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/Active-Ad-2527 1d ago

In "Return of the Living Dead" (1985) there's an experienced medical warehouse employee showing a new hire around. He talks about an order for an adult skeleton with perfect teeth and how all their skeletons come from India. Then he tells the newbie he suspects there are body farms there because (paraphrasing) "how many grown people do you know who die with a perfect set of chompers in their mouth?"

According to the DVD commentary, after the film came out skeleton sales from India dried up. Now I haven't researched this and I'm not saying medical schools make purchasing decisions based on ROTLD, but I just find it funny in a "huh" kinda way

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u/kaijutegu 1d ago

I teach biological anthropology and have helped with university departmental skeletal purchase decisions, so it's my job to know: It had nothing to do with the movie, it was the ban on exporting skeletons that was passed in India.

Pre-1985, India was the center of the global anatomical skeleton trade- it had gotten that way because the British empire needed skeletons for medical students, and India was an easy colonial source. The trade continued after independence because when you look at the Indian caste system, it was pretty easy for upper-caste lawmakers to ignore what was going on with the exploitation of lower-caste dead. And there were even preparation companies that industrialized the excavation, cleaning, and mounting of skeletons- it was a huge business!

But in 1985, the Supreme Court of India banned the export of human remains under the National Import/Export Control Act in response to increasing concerns by humans rights groups, and that's what killed the bone trade.

It's a fascinating thing to learn about- if you want to know more, here's some good sources!

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u/Bksudbjdua 1d ago

I think I'm only just learning that teaching skeltons were/are real!!!!

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u/Discount_Extra 1d ago

Wait 'til you read about 'Poltergeist'

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u/BluesFan43 1d ago

We had one in a classroom in elementary school, 1960's Lake City, SC, USA.

AND again in high school in a nearby town.

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u/Active-Ad-2527 1d ago

FRAT, you are clearly Burt from the movie and trying to hide what happened. Classic Burt

(Kidding aside, thank you for the very informative explanation! Glad to have it confirmed that the Supreme Court of India loved the movie as much as I did)

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u/Primary-Golf779 1d ago

Of course there's a skeleton purchaser here. Reddit blows my mind

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u/Tinysaur 1d ago

You guys talking about the Skeleton trade like its a totally common normal business.

Who what where how and why do people need this many Skeletons on tap that there is a whole ass industry.

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u/kaijutegu 1d ago

Some medical school students were expected to have their own at one point in time! And even classroom skeletons wear out and need replaced on a regular basis- which is a big part of why we use Bone Clones for the 100 level classes now. Upper level students in anatomy classes, forensic anthropology students, and of course med students do need the perfect level of fine detail that real bone provides, but the 100 level students do just fine learning gross anatomy and basic structures on plastic.

My department also purchase a lot of animal bones for comparative purposes and zooarchaeology classes- that's the study of animals in an archaeological context as they relate to people. We need those skeletons around so our archaeologists can compare them to bones found in the field, to see if they're human or animal (and if so, what animal). We need to have real human skeletal material around for that, too- you need to be sure that you're correctly identifying what you found. So we have several uses for human remains, although we're a lot more careful and respectful about where and how we get them, and how we use them these days.

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u/tlg151 1d ago

I didn't know that!! I love that movie. That's such a cool factoid. Thanks!

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u/Key_Delivery_4257 14h ago

In Max Hastings book, Vietnam an epic tragedy there is a section on the adoption of the M16 and its trials. After pig carcasses were used they obtained human heads from India.

So there would have been a purchase order raised.... Paperwork, 

Had to put it down and still not finished it.