# What fiction films have had the greatest effects on the ‘real’ world? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081 "2016-03-15T16:20:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Haldurson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@Haldurson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haldurson)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/121 "2016-03-31T13:02:56Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > [_Capricorn One_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077294/) may have started, or at least spurred on, the Moon landing hoax nonsense. That existed before the film, but it probably did create a lot more believers. I’m not sure which film really started the whole comic book movie boom, but I’d lay money on the first Tobey McGuire Spider-man movie. There were a few false starts before that (Superman, and Batman had some good starts, but then a few bad movies put a temporary halt to those franchises). The next year after Spider-man 3, gave us Hulk (a false start to the MCU), not too long after, we got Batman Begins, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Haldurson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@Haldurson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haldurson)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/122 "2016-03-31T13:07:19Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I think the Godfather films were great propaganda for the Mafia … they made them seem like honorable family men, a sort of criminal nobility, when all they’ve ever been were street scum with money. And then Goodfellas spoiled all that, and overrode the image that ‘The Godfather’ created. /edit Sorry, just reread the premise of the thread and realized you were talking about fiction, and not non-fiction. Another movie I just thought of – The Lord of the Rings started the trend of film trilogies filmed back to back, and released one per year. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/123 "2016-03-31T18:53:58Z")
> [@Toxgoddess](#): > > My guess was we were talking about _Supersize Me_. Lots of people steered away from McDonald’s and fast food for a while after that. We were among them. > > Darn edit window. Still, sort of fits. Actually that definitely fits the thread, I imagine _Supersize Me_ at the least reinforced the healthy ideals in a great many people and introduced them to others. As a ‘foodie’ before I saw the film, I only visited McDonald’s when absolutely necessary; twice a year at most. I usually felt ill afterwords although the coffee became a lot better around 2006/7. I will show _Supersize Me_ once to most of the classes I teach, with subtitles as I teach in developing countries. I remember back in the 80’s when McDonald’s came to the UK and no-one openly questioned whether it was good food or not until the early 2000’s. My family never visited together, as cooking at home is cheaper and my parents’ business was catering. Back in 2006 I was in China and went in to a McDonald’s for a coffee (and to check out how it was there) and they had fucking _high chairs_ with mothers feeding their toddlers fries. I couldn’t stay and left angrily, ranting at any of my Chinese colleagues who would listen. The local Chinese restaurants, run by families, were full of fresh food, cooked very well, and tasted wonderful - much better than a Chinese restaurant outside of China. McDonald’s was a ‘treat’ among my Chinese colleagues, KFC was upmarket :smack: and Pizza Hut was eaten with a knife and fork, and the one time I went, I and my colleague were brought to the front of the queue by the \*door staff \*and sat in the window - me being the only laowai (foreigner) in the restaurant. This was in Wuhan where the local food was very fresh (it’s in Hubei province which has more surface water, lakes, rivers etc. than anywhere else in China), cooked well as I only visited Chinese restaurants for Chinese people - often having to guess what to eat as there were no pictures and I can’t read Chinese - and it’s in roughly the centre of China so has influences from everywhere. Unfortunately other than food Wuhan had no redeeming qualities. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/124 "2016-03-31T19:00:47Z")
> [@Haldurson](#): > > That existed before the film, but it probably did create a lot more believers. > > . Are you quite certain of that? If so, I’d like to see a cite. I myself did not hear any significant conspiracy “movement” about Moon Landing Hoax until well after _Capricorn One_ came out. I suspect myself that the movie significantly contributed to the belief. (There are some people who seem to think the “Moon Landing Simulator” scenes in the 1971 James Bond film **Diamonds are Forever** represent a depiction of such a Moon Landing Hoax. But there’s no suggestion of it in the film. I was around then, and saw the film when it first came out. There’s no implication that this is anything but a practice run or simulation. And I don’t recall people talking about such Faked Moon Landings at the time, either. ) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/125 "2016-04-01T02:51:07Z")
Here’s a history of moon landing conspiracy theories: > **[Moon landing conspiracy theories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories)** > > Moon landing conspiracy theories claim that some or all elements of the Apollo program and the associated Moon landings were hoaxes staged by NASA, possibly with the aid of other organizations. The most notable claim is that the six crewed landings (1969–1972) were faked and that twelve Apollo astronauts did not actually walk on the Moon. Various groups and individuals have made claims since the mid-1970s that NASA and others knowingly misled the public into believing the landings happened, b... The first book making the claim that it was a hoax was in 1974. In 1977 a Hare Krishna magazine made the claim that it was a hoax. In the 1970’s it was common for people in Latin America, Asia, and Africa to believe that it was a hoax. This may have been because Cuba was sending teachers abroad that told them it was so. It was probably more common in third world countries than in the U.S. at that point. Right up to today there are people who believe it. I think that the claim started shortly after the moon landing and grew slowly for decades. _Capricorn One_ was only one part of the popularity of the theory. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/126 "2016-04-01T02:52:46Z")
Can anyone find a link to the results of polls over a long period asking people if they believe in the theory? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/127 "2016-04-01T12:05:02Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Here’s a history of moon landing conspiracy theories: > > [Moon landing conspiracy theories - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories) > > The first book making the claim that it was a hoax was in 1974. In 1977 a Hare Krishna magazine made the claim that it was a hoax. In the 1970’s it was common for people in Latin America, Asia, and Africa to believe that it was a hoax. This may have been because Cuba was sending teachers abroad that told them it was so. It was probably more common in third world countries than in the U.S. at that point. Right up to today there are people who believe it. I think that the claim started shortly after the moon landing and grew slowly for decades. _Capricorn One_ was only one part of the popularity of the theory. I don’t doubt that there were people claiming it in 1974 – there are people who will believe and make up just about any conspiracy theory. The question is whether it was widely believed before _Capricorn One_ in 1978. I certainly don’t recall anything like the widespread attraction of the theory back before that film, or even for some time afterwards. Note that the first book about it being in 1974 sort of undercuts the suggestion (made in _The Big Book of Conspiracies_ ) that the scene in the 1971 movie **Diamonds are Forever** was intended to be a depiction of the Moon Landing Hoax in action. I’ve checked the Google Ngram viewer, but it doesn’t seem to help in finding any references to the Moon Landing Hoax (or similar words). Google Books hasn’t picked up anything before the late 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/128 "2016-04-01T13:28:06Z")
> [@Haldurson](#): > > I’m not sure which film really started the whole comic book movie boom, but I’d lay money on the first Tobey McGuire Spider-man movie. There were a few false starts before that (Superman, and Batman had some good starts, but then a few bad movies put a temporary halt to those franchises). X-MEN – with Oscar-caliber actors, yellow-spandex joke, and Stan Lee cameo – had already been a big enough hit as to get a franchise-tastic sequel greenlit well before Tobey Maguire’s first outing as Spidey hit theaters, doing wonders for Hugh Jackman’s career and not so much for James Marsden. ---
**Author:** ![jsquire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@jsquire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsquire)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/129 "2016-04-01T13:41:07Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory led to Wonka Candies. Odd, because Dahl’s book was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s the other way around. The film was financed by Breaker Confections, then a subsidiary of Quaker Oats and now owned by Nestle, which was renamed the Willy Wonka Candy Company just before the film’s release. This tie-in was the reason the title changed. IMHO, the film was a far better product than the Wonka Bar it promoted. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/130 "2016-04-01T14:21:41Z")
Caractacus Potts in _Chitty Chitty Bang Bang_ invented Toot Sweets, the candy whistles. [But you can get your own.](http://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Island-Sweets-Toot-Melody/dp/B004PXQ8N6) _Tout de suite_, get it? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/131 "2016-04-08T05:01:47Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > _One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest_ – [Novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo%27s_Nest_%28novel%29) by Ken Kesey (1962), and the [movie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo%27s_Nest_%28film%29) (1975) starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. > > The popular rebellion against forced institutionalization in mental hospitals, and against the degrading institutional treatment and forced medications and electroshock treatments, was already a growing movement, I believe. The book and the movie further planted the distrust of mental institutions in the public mind, and I think was instrumental in the movement towards de-institutionalizing the mentally ill. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” described a model that was already receding into the past in the 50’s, even before the introduction of first-generation anti-psychotics emptied out the institutions characterised by the movie. I’m too young to remember what effect the movie had on public perceptions, but de-institutionalisation was certainly driven by cost-cutting, and was happening regardless of perception. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/132 "2016-04-08T05:55:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > This is a minor thing, but I _swear_ I never noticed anyone leaving stones or pebbles on tombs or memorials until they showed people doing that to Oskar Schindler’s tomb at the end of \* Schindler’s List\*. Now I see it everywhere. > > It’s possible that the film merely brought it to my attention, but I don’t think so. I don’t recall seeing it earlier, and it stood out when I saw the film simply because it was a practice I’d never seen or heard of before. I gather than leaving Memorial Stones is an old Jewish practice, but I don’t think other groups did it until the film popularized the idea. The Cadet I knew at West Point knew that people did it for the grave of David Marcus, “as a mark of respect”, but thought it had nothing to do with his faith/culture. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081/133 "2016-04-09T21:51:52Z")
I don’t see _Patton_ mentioned yet. Richard Nixon’s favorite movie. Nixon watched _Patton_ for the [6th time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_Campaign#Decisions) and the next day decided to invade Cambodia. Which lead to the war spreading deep into Cambodia, Pol Pot and the evil that came with that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fiction-films-have-had-the-greatest-effects-on-the-real-world/749081.md?page=6)