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Movies bring us together, whether we decide to watch them at the cinema or in the comfort of our home. But sometimes they do more than that – in a few strange cases, movies have helped people literally survive difficult situations, and a few have even have helped people save lives.
Don’t believe us? Here are 6 examples of people who survived because of movies.
6. Titanic Saved These Sailors
We all know Titanic is a film (and historical event) that ended in tragedy, but the sailors of the Bow Mariner were able to save themselves thanks to a key scene in the film in 2004.
Three men remembered that some of Titanic’s sailors held on to the ship until just before it sank, allowing them to stay dry longer and plan how to get directly into a lifeboat. So that’s what they did – and they survived. Many other men decided to jump straight onto the sea and died of exposure.
5. Halloween Saved This Guy from a Home Invader
Halloween is a horror film, and at one point in it Jamie Lee Curtis saves herself by stabbing Michael Myers with a knitting needle after he’s chased her into a neighbor’s house. One man remembered this scene in the film, and used her tactics to save himself from a stranger who had snuck into his own home – he stabbed the intruder with a knitting needle and ran to a neighbor’s house.
He survived and even thanked Jamie Lee Curtis herself in person in 2018.
4. 127 Hours Is Saving a Lot of Babies
127 Hours is a film about real-life outdoorsman Aron Ralston. The film used extremely life-like props for the famous arm-cutting-off scene, and it turns out they made a big impression on Jane Kleinman, a medical professional who teaches doctors how to manage emergency situations. Kleinman had long been disappointed with low quality medical dummies, so when she saw the arm in the movie, she was thrilled.
Kleinman got in touch with 127 Hour’s head of special effects, Tony Gardner, about the fake arm. They started a company called Simureal that creates realistic looking prosthetics (mostly babies) that simulate many health conditions. Medical students now use these life-like props to learn how to save lives.
Photo Credit: Film4 Productions
3. My Sister’s Keeper Saved a Teen with Cancer
In 2012, Alex Cooper watched My Sister’s Keeper during a quiet night in and realized she was experiencing the same symptoms as in the movie. Her parents took her to the doctor, who determined she did indeed have leukemia – but she was able to get treatment and, luckily, become free of cancer.
2. The Walking Dead Saved a Woman from a Stalker
Terra Newell was an avid fan of The Walking Dead whose mother was married to an abusive man. After her mother decided she had had enough and kicked her stepfather out, he went super-stalker on the both of them. One day, the man tried attacking Newell as she got out of a car, but she was able to save herself thanks to something she learned on the show: that the eye is the softest way to get to the brain. She wrestled his knife away and stabbed him in the eye just like, as she later said, “killing a zombie.”
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1. Black Panther Saved an Impaled Boy
Back in 2018, Xavier Cunningham was trying to escape some wasps that attacked him while he was playing in his treehouse. The 11-year old fell flat off the platform—and on top of a metal skewer. Thankfully, he had seen Black Panther and remembered that Erik Kilmonger died when he removed an implement after getting impaled.
So Cunningham left the metal skewer in his face, and doctors say that saved his life.
There you have it! Movies really are useful. Which of these examples surprised you the most?
