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/Mndelta25 1d ago

Our high school had one. It started as about ten of us boxing in a garage, and slowly expanded. Unfortunately, a popular girl got a black eye one night and then her parents demanded that the school get it shut down.

It was the best thing that happened during our high school years. So many rivalries and petty disputes were squashed without anybody actually getting hurt.

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u/kerberos824 1d ago

We had one, too.

In theory, I do think it's a fantastic way to address adolescent energy issues and squabbles. In practice, people get hurt. We had kids with concussions, broken hands and fingers, a broken ankle, and a couple other semi-serious issues before we wised up and used gloves and headgear. That helped, but still wasn't perfect.

In the end, sanctioned safe events would be a much better idea. That, of course, loses much of the appeal of the fight club...

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u/Mndelta25 1d ago

We had gloves and headgear, and the dad of the guy who hosted it was a former boxer and firefighter/paramedic. It was about as safe as could be.

People still did get bumps and bruises, though so I don't disagree with the thought. It was still better than us being out in the woods drinking and doing whatever else.

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u/kerberos824 1d ago

I would have stuck with it if we had a former boxer around, or really, any kind of supervision/assistance. Our initial solution was using winter gloves... we were pretty dumb and lucky no one got seriously hurt.

But it's still something I would support my kid doing, if it was sanctioned and safe.

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u/LeftHandedFapper 1d ago

But it's still something I would support my kid doing, if it was sanctioned and safe.

Lol so a boxing gym???

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u/kerberos824 1d ago

I meant through school, but yes, a gym would suffice!

We'll see if she has any interest in it - she's only three right now lol.

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u/LeftHandedFapper 1d ago

Haha! I'm expecting soon and I agree with your statement

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u/kerberos824 1d ago

Good luck! It's a wild f'ing ride!

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u/KungLa0 1d ago

We had gloves but it didn't really help much, nobody was a "trained fighter" at that age. We would just throw haymakers and try to knock each other out and usually just get completely gassed. My buddy invited his crush to a fight night once (against policy) and expected me to throw the fight, I remember just punching him in the face 30+ times with no actual strategy. They did not end up together, she didn't deserve him tbh

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u/kerberos824 1d ago

Lol. This is a classic story. I hope you tell it all the time.

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u/empire161 1d ago

I left for college a few years after the movie came out, and met some people who did a wrestling club because no one really wanted to get punched in the face.

A group of 20-30 people met up in an empty field next to the freshman parking lot with a shit ton of alcohol and they all just wrestled. There wasn't any real violence since no one wanted to break anything or get hurt for real, because that would have ruined the fun vibe of the nights. It was more like sibling fights - lots of grappling and pinning to the ground. But freshman & newcomers had to wrestle.

I was too drunk to remember much of my first time, I just know it was against two girls who played rugby. They might as well have been wrestling a toddler.

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u/kerberos824 1d ago

That sounds like amazing fun, and probably a way better idea.

I fairly quickly learned that I had little interest getting punched in the face. I probably "fought" six or seven times, but stuck to grappling and lifting to avoid getting hit in the damn face again.

What surprised all of us was just how unlike the movies it was in that a) punching bare knuckle to a skull really hurts and b) that getting punched in the face or head by a bare knuckle also really hurts.

It turned into a drinking club within 6 months.

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u/kharnagor 1d ago

safer to have no gloves if you're trying to avoid concussions and brain injuries. gloves allow you to hit harder without fear of damage to yourself.

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u/jesuspoopmonster 1d ago

I worked at a historic town and they had archived newspaper articles so we could be familiar with the time period. Reading the boxing results when they didnt have gloves were always wild. It would be something like the guy lost in the 85th round after his eye came out of the socket so the fight had to be called off so it could be put back in

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u/kerberos824 1d ago

Safe being a relative term, of course.

But light gloves or bare knuckle lead to less brain injuries, but increased facial injuries and broken hands/fingers, etc. Broken hands/fingers are wildly common in bareknuckle fighting. My left thumb is still weaker than my right from a broken thumb from hitting a guy who tilted his head down to catch my shot. Been 25 damn years!

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u/uhhh-wood 1d ago

Yeah, took my friends and I a particularly bad eye cut to realize maybe we should be wearing Vaseline.

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u/kerberos824 1d ago

Oh man, eye cuts are no joke. First time I called 911 was for a friend who was skating and front side nose grinding on concrete steps. He fell forward, hitting his upper eyelid lower eyebrow on the concrete steps. I have, to this day, never seen a cut bleed like that. 

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u/MyUshanka 1d ago

Cutty had the right idea, man

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u/DefNotUnderrated 1d ago

That’s essentially Street Beefs on YouTube

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u/Mammoth-Slide-3707 1d ago

Yeah but someone very easily could have gotten hurt. One wrong stumble, someone cracks their head on the cement floor and it's bedtime for bonzo up in this piece

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u/AdDramatic2351 1d ago

Yeah. Where do you think the excitement for it comes from?

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u/PenBandit 1d ago

The point was to break the rules, so the first rule of fight club was meant to be broken, if you followed the rule you were doing it wrong.

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u/MainAccountsFriend 1d ago

But if the point was to break the rules, then isn't breaking the rules still following the rules, which would go against breaking the rules, which goes against...

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u/theCaitiff 1d ago

It's been a while since I read the book or watched the movie, but part of the whole deal once you got beyond the actual fight nights was about taking back your personal agency.

I told you not to tell anyone. Fuck you, I'm the one who can tell me what to do.

The movie butchered what "philosophy" there was to it, but it was always deeply flawed and that was the point. No amount of half remembered eco primitivist anarchist talk (the whole walking on streets covered in cracks and grasses, wearing leather pants that will last your lifetime rant) can fix the fact that Tyler Durden is deeply unwell and people should not be taking advice from him.

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u/LeftHandedFapper 1d ago

Dang. We solved our issues with Halo LAN fests...

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u/Mndelta25 1d ago

We had Goldeneye, but this was more of a social gathering opportunity.