10 Common Movie Myths Everyone Believes

4. Piranha Are Ravenous Carnivores

Outnumbered and without hell from the outside world, our hero must make a daring escape to safety on his own. He shoots off the locks and escapes his cell, taking flight down the corridor. Suddenly, we hear the murmurs of approaching henchmen. To avoid capture, the tired protagonist ducks into a nearby room, where he is greeted by...a tank of ravenous piranha? Peering over the edge, we see the faint outlines of fish darting under the water's surface. Without warning, something bubbles up to the surface. Through the froth and the foam, there's a glint of a diamond ring €” with a finger still attached to it. The ravenous fish have devoured our hero's love interest, leaving nothing but bone. This myth actually has quite a bit of history to it. Though legends of bloodthirsty piranha have persisted for years, perhaps the most famous account was perpetuated by Theodore Roosevelt. While visiting Brazil in 1913, Roosevelt witnessed a piranha feeding frenzy, and assumed that was the fish's natural behaviour. A year later in his book, Though The Brazilian Wilderness, he recounted how the school of piranha stripped a cow to the absolute bone. Sadly, what the former president didn't know was that local fishermen had been starving the fish for days, hoping they would put on a show once finally allowed to feed. A century later, Roosevelt's view of piranha still informs Hollywood movies. And most people tend to believe them, no matter how awful the movies are.