One example of a movie with unintended consequences is the 1995 film “Jumanji,” which depicted a magical board game that brought wild animals and other dangers into the real world. Some viewers have noted that the film may have inadvertently contributed to negative perceptions of board games and tabletop gaming, as well as perpetuated misconceptions about the potential dangers of playing games. Additionally, the portrayal of animals in the film may have reinforced negative stereotypes about certain species. While these consequences were likely unintended by the filmmakers, they demonstrate the potential impact of media on public perceptions and attitudes.
Bird Box (2018).
Premise: The world is overrun by monsters. When a person looks at one of them, he will instantly go insane. He will do everything within his abilities to kill himself, as soon as he possibly can. Once someone has seen a monster, they are as good as dead. To survive, people must cover their eyes. They do this using blindfolds.
The characters do things anyone with at least two brain cells would know are too dangerous to do in the real world, such as running blindfolded and driving blindfolded.
They do these risky things because they need to survive, and some of these things are essential to the movie’s plot.
The movie is based on a book and is quite similar to it, so the author and filmmakers could not have predicted the unintended consequences. Braindead Youtubers and Tiktokers imitated some of the risky things in the movie. They called it The Bird Box Challenge, good lord. It was to do anything, anything I tell you, blindfolded, record it and post it on social media.
Just when you think people couldn’t get any more stupid. It wasn’t long before these retarded videos went viral. If you think this stupid craze was limited to teenagers, you’re wrong.
Adults, children, heck — even toddlers took part as well.
They filmed themselves blindfolded, roaming their house, their neighborhood, and public areas, doing anything you could imagine.
Interacting with dangerous animals
Riding bikes, lawn-mowers
Driving cars
In Utah, a teenage girl drove a car with her eyes covered while recording herself. Her car crashed of course.
As cool as these people wished they were, the things they were doing were still very dangerous. It reached the point where Netflix felt compelled to say: Can’t believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE.
We don’t know how this started, and we appreciate the love…just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes. Just…ridiculous.
Princess and the Frog
The Princess and the Frog was released in 2009, grossing $250 million dollars at the box office despite having only a 105 million dollar budget. A success by all measures.
It was your run-of-the-mill Disney movie, this one about Tiana, a regular girl, blablabla man is stuck as a frog, blablabla and has to kiss a princess to be free of being a frog, blablablabla but of course, Tiana isn’t a real princess so they think but he loves her.
Blablabla, in the end, they kiss and the frog is set free. Blablabla, she finds out she is the princess.
Unfortunately, after watching the movie a bunch of little girls went out and kissed frogs, and there were 50 hospitalizations for salmonella with almost all of them being girls under the age of 10. (The Princess and the Frog fans fall ill after copying film. Metro Reporter)
Luckily nobody died. But I’m sure those were some cute conversations with the doctor. Doctor: “Why did you kiss the frog? Little girl in her innocent little girl voice “Because I wanted to be a princess”
Peppa Pig from Peppa Pig
This is technically a television show, but it had unintended consequences.
Peppa Pig from Peppa Pig. *Snort*
Or more specifically—
Does anyone remember the time Peppa Pig hung up on Suzy Sheep because she couldn’t whistle? Anyone? Just me? Okay, I— Well, guess what?
Everybody’s favorite childhood pig has evolved into a gangster symbol. In China, censorship is pretty sensitive. A year after Winnie the Pooh got censored, Peppa Pig—or the “cheeky little pig” met the same fate for promoting “gangster attitudes” among adults. (Yes, you heard that correctly. Gangster attitudes.)
Peppa Pig was meant to be a form of simple entertainment for children, to teach them morals and take a couple of hours off their parent’s hands. But ‘society people,’ or gangsters in China, have taken it completely out of context, featuring her in memes, vulgar videos, and crude jokes. Peppa has become a symbol of being tough and cool.
Many things spawned from this trend: the catchphrase, Get a Peppa tattoo, support gangsters, thousands of types of Peppa merch, and has even wormed its way into people’s fashion choices.
Phantom Menace
The Phantom Menace caused some terrible experiences for two of its cast members.
10-year-old Jake Lloyd seemed like the luckiest kid on earth to be playing a young Anakin Skywalker in the latest Star Wars movie. But as you may know, the movie wasn’t exactly well received. It was hated by many.
Jake, unfortunately, suffered the brunt of the movie’s reception and was unable to escape the effects of being an overnight sensation. He would be recognized everywhere he went; kids would make obnoxious lightsaber noises at him, and the more toxic members of the SW fanbase took their hatred out on him.
“You ruined my childhood!”
On top of the bullying, he would do up to 60 interviews a day. The experience cost him much of his childhood, making him hold a grudge against George Lucas and Star Wars as a whole. He only starred in one more movie before quitting acting. Now he attends events and does formal interviews. Fortunately, he’s doing a lot better nowadays, despite rumors that he got into drugs, went to prison or went insane.
The Spider-Man movie
After watching Spider-Man 3, some kids purposely allowed themselves to be bitten by a Black Widow spider, hoping they would get Spider-Man’s powers.
Unfortunately, “[their] venomous bites quickly took effect, and the boys experienced ‘severe muscle pain, abdominal cramps, increased heart rate and muscle spasms.’” After 5 days, however, they recovered.
I certainly don’t think the filmmaker’s original intentions included landing a few kids in the hospital over spider bites.