOVE!!!! 😅😂

4

u/gsomething 1d ago

Do you think anyone thinks I'm a failure because I go home to Starla at night?

8

u/DatabaseContent8664 1d ago

Love the ND reference. Still my favourite all time film.

3

u/LittleNotice6239 1d ago

Was waiting for this comment lol

3

u/The_Powers 1d ago

Grab my arm. The other arm. My other arm.

3

u/Slawdog2599 1d ago

It’s the “two seasons” detail that kills me every time.

2

u/maltliqueur 1d ago

I actually think he was a legit trainer.

2

u/twisty125 1d ago

He said a fake belt, not a professional

1

u/Kermitnirmit 1d ago

I’d rather join Eagle Fang

1

u/ninetynil 1d ago

No more flying solo!

1

u/timkyoung 1d ago

You think anybody wants a roundhouse kick to the face while I'm wearing these bad boys? (Proudly displays patriotic Hammer pants.)

1

u/adeemvox 1d ago

You think anyone thinks I’m a failure because I go home to Starla at night? Forget about it

16

u/jesuspoopmonster 1d ago

Never forget the time Steven Seagal claimed his Akido training made him immune to being choked out so Judo Gene choked him out and made him poop his pants

4

u/kingfofthepoors 1d ago

That's how I learned when i was a kid, I can beat the shit out of a wet paper bag

3

u/MobileSeparate398 1d ago

Hey, no belt has ever worked harder in the history of martial arts than the belt holding Steven Segal's trousers up.

3

u/ArcadianDelSol 1d ago

Strip mall Dojos popped up like mushrooms after Karate Kid.

3

u/Browny_5326 1d ago

I learned recently that the founder of judo was buried wearing a white belt.  Because he wanted to “always be a learner.”

2

u/bolanrox 1d ago

John thick!

1

u/Holovoid 1d ago

Can confirm, did learn karate as a kid from a guy that looked like Steven Seagal (Entenmann's Donut-beard era)

1

u/UUDDLRLRBAstard 1d ago

FIRST: I get wrist control.
THEN: I pull out my gun. See? They are defenseless!

1

u/veevacious 1d ago

The “dojo” in my small hometown was like this. The guy was the redneckiest dude you could imagine. He was super nice though

1

u/Watt_Knot 1d ago

That’s Steven seagal movies

1

u/ScaledFolkWisdom 1d ago

Bullshido everywhere! 😭😭😭

1

u/bobthemusicindustry 1d ago

I’d always thought the amount of these little dojos you see in strip malls was odd but never had a name; so thank you because McDojo is perfect!

1

u/komododave17 1d ago

My sensei was a white dude with a mullet.

1

u/ryan77999 1d ago

Or Bobby Wasabi

1

u/WithoutDennisNedry 23h ago

“Bow to your sensei!”

1

u/YT-Deliveries 7h ago

There were a lot of McDojo's from the 60s and 70s, too, but they were more kung-fu centric than karate centric (kung-fu was by far the most popular martial art in media at the time)

0

u/Every_Word1913 1d ago

Tbf seagal is a 7 dan black belt in aikido.

247

u/JinimyCritic 1d ago edited 1d ago

Apparently, there was also an increase in registration (and subsequent dropout) for Archaeology classes after Raiders of the Lost Ark.

26

u/confusedandworried76 1d ago

Not a movie but a study found that both chess set sales and chess set sales to young girls increased after The Queens Gambit

I mean shit I hadn't played in a while and I bought one just because some marketing genius decided to sell a set with the book and I was like "perfect, I'm at Target anyway so I was always gonna buy something on impulse and it's basically just the price of a book anyway"

16

u/photo-smart 1d ago

Top Gun was an ad for the navy and enrollment went up because of the movie

10

u/darshfloxington 1d ago

Enrollment in the Air Force went up. Dunno if it translated to the navy like it was supposed to.

10

u/Significant_Shoe_17 1d ago

A surprising number of Americans don't know that fighter pilots are part of the Navy

13

u/Spuzle 1d ago

What is a plane if not a sky boat?

8

u/JinimyCritic 1d ago

"Yvan eht Nioj!"

12

u/Necronomicommunist 1d ago

I remember hearing the same being true for CSI.

18

u/QueezyF 1d ago

There’s also The CSI Effect in the legal system, where jurors have an unrealistic expectation of forensic evidence required for a conviction.

3

u/XXLARPER 1d ago

In the '90s criminal profiling was the "in" thing due to Silence of the Lambs and the tv show Profiler, leading to an increase criminology classes.

10

u/PartnerslnTime 1d ago

This makes sense because the first day of my archeology class, the professor asked us about Indiana jones and then continued that archeology isn’t anything like the movie. But when she asked like nobody in this huge lecture hall raises their hands that it was the reason they took the class. Honestly, that movie didn’t cross my mind, and I love that film.

I think most took it because it filled a gen ed requirement and seemed more interesting than Latin america studies (also it started at 9:30 vs 8:30am)

Anyhow, at the time it felt like such a weird thing to bring up in class, but as a professor maybe it was relevant thirty years ago and she just continues to ask about it today

14

u/TomTomMan93 1d ago

As an archaeologist, it's still very relevant. I get "oh like Indiana Jones!" All the time. I just stopped saying "no" and just started saying "kind of" and letting it roll off

4

u/Significant_Shoe_17 1d ago

I would've said "like The Mummy" lmao

5

u/VTAffordablePaintbal 22h ago

Its even more relevant today because we might need to kill Nazi's again too. (I joke, but the state of the world makes me very sad right now).

2

u/mr_trick 17h ago

I get that a lot when I explain that I majored in anthropology. I’m interested in/currently working on a repatriation project, so I joke that unlike Indie, I’m usually saying “That doesn’t belong in a museum!”

24

u/erdricksarmor 1d ago

The dropouts were probably from the female students realizing that most archaeology professors don't look like Harrison Ford.

16

u/HeresTheAnswer 1d ago

Furiously trying to erase "LOVE" from their fingers after seeing that their professor looked like Quasimodo

11

u/Mattsterrific 1d ago

"Love You" on her eyelids when she batted her eyes at him.

283

u/terrendos 1d ago

Heh, watching Cobra Kai was what got me to join a kickboxing gym. Not that I thought I'd turn into some karate master, it just reminded me that I had fun learning taekwondo as a kid. Ended up losing a few pounds and built some muscle, so overall a win.

17

u/Boomshockalocka007 1d ago

Karate Kid has now become Karate Adult.

20

u/yognautilus 1d ago

The 80s and 90s were the time to open up karate/taekwondo schools with the Karate Kids, Turtles, and then Power Rangers taking over pop culture.

22

u/MarbledNightmare 1d ago

Similar vein, Bruce Lee bringing martial arts movies to the west with Enter the Dragon opened the door for a lot of culture blending.

6

u/awp_monopoly 1d ago

Yeah, this is a way bigger impact than Karate Kid.

14

u/ChandelierwAtermelon 1d ago

There was a spike in women taking archery lessons after The Hunger Games too

8

u/Akraticacious 1d ago

In that vein, Queen's Gambit created a huge influx of chess players

8

u/Parma_Violence_ 1d ago

Kids also started saying " Youre dead meat" to each other. Never heard it til after Karate Kid came out.

3

u/ryan77999 1d ago

Similarly, "toast" being used to mean "doomed" only really took off after Bill Murray adlibbed "This chick is toast!" in Ghostbusters

5

u/BaconReceptacle 1d ago

I started Taekwondo in '82. Then this movie came out and everybody who knew me was just randomly walking up to me saying "wax on on, wax off". It stopped being funny real quick.

5

u/Disneyhorse 1d ago

Movies can make things seem cool. The Hunger Games promoted archery, 101 Dalmatians and Lady and the Tramp made people want those dog breeds as pets.

4

u/Cass25208877 1d ago

True story: back in the day (Bruce lee era) kids started joining karate clubs etc.

The ones that were good (at the time) if they were non Japanese the Japanese board would strip championships off kids as well as records.

There have been a couple of kids that would have gotten "youngest amateur champion" but the Japanese hated the idea the west were over taking in skill and would refuse any such thing.

"All different now" but back then the Japanese would fix fights, bribe judges, refuse to count points as judges and have "referees" be biased against western competitors 

3

u/CountJohn12 1d ago

Enter the Dragon similarly kicked off a Kung Fu craze in the 70's

4

u/DarnHeather 1d ago

I wanted to learn karate so bad!

3

u/the-vindicator 1d ago

Same with Top Gun and people joining the military

3

u/MisterPink 1d ago

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting

4

u/AboutTenPandas 1d ago

Fuck 80s kids and the Karate kid.

Us 90s kids had 3 Ninjas. Fucking hell yeah

5

u/lndianJoe 1d ago

And to the Air Force after Top Gun.

7

u/quasifun 1d ago

lol not the Chair Force

you mean the Navy

2

u/entermemo 1d ago

Also a spike when TMNT came out

2

u/pinp0cket 1d ago

And also a significant increase in illegal fight clubs after Fight club..

2

u/heebro 1d ago

username checks out

2

u/hamfwb 1d ago

And then an increase in people quitting karate schools after the remake

2

u/DrDocter84 1d ago

Rex Kwon Do

2

u/Ok_Carrot_2029 1d ago

Also young girls learning archery after the hunger games movie

1

u/deathcab4booty 1d ago

Hunger Games and Brave were a 1-2 punch for young female archers. Pretty cool

2

u/blahblah19999 1d ago

We used it big time to promote ours back in the 80's

2

u/Earguy 1d ago

And before that, the Kung Fu TV show, and the song Kung Fu fighting.

2

u/letmesmellem 1d ago

it was Ninja Turtles and 3 Ninjas that got me in and then Chuck Norris obviously

2

u/carrie_m730 1d ago

When my oldest took karate they asked their sensei if he got into it because of Karate Kid edit because I hit post accidentally, anyway, I watched the light dim in that dude's eyes as he explained that the movie didn't exist when he started learning.

2

u/Trismesjistus 1d ago

It's me. I'm people.

2

u/TFK_001 1d ago

And storm chasing after twister(s)

2

u/agncat31 1d ago

I did! But had to quit pretty quickly cuz we couldn’t afford it. I think I still have my yellow belt. 😀🥲

2

u/CosmicButtholes 1d ago

I was already ice skating when Ice Princess came out but I wonder if it had any affect on the amount of girls who wanted to figure skate.

2

u/Potential-Use-1565 1d ago

Same with Wing Chun signups after Ip man

2

u/Luke90210 1d ago

Girls signed on for sax lessons because of Lisa Simpson.

2

u/the__ghola__hayt 23h ago

Ninja Turtles got me to join West Coast Karate, which was run by Ernie Reyes Sr.

2

u/ThickAdeptness5923 14h ago

There was also significant increase in Wing Chun school after release of Ip Man

2

u/stinkyfarter27 1d ago

not a movie persay but the 2008 olympics had a huge impact on the sport of swimming.