What we see on TV and in the movies can influence us greatly. Many people have felt a certain kinship with a particular character from a certain story, and sometimes it can feel like the actors are telling the story of your life. With that said, movies and television can at times be a healthy source of inspiration or cathartic release. Sometimes, however, people take what they see on the screen too far – acting out stunts or scenes from something that they saw on TV or in the theater – blurring the line between fiction and reality. When people take their media-inspired fantasies too far they often wind up injured, arrested or worse, dead. Below are the stories of fifteen people who imitated what they saw in movies or on television, and why it landed them on a stretcher, a police car or a coffin.
The Dark Knight (The Joker)
No one was laughing at the Three Rivers 6 Cinema in Michigan when a man dressed up like Batman’s “The Joker” began to steal movie memorabilia from around the theater. On July 30th, 2008, a man wearing a purple joker suit, green wig and white face paint walked into the theater with the intent of destroying and stealing as many posters, displays and general theater property as possible before being restrained by cinema employees. The man was later identified as 20-year-old Spencer Taylor. Police say Taylor will most likely be charged with larceny. Not the worst charge on this list, but it makes you wonder if it was worth it.
JackassWhat happens when pre-pubescent, hormonal and “invincible” young boys watch a show like “Jackass?“ In 2001, a small town in Connecticut found out when 13-year-old Jason Lind and his two friends attempted to recreate a stunt performed by Johnny Knoxville on an episode of “Jackass” just a few nights prior. The stunt as performed by Knoxville involved donning a fire retardant suit with steaks hanging from it and grilling them over a massive barbecue. Lind only took from such a stunt that lighting another person on fire is funny, and thus he and his friends poured gasoline on his feet and legs and lit him on fire. Rushed to the hospital with third degree burns, Lind was placed in the burn unit under critical condition and one of his friends was arrested for reckless endangerment.
Beavis and Butthead“Beavis and Butthead”, for those unaware, was an early 1990s cartoon featuring two incredibly dumb metal heads that were always getting in trouble. The two main characters on the show obsessed over many things, including heavy metal, television, the female anatomy, and fire. It was the pyromania featured on the show that really stuck out to one five-year-old Ohio boy, and in 1993 he lit a fire in imitation of a “Beavis and Butthead” episode that accidentally led to the death his two-year-old baby sister. The fire was set in the family’s mobile home, and soon the boy’s play-time activity raged out of control, destroying the home and taking his sister with it. Perhaps we should take from such tragedy the lesson that young impressionable children should not be allowed to watch adult-themed television shows unsupervised.
The Dark Knight (Batman)In August of 2008, a man wearing a Batman mask attempted to rob a Tulsa Oklahoma grocery store. Unfortunately for the masked thief, he might have looked a bit like Batman, but his weaponry was no where near as advanced. When he tried to fire his gun at a customer, the barrel jammed, leaving him momentarily stunned. That’s when the real hero of the story, 44-year-old American Airlines mechanic Craig Stutzman, who was shopping when the robbery took place, lunged at the criminal, taking him down and beating him into submission in a brawl that took them from the store to the parking lot. “Batman” never stood a chance, and Stutzman was able to keep him down until the police showed up and arrested the masked gun-man. Video footage of the entire incident can be seen here, in a security-camera captured moment worthy of any PPV channel.
Jackass TooYoung children or pre-teens imitating the MTV show “Jackass” is one thing, but grown men who should certainly know better than to try dangerous television stunts somehow illicit less pity for their injuries. Following the release of Jackass: The Movie 2, several people ended up in various hospitals after chasing the adrenaline and laughter filled stunts depicted in the movie, but perhaps the most “asinine” stunt of all comes straight from the UK. In November of 2006 a Sunderland man suffered severe internal injuries after attempting to launch a high powered firework from his rear-end in front of a group of onlookers. Chief among the serious damage done by the rectal rocket was a stretched colon, an injury which must have been quite shitty – to say the least.
The ProgramWho would believe that a young man might be found dead after imitating a Disney movie? Sadly this is exactly the case on October 16th, 1993 in Polk, Pennsylvania when eighteen-year-old Michael Shingledecker was ran over by a pick-up truck. Shingledecker and his friends were reportedly reenacting a scene from the Disney movie, The Program by laying down on highway white dotted lines while cars rushed past, attempting to prove that they had nerves of steel. That’s not all, however, as seventeen-year-old Michael Macias of Bayville, New Jersy suffered critical spinal injuries that same Saturday, performing the exact same stunt from the movie. In response to these tragedies, Disney decided to remove this scene from The Program.
Fight ClubIn July of 2009, police apprehended a seventeen-year-old Kyle Shaw, charged with bombing a Starbucks. According to police reports, the copy-cat culprit claimed to have started his own underground fight club, and when he got bored with that he moved on to starting his own “Project Mayhem.” The purpose of this was effectively small-scale terrorism. Thankfully no one was injured in the coffee shop bombing, and Shaw is now in custody. The most ridiculous part of the entire ordeal is that he only got caught after bragging to his friends about it. If he were a true fan of the movie he should know, the first rule is NOT to talk about it. This kid loved the movie so much that he even tried to look like his favorite character, Tyler Durden. A picture from his Facebook can be seen here.
Kobe CommercialWe have all seen the popular internet meme featuring NBA superstar Kobe Bryant jumping over a moving Aston Martin. The video (which is actually fake and was edited by a Hollywood studio) was very popular for its extremely convincing look, and this video inspired many special effects/video editing junkies to create their own spin-off videos. Sadly, one teenager actually believed that the Kobe video was the real deal and, after “some math calculations” attempted the stunt for real. Smashing into the windshield of a sedan moving 80MPH, the young man was seriously injured after misjudging when to take the leap. Check out the video of the accident here, but be ware, it is not for the squeamish.
MTV RoadiesIn April of 2009, a nine-year-old boy was hung to death while imitating a stunt from his favorite reality TV show, “MTV’s Roadies.” Chandan Singh attempted to reenact a stunt from the show where two females stood with their arms tied and nooses around their necks while they waited for a male contestant to save them. The uncle of Singh reports hearing a loud noise from the child’s room, and upon rushing upstairs to check on him, found the boy hanging from his ceiling fan. The young boy reportedly never missed an episode, and was allowed to watch the TV all alone on third floor of the house. Some careful parental monitoring might have one a long way toward preventing this horrible incident.
NarutoIn March of 2008, a ten-year-old boy was critically injured while imitating a scene from his favorite television anime cartoon, “Naruto.” Cody Porter and his friends were playing in a sandbox when Porter recommended that his friends bury him in the sand head first, a scene they recall seeing on Naruto. Cody was reportedly buried from his head to his chest, and was not helped when he began thrashing around because his friends thought he was just playing around. Eventually however, the boys must have figured out something was wrong (probably when he stopped moving) and pulled him from the sand. Cody was taken to the hospital to make a full recovery.
Man On FireThe movie Man On Fire features a popular scene involving the game of Russian roulette. A horribly crude and extremely dangerous “game”, Russian roulette involves placing a single bullet into the chamber of a revolver, randomly spinning the cylinder, putting the barrel to your head and pulling the trigger. If you are lucky, you will not get the chamber with the bullet in it. Twenty-seven-year-old Jeremiah Overstreet of Apopka, Florida, was not so lucky when he tried the game out after watching Man On Fire in 2005. Emulating Denzel Washington’s character in the movie, Overstreet put a single bullet in his revolver, spun the cylinder and fired it into his head. This movie copy-cat was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mortal KombatThe video game/movie series, “Mortal Kombat“ is a violent gore-fest of martial arts and weaponry. The loose theme of the Mortal Kombat film, involves fighting to the death, one on one, with a host of colorful characters in order to rise to the winner’s circle of an international tournament. This might sound like fun to some competitive adults at a party together, but when reckless, violent teenagers become obsessed with movies and games, things can get quite ugly. In December of 2007, Lamar Roberts (17) and his girlfriend Heather Trujillo (16) were babysitting Trujillo’s younger sister Zoe, who was only seven-years-old. Lamar decided to try out moves they learned from Mortal Kombat on the child, repeatedly kicking, hitting and body slamming her until she lost consciousness. Heather sat aside watching, playing “referee.” Once Zoe had passed out, the two attempted CPR to resuscitate her, but the damage was too much for the young girl’s body, and she lost her life shortly after. The two have been charged as adults, and Lamar is now serving a 36-year prison sentence.
DexterFans of the show “Dexter” know the main character as an FBI investigator who uses his knowledge of crime scene investigation to lead a double life as a serial killing vigilante, striking back against the bad guys with brutal deaths. In November of 2008, a man by the name of Mark Twitchell took his obsession with the show a step too far when he staged his own on-film killing. Luring a missing person into his garage, Twitchell hacked him apart in a scenario eerily similar to his favorite TV show. Edmonton police homicide Detective Mark Anstey claims that there is a load of evidence suggesting that Teitchell idolizes the fictional “Dexter,” and that this killing was an attempt to emulate him. His Facebook page alone contained many incriminating statements, such as a status reading, “”Mark has way too much in common with Dexter Morgan.”
Silence of the LambsPerhaps the most brutal known movie imitation is the case of Cheryl Ann Joe, a woman brutally murdered in a grisly reenactment of The Silence of the Lambs. Cheryl, a single mother of two, worked as a prostitute to pay the bills, and would street-walk the ghettos of Vancouver, looking for customers. In January of 1992, Brian Allender, a heinous sociopath, picked up Cheryl and drove her to his place for a brutal night of macabre the world shall not forget. Cheryl’s breasts were chopped off, her skull crushed and her lady-parts sliced off and thrown away. Once arrested for the dehumanizing murder, Allender admitted to deciding to pick up a prostitute after watching The Silence of the Lambs.
Kevin and Perry Go Large
In what should have been predicted as inevitable, several students from Brighton, UK, are dangerously close to losing their eyesight in what can be seen as an incredibly moronic and foolish incident. The famous UK comedy Kevin And Perry Go Large features a sequence where the main character takes shots of vodka by tipping a bottle into his eye. Several alcohol crazed former college students decided to reenact the sequence by trying out this new way to consume liquor. The videos of this can be found on Youtube and feature the boys in pain after pouring the spirits into their eyes. Experts warn that repeated behavior can quickly cause blindness and that the activity is an incredibly dangerous way to party.
