10 Movies Which Unwittingly Inspired Real-Life Crimes

4. Taxi Driver

Martin Scorsese's violent and psychologically imposing masterpiece initially became infamous for it's casting of an underage Jodie Foster as a teenage prostitute, but it would reach whole new levels of infamy with the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981. The man who tried to assassinate Reagan was John Hinckley Jr, who believed that Travis Bickle was talking to him when he tried to assassinate a politician to get a woman's affection.

Hinckley was a fantasist and psychologically damaged and upon seeing the film, he delved further more into his imaginary world and eventually decided to try and kill one of the most powerful men on the planet to impress Jodie Foster. Hinckley wounded the president, but failed to kill him and after a series of trials he was eventually found insane and has been under psychiatric care ever since.