# Weird Coincidences Between Fiction and Real Life **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498 "2011-09-24T22:06:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/1 "2011-09-24T22:06:51Z")
My favorite example of the kind of thing I’m looking for is the song “Back Stabbers” by the Ojay’s. Came out long before OJ stabbed his wife, so she had plenty of warning. A lesser example is Tom Clancy’s 1994 book “Debt of Honor” (IMO his last good book) about a terrorist flying an airliner into the Capitol building. I always thought that Bush consciously modeled himself after Jack Ryan, and yet he and others in his admin claimed that nobody could have thought of terrorists using airliners as weapons. I saw another example today. I was watching an old tape of “Sugarfoot,” a western that ran in the late 50’s. In the first scene of the episode called “The Wild Bunch,” a bunch of rowdies were running the schoolteacher out of town. The first dialog in the show was one of the toughs yelling, “So long, Mr. Peckinpah!” Any other examples that proves the writers were from the future? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/2 "2011-09-24T22:22:09Z")
The first episode of **The Lone Gunmen** , which had a plot to crash a plane into the World Trade Center. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/3 "2011-09-24T22:42:40Z")
There was a novella about a huge passenger ship hitting an iceberg and sinking, written decades before the Titanic - the ship in the story was called “The Titan” [The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futility,_or_the_Wreck_of_the_Titan) ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/4 "2011-09-24T23:33:35Z")
Edgar Allen Poe wrote a story called _The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym_, in which the survivors of a ship, facing starvation, decide to kill and eat one of their own. The unfortunate man was named Richard Parker. Forty years later, a ship called _Mignonette_ sank and the survivors, facing starvation, decided to kill and eat one of their own. That man’s name? Richard Parker. (That resulted in a criminal case setting the precedent that murder is not justifiable by need). There’s actually a kind of weird [Wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Parker_(shipwrecked)) on the name. It mentions a couple of others. Side note if you’ve read _The Life of Pi_ - Poe’s story contains this amusing bit: When I recovered from this state, the sun was, as near as I could guess, an hour high. I had the greatest difficulty in bringing to recollection the various circumstances connected with my situation, and for some time remained firmly convinced that I was still in the hold of the brig, near the box, and that the body of Parker was that of Tiger. [Tiger is actually an animal - but a dog in Poe’s story.] ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/5 "2011-09-25T01:34:37Z")
> [@brocks](#): > > I saw another example today. I was watching an old tape of “Sugarfoot,” a western that ran in the late 50’s. In the first scene of the episode called “The Wild Bunch,” a bunch of rowdies were running the schoolteacher out of town. The first dialog in the show was one of the toughs yelling, “So long, Mr. Peckinpah!” Sam Peckinpah was writing and directing TV westerns at that time, so that was probably an inside joke… and then who knows, Peckinpah himself might have seen the episode, been amused, and remembered the name “The Wild Bunch.” One I like, and which I’m sure has been mentioned on these boards before, is that the Laugh-In TV show predicted Ronald Reagan would be US President in 1988… back in _1968_ in their “News of the Future” segment. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/6 "2011-09-25T02:04:36Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > One I like, and which I’m sure has been mentioned on these boards before, is that the Laugh-In TV show predicted Ronald Reagan would be US President in 1988… back in _1968_ in their “News of the Future” segment. In fairness, Reagan had risen quite quickly politically to become governor of California by then, and was making an entry into the presidential primaries. It would have been more of a shock if someone had predicted it in, say, 1955. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/7 "2011-09-25T03:06:00Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > In fairness, Reagan had risen quite quickly politically to become governor of California by then, and was making an entry into the presidential primaries. It would have been more of a shock if someone had predicted it in, say, 1955. I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/8 "2011-09-25T03:23:33Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > Sam Peckinpah was writing and directing TV westerns at that time, so that was probably an inside joke You made me go back and check the tape to make sure he didn’t write or direct that episode of “Sugarfoot,” but if he did, it was under an assumed name. But I looked him up in Wiki, and you’re right, he was very active in TV at the time, writing several episodes of “Gunsmoke,” and creating “The Rifleman.” Also noticed he directed the original “Killer Elite” which just came out in a new version. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/9 "2011-09-25T03:59:42Z")
Arthur C. Clarke supposedly wrote a story about the first lunar landing years before Apollo 11 - and the name he made up for the first man on the moon was Armstrong. (I say supposedly because while I once read this, I don’t recall the name of the story and I can’t find any mention of this online.) ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/10 "2011-09-25T06:20:40Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The first episode of **The Lone Gunmen** , which had a plot to crash a plane into the World Trade Center. I’ll go you one better. My copy of **The Bachman Books** by Stephen King includes his short story “The Running Man” (I’ll take it on faith that everybody knows Arh-nold’s version of the movie). It describes Arnie flying a (very much smaller plane) into the Antognist’s (Richard Dawson’s character in the film) business office HQ. It even gives tech details about fuel capacity and weight and airspeed. It was a very important building in the fictional city. Here’s some spoilered quotes that I find … coincidental: Minus 002 and counting: Now the jet roared across the canal, seeming held up by the hand of God, giant, roaring. (seems to describe the plane that flew over the Potomac to hit the Pentagon) Minus 001 and counting: The plane was still dropping … Thunder filled the world… All over (the city), (televisions) went (out)… (Obviously sounding like the first impact on WTC, or maybe flight 93?) 000: (The Plane) struck the building. Three quarters of the way up. (Technical flight info). Then a quote: “The explosion was tremendous, lighting up the night like the wrath of God, and it rained fire twenty blocks away.” (Again, the first impact) The book lists the short story as copyrighted in 1982. Well before the X-files. I’m not saying King was a prophet, but the story is … close. PS: Now that I’m re-reading the actual text, I can see where Steve botched the story timeline a little bit. But by the time I got to that the first time I read it, I didn’t even notice. I was hooked. Can’t really say the same for the film version. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/11 "2011-09-25T11:09:10Z")
Agatha Christie wrote a 1934 murder mystery novel _Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?_ In 1950 a man named Evans was hanged for murder, despite protesting his innocence. It later turned out that the murder was actually committed by a man named Christie. Why didn’t they ask Evans, indeed? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/12 "2011-09-25T17:47:02Z")
In Action #1, (dated 1938) the first comic to feature Superman, the name of the murder victim was Jack Kennedy. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/13 "2011-09-25T18:45:25Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Agatha Christie wrote a 1934 murder mystery novel _Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?_ > > In 1950 a man named Evans was hanged for murder, despite protesting his innocence. It later turned out that the murder was actually committed by a man named Christie. Why didn’t they ask Evans, indeed? Quite apart from the fact that this isn’t much of a coincidence (Evans being the 12th most common name in the UK), the problem was not that they didn’t ask Evans but that, even discounting the fabricated confessions, they asked him repeatedly and each time he came up with a different version of events. Let us not forget that he had first come to the attention of the police by walking into a police station and falsely admitting that he had accidentally killed his wife. Asking Evans, by all accounts a weak, suggestible man, was what helped send him to the gallows. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/14 "2011-09-25T18:57:53Z")
> [@APB](#): > > Quite apart from the fact that this isn’t much of a coincidence (Evans being the 12th most common name in the UK) … But the names Evans AND Christie in the same real life murder is a bit spooky. Especially when the real case would have made a good plot for one of her books. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/15 "2011-09-25T19:10:30Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > In Action #1, (dated 1938) the first comic to feature Superman, the name of the murder victim was Jack Kennedy. In an issue of **Wonder Woman** during John Byrne’s run, the storyline (a retread of the “death of Superman” story) had the title heroine - whose real name was Diana, and was a princess in her home Paradise Island - being killed and (eventually) ressurected. The issue in which occurred had a cover picture of a newspaper with a headline “Princess Diana dead!” It was referring to Wonder Woman of course, but the issue went on sale at the end of August, 1997 - about four days before the real-life Princess Diana of Wales famously died. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/16 "2011-09-25T21:13:53Z")
One that loops back around to art: On _Star Trek: Voyager_, the ship’s doctor was an emergency medical hologram who’s pressed into full-time service because the human doctor is dead. At one point, he’s complaining that nobody ever turns him off when they’re done seeing him, and ad-libs the line “Damnit, I’m a doctor, not a light switch!”. Except that Robert Picardo, the actor, had never watched any of the Star Trek shows before, and didn’t know about Bones’ famous “Damnit, I’m a doctor, not a \_\_\_\_\_” lines. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/17 "2011-09-25T21:28:56Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Arthur C. Clarke supposedly wrote a story about the first lunar landing years before Apollo 11 - and the name he made up for the first man on the moon was Armstrong. (I say supposedly because while I once read this, I don’t recall the name of the story and I can’t find any mention of this online.) In an article about Robert A Heinlein, Clarke mentions the prescience in “The Man Who Sold The Moon.” In that story the first man on the Moon was Delos D. Harriman; and, as Clarke notes, the island of Delos was the birthplace of Apollo. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/18 "2011-09-25T21:51:29Z")
Morgan Robertson wrote a novella titled _Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan_ with a story we’ve all heard before: Various people are aboard the world’s largest luxury liner, a boat opulently furnished and dubbed “unsinkable” by the press, when the ship strikes an iceberg on her starboard side 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland and sinks in the April waters of the North Atlantic, killing over 1,000 people - more than half the passengers. In the novel, the liner is christened the “Titan”. So why did Robertson bother to change the Titanic’s name to something so similar, when everyone knows it’s the same damn boat? He didn’t, and it’s not. His book came out [fourteen years](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futility,_or_the_Wreck_of_the_Titan#Similarities_to_the_Titanic) before the disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/19 "2011-09-25T23:02:19Z")
It’s a pretty famous one but an episode of Star Trek TOS predicted that the first Moon landing would be in 1969 and on a Wednesday. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498/20 "2011-09-25T23:15:58Z")
\*Last and First Men \* by Olaf Stapledon written in 1930 depicts among other things Italy under a dictator implied to Mussolini being defeated in a war and getting lynched by an angry mob afterwards, an European Union forming after repeated devestating wars, Germany and Russia going to war against each other, and eventually America and China becoming the two superpowers in the world. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-between-fiction-and-real-life/597498.md?page=2)