Movies are meant to tell a story. Some of them are based on reality. A good docudrama, chronicling the life of a public figure, can make the viewer forget what year they are in and bring them to an earlier era. The immersive feeling of a movie can help audiences travel to another place or time. For reality-based productions, such an idea can be simple.
It’s the fiction pieces that turn out to affect future events, whether directly or not, that truly give us pause. Whether it’s two stars being married on screen and then later in life, unbelievable events from years to come predicted with pinpoint accuracy, or paranormal factors affecting paranormal film projects, there are plenty of examples of life imitating art. These 15 examples are some of the most head-shaking examples of such a phenomenon.
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15 Mr. and Mrs. Smith Predicts Mr. and Mrs. Pitt
Regency Enterprises
When Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie signed on star in the 2005 romantic spy story Mr. and Mrs. Smith, they weren’t acquainted with one another. Meeting on the set, the duo had instant chemistry and, because of that, Pitt’s marriage to Jennifer Aniston was cited by many as a reason that chemistry was inappropriate. The two, however, denied there was any romance during filming.
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In 2014, the denials could no longer hold true. The two were married nine years after the film’s release, starting the Brangelina era. While the matrimony lasted just about eight years, it was a whirlwind and a true sign of life imitating art.
14 The Birds Really Attack the Author’s Descendants
Universal Pictures
He may be the master of suspense, but when it came to The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock might have been the master of predicting the future. The 1963 classic horror film was a terrifying tale of assorted birds, for seemingly no reason, attacking people with sadistic rage. It gripped the nation and became a scary story that many feared could happen. The original tale was written by Daphne du Maurier.
Nearly 50 years later, in 2001, Maurier’s son, Christian “Kits” Browning and his wife, Olive, were “viciously attacked” by seagulls outside their English cottage. The scene was almost an exact recreation of the classic tale with the 60-year-old telling the New York Post, “They built their nest on a stone pillar in the garden…Every time you try to go out, the mother starts screeching and the dad sits on the roof and literally dive-bombs you.”
13 Woman in the Moon Created the Countdown NASA Would Use
UFA
Decades before anyone would ever realistically consider sending someone to the moon, the film Woman in the Moon envisioned a scenario for it. The German science fiction tale saw two professors join forces to tackle space flight. Based on the 1928 novel, The Rocket to the Moon, by Thea von Harbou, it was hailed as a fantastical vision.
What makes the film a true piece of Americana is that its countdown to zero prior to the rocket launch was introduced as a means of suspense building. Along with several other pieces of eventual space travel equipment, Woman in the Moon seemingly predicted and influenced a number of factors that NASA emulated nearly 40 years later.
12 Airplane 2 Presents Full-Body Scanners
Paramount Pictures
What’s the vector, Victor? The Airplane series is beloved for its comedy and bizarre one-liners. Loaded with puns and pop culture references, the satire of an in-flight drama has become one of the most hilarious movies ever made. It also made one major prediction.
In a moment that should give anyone pause, one of Airplane 2’s most ridiculous suggestions wound up coming to fruition in the real world. Just over 30 years following the film’s 1982 release, airports would begin installing the ridiculous naked body scanners that the movie had envisioned. Predating 9/11 and a slew of other airline issues over the following decades, Airplane 2’s eerie premonition is astounding.
11 Brad Pitt Tore His Achilles While Playing Achilles in Troy
Warner Bros.
If Mr. and Mrs. Smith broke Pitt’s marriage, his role in Troy as Achilles broke…well, his Achilles. A truly ironic moment, Pitt tore his tendon while playing the role that made tearing an Achilles tendon famous. As Pitt explained to CBS News, “It’s just wear and tear and all the jumping and fighting in that sand…It was near the very end and we’d been shooting and training for months at that point and it just said, ‘I’m done.’”
10 The Muppets Movie Meet Elmo’s Lawyer On and Off-Screen
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
If you need proof that the world has changed, The Muppets Movie offers that. Gone are the days of Kermit, Fozzy, and Miss Piggy interacting with Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch. Those 1970s crossovers are a piece of nostalgia at this point. It is something that star and co-writer Jason Segel learned firsthand in the most ironic way possible.
As Segel explained, he had written a scene where the Muppets attempt to recruit Elmo from Sesame Street to host their show. However, in-movie lawyers step in and put a stop to the possibility. It was meant to be a light-hearted joke, but turned serious when the scene had to be cut…because lawyers for the little red monster’s intellectual property turned Segel down. Guess Elmo wasn’t tickled by the idea of doing a cameo.
9 The Purge: Election Year Keeps America Great…Four Years Before 2020
Blumhouse Productions
The 2016 United States election was one of the most polarizing in history. Suddenly, right versus left felt more pronounced. The values of one side felt directly in contrast to the other, and the end result was strife, conflict, and a political hotbed that changed the landscape of America.
Earlier that year, The Purge: Election Year seemed to tap into that eventual change. The film, released four months prior to the election, not only realized the future we were about to see through scenes and storyline, but predicted the words that would even be used to sell it. In a true piece of life imitating art, the Purge offered a slogan that wouldn’t be marketed until the 2020 election four years later: “Keep America Great.”
8 Wag the Dog Predicted “Fake News”
New Line Cinema
To someone watching Wag the Dog today, it seems like a tired commentary that we have heard before. The media, in conjunction with the government, creates news, manufactures heroes, and invents stories. The idea is to stoke fear and evoke patriotism. It’s a side of news channels we have all become used to.
When you realized that Wag the Dog was released in 1997, things take a turn. The film arrived only one year after the founding of Fox News and MSNBC. For those who saw it in theaters, it felt interesting and fresh, but not like a realistic representation of the world at the time. Decades later, it could practically be a documentary.
7 Network Predicts Ratings, Sensationalism, and News Fatigue
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Released by MGM in 1976, Network was another take on the weary news cycle. As Howard Beale, Peter Finch announces that he will end his life while anchoring the news TV. The shocking decision is not only sanctioned by the station but encouraged for ratings. It was this prediction about television ratings and the low-moral threshold that it demanded that made Network so eerily clairvoyant.
As Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times in 2000, “Seen a quarter-century later, it is like prophecy. When Chayevsky created Howard Beale, could he have imagined Jerry Springer, Howard Stern and the World Wrestling Federation?”
6 The Omen And the Devil’s Hand
20th Century Fox
The theme of The Omen should be creepy enough. The idea of a child, spawned from the devil, creates an unsettling feeling all its own. When the film was released in 1976, audiences were already sufficiently terrified. The sequels since have all been equally spooky.
When stories began to leak of the movie’s haunting creation, the legend of The Omen took a turn. Producer Harvey Bernhard has gone on record as saying that there was an evil presence at work, perhaps trying to stop production. Some sources of proof? Star Gregory Peck and writer David Seltzer having their planes hit by lightning…on separate occasions. Also, a crew member was involved in a car accident that saw him decapitated in the same way that the photographer character in the movie was. Coincidence? Maybe. Creepy? Very.
5 Rosemary’s Baby and Roman Polanski’s Future
Roman Polanski’s frightening tale of a pregnant woman unwittingly carrying the spawn of Satan while living in a bizarre apartment complex is a true classic. Mixing the trepidation of pregnancy with the real-world feeling of evil, Rosemary’s Baby tapped into a basic visceral reaction that everyone can relate to.
That same visceral reaction was felt just one year later when Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, became the most famous victim of the Manson Family. Tate, who was pregnant at the time, suffered a fate far worse than any on-screen. Still, the recent nature of the film and the parallel subject matter for Polanski caused many to question the film’s eerie presence off-screen.
4 Poltergeist Disturbs the Peace
The story of Poltergeist centered around a family living in a home built on a Native American burial ground. The idea is that disturbing the dead can create a ripple effect from the netherworld. It was blamed for the woes of the Freeling family in the movie. It also was blamed for the woes of the cast and crew.
With rumors swirling that the production team had used real human skeletons for the early scenes, the fallout was swift. Dominque Dunn, daughter of Dominik Dunne and older sister in the original Poltergeist, was murdered shortly after the film’s release.
However, it was the star of the series, 12-year-old Heather O’Rourke, who seemingly embodied the cursed nature of the film. O’Rourke contracted congenital stenosis of the intestine and passed away on January 31, 1998. The University of California Irvine Medical Center stated that her death was “distinctly unusual.” The star of the series passed away just as filming was coming to a close on the final part of the trilogy. Her unexpected passing caused a body double to be used for final reshoots in the film.
3 The Truman Show Syndrome
“Good morning and — in case I don’t see you — good afternoon, good evening, and good night.” Jim Carey’s jovial greeting in The Truman Show was meant to evoke a feeling of ignorant bliss by the unwitting star of a reality franchise. Truman, unaware that his life is televised, must struggle with an on-air world created all for him.
In 2008, exactly 10 years after the film was released, CNN reported on The Truman Syndrome. This mental disorder was assigned to people who believed that they too were the clueless stars of a TV show. In speaking to reporters, psychologist Vaughan Bell explained, “I don’t think that popular culture causes delusions, but I do think that it is only possible to fully understand delusions and psychosis in light of our wider culture.”
2 The Net Predicts Broadband World Before Even Dial-Up Was Mainstream
Columbia Pictures
The internet in 1995 was archaic. Still about two years from the height of AOL popularity and further removed from mainstream broadband, The Net was a hard sell for the 90s generation. After all, how much damage can hackers do to an infrastructure that most didn’t use? We have cash, checkbooks, and MC Hammer. It’s the 1990s, baby.
It turns out that Sandra Bullock’s spy drama predicted a large amount of our online future. From online pizza orders to airline tickets to the layout of the computer systems, The Net seemed to look into the not-so-distant future and create a world that many today will recognize. Rewatching The Net today is enough to make you question how much was real at the time and how much was just amazing guesswork.
1 The Running Man Nails 2019
Tri-Star Pictures
Released in 1987 and taking place in 2019, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Running Man is akin to a crystal ball on film. On the surface, the idea of a cut-throat reality show to salvage the freedom of a condemned man seems close to today’s reality entertainment society. However, there was much more than that in terms of life playing catch up to Ah-nold.
Flatscreen televisions everywhere? Check. Competition reality show popularity? Yup. Stagnant fashion sense instead of futuristic collars and headbands? That one was true too. From voice-activated appliances to so-called “fake news”, The Running Man tapped into the future in ways that few would have expected. Yet, for those who lived through 2019, it was dead-on.
