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Culture-Defining Movies

Ten movies that really defined and affected culture. THESE ARE NOT RANKED OR LISTED

By Bri JenkinsPublished 4 years ago 4 min read
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At least in Western Culture, movies impact us a lot. Some of our mannerisms, actions/inactions, and sayings come from movies. These are, in my opinion, some of the most culture-defining movies.

The Matrix

This turn-of-the-century film trilogy has defined how we view things. “Are we in the Matrix?” has been uttered so many times, we’ve all lost count. The ICONIC scene of Neo dodging bullets has been recreated in TV, other films, and cartoons.

Final Destination

At least in its early movies, the final destination franchise truly did terrify people. People were scared to fly, to be on the highway, to ride roller coasters. But there is that one scene in the second film that really stayed with people. In the premonition, there’s an accident on the highway that the protagonist avoids. This accident is first caused by a logging truck. Thus, you’ll rarely see people behind a logging truck. It’s been over a decade, and these films still affect us.

Twilight

Love it or hate it, nobody can deny the impact that the Twilight saga had on us. Since these movies started coming out when I was in 6th grade, I loved the book and movies. But now… the books are kinda boring, the side characters are ten times more interesting than the main ones, the cast have pretty much all expressed disdain for the films, but… the cinematography is amazing. That baseball scene was so well shot… It took over the frickin’ world. I think these films are what changed Hot Topic into a pop culture store from its former gothic store that your parents would shoo you away from.

The Hunger Games

Young adult novels becoming world wide phenomena continued in the dystopian series The Hunger Games. The premise of a government sending its youth to slaughter for the privilege of them and their family basically not starving to death really resonated with people. It took over stores, libraries, and I like to think it really reinvigorated youth reading rates.

Grease

A staple in movie musicals, everybody knows about Grease. You’ve got summer love, a transformation story, and racing cars. What more do you need? It also some catchy tunes and an iconic leading couple.

Spider-Man

When Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man hit theaters in 2002, it changed cinema forever. It reintroduced superhero movies into the mainstream. For years, theater goers just didn’t have any interest in superheroes after the kind-of-success of Superman Returns (but let’s be real, audiences stopped really caring about superhero movies after Superman II in 1980). Because of Raimi and Maguire, we have the MCEU and the DCEU as we know them today.

Star Wars

A franchise that started in the 70s and has been ingrained in our culture and has even had prequels and sequels of the original story made. You don’t get your “nerd card” seeing or knowing random factoids about Star Wars. It’s a thing that’s so normalized that it reaches outside of “nerdom” and into the mainstream audiences.

Jurassic Park

Who doesn’t love dinosaurs? The idea that humans would bring back prehistoric creatures (basically for clout) is… honestly expected. But it truly looked amazing for the time the original movies came out, and again… who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

Mean Girls

It’s so fetch! Mean Girls has infiltrated a lot in culture. From quotes, to fashion, references in other movies, even into the cosmetic world. We commemorate October 3rd as “Mean Girls Day” because the date was mentioned in the movie. It’s a dramedy that deals with the convention of early 2000s angst and how “popular” girls were often portrayed, and it was poetry.

Titanic

Celine Dion, young Leo Dicaprio, and the tragic story of an actual event. The “top of the world” scene, Rose on the front of the ship, the car scene… iconic. Again, a movie that’s referenced in other movies. In recent memory, it was referenced in Mamma Mia 2. The movie was so long it came in two VHS tapes, and some theaters even had an intermission.

The Dark Knight

Again, an amazing superhero film series. The Dark Knight was a darker take on superheroes; Batman has always been a darker character, even in the comics, but it was really the first time in live action film we saw a darker, grittier hero and plot. It’s still revered as one of the best superhero films, franchises, even just films to grace the big screen.

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About the Creator

Bri Jenkins

Twenty-Six years young.

College Student studying English and Education.

Hopes of becoming an author and want to get my voice somewhere it's appreciated.

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