Documentaries help us gain insider knowledge and more depth in certain important social issues. They also provide new conversation fodder in our day-to-day lives. When we see scandal, corruption, evil, and injustice play out on our screens at home, we begin to feel personally involved.

The key figures in the following shocking documentaries have all been exposed in such a way that their reputations and careers have never fully recovered. On these occasions, the camera was able to capture more than the subject ever intended.

10 Blackfish (2013)

Blackfish centers around an orca named Tilikum as well as the death of a SeaWorld killer whale trainer named Dawn Brancheau, who was dragged underwater by Tilikum. This was not the first violent incident involving Tilikum, who had previously dragged a trainer underwater. Luckily, that trainer survived. In 1999, a man named Daniel P. Dukes was found dead in Tilikum’s tank under suspicious circumstances.

Blackfish claimed that Tilikum and the other killer whales held in captivity were victims of cruel circumstances. These social animals were separated from their families and placed in tanks the size of only two lengths of their bodies. The ill effects of their captivity are indicated by their drooping dorsal fins—something seen in only one percent of wild killer whales.

There was widespread anger after the documentary was released, and SeaWorld suffered a $15.9 million loss due to low audience attendance. In 2018, SeaWorld and its former CEO were also ordered to pay $5 million in fines “to settle fraud charges for misleading investors about the impact the documentary film Blackfish had on the company’s reputation and business.”^[1]

9 Living With Michael Jackson (2003)

Journalist Martin Bashir had unprecedented access to Michael Jackson’s life for his fly-on-the-wall documentary Living with Michael Jackson, released in 2003. The documentary focuses on life at the Neverland Ranch, where the singer reveals that disadvantaged children are invited to sleep in his bed while he sleeps on the bedroom floor.

Bashir intended to focus on the King of Pop’s career but portrayed a very uncomfortable side to the musician instead. In one controversial scene, Jackson was seen holding hands with a 13-year-old boy on camera. Jackson made an official complaint to the independent television commission, stating he had been “unfairly treated.” He said, “Martin Bashir persuaded me to trust him. [ . . . ] Today I feel more betrayed than perhaps ever before.” He added, “Everyone who knows me will know the truth [ . . . ] that I would never harm any child.”^[2]

In 2019, a new documentary titled Leaving Neverland focused on two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who alleged they were sexually abused by Jackson as children. Following its release, many radio stations decided to boycott the singer’s hit songs.

8 Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief (2015)

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief is a controversial commentary on the Church of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Director Alex Gibney claims the church draws in followers for money while subjecting them to physical and psychological degradation. Also highlighted is the war between the IRS and the church, which is exempt from paying any taxes on the basis of religion.

According to a former church spokesman, Tom Cruise’s ex-wife Nicole Kidman was deemed a “potential trouble source” because her father was a psychologist—a profession that Scientology is against. The documentary alleges that Kidman’s phone was tapped, and Cruise had to report daily on his relationship status. Actor John Travolta was also labeled as a key figure for the brainwashing cult in the stunning expose.

Lawrence Wright, who wrote the book that led to the film, said, “[The church] always wanted celebrities who could sell Scientology. [ . . . ] We hold people like Tom Cruise and John Travolta and others responsible for not demanding change inside that church.”^[3]

7 Surviving R. Kelly (2019)

The docuseries Surviving R. Kelly caused such public outcry that record label RCA, which is owned by Sony Music, cut all ties with R. Kelly. They removed his name from their website following an online petition which gained more than 110,000 signatures.

The singer-songwriter, real name Robert Kelly, reportedly married singer Aaliyah in 1994 and falsified the records to make her appear 18 years old when she was just 15 at the time. The brief marriage was later annulled. Kelly’s former personal assistant revealed, “I had papers forged for them when Aaliyah was underage. It was just a quick little ceremony. She didn’t have on a white dress. He didn’t have on a tux. Just everyday wear. She looked worried and scared.”^[4]

According to his former victims and their families, Kelly abused and manipulated dozens of young women and girls over the years. His former backing singer, Jovante Cunningham, stated, “He destroyed a lot of people. I can’t stress to you enough how people are still suffering behind things that went on 20 years ago.”

6 Making A Murderer (2015)

Former district attorney Ken Kratz was one of the central figures in the Netflix docuseries Making A Murderer, which premiered in December 2015. Kratz prosecuted Steven Avery and Branden Dassey for the murder of Teresa Halbach in 2005. Dassey was just 16 years old when he was convicted; he had learning difficulties and a below-average IQ.

Following the release of the documentary, Kratz became Public Enemy Number One when his own crimes were brought into the spotlight. In 2010, the Associated Press reported Kratz had sent “repeated text messages trying to spark an affair with a domestic abuse victim while he was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend.” According to police reports, two more women came forward claiming they had resigned from his office due to sexual harassment.

In 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Kratz for four months, stating, “This was exploitative behavior, harassing behavior, and a crass placement of his personal interests above those of his client, the State of Wisconsin.” Kratz was ordered to pay the costs of disciplinary proceedings—an amount that bankrupted him.^[5]

5 The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey (2016)

On December 26, 1996, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family home in Boulder, Colorado. Her father found her body eight hours after she was reported missing. There was also a handwritten ransom note discovered in the house, demanding $118,000 for the safe return of JonBenet.

In 2016, CBS aired the docuseries The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the child’s death. Former investigators of the original case and forensic experts came together to reexamine the murder. They built a new theory that suggested JonBenet’s brother Burke, who was nine years old at the time of the crime, bludgeoned his sister to death, and the parents covered for him.

Burke Ramsey then sued CBS for $750 million. His lawyers stated, “The accusation that Burke Ramsey killed his sister was based on a compilation of lies, half-truths, manufactured information, and the intentional omission and avoidance of truthful information about the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.” The lawsuit was settled privately, and the case of JonBenet Ramsey is still unsolved.^[6]

4 Nanook Of The North (1922)

Nanook of the North, released in 1922, focused on the life of great Inuit hunter Nanook. The documentary showed Nanook and his family surviving the powerful elements of Northern Canada. Director Robert Flaherty explained, “What I want to show is the former majesty and character of these people, while it is still possible—before the white man has destroyed not only their character but the people as well.”^[7]

Flaherty was criticized for heavily staging the “real-life” events depicted in the film. Nanook can be seen harpooning a walrus and dragging it out of the Arctic waters, although the Inuit had stopped walrus-hunting a long time prior. Nanook’s igloo was proven to be a film set with a missing wall because filming inside a real igloo was too dark.

Another staged moment was when Nanook was introduced to a gramophone for the first time, and he attempted to eat the vinyl, yet Nanook knew what vinyl was long before this film. It was also revealed that Flaherty had created Nanook’s “family” much like a casting call.

3 Icarus (2017)

Filmmaker Bryan Fogel uncovered the dark truth about doping in sports for his 2017 documentary Icarus. The documentary focuses on an alleged doping program overseen by the Russian Sports Ministry which involved coaches, officials, and politicians. Whistle-blower Grigory Rodchenkov, former director of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, fled to the US, where he went into hiding and is now protected by US authorities.

Speaking on a panel at the Sundance Film Festival, banned Olympian Lance Armstrong agreed with the level of corruption in sports. He said, “My situation five years ago, when [my doping use] came out, the organizations—USADA (The United States Anti-Doping Agency), WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) [ . . . ] the declarations [they made] were pretty strong: ‘He’s biggest fraud in the history of sport’; ‘The most sophisticated doping program that ever existed’. We don’t need to debate whether or not those statements are true, but those are strong statements. But underneath all of that you have a system that really doesn’t work that well.”^[8]

2 The Panama Papers (2018)

In 2018, The Panama Papers detailed how more than 300 reporters from 80 different countries came together to investigate offshore accounts. More than 11.5 million documents, dubbed the “Panama Papers,” were leaked by an anonymous source. The documents detailed such things as corporations that were used for illegal purposes, including fraud and tax evasion. Offshore accounts originally exploited by criminal kingpins are now tax havens for the wealthy. The financial information of many prominent public figures was exposed.

In 2017, another leak, dubbed the “Paradise Papers,” occurred. Famous names involved in this shocking expose included singer Shakira for transferring more than £30 million in musical rights to an offshore firm; Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton, who avoided paying taxes on his £16.5 million private jet; pop star Madonna, shown to be a major shareholder in a medical supply company in Bermuda; and the estate of the queen of England, which invested more than £10 million offshore in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. However, Queen Elizabeth II was not personally involved in the investments.^[9]

1 The Staircase (2004, 2013, 2018)

On December 9, 2001, well-known author Michael Peterson discovered his wife, Kathleen, lying unconscious at the bottom of the stairs in their Forest Hills mansion in North Carolina. He claimed she must have fallen down the stairs after consuming alcohol, but the autopsy report concluded that she had sustained severe head injuries consistent with blows from a blunt object. The report stated Kathleen died from blood loss at least 90 minutes after those injuries occurred.

Peterson decided to take an “Alford plea,” which meant that he did not admit guilt but still plead guilty. In 2012 and 2013, Peterson took part in a follow-up to the docuseries The Staircase (which originally aired in France in 2004) with the intention to prove his innocence. In 2018, The Staircase was made available on Netflix, along with three new episodes providing further updates. However, the docuseries caused a very different reaction from audiences, as theories online all pointed toward Peterson’s guilt.

Director Jean Xavier de-Lestrade admitted, “[A producer] was completely convinced that it was a murder and Michael Peterson did it.” Even Lestrade himself is still unsure, explaining, “After 15 years following the case, and after spending weeks, months, and years with Michael Peterson and his family, I still can’t tell you I am convinced by something.”^[10]

Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. Can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 5’2″ or at home reading true crime magazines.
Twitter: @thecheish

As the great philosopher Rodney Dangerfield pointed out, some people “get no respect.” One would think after inventing a permanent part of pop culture for generations, one might finally be entitled to some respect. Even that’s not true. In fact, as these following 10 people show, sometimes one only gets properly celebrated after having their entire life destroyed.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Things Americans Get Wrong About Their Own History

10 Tony Kaye Went Down in American History X

Tony Kaye has good ideas. Most of them have nothing to do with American History X though. Previously known for directing music videos, American History X was Kaye’s chance to become a household star. The resulting film was a lauded triumph. The movie’s dark and mature tale of the glorification of violence led to cartoonish antics off screen.

The Oscar nominated finished product was unrecognizable from Kaye’s original vision. The first edit barely clocked in at 95 minutes. New Line Cinema insisted he recut. Kaye refused. To stretch out the run time and emotional weight, Edward Norton secretly inserted more clips of his performance. Kaye felt so betrayed he ordered his name be taken off the credits and replaced with the pseudonym “Humpty Dumpty”. Obviously not wanting their deft look on neo-Nazism to be associated with a clumsy egg, New Line kicked Kaye out. Accompanied by a priest, a rabbi, and a Tibetan monk, Kaye barged into the office demanding to be brought back on board. Sounding like a literal joke, the studio denied his request.

To besmirch the movie’s reputation, Kaye published full-page ads insulting Norton and the studio. Financially ruining himself, the 35 ads cost Kaye nearly 1 million dollars. Persona non grata in Hollywood, Kaye’s filmography afterwards is a scattershot collection of half-finished projects and moments of genius. 20 years later, Tony Kaye has never made a movie as celebrated as American History X. Because of American History X, he never will again.^[1]

9 Napoleon Dynamite Blew Up in Efren Ramirez’s Face

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The power of a fictional school president in a bizarre indie flick from 2004 corrupts bizarrely. Efren Ramirez has found moderate success over the years with the quirky movie Napoleon Dynamite and its short lived animated spinoff. He will always be most recognized as Pedro Sanchez, even if a lot of people cannot recognize Efren Ramirez.

Everything about Napoleon Dynamite’s success was unlikely. However, the most statistically improbable thing about the movie is that both of the main protagonists are sets of identical twins. Jon Heder and his brother Dan remained close during Napoeleon’s height. Efren and Carlos did not.

Wanting to cash in on the fame, Carlos crashed public appearances by posing as his brother. Likely overestimating the frequency of necessary Pedro sightings, Carlos says Efren sanctioned these hijinks when Efren was too busy to attend himself. Carlos has confessed that on at least one occasion he attended without Efren’s knowledge, “to get back at him for a personal matter which involved the girl I was dating at the time.” Neither Carlos or Efren have specified what Carlos meant by that. Luckily thanks to Napoleon Dynamite, Efren has a history of dealing with love triangles.

Efren’s subsequent behavior discounts Carlos theory that this was all in jest. Threatening to sue, Efren issued a cease-and-desist order. Carlos had to pay a 10 million dollar fine if he ever impersonated Pedro again. A rift enveloped the twins. Citing “the magnitude of Napoleon Dynamite and everything that has come along with it,” Carlos says the movie has ruined his life. The two have yet to reconcile.^[2]

8 Winifred Sackville Stoner Got No Poetic Justice

It is probably the first thing taught in United States History class, even if the author never is. Kindergartners can easily remember the dawn of European expansion in the Americas with the handy mnemonic “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”. Winifred Sackville Stoner Jr would hate that people are still quoting her works. Her mother would love it.

Winifried Sackville Stoner Sr was more than your typical stage mom. Fluent in Esperanto, Winifred Stoner Sr. was convinced that the universal language was the best way to educate children. Paraded around the country, Stoner Sr trumpeted Stoner Jr as a child genius. It was hard to disagree. Remarkably, Stoner Jr was talking at one years old, writing at two, and typing at three. Like a lot of details about her prodigy years, Stoner Sr likely exaggerated some facts. Either way, her mother felt vindicated when Stoner Jr’s 1913 poem “History of the United States” earned the 12-year-old child acclaim.

Grown out of childhood, Stoner renounced her years as a prodigy, including her poetry. Looking back on her time in the spotlight, Stoner says her mother’s experiment damaged her for life. Isolated as a prodigy, Stoner rebelled by going through a series of terrible relationships. Her first disastrous marriage was to the 35-year-old French count, Charles de Bruche. Before Stoner Jr could divorce de Bruche, he supposedly died in a car accident in Mexico City. Her four other marriages were equally doomed, including an engagement to Woodrow Wilson’s former Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby, a man more than twice her age. After faking his death, Charles de Bruche returned to try and blackmail Stoner as a bigamist. He had tried similar cons across Europe. For 50 years, she secluded herself from the public and marriage. In nineteen hundred eighty three, Stoner Jr. died lonely.^[3]

7 Philo Farnsworth Had Plenty of Reason to Hate Television

It took a lot of work to invent the greatest tool of laziness. Primitive cumbersome television models existed for years before Philo Farnsworth perfected the technology. Drudging up dirt on the gridlike pattern of his ranch, Farnsworth had a major breakthrough. By scanning an image line by line, one could broadcast a clear picture onto any screen. This idea was the literal groundwork for the 1927 “Television System” patent.

Four years earlier, Vladimir Zworykin patented a similar system. The key difference was that Zworykin’s machine did not work. That hitch did not bother David Sarnoff, head of radio behemoth RCA. Fearful of television’s competition to radio, Sarnoff tried to buy out Farnsworth’s superior technology. The Mormon farmer turned down the proposal. Sarnoff went to war. While suing Farnsworth for patent violation, Zworykin and Sarnoff sent spies to monitor him. Subterfuge was not far enough, so they simply released a line of TVs anyway without Farnsworth’s permission. RCA lost the suit and had to acknowledge Farnsworth owned the rights to the patent. It was a short lived victory. His patent expired in the mid40’s, missing television’s explosion by mere months.

After struggling for decades, he could finally relax and enjoy his invention. With a television in every home, he dreamed that people would “learn about each other.” His utopian vision turned to static. Viewing westerns and gameshows convinced him he “created kind of a monster, a way for people to waste a lot of their lives.” Farnsworth did not have much more life to waste. Stress from his squandered fortune caused a fatal bout of pneumonia. He was 64.^[4]

6 Robert Indiana Does Not Love “LOVE”

The simplest ideas are often the most popular. Perhaps no idea is simpler than LOVE. Robert Indiana’s iconic sculpture depicts a L supporting a leaning O stacked on top of a V and E. Like plenty of people, Robert Indiana feelings toward LOVE is complicated.

During the 1960s, Robert Indiana was primed to take over the Pop Art scene. Avoiding the sex and drugs associated with the movement, Indiana embraced the art-form’s ethos by stripping down ideas to their essence. The Museum of Modern Art thought this genre could translate to the limited space of a Christmas card. On a green and blue background, Indiana’s blocky red letters LOVE made their first appearance in 1965. It would not be the last. The image has been slapped on everything from t shirts, magnets, and a particularly popular series of postage stamps in the 1970’s.

Over the next few years, imitators popped up in cities around the world. Not wanting to disturb the simplicity of the design, Indiana did not put his signature anywhere on the piece. He was totally anonymous. With no recourse to sue for his art, Indiana barely turned a profit. Wrongly assuming he made a fortune, his fellow artists branded him a sell-out. Museums rejected his other work as too commercial. Excluded from the art world, he left New York. For the rest of his life, he isolated himself in the small coastal city of Vinalhaven, Maine. He hated his most famous creation. Robert Indiana wished he could have been known for more. Nevertheless, when it comes to an enormous artistic legacy, all you need is LOVE.^[5]

5 A Trip to the Moon Cratered George Melies’ Career

George Melies’ talent was literally out of this world. More than any of his peers, Melies understood the possibilities of film. Trained as a magician, Melies turned his sense of showmanship into surrealistic sketches that pioneered the basics of cinematic special effects. No film better showcased his revolutionary editing and framing techniques than 1902’s A Trip to the Moon. While the shot of a space capsule jutting out of the man in the moon’s eye is endlessly referenced, the other 14 minutes are equally dreamlike. Melies’ life was less whimsical.

A blockbuster in Europe, Melies planned on recouping his special effects laden production budget by distributing the movie in the United States. Like many other inventors before him, Thomas Edison stole Melies’ success. Bootlegs and pirated copies of the movie flooded the market. Using the same business model as those Transmorpher cash grabs, Edison directed his own knockoff film called A Trip to Mars to trick the audience into seeing his version. All of the royalties were funneled to Edison. Flushed with money from ripping off Melies’, Edison used his own production company to muscle Melies’ struggling Star Films into bankruptcy.

When World War One broke out, the neglected reels of Star Films were melted down to become soles for shoes. A large portion of Melies’ movies are now lost forever. Stripped of his rightful earnings and his greatest achievements, Melies spent the last few years selling toys in a train station. Even the father of modern cinema could not get a Hollywood ending.^[6]

4 Herman Melville was a Whale of a Failure

For Herman Melville, fame was as elusive as his titular white whale. The saddest part of Moby Dick’s rejection was that Melville had already known success. Both of his first two books, Typee, and Omoo, were instant hits. Churning out one adventure story per year, Melville was heralded as a great new voice in nautical yarns. In the vein of his other stories, Moby Dick was initially another rollicking tale of bold men braving the high seas. Then in 1849, he met Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter author was the first person to suggest the epic quest could work as an existentialist tome. Over the next two years, Melville studied philosophy and literature. In 1851, those years of introspection resulted in the Great American Novel.

Echoing the thoughts of many future high school students, readers at the time hated the book. Noted editor, Henry F. Chorley, of the London Athenaeum, called it “as much trash belonging to the worst school of Bedlam literature.” Critically and commercially a flop, the book only sold 3,000 copies. Complaining to Hawthorne, Melville said that “dollars damn me” Hawthorne ignored Melville’s pleas, and their friendship crumbled. Melville’s income and popularity sank faster than the Pequod. His follow-up, Pierre, was similarly dismissed. Dejected, the 33-year-old Melville basically retired from writing, only releasing the occasional poem over the next decades.

In 1867, Melville plunged further into alcoholism and depression when his oldest son killed himself. In 1891, the local newspaper summed up the tragic life of the notoriously longwinded author in just six lines. His obituary could not even get his name right. Though wrongfully called “Henry”, Melville’s name lives on.^[7]

3 Grant Wood Did Not Live the Simple Life

The parodies are almost as ubiquitous as the original. Through the hundreds of homages to American Gothic, the pitchfork wielding farmer and his wife have stood in for countless types of careers and relationships. Grant Wood never got to experience much of either.

Influenced by European tradition, Wood’s portfolio contains many exaggerated scenes of Iowa farmlife. Modeled after the local dentist Byron McKeeby and his sister, Nan, the couple in his most iconic work were filled with the same admiration of his town. Within weeks of its debut at the Art Institute of Chicago, the art world did not take it that way. Critics embraced the painting as a joke, a satirical take down of middle America. Wood regretted that interpretation, but went along with it as the painting’s popularity soared. Nan expressed similar discontent for the haggard stretched out face of the woman and the age gap in the relationship.

The troubled legacy extended to the world outside the painting. Internationally known as the personification of Midwestern values, Wood faced growing scrutiny about his bachelorhood. A closeted gay man, Wood claimed that he forwent marriage to take care of his sister and widowed mother. Unable to hide his sexuality, he got into a sham marriage in 1935. The marriage drained him emotionally, financially, and artistically. Wood refused to paint for years.

Outed in Time magazine, Wood was fired from teaching at the University of Iowa in 1941. His few remaining months were not much better. In 1942, Wood died from pancreatic cancer, a day before his 51st birthday.^[8]

2 A.A. Milne’s Story is Sadder than Eeyore’s

Winnie the Pooh is the essence of innocence. His origin is as lovable as he is. A.A. Milne told his son, Christopher Robin, fantastical adventures of the boy and his teddy bear. The only people who could possibly dislike Winnie the Pooh just happen to be everyone involved with making it.

Winnie the Pooh was far from A.A. Milne’s first story. All totaled, Milne wrote seven novels, five nonfiction books and 34 plays. Readers abandoned him when he did not write about Hundred Acres woods. Pigeonholed as a children’s writer, Milne hated the character, because he felt he could never fully write what he wanted to again. These limitations do not come close to his son’s existential crisis.

Despite entertaining millions of children, A.A. Milne was not as similarly affectionate with his only child. Locked in his office, A.A. Milne abandoned the real Christopher Robin most days in his office to write with the one in the book. As the namesake of the character, Christopher Robin could not escape the association. While attending boarding school in 1930, the other students constantly taunted him, physically and verbally.

After school, Christopher Robin struggled to find a job, in part because of depression from “the empty fame of being his son.” Much to his parent’s protest, the inspiration for one of children’s literature most wholesome characters fixed his sadness by having sex with his first cousin, Lesley de Selincourt. The schism in the family finally ruptured when Christopher Robin publicly announced he never felt close to his parents. Not really disproving his claim, his mom and dad cut off all ties. In the last fifteen years of her life, he only spoke to his mother once. Laying on her deathbed, his mother refused to see him.^[9]

1 George Ferris’ Wild Ride

What goes up must come down. If anybody would understand this, it would be George Ferris. With his eponymous invention, the Ferris Wheel, George Ferris has brought joy to thousands. The Ferris Wheel only brought him despair.

The Ferris Wheel was built out of spite. In 1891, Chicago needed an innovative display for their upcoming world’s fair. The director wanted something that could surpass the recently erected Eiffel Tower. Engineers around the country submitted proposals. Most of them amounted to constructing larger towers. The most creative was George Ferris’ unwieldy contraption of a series of carriages revolving every five minutes. Chicago dismissed the plan as structurally unsound. Ferris knew it could work. On Nov. 29, 1892, they made a deal. The World’s fair would display the prototype, but Ferris would have to fund it on his own. 29 weeks and $250,000 later, Ferris revealed his exhibition. Crowds adored it. George Ferris had reached his peak.

The downturn followed quickly. Amusement parks across the U.S. packaged their own models without compensating Ferris. For the next three years, Ferris fought against the imitators in court with little success. Falling deeper in debt, Ferris kept investing in bigger versions of his machine. Nobody was buying. With no money left, George’s wife divorced him in 1896, directly increasing his rampant alcoholism. Later that year, George Ferris died alone in Pittsburgh’s Mercy Hospital. Faced with a litany of medical issues, Ferris never sought help. He let himself succumb. He was 37. Nobody claimed his ashes for 15 months. 10 years later, his original Ferris Wheel went out too. Dismantled in bankruptcy court, the remnants were dynamited in 1906. The scraps of one of America’s greatest technical marvels were unceremoniously dumped in a landfill.^[10]

TV, they say, reflects society, but sometimes, what it really reflects is the ideas of TV execs.

Some TV execs are obsessed with diversity, equality and the future of the planet.

Which is a very good thing. Sometimes, however, TV execs are just aware that these ideas are trendy, and think they can use them to boost ratings. That’s sort of OK too, we guess.

Top 10 TV Shows That Predicted The Future And Got It Right

But, instead of creating new shows to explore these important themes, they try to make their current TV shows reflect them instead, even when they’re not a comfortable fit. And the screen writers, who have to do as they’re told, don’t seem to put much effort into it, either. It’s almost as if they don’t really care.

Here are 10 ways in which popular TV shows were ruined by someone’s bright idea.

10 Hey, Transgenderism is Trendy, Let’s Do That

Transgenderism is a hot issue. Everyone seems to have an opinion on it. So why not introduce a transgender character in every show? We can show that transgender people are just the same as us, and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
Great.

Oh, but wait. What if we have a show where none of the characters treat anyone with dignity and respect? Like Shameless, for example. The story of an alcoholic father, and his dirt-poor family, Shameless was famous for being unwoke. Even the show’s gay characters find ‘way-out-there’ concepts like bisexuality difficult to deal with.

Never mind, press on. We can make the transgender character explain transgenderism to the gay guy, in a nightclub, while he fondles a prosthetic penis. That will get the dignity and respect message across.

And if you’re confused about gender pronouns and want to know more, check out the video above and all will be clear . . . or not.

9 Diversity is good, Here’s a Lesbian

When TV characters abruptly change their sexuality, viewers are apt to find it a little bit disconcerting. Sure Ellen Degeneres did it on her show, but then that was a sit-com based on her life and personality, and Ellen came out in real-life at the same time, which is understandable (although her show was cancelled a season later).

But Veep’s motives seem harder to fathom. Sure, its tough being the daughter of a Vice-President. Makes dating difficult. Maybe it was that.

Or then, again, there aren’t too many laughs to be got from a heterosexual relationship.

I know, let’s make her a lesbian.

Sarah Sutherland’s character swerves from being engaged to a man to dating her mother’s female security guard without any character development in-between, and barely pauses for breath before the affair is spun to benefit her mother’s political career.

It’s almost as if the writers had some really funny gay jokes and just needed a gay character to hang them on.

Surely not?

8 If stupid is funny, stupider must be funnier, right?

You create a character with an idiosyncrasy, and its funny. Ned Flanders is a nice but slightly holier than thou neighbor – let’s make him a rabid bible-thumper. But it isn’t just The Simpsons who have been guilty of flanderizing their characters.

Take Kramer in Seinfeld for instance. Kramer is eccentric. You can tell that by his funny hair. In fact, each year his hair gets funnier. Or at least higher. And his behavior moves from the merely eccentric to the downright bizarre.

Does that make it funnier? Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s more likely that some lazy writers mistook a personality trait for a personality and exploited it for all it was worth.

7 I know, Let’s Do Politics, We All Agree on That

Some programmes are born political, and some have politics thrust upon them. When your program is a buddy sitcom with a straight, and vapid, Jewish interior designer and her WASPy gay, and obsessive, lawyer roommate, the politics aren’t always obvious. A life-style comedy, about living in ’90s New York, Will and Grace was smart and funny and successful for 8 seasons.

And then they brought it back. For one night only, Will and Grace did politics. Up until then the show was, if anything, anti-political. The characters were too self-centered to be politically active, though they occasionally pretended to be.

The awkward 10-minute Will and Grace special made the assumption that their audience were all progressive Democrats, and the show was proudly anti-Trump. Which is a bit of a leap. While previous shows had dropped in the occasional joke about conservative attitudes and politics, this reboot was a flat-out party-political broadcast.

While the reboot was a special, and not a regular episode, no one looked comfortable. The humor, where there was any, was forced, and even the canned laughter seemed strained. Which was unfortunate, because the special was the beginning of a Will and Grace reboot which tried very hard to tone down the politics but couldn’t quite manage it for two whole seasons (with a third coming up). Not surprisingly the total audience for the politicized series’ was less than one third what it had been for the original ’90s series’.

6 Hooray, We Reached Our Goal, Now Let’s Pretend We Didn’t

Some TV shows have concepts which are open-ended. Others have a clearly defined goal. Take Prison Break for example. Series 1 is all about 2 brothers trying to break out of prison. The concept is in the title, for goodness sake. So when, at the end of season 1, they manage to break out of the prison, it’s job done.

Switch off the lights and go home.

But the series was a success, and a successful series cannot stop at season 1. So, what do the writers do then?

They have a season of Lincoln and Michael being on the run, and then for season 3 they stick them right back in prison again.

At which point, the audience switched off in droves.

Prison Break is not the only show to fall for this. The premise of The Mentalist was that Patrick Jane, as played by Simon Baker, is helping the police with their cases, whilst also using them to help him catch the man who brutally murdered his wife and child. Every few episodes, he reminds the team that that is the only reason he is there.

Half-way through season 6, they catch him.

Well done.

Then Jane takes a holiday, and comes back to work for another 27 episodes.

Why?

10 Episodes That Were Banned From Television [Videos—Seizure Warning]

5 I am Woman Hear Me Roar

Feminism. It’s been around for a while, but it still seems to confuse screenwriters.

Take Supergirl, for instance. Already on dangerous ground, for calling her Supergirl rather than Superwoman (OK, that’s down to the comic book creators, so we’ll give them a pass) portraying Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin, as a strong independent woman, should be easy.

After all she’s superwoman (sorry, girl).

So why does everyone on the show need to keep making speeches about how strong and independent she is? Strange.

But it’s not just the superhero shows that feel the need to portray their female characters as badass. Being a feminist always seems to mean being Strong. Male characters can be strong, too, of course, but they can be other things too.

Women just get to be strong.

And talk about it. A lot.

4 Just Say No, No, No.

Remember The Fresh Prince of Bel Air? That streetwise kid from Philly who goes to live with his rich relations in Bel Air? Will Smith knows the ways of the world. He has been brought up on the Mean Streets. He knows what’s what.

And then, 3 seasons in, he is tempted to take drugs. Not so that he can party, but so he can study. Of course, he doesn’t actually take them, because he is Too Smart, but his cousin accidentally swallows some, thinking that they are vitamins, and ‘almost dies’.

The episode is even called Just Say Yo, clearly referencing Nancy Reagan’s ridiculously simplistic Just Say No campaign, and the episode feels as if it has been written by the same people who wrote her slogans.

The Fresh Prince is not alone. Programs aimed at teenagers often have characters considering taking drugs but ultimately thinking better of it, while those aimed at adults have characters who let their hair down. But only once. They smoke a little weed, and they giggle a lot, before, ultimately being sick/paranoid/locked-up, whereupon they give themselves, each other and us a little lecture about the dangers of drugs.

None of which is entertaining. Although Carlton dancing on amphetamines is.

3 They’re Bound to Cancel the Show Before We Have to Explain What’s Going On

Ah, Lost. That great writing experiment, when the writers hit on the wheeze that they didn’t have to tie up loose ends, at all. Someone noticed that TV shows get cancelled, and when they’re cancelled, no-one tells you how it ends.

Why not make the most of that?

Keep throwing in weird stuff, polar bears, for example, time-travelling conundrums, or a vague and ill-defined Sickness. Don’t worry. You won’t have to explain it.

What about some random numbers? Chuck those in too. That will keep them guessing.

Lost was not the only series where the writers pulled this trick, but they were certainly the most blatant. For 5 seasons, they allowed fans to believe that all this weirdness would actually add up to something, while they counted their money. Unfortunately for them, instead of cancelling the show outright, the network announced that there would be one final season, so that the writers could tie all those loose ends into a nice neat bow and gift them to their fans.

Oh dear.

2 I’m not racist, I know an Indian/Asian/Middle Eastern guy

Diversity in TV is good. But the Token Asian Friend, not so good.

The Token ethnic Friend is always smart – usually a computer programmer/math genius/astro-physicist. He is always shy, retiring, and ridiculously deferential to people who are in no way his superior. And, most importantly, he never gets the girl.

Take The Big Bang Theory, for instance. Raj Koothrappali, as played by Kunal Nayyar, can’t even speak to women for 6 whole seasons. He is reduced to doing a dumb mime whenever one appears in the room. He is the last character to find a mate. Even Sheldon, the human robot, gets coupled long before Koothrappali sees any action.

Or how about Community, a sitcom based in a community college. Abed Nadir (played by Danny Pudi) is a middle-eastern film student. Which means he makes film references instead of talking to people. Because, of course, he can’t speak to people. He’s too shy.

The Token non-white Friend is never the Best Friend, just a friend. Sometimes they disappear for episodes at a time, and no one wonders where they’ve gone. They are not the main character, nor the main character’s best friend. They are not the protagonist, nor the antagonist. But they do tick that diversity box.

Here’s a radical idea. Why not have an Asian/Indian/Middle Eastern character who is a bit crap at math, but has great people skills, huge amounts of charisma, and always gets the girls?

1 I May Be Dead, But Boy Am I Woke

Even zombie shows can’t get away from Hollywood’s insatiable need to be on message. Take The Walking Dead, for instance. The post-apocalyptic zombie horror franchise seems to tick all the boxes.

It’s got badass (sorry Strong and Independent) women.
It’s got a militant anti-capitalist agenda
It’s got a rainbow nation of characters, both alive and undead.
It’s got a gay man and a lesbian
Even if you don’t count the zombies, the show has a high number of disabled characters
It even has an Asian friend who is more than a token.

Finally, a show that manages to put the story before message, right?

Well, maybe not. A careful analysis of the deaths in TWD have shown that as the series has developed the number of white middle-aged men being killed, has risen out of all proportion to their numbers in the post-apocalyptic society.

Is this a cynical agenda-pushing narrative? Probably.

Or, maybe it’s that the communist, feminist, homosexual, ethnic minorities are finally getting their own back?

Let’s hope so.

10 Times Virtue Signalling Ended In Disaster

We all have our heroes in the sporting world, whether they’re football players from our favorite local teams or Olympic champions. We look up to them, and our children learn from them. We may even want to learn everything we can about our favorite sports idols, from their origins to their training methods to their favorite cereal.

Successful athletes are still only human, though, and can make the same terrible choices as any of us. A number of sports stars over the years have ruined their careers through their horrible decisions. Here are ten such fallen idols.

10 Ryan Lochte

Ryan Lochte, from Daytona Beach, Florida, grew up loving the water and eventually became known for his title as a 12-time Olympic medalist. His winnings include six gold medals, three silver medals, and three bronze medals, certainly qualifying him as an Olympic champion. On top of this, he holds the world record in the 200-meter individual medley as well as having been named both World and American swimmer of the year for the years 2010 and 2011. He holds a whopping total of 70 international competition medals, 45 of which are first place, and he has a huge social media following. So, what is it that made him make the horrible decision that almost ruined his career?

In 2016, Lochte was scheduled for the Rio Olympics, in which he would maintain his award-winning title and maybe even add a few more medals to the collection. This, however, ended when he was charged with making a false statement to police regarding him and a mate being held at gunpoint and robbed. Once caught out in his lie, he was summoned to court, where he revealed that he and his friends were not robbed and fabricated the story to cover the fact that they had been caught by security vandalizing a gas station bathroom. Lochte’s story had left Brazil embarrassed, and upon the revelation of the truth, famous sponsors Speedo and Ralph Lauren dropped him as a client. Lochte ended up avoiding all charges after his lawyer argued that he did not break any laws by exaggerating the details of the events of that night.^[1]

9 Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong was one of the world’s most favored cyclists, having overcome cancer and made a full comeback to the sport despite the doubt thrown at him from doctors and the public. He had his first victory on the Tour de France in 1999 and trained ever harder to gain more and more titles across the Olympics and the Tour. He focused most of his time on the Tour de France up until he retired for two years and returned for two more races in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, he managed to place third, and in 2010, he fell back into the pack before announcing a second retirement. In addition to struggling with illness throughout his career, he was constantly accused of using illicit drugs to enhance his performance. Were the rumors true?

Despite never testing positive, Lance Armstrong admitted on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2012 to doping throughout his cycling career. The world was shocked as the details of his scandal were finally revealed. As a result of this, he was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France wins and banned from cycling to set an example of what will happen to athletes using banned substances. While Armstrong believes that he should be forgiven, he also assured ABC in a 2015 interview that if he was put back in 1995, when “[doping] was pervasive,” he would do it again. He says that the lying and dishonesty is his biggest regret. Apparently, doping to drive his career was worth losing all his dignity over.^[2]

8 Tonya Harding

Born in Portland, Oregon, in 1970, Tonya Harding began ice-skating at the age of three. During her sophomore year, she dropped out of school in order to focus all her time on the sport to try and make a career out of it. In 1991, despite the critics along the way, she won her first national title and also became the first American woman to successfully land a triple axel in competition. From there, she continued winning medals, including silver at the World Championships, fourth in the French Winter Olympics in 1992, and eventually another gold at the 1994 US Championships. Her main rival was Nancy Kerrigan. Just how far would Harding go to get ahead of her competition?

During the buildup to the 1994 Winter Olympics, the competition got fierce between Harding and Kerrigan. It reached the point where the pressure got so heavy for Harding that she resorted to criminal acts in order to get ahead. In addition to the competition, Harding was constantly facing media attacks for being on from the “wrong side of the rink.” Articles stated that she didn’t have as much a chance as Kerrigan because she wasn’t as beautiful or graceful, further incensing her. Finally, Harding’s then-husband and her bodyguard devised a plan to break Kerrigan’s leg right before the qualifiers in order to destroy her Olympic chances. The attack was poorly planned, and the hired hit man ended up missing Kerrigan’s knee, dealing her only a bad bruise before making a dramatic exit.

Kerrigan went on to make the Olympic selection, and both she and Harding were thrown into a media circus speaking of conspiracies and hatred between the two. Harding’s husband spent time behind bars for the attack while Harding initially walked free but later pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution, landing her three years’ probation, 500 hours of community service, and a $100,000 fine. She was also banned from the sport for life.^[3]

7 Lamar Odom

Lamar Odom was born in Queens in 1979 and lost his mother at the age of 12, leaving him in his grandmother’s care. To cope with his grief, he threw himself into basketball and was named Player of the Year in his high school years by Parade magazine. He managed to start off his professional career with the Los Angeles Clippers, who were renowned for their losing record, before being offered a better contract with the Miami Heat. Here, he trained with the likes of superstar Dwayne Wade and hugely improved his game. After that season, he was invited to represent the United States in the Olympics, where he worked with the team to win bronze, which he personally stated was the greatest honor of his entire career. Following this, he ended up contracted to the LA Lakers, where he would play the next seven NBA seasons. This would be the height of his career.

Although his life was seemingly perfect, Odom was struggling with drug abuse, which eventually led to the demise of his career. In the 2000–2001 season, he was suspended for violating the extremely strict NBA drug policy after receiving a charge for driving under the influence. He was ordered to attend three months of rehab for alcohol abuse. However, he began taking up drugs again after being traded off to a Dallas team in a deal he wasn’t happy with. In 2015, he was identified at a brothel after overdosing and passing out.^[4] Staff made a panicked emergency call, reporting that he had blood and a white substance coming from his mouth and nose after taking large amounts of what they thought was herbal Viagra. Following this near-fatal incident, he was forced back into rehab and no longer plays for any teams on the NBA.

6 Ray Rice

Ray Rice is an NFL legend who played as running back for the Baltimore Ravens for five seasons and one Super Bowl win. Unlike your average backfield player, Rice has a much shorter build, but he trained harder than any other to eventually become the best. His training to reach the NFL began in his freshman year of college, when he helped the Rutgers Scarlet Knights make their comeback after a 14-season losing streak. During his sophomore year, he broke a school record with 1,794 yards, which included a 225-yard push against Pitt. From there, he realized his dream by skipping his senior year and entering the NFL draft, where he was picked by the Ravens in the second round. So what could possibly have lead to Ray Rice’s demise after proving to be such a valuable player for the Ravens? What changed the words “plays for” into “once played for” at such a young age?

Despite needing his incredible skills as their running back, the Baltimore Ravens were left with no choice but to terminate Rice’s contract after footage was released showing Rice punching his fiancee in an elevator before dragging her body out into a hotel foyer. He was also suspended by the NFL commissioner for an indefinite time. While footage had previously been released showing Rice dragging his fiancee out of the elevator, no action had been taken, as there was not enough evidence to show that he had done anything wrong. Six months later, however, TMZ released the graphic video, which showed Rice knocking the woman unconscious. He was charged with felony aggravated assault but was able to avoid jail time and has since stated that the elevator incident was the biggest mistake of his life.^[5] It’s unknown if he will ever be able to return to the sport he loves so much.

5 Plaxico Burress

Plaxico Burress is another NFL legend who played as a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New York Giants, and the New York Jets. His career began at Michigan State University, where he set a record for the most passes caught in a single season with a whopping 65 catches. He also came close to the records of most touchdown catches, receptions, and receiving yards and was ranked as the MVP of his team. In 2000, he was drafted into the Pittsburgh Steelers, but due to an injury, he only played 12 games in his first NFL season. Although he was a great player on the field, he gained a reputation of being a problem off the field, which meant that when he became a free agent in 2004, his options were limited, and the Steelers would not sign him again. He eventually ended up with a contract with the New York Giants, where he fought to repair his reputation by playing an amazing season. It was with the Giants that he helped secure a win at the 2008 Super Bowl against the New England Patriots. So where did he go wrong?

His second season with the Giants got off to a horrible start. He was suspended from a game for violating team rules. It wasn’t long after this that he made the mistake which would lead to his demise. At the end of 2008, Burress was admitted to a hospital after shooting himself in the leg at New York night club. He claimed that he was being lead upstairs with his friends by a security guard to get away from the crowd when he lost his footing, resulting in his gun being unhooked from his belt. In an attempt to catch it before it hit the floor, he accidentally pulled the trigger on his own leg. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the shot to the leg that ruined his career but rather the fact that he didn’t have a license to be carrying the gun. He ended up serving 20 months in jail for criminal possession of a firearm and paid a heavy fine.^[6]

After being released in 2011, he did attempt to make a comeback by signing with the New York Jets and then again with the Steelers, but it was too late. His career was already over.

4 Michael Vick

NFL quarterback Michael Vick drew attention from the NFL while he was playing for Virginia Tech in his sophomore year. He also drew the attention of the MLB, who attempted to draft him. However, he decided instead to skip his final years of college to play in the NFL. Upon this decision, he was quickly drafted as quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. He signed onto a six-year contract, during which he would star as the team’s starting quarterback and lead them to victories, eventually landing him a ten-year contract extension. Everything seemed to be falling in place for Vick, as he was basically set for life with a career on an incredible team. So why did he throw it away?

Not long into his contract, it seemed that stardom had gotten to Vick’s head, and officials began to question whether he had the maturity levels to handle the amount of pressure that had been put on him at such a young age. The Falcons began to perform poorer and poorer, and although Vick was still putting up good numbers, he wasn’t supporting the team in the way he had when he was first signed. He bought a house in Georgia, which, in the long run, proved to be more of a playground for him and his friends than a place of living for a serious athlete.

In 2004, a truck owned by Vick was seized, and the two drivers were arrested after they were discovered to be transporting a large amount of marijuana. Vick, however, was never charged. A year later, he was sued for allegedly giving a woman a sexually transmitted disease, and then two years after that, things spiraled even more out of control. Authorities investigating a drug-related tip-off raided Vick’s property, which lead to the discovery of a dog fighting scene run by him and his friends.^[7] After authorities uncovered damning evidence linking Vick to the ring, he pleaded guilty and served 21 months in prison. He eventually returned to the NFL but is now retired.

3 Tiger Woods

Professional golfer Tiger Woods officially turned pro in 1996 and proved himself to be competitive and unrelenting while building his career. His achievements include 105 worldwide wins and 14 majors as well as a huge number of successful projects off the course. He is founder and CEO of TGR, an enterprise made of his companies and philanthropic projects. These include TGR Design, the TGR Foundation, TGR Live, and The Woods Jupiter. Among all his successes, he holds 79 PGA Tour wins, which is the second-highest for any one player in the world. In 2001, he became the first golfer ever to hold all major professional titles in one year, including the Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, US Open Championship, and the British Open Championship. Overall, he is ranked as one of the most outstanding players in his field of all time. So what happened?

“Scandal,” they called it. It all started in 2010 with Tiger’s wife chasing him out of the house wielding a golf club at him after learning that he had been unfaithful. She knew there was at least one other woman, perhaps maybe two, but this night would come to unveil the true ugly behind Tiger Woods. His then-wife, Elin Nordegren, went through his phone while it was unattended and called the girl he was having an affair with, leaving a voice mail. Upon realizing what had happened, Woods attempted to cover his tracks, but he was already too late. Nordegren continued to spy and found yet another affair her husband was having through his phone. She ambushed him while he was half-asleep with the golf club, resulting in him attempting a get away in his Escalade, only to crash.

After this incident made the news, there was an outpouring of truth from porn stars, strippers, escorts, and party girls, who all stepped forward to confess their affairs with Tiger Woods. After the confessions, there were 15 known mistresses, one of whom was underage. This was enough to ruin the reputation Woods had worked so hard to build up and temporarily pushed him into hiding. While it didn’t ruin his game, it did mar his sponsorship deals and his image in the public eye. Never again would his career be at the same level.^[8]

2 O.J. Simpson

O.J. Simpson, born in 1947, became a football superstar during his college years at the University of Southern California. Although he initially had trouble getting onto the team due to his poor grades, he eventually gained his fame playing for the USC Trojans, where he set NCAA records and won the Heisman Trophy in 1968. From here, he joined the Buffalo Bills, where he had a rocky start before excelling and becoming the first NFL player to successfully rush more than 2,000 yards in a single season. In 1979, he retired from professional football to pursue a career as a sportscaster and actor. Ironically, back in 1974, he played a man framed for murder by police in The Klansman. He also had a starring role in The Naked Gun series.

During his career, Simpson struggled with a poor marriage and divorce after losing his daughter when she drowned in the family swimming pool right before her second birthday. His second wife Nicole Brown, with whom he had two kids, also complained to friends about how he physically abused her. In 1989, the couple attended a New Year’s Eve party where Simpson was witnessed threatening to kill Brown. He, however, managed to brush off the incident in TV interview,s stating that it was just a fight and that both parties were in the wrong and spoke of how they had since moved on with their life together.

In 1994, however, the bodies of Brown and Ron Goldman, a close friend of hers, were discovered stabbed to death outside their Los Angeles home. It wasn’t long until police were on the hunt for Simpson as a major suspect in the crime and ordered him to surrender himself. Although he pleaded not guilty and was acquitted of all charges, he was later found liable for the wrongful deaths of Brown and Goldman. Unfortunately, the signs were there from an early age for Simpson, as he was once part of a gang called the Persian Warriors, which landed him in the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center in 1962.

Following the incident, Simpson was to publish a ghostwritten book called If I Did It, but the book’s rights ended up in the hands of the Goldman family, who edited the book to add commentary and published it under the edited title of If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. Finally, in 2008, Simpson and a friend were convicted on 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping, which landed them with up to 33 years in prison.^[9] Simpson was granted parole and released in 2017, but he’d long since ruined any good reputation he’d built for himself during his NFL years.

1 Oscar Pistorius

Born in South Africa in 1986, Oscar Pistorius (aka the Blade Runner) overcame all odds when he became hugely active in the international sporting community despite having had both his legs amputated when he was an infant. He began running at the age of 16, and a mere few months later, he stood on the podium and received a gold medal at the Athens Paralympics. After this, Pistorius was able to compete in competition with able-bodied athletes, as his level of success among the Paralympians became too high. In 2012, he was the first amputee to ever compete in track events at the Olympics. After this success, however, everything turned south for Pistorius as he was thrown into trials over the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

In 2013, Pistorius was arrested after shooting and killing his girlfriend through the bathroom door, allegedly believing she was an intruder. He was ultimately found guilty of culpable homicide and reckless endangerment and sentenced to five years in prison. After being freed just one year into his sentence, an appeals court overturned the original judge’s decision and upgraded his conviction to murder. He was sentenced to serve six years in prison.^[10] His sentence was later increased to 13 years, and he will be eligible for parole in 2023.

There is still to this day a lot of debate on social media as to whether Pistorious’s story is believable or not. If he thought the person in the bathroom was an intruder, where did he think his girlfriend was?

My name is Tarni Kirkpatrick and I am the author and editor of Life in Wonderland, an online travel blog. I started this when I began my journey around the world, and it has been growing ever since. Check it out at lifeinwonderland.net or add me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

This world has more villains than heroes. Movies get it wrong. A lot of times, heroes lose. Here are 10 people who did everything they could to make the world a better place. Some crusaded for justice while nobody else would. Others fought on behalf of those who could not. A few simply rose to the occasion when they were most needed. For their sacrifice, the world rewarded them with nothing but sadness and rejection. Even if their lives were not, humanity was improved by their service.

SEE ALSO: 10 Incredible Accomplishments That Ruined Their Creator’s Lives

10 Hugh Thompson

The My Lai Massacre was an era defining black-mark on American history. Faced with the realization that the American military was indiscriminately killing entire Vietnamese villages for no tactical reason, the general opinion of the war began to shift. For Major Hugh Thompson Jr., that shift came too late.

On March, 16, 1968, Major Thompson was piloting his helicopter when he heard artillery fire below. Flying down to help, he and his crew were shocked by what they found. Ordered to kill every Vietnamese person in sight, the American military gunned down 504 citizens. 210 of the casualties were under 12 years old. 50 were under 3. Going against all his training, Thompson did the unthinkable. He landed his helicopter and drew his guns on his fellow soldiers. He promised that if American forces killed any more civilians, he would have to fire on his fellow soldiers. The troops stopped. The carnage was over. Thompson and crew evacuated as many of the wounded as they could. Returning to base, Thompson reported the incident to senior officers. Future missions were cancelled, sparing potentially hundreds from more similar massacres.

Nobody at the time considered Thompson a hero. Some still do not. Summoned to Congress to answer for his response, representatives berated Thompson. Congressmen suggested that Thompson should be court-martialed. The public similarly hated him. His phone continually rang with death threats. Bodies of mutilated animals showed up on his porch. For 30 years, the Army refused to acknowledge Thompson’s service. Eight years before his death, Thompson finally received recognition in the form of the Soldier’s Medal.^[1]

9 Joseph Goldberger

In the early 20th Century, the Southern United States had a problem. Pellagra swept the region. 3 million people were diagnosed with the deliberating disease. The symptoms are drastic. Victim’s skin falls off. They become insane. As nearly 100,000 of them did, they eventually die. Joseph Goldberger left New York to put an end to the suffering. He was stopped by the other great epidemic of the South, racism.

Today, pellagra’s cause has been well established, a dietary deficiency of nicotinic acid. Doctors at the time had no idea. Citizens in the 1910s were warned that the disease was spread person to person. Goldberger’s experiments exposed the disease’s link to poor diet. Promising early release to anybody who volunteered, Goldberger fed prisoners plates of corn, biscuits, rice, and yams. These foods were chosen, because of their popularity in the agrarian South. Within two weeks, the patients reported the first signs of pellagra. Upon switching to a nutritious diet, the subjects were back in good health. Even with clear evidence, southerners rejected the idea. Both Jewish and a Yankee, Southerners did not like the idea that Goldberger was saying the Southerner lifestyle was killing people.

Goldberger had to take drastic steps to convince the naysayers. In 1916, Goldberger developed “filth parties”. He, his wife, and 16 other volunteers, purposely injected themselves with blood from pellagra patients. If that was not gross enough, he took the test further by eating cakes mixed with the skin, snot, urine, and feces of pellagra patients. Even after eating poop, people still refused to listen. Goldberger continued to push for his interpretation until his death in 1929. Pellagra won’t be cured in the South until the late ’40s.^[2]

8 Buzz Aldrin

In July of 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did something no other person in history ever had. Fulfilling the dreams of millions is a heavy responsibility. Aldrin did not know how to handle his role in one of humanity’s greatest achievements. Much like the lunar surface itself, Aldrin felt “magnificent desolation.” Nothing on Earth could compare.

Touring around the country, Aldrin was exhausted by all the publicity and photo ops. He only wanted to get back to work. There was just nothing left to do. The Space Race had reached the finish line. Dejected, Aldrin spent many days refusing to get out of bed. He only got out of bed to grab another drink. He sometimes went to other people’s beds too. Searching for any form of excitement, he routinely cheated on his wife, Joan. In July 1971, Aldrin returned to work as a test pilot. His despair was not staved off for long. Now racked with back and neck pain, his alcoholism and listlessness increased.

1974 was Aldrin’s darkest days. Shortly after Aldrin’s father died, he and his wife divorced. A few months later, he married his then girlfriend, Beverly. The marriage was an immediate failure. The only constant during this time was his alcoholism. Too drunk to speak, Aldrin could no longer show up to engagements. In a drunken rage, he smashed his other girlfriend’s door. The police arrested the national hero. Aldrin hit rock bottom. Beverly and him divorced in 1978. He swore to turn his life around. In October 1978, Aldrin had his last drink. He signed up for Alcoholics Anonymous. After 12 small steps for a man, he made one giant leap. He has been sober for more than 40 years.^[3]

7 Kevin Carter

Death haunts the photo. A black vulture skulks a small child. Nearly unable to move, the infant crawls towards food relief. Visible bones protrude under the skin. The vulture and viewer know the end is imminent. For the child, it might have been. For the photographer, it definitely was.

A life surrounded by chaos, Kevin Carter started his career documenting racial unrest, war, and riots in South Africa. His most famous picture captured a similar disaster. “The Vulture and the Little Girl”, otherwise known as “The Struggling Girl”, is one of the most recognizable pictures of all time. Capturing the bleakness of the 1993 Sudanese Famine, Carter’s image brought mass awareness to the hunger. As publications ran around the world, so did donations. Praised both for the quality of his camerawork and his humanitarian efforts, Carter won the Pulitzer Prize. Success attracted plenty of critics.

At the Pulitzer reception, some audience made their complaints known. South African journalist wrongly believed he staged the shot. Others blamed Carter for not doing enough to stop the girl’s suffering. Carter had already blamed himself for that one. His depression started when he clicked his camera. The ultimate fate of the photo’s subject is unknown, but Carter could not shake the belief that he could have saved her. These thoughts followed him as he watched policemen execute protestors and again when he heard his friend Ken Oosterbroek was murdered.

His life and career began to slip. His relationship with his long-term girlfriend fell apart. Absentmindedly, he routinely abandoned reels of film in random locations. He no longer cared about photography. His only interest was a drug called “white pipe,” a mix of marijuana and tranquilizers. It was all he had left. Two months after winning the Pulitzer, he was dead. He parked his pickup truck next to a small river. He attached a hose to pump exhaust into his front window. He was 33.^[4]

6 Chiune Sugihara

Patriotism takes a lot of forms. While the Germany and Japan forces worked together to carve the world between the two great invasive empires, a Japanese diplomat was undermining the German war machine from within. Stationed in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara felt compelled to betray both his homeland and government station for the greater good. It cost him everything.

Shortly after the outbreak of the World War II, Sugihara issued transit visas to thousands of Jewish refugees. Tokyo specifically forbade him from issuing any more. A cable from the foreign ministry said that any more visas are “absolutely not to be issued to any traveler… No exceptions.” Sugihara moved his operations underground. Night and day, Sugihara and his wife, Yukiko, forged thousands of visas until his “fingers were calloused and every joint from [his] wrist to [his] shoulder ached.” Forced to flee the country, Sugihara was still throwing out formatted visas as his train left the station. The exactly amount of Sugihara saved from Hitler’s gas chambers is unknown. Conservative estimates believe it was at least 6,000.

Sugihara did not get a hero’s welcome when he returned to Japan. His supervisors were aware he directly defied their orders. Because Sugihara still followed the Samurai Code, he was heavily criticized for disobeying his commands. It did not matter how many people he rescued. He was fired and dishonored. Ostracized from society, his family lived in poverty as he struggled to find work. Japan did not officially honor him until 2000, 14 years after his death.^[5]

5 Oliver Sipple

Luck is a fickle thing. In a second, a life can be ruined. In another, a life can be saved. On September 22, 1975, two lives were forever changed during that tiniest window.

Oliver Sipple had no intention of becoming a celebrity. All he wanted to do was walk down a street. On his stroll, he happened to see president Gerald Ford. Lurking among the crowd converged around the Commander in the Chief, Sarah Jane Moore pulled out a .38 caliber revolver. Unfamiliar with this particular gun, Moore’s shot grazed six inches from the president. Raising her hand to fire again, Sipple, a former marine, tackled Moore and wrestled the gun away from her.

The Secret Service commended Sipple for his courage. Media outlets threw Sipple reluctantly into the spotlight. This was a great opportunity for the burgeoning gay rights movement. Harvey Milk and other gay activists saw Sipple as a national hero. This was a perfect opportunity to use Sipple’s story to dismiss stereotypes of gay men as cowards, weak, or not masculine. Without consulting Sipple, Milk outted him to the San Francisco Chronicle. Sipple tried to make the newspaper squash the story. It was too late. Everyone knew Sipple was gay, including his parents.

Once the news broke, Sipple’s family abandoned him. His mother told him to never speak to her again. His father told his brother to forget that Oliver was his brother. Sipple was forbidden from attending his mother’s funeral. Rejected, Sipple turned to alcohol. Coupled with schizophrenia, Sipple’s mental state fell apart. During drinking sessions, he often wished he had never stopped Ford’s assassination. In late January of 1989, Sipple had his last drink. He died with only a Jack Daniels for company. 10 days later, his body was found. He was 47.^[6]

4 Gary Webb

Gary Webb’s status as a hero is still debated. Many think he was too reckless with the facts to be venerated. Supporters hail him for uncovering one of America’s most destructive episodes of deep state corruption. Both sides can agree he did not deserve such a disastrous downfall.

Titled The Dark Alliance, Webb’s 1996 report exposed how Contra rebels in Nicaragua turned their support from the CIA into cocaine shipments into the United States. The market converted these deliveries into crack. Proceeds from the sales funded the Contras. As the drug ravaged primarily African American communities, the CIA did nothing to stop it. This report did not assert the CIA knowingly targeted black populations, nor did it allege any CIA planning. It merely said that the CIA was aware of this policy and let it continue.

The Dark Alliance is not a perfect piece of exposé journalism. Evidence was scant for a narrative so bold. Accompanying graphics suggested a definitive tie between the CIA and the crack epidemic that the story itself did not charge. The stories real power was forcing a public outcry. Congress had to respond. Senators led by John Kerry created a panel to investigate the claims. Most of them were substantiate. Other government officials took a different response.

Working in tandem with the CIA, mainstream newspaper outlets like the New York Times and Los Angeles Times challenged Webb whenever they could. Follow up stories targeted Webb personally and outright lied about some of his claims. The San Jose Mercury, where Webb worked, initially supported him. They backed off following other columnists’ comments. Nobody in the journalism world respected him. Professionally and personally, Webb was alone. In 2004, Webb shot himself in the head. Not above insulting a dead man, the Los Angeles Times obituary called him a “discredited reporter.” They did not acknowledge the role they played in his death.^[7]

3 Robert O’Donnell

For 58 hours, a nation held its breath. A small hole in a West Texas backyard transfixed America. On October 14, 1987, 18-month-old Jessica McClure fell 22 feet down a well. Death seemed inevitable. By the next day, a media circus drew focus onto Baby Jessica’s precarious situation. Thousands of paramedics, police officers, and media personnel may have helped the infant, but it was firefighter Robert O’Donnell that emerged from the ground swaddling the young girl. America turned their love for Baby Jessica into praise for Robert O’Donnell.

Awards and plaques swarmed O’Donnell. Parades in Midland and across Texas were thrown in his honor. He appeared on television shows like “G.I. Joe Search for Real American Heroes” or “3rd degree.” Both the Vice President and Oprah Winfrey came down to meet him. In the winter of 1987, O’Donnell could claim to be as big a star as either of them.

Between October 14 and 16, Midland, Texas had America’s attention. It never would again. That is why Robert O’Donnell’s story went the route it did. He knew he deserved fame. No one else agreed. Co-workers snidely referred to him “Robo-Donnell” for his unwillingness to talk about anything besides his daring exploit. As book deals and movie rights dried up, he had continuous migraines. Prescription painkillers quelled the symptoms of the headaches, not the cause. His stomach bled from excessive pill consumption. He slurred his words until he was unintelligible. Excessive medication cost him his marriage and his job. Losing both of those cost him his life. In 1995, he put a shotgun in his mouth. He was 37 when he pulled the trigger.^[8]

2 Gareth Jones

Of all the deaths attributable to the Holodomor, Gareth Jones’ is among the weirdest. Recognized now as man’s worst genocide, the Soviet Union’s Communist manufactured famine in the Ukraine killed more than 10 million people. Few at the time could believe the scale of Joseph Stalin’s horrors. The only person who did was Gareth Jones.

In the summer of 1931, the Welsh journalist was deployed to Ukraine. Western reporters could not understand how the Soviet Union was modernizing in the height of the Great Depression. In a twist of history, Jones’ companion in his tour of mass hunger was HJ Heinz II, the heir to the food magnate. An eyewitness to the death toll, Jones’ diaries are the first public use of the word “starve” in relation to the Holodomor. Feeding them when he could, Jones captured the stories of citizens who would die before they could get the chance. In March 1933, Jones returned and published the article that exposed the truth to the world.

Nobody wanted to hear it. In the article entitled, “Russians Hungry but not Starving,” New York Times reporter Walter Duranty dismissed Jones testimony. A strong Stalin supporter, Duranty purposely minimized the crimes of communism. Despite personally seeing the suffering, Jones was discredited as a sensationalist. While Jones was ostracized, Duranty’s report won a Pulitzer for his report.

Barred from entering the Soviet Union, Jones toured Asia in 1934. In Japanese-occupied China, pirates kidnapped Jones and his companion. 16 days later, the bandits shot Jones the day before his 30th birthday. Evidence suggests this was just a cosmic injustice. Others believe the Soviet Union orchestrated Jones’ assassination for revealing their human rights violations. No matter the truth, Jones’ sacrifice is just one more sad detail in an already heartbreaking tragedy.^[9]

1 Ignaz Semmelweis

It is remarkable such a simple idea was controversial. Early germ theory pioneer Ignaz Semmelweis had a genius breakthrough, people should wash their hands. For that idea, he paid with his life.

In 1847, Semmelweis served as the head of the maternity ward of Allgemeine Krankenhaus. The Viennese hospital was in dire condition. One in six women died after childbirth from a strange phenomenon known as “childbed fever.” Immediately after delivering a healthy child, women somehow contacted a deadly fever after. The new mothers’ uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes swelled with puss. Accepted theories of time include cold air getting into the vagina or that the expecting mother’s breast milk curdled in the vagina. Yet, Semmelweis’ ideas were considered the crazy ones.

Semmelweis noted that the death rate was significantly higher if the birth was performed by a doctor. Rushed for time, doctors occasionally performed autopsies shortly before tending to pregnant mothers. Unaware of the concept of germs, Semmelweis believed that the doctors were subconsciously transmitting something from the cadavers to the delivery room. Enacting forced sanitization before entering the maternity ward caused the mortality rate to fall by 93%.

Despite the obvious success of the practice, doctors were outraged by Semmelweis’ theory. They refused to believe that they were causing their patients to die. With no current scientific explanation supporting the policy, the medical community rejected Semmelweis. Out of work, he felt deserted. This triggered mental unrest. In 1865, he was admitted into an asylum. Later that year, guards beat him to death. Wash your hands today in his honor.^[10]

This world has more villains than heroes. Movies get it wrong. A lot of times, heroes lose. Here are 10 people who did everything they could to make the world a better place. Some crusaded for justice while nobody else would. Others fought on behalf of those who could not. A few simply rose to the occasion when they were most needed. For their sacrifice, the world rewarded them with nothing but sadness and rejection. Even if their lives were not, humanity was improved by their service.

SEE ALSO: 10 Incredible Accomplishments That Ruined Their Creator’s Lives

10 Hugh Thompson

The My Lai Massacre was an era defining black-mark on American history. Faced with the realization that the American military was indiscriminately killing entire Vietnamese villages for no tactical reason, the general opinion of the war began to shift. For Major Hugh Thompson Jr., that shift came too late.

On March, 16, 1968, Major Thompson was piloting his helicopter when he heard artillery fire below. Flying down to help, he and his crew were shocked by what they found. Ordered to kill every Vietnamese person in sight, the American military gunned down 504 citizens. 210 of the casualties were under 12 years old. 50 were under 3. Going against all his training, Thompson did the unthinkable. He landed his helicopter and drew his guns on his fellow soldiers. He promised that if American forces killed any more civilians, he would have to fire on his fellow soldiers. The troops stopped. The carnage was over. Thompson and crew evacuated as many of the wounded as they could. Returning to base, Thompson reported the incident to senior officers. Future missions were cancelled, sparing potentially hundreds from more similar massacres.

Nobody at the time considered Thompson a hero. Some still do not. Summoned to Congress to answer for his response, representatives berated Thompson. Congressmen suggested that Thompson should be court-martialed. The public similarly hated him. His phone continually rang with death threats. Bodies of mutilated animals showed up on his porch. For 30 years, the Army refused to acknowledge Thompson’s service. Eight years before his death, Thompson finally received recognition in the form of the Soldier’s Medal.^[1]

9 Joseph Goldberger

In the early 20th Century, the Southern United States had a problem. Pellagra swept the region. 3 million people were diagnosed with the deliberating disease. The symptoms are drastic. Victim’s skin falls off. They become insane. As nearly 100,000 of them did, they eventually die. Joseph Goldberger left New York to put an end to the suffering. He was stopped by the other great epidemic of the South, racism.

Today, pellagra’s cause has been well established, a dietary deficiency of nicotinic acid. Doctors at the time had no idea. Citizens in the 1910s were warned that the disease was spread person to person. Goldberger’s experiments exposed the disease’s link to poor diet. Promising early release to anybody who volunteered, Goldberger fed prisoners plates of corn, biscuits, rice, and yams. These foods were chosen, because of their popularity in the agrarian South. Within two weeks, the patients reported the first signs of pellagra. Upon switching to a nutritious diet, the subjects were back in good health. Even with clear evidence, southerners rejected the idea. Both Jewish and a Yankee, Southerners did not like the idea that Goldberger was saying the Southerner lifestyle was killing people.

Goldberger had to take drastic steps to convince the naysayers. In 1916, Goldberger developed “filth parties”. He, his wife, and 16 other volunteers, purposely injected themselves with blood from pellagra patients. If that was not gross enough, he took the test further by eating cakes mixed with the skin, snot, urine, and feces of pellagra patients. Even after eating poop, people still refused to listen. Goldberger continued to push for his interpretation until his death in 1929. Pellagra won’t be cured in the South until the late ’40s.^[2]

8 Buzz Aldrin

In July of 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did something no other person in history ever had. Fulfilling the dreams of millions is a heavy responsibility. Aldrin did not know how to handle his role in one of humanity’s greatest achievements. Much like the lunar surface itself, Aldrin felt “magnificent desolation.” Nothing on Earth could compare.

Touring around the country, Aldrin was exhausted by all the publicity and photo ops. He only wanted to get back to work. There was just nothing left to do. The Space Race had reached the finish line. Dejected, Aldrin spent many days refusing to get out of bed. He only got out of bed to grab another drink. He sometimes went to other people’s beds too. Searching for any form of excitement, he routinely cheated on his wife, Joan. In July 1971, Aldrin returned to work as a test pilot. His despair was not staved off for long. Now racked with back and neck pain, his alcoholism and listlessness increased.

1974 was Aldrin’s darkest days. Shortly after Aldrin’s father died, he and his wife divorced. A few months later, he married his then girlfriend, Beverly. The marriage was an immediate failure. The only constant during this time was his alcoholism. Too drunk to speak, Aldrin could no longer show up to engagements. In a drunken rage, he smashed his other girlfriend’s door. The police arrested the national hero. Aldrin hit rock bottom. Beverly and him divorced in 1978. He swore to turn his life around. In October 1978, Aldrin had his last drink. He signed up for Alcoholics Anonymous. After 12 small steps for a man, he made one giant leap. He has been sober for more than 40 years.^[3]

7 Kevin Carter

Death haunts the photo. A black vulture skulks a small child. Nearly unable to move, the infant crawls towards food relief. Visible bones protrude under the skin. The vulture and viewer know the end is imminent. For the child, it might have been. For the photographer, it definitely was.

A life surrounded by chaos, Kevin Carter started his career documenting racial unrest, war, and riots in South Africa. His most famous picture captured a similar disaster. “The Vulture and the Little Girl”, otherwise known as “The Struggling Girl”, is one of the most recognizable pictures of all time. Capturing the bleakness of the 1993 Sudanese Famine, Carter’s image brought mass awareness to the hunger. As publications ran around the world, so did donations. Praised both for the quality of his camerawork and his humanitarian efforts, Carter won the Pulitzer Prize. Success attracted plenty of critics.

At the Pulitzer reception, some audience made their complaints known. South African journalist wrongly believed he staged the shot. Others blamed Carter for not doing enough to stop the girl’s suffering. Carter had already blamed himself for that one. His depression started when he clicked his camera. The ultimate fate of the photo’s subject is unknown, but Carter could not shake the belief that he could have saved her. These thoughts followed him as he watched policemen execute protestors and again when he heard his friend Ken Oosterbroek was murdered.

His life and career began to slip. His relationship with his long-term girlfriend fell apart. Absentmindedly, he routinely abandoned reels of film in random locations. He no longer cared about photography. His only interest was a drug called “white pipe,” a mix of marijuana and tranquilizers. It was all he had left. Two months after winning the Pulitzer, he was dead. He parked his pickup truck next to a small river. He attached a hose to pump exhaust into his front window. He was 33.^[4]

6 Chiune Sugihara

Patriotism takes a lot of forms. While the Germany and Japan forces worked together to carve the world between the two great invasive empires, a Japanese diplomat was undermining the German war machine from within. Stationed in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara felt compelled to betray both his homeland and government station for the greater good. It cost him everything.

Shortly after the outbreak of the World War II, Sugihara issued transit visas to thousands of Jewish refugees. Tokyo specifically forbade him from issuing any more. A cable from the foreign ministry said that any more visas are “absolutely not to be issued to any traveler… No exceptions.” Sugihara moved his operations underground. Night and day, Sugihara and his wife, Yukiko, forged thousands of visas until his “fingers were calloused and every joint from [his] wrist to [his] shoulder ached.” Forced to flee the country, Sugihara was still throwing out formatted visas as his train left the station. The exactly amount of Sugihara saved from Hitler’s gas chambers is unknown. Conservative estimates believe it was at least 6,000.

Sugihara did not get a hero’s welcome when he returned to Japan. His supervisors were aware he directly defied their orders. Because Sugihara still followed the Samurai Code, he was heavily criticized for disobeying his commands. It did not matter how many people he rescued. He was fired and dishonored. Ostracized from society, his family lived in poverty as he struggled to find work. Japan did not officially honor him until 2000, 14 years after his death.^[5]

5 Oliver Sipple

Luck is a fickle thing. In a second, a life can be ruined. In another, a life can be saved. On September 22, 1975, two lives were forever changed during that tiniest window.

Oliver Sipple had no intention of becoming a celebrity. All he wanted to do was walk down a street. On his stroll, he happened to see president Gerald Ford. Lurking among the crowd converged around the Commander in the Chief, Sarah Jane Moore pulled out a .38 caliber revolver. Unfamiliar with this particular gun, Moore’s shot grazed six inches from the president. Raising her hand to fire again, Sipple, a former marine, tackled Moore and wrestled the gun away from her.

The Secret Service commended Sipple for his courage. Media outlets threw Sipple reluctantly into the spotlight. This was a great opportunity for the burgeoning gay rights movement. Harvey Milk and other gay activists saw Sipple as a national hero. This was a perfect opportunity to use Sipple’s story to dismiss stereotypes of gay men as cowards, weak, or not masculine. Without consulting Sipple, Milk outted him to the San Francisco Chronicle. Sipple tried to make the newspaper squash the story. It was too late. Everyone knew Sipple was gay, including his parents.

Once the news broke, Sipple’s family abandoned him. His mother told him to never speak to her again. His father told his brother to forget that Oliver was his brother. Sipple was forbidden from attending his mother’s funeral. Rejected, Sipple turned to alcohol. Coupled with schizophrenia, Sipple’s mental state fell apart. During drinking sessions, he often wished he had never stopped Ford’s assassination. In late January of 1989, Sipple had his last drink. He died with only a Jack Daniels for company. 10 days later, his body was found. He was 47.^[6]

4 Gary Webb

Gary Webb’s status as a hero is still debated. Many think he was too reckless with the facts to be venerated. Supporters hail him for uncovering one of America’s most destructive episodes of deep state corruption. Both sides can agree he did not deserve such a disastrous downfall.

Titled The Dark Alliance, Webb’s 1996 report exposed how Contra rebels in Nicaragua turned their support from the CIA into cocaine shipments into the United States. The market converted these deliveries into crack. Proceeds from the sales funded the Contras. As the drug ravaged primarily African American communities, the CIA did nothing to stop it. This report did not assert the CIA knowingly targeted black populations, nor did it allege any CIA planning. It merely said that the CIA was aware of this policy and let it continue.

The Dark Alliance is not a perfect piece of exposé journalism. Evidence was scant for a narrative so bold. Accompanying graphics suggested a definitive tie between the CIA and the crack epidemic that the story itself did not charge. The stories real power was forcing a public outcry. Congress had to respond. Senators led by John Kerry created a panel to investigate the claims. Most of them were substantiate. Other government officials took a different response.

Working in tandem with the CIA, mainstream newspaper outlets like the New York Times and Los Angeles Times challenged Webb whenever they could. Follow up stories targeted Webb personally and outright lied about some of his claims. The San Jose Mercury, where Webb worked, initially supported him. They backed off following other columnists’ comments. Nobody in the journalism world respected him. Professionally and personally, Webb was alone. In 2004, Webb shot himself in the head. Not above insulting a dead man, the Los Angeles Times obituary called him a “discredited reporter.” They did not acknowledge the role they played in his death.^[7]

3 Robert O’Donnell

For 58 hours, a nation held its breath. A small hole in a West Texas backyard transfixed America. On October 14, 1987, 18-month-old Jessica McClure fell 22 feet down a well. Death seemed inevitable. By the next day, a media circus drew focus onto Baby Jessica’s precarious situation. Thousands of paramedics, police officers, and media personnel may have helped the infant, but it was firefighter Robert O’Donnell that emerged from the ground swaddling the young girl. America turned their love for Baby Jessica into praise for Robert O’Donnell.

Awards and plaques swarmed O’Donnell. Parades in Midland and across Texas were thrown in his honor. He appeared on television shows like “G.I. Joe Search for Real American Heroes” or “3rd degree.” Both the Vice President and Oprah Winfrey came down to meet him. In the winter of 1987, O’Donnell could claim to be as big a star as either of them.

Between October 14 and 16, Midland, Texas had America’s attention. It never would again. That is why Robert O’Donnell’s story went the route it did. He knew he deserved fame. No one else agreed. Co-workers snidely referred to him “Robo-Donnell” for his unwillingness to talk about anything besides his daring exploit. As book deals and movie rights dried up, he had continuous migraines. Prescription painkillers quelled the symptoms of the headaches, not the cause. His stomach bled from excessive pill consumption. He slurred his words until he was unintelligible. Excessive medication cost him his marriage and his job. Losing both of those cost him his life. In 1995, he put a shotgun in his mouth. He was 37 when he pulled the trigger.^[8]

2 Gareth Jones

Of all the deaths attributable to the Holodomor, Gareth Jones’ is among the weirdest. Recognized now as man’s worst genocide, the Soviet Union’s Communist manufactured famine in the Ukraine killed more than 10 million people. Few at the time could believe the scale of Joseph Stalin’s horrors. The only person who did was Gareth Jones.

In the summer of 1931, the Welsh journalist was deployed to Ukraine. Western reporters could not understand how the Soviet Union was modernizing in the height of the Great Depression. In a twist of history, Jones’ companion in his tour of mass hunger was HJ Heinz II, the heir to the food magnate. An eyewitness to the death toll, Jones’ diaries are the first public use of the word “starve” in relation to the Holodomor. Feeding them when he could, Jones captured the stories of citizens who would die before they could get the chance. In March 1933, Jones returned and published the article that exposed the truth to the world.

Nobody wanted to hear it. In the article entitled, “Russians Hungry but not Starving,” New York Times reporter Walter Duranty dismissed Jones testimony. A strong Stalin supporter, Duranty purposely minimized the crimes of communism. Despite personally seeing the suffering, Jones was discredited as a sensationalist. While Jones was ostracized, Duranty’s report won a Pulitzer for his report.

Barred from entering the Soviet Union, Jones toured Asia in 1934. In Japanese-occupied China, pirates kidnapped Jones and his companion. 16 days later, the bandits shot Jones the day before his 30th birthday. Evidence suggests this was just a cosmic injustice. Others believe the Soviet Union orchestrated Jones’ assassination for revealing their human rights violations. No matter the truth, Jones’ sacrifice is just one more sad detail in an already heartbreaking tragedy.^[9]

1 Ignaz Semmelweis

It is remarkable such a simple idea was controversial. Early germ theory pioneer Ignaz Semmelweis had a genius breakthrough, people should wash their hands. For that idea, he paid with his life.

In 1847, Semmelweis served as the head of the maternity ward of Allgemeine Krankenhaus. The Viennese hospital was in dire condition. One in six women died after childbirth from a strange phenomenon known as “childbed fever.” Immediately after delivering a healthy child, women somehow contacted a deadly fever after. The new mothers’ uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes swelled with puss. Accepted theories of time include cold air getting into the vagina or that the expecting mother’s breast milk curdled in the vagina. Yet, Semmelweis’ ideas were considered the crazy ones.

Semmelweis noted that the death rate was significantly higher if the birth was performed by a doctor. Rushed for time, doctors occasionally performed autopsies shortly before tending to pregnant mothers. Unaware of the concept of germs, Semmelweis believed that the doctors were subconsciously transmitting something from the cadavers to the delivery room. Enacting forced sanitization before entering the maternity ward caused the mortality rate to fall by 93%.

Despite the obvious success of the practice, doctors were outraged by Semmelweis’ theory. They refused to believe that they were causing their patients to die. With no current scientific explanation supporting the policy, the medical community rejected Semmelweis. Out of work, he felt deserted. This triggered mental unrest. In 1865, he was admitted into an asylum. Later that year, guards beat him to death. Wash your hands today in his honor.^[10]

Over the years, Hollywood’s reliance on CGI has grown along with its ability to successfully execute a good CGI scene—to the point where it has become a staple of most movies less concerned with plot and more driven by action sequences and pecs of steel. Therefore, filmmakers could be forgiven for testing various recipes to success.

Unfortunately, however, they have missed many opportunities to present us with masterful scenes simply because the CGI department took a shortcut. Here are ten climactic scenes in films ruined by questionable CGI.

Related: 10 Startling Cgi Moments In TV And Movie Scenes

10 I Am Legend—Darkseeker Attack

Everyone loves a good dystopian end-of-the-world survival film, and I Am Legend is no exception, having garnered fans from across the globe, with many vying for a sequel. Apart from the fact that the dog dies (cardinal mistake unless you build a movie around taking bloody revenge) and an ending that split audiences to such an extent that an alternate ending exists, I Am Legend nailed it.

The plot, the acting, and the world-building. One small tiny problem—the darkseekers. Why director Francis Lawrence felt it necessary to add CGI to these humanoids in order to alter them so that they more closely resemble video game characters from the ’90s is beyond reason. If only we could get these creatures that were once considered to be human to more closely resemble… well, humans. Perhaps makeup and wardrobe can answer that.^[1]

9 IT: Chapter Two—Paul Bunyan Statue

In this remake of Stephen King’s smash hit IT, there is a justifiable over-reliance on CGI. The story is of such a nature that only CGI could really make it pop, and no amount of Skarsgard stares could replace a good old computer-generated monster face. In the scene where Pennywise gleefully sits atop a Paul Bunyan statue, then brings it to life in a jump scare howl straight from the annals of horrordom, one could argue that the scene had its intended effect. The directors, however, saw fit for the animated statue to chase Richie through the park. A difficult scene to pull off, and although not entirely bad, it leaves a lingering comical feel that would be better suited for a comedy or satire produced by the Wayans brothers.^[2]

8 Matrix Reloaded—Park Fight

In what was once considered the second film of a trilogy, Neo had bested agent Smith one on one on numerous occasions before. So the agent of the Matrix does whatever he can to get the upper hand, throwing everything at him, including the kitchen sink.

In an exciting scene that showcases Neo’s ability to kick ass, but also the lengths to which agent Smith is willing to go to best him, Neo punches and kicks his way through more and more bodies until the majority of the figures appear to be crash test dummies from an early ’90s car safety video. In what was still a marvelous scene, the momentary lapse in CGI prowess doesn’t do it any favors and somewhat ruins its rewatchability now that the bar for CGI has been raised significantly.^[3]

7 Air Force One—Plane Crash

No list involving some form of badly done CGI would be complete without having the plane crash from Air Force One as an honorable guest. It was, far and away, one of the most anti-climactic moments in film history. When the plane crash lands in the ocean, it then inexplicably defies any and all rules of force, momentum, and gravity by spinning and flipping over like a crash scene from the original space invaders arcade game.

An overall good film with good suspense and a tight enough plot. Not even the black box could provide enough information to explain how that scene could crash and burn magnificently.^[4]

6 Deep Blue Sea—Russell’s Death

In what essentially feels like something never destined to be a big Hollywood blockbuster (yet ended being just that), Samuel L Jackson meets one of his more surprising and unexpected ends. We know now that, unless the starring role is played by Russel Crowe, should a character go off on a tangent about surviving and fighting, they are likely to kick the bucket. But not often so spectacularly as in Deep Blue Sea.

After Russell “Mr. Everest” boosts morale and invigorates everyone’s will to live, one of the sharks takes matters into its own teeth and breaches the surface before ripping a poorly CGI’d Jackson limb from limb. It could have been better. But in their defense, they weren’t shooting for the Oscar.^[5]

5 Black Panther—T’Challa vs. Killmonger Final Fight

Marvel’s sixth highest-grossing film—raking in more than $1.3 billion—sees T’Challa face off against Eric “Killmonger” Stevens for the right to be called the one and only true king of Wakanda. The MCU films are known for their inventive and effective use of CGI, having brought to life some of film’s largest characters by way of computer animation.

The film Black Panther is no exception to the rule. However, the final battle between the foes feels less like the climax of a billion dollar grossing cinematic experience and more like a trip down a 3D rendered wormhole more suitable for a film created a few decades ago. An unfortunate ending to an otherwise MARVELous film. Luckily, it did not appear to have detracted from the success of the release.^[6]

4 Star Wars IV: Special Edition—Jabba the Hutt

Star Wars fans are known to be loyal and, as one can expect, quite critical of change that does not fit the narrative, the world, or the tone of the universe George Lucas has crafted. Therefore, it would be no surprise that the forced moments of CGI in this adaptation of Episode IV were not well received and left many fans scratching their heads.

Jabba the Hutt was done particularly poorly, and considering the scenes that were altered, one is left with a strange wonder as to why they did not go with realistic prosthetics. In a time when CGI was still a fetus in the filming world, this attempt adds nothing to the experience. Instead, it robs the viewer of potentially entertaining sequences.^[7]

3 Blade II—Sword Fight

Blade is the first real R-rated (tax-evading) superhero in my book… and a bloody cool one at that. In his second outing, Blade, the vampire slayer, has sliced and diced his way through the vampire underworld so effectively that they lined up a few ninja assassins to meet him head-on in what could turn out to be a sword-clashing epic scene. The scene is lit with a wall of spotlights for maximum effect and is well choreographed, with the actual human fighting as entertaining and captivating as need be.

Naturally, being a superhero movie of sorts, things had to ascend into the impossible, and that is where the scene loses balance. The movements are sloppy and clearly distinguishable from the real movements of the warm bodies. The marriage of back-and-forth CGI with the realistic fighting does nothing but throw you off guard long enough that the potentially lethal sequence leaves you wondering whether they should have kept to the basics and sliced some off the top.^[8]

2 Justice League—Final Fight

The film was criticized by fans and critics alike and had people clamoring for the Snyder cut, which provided the viewer with more substance and fewer hooky effects. In an era of the superhero, with Marvel setting the golden standard for hero films with their Avengers franchise, one could be forgiven for thinking the DC universe might also have a few tricks up their tight body-fitted sleeve.

Instead, we are treated with a final battle that doesn’t look at all real. It rather serves as a stark reminder that we are looking at actors standing in front of green screens, hoping that their outstanding acting synchronizes well with what is happening to them in the film.^[9]

1 The Mummy Returns—Scorpion King

Considering Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a realistic-looking CGI character created by the WWE in the early nineties, one can not help but wonder what went wrong with the final climatic scene of The Mummy Returns. The overall film holds up well against its entertaining and successful predecessor, and casting the Rock as the scorpion king could have been a masterstroke. However, the letdown of seeing how a poorly rendered face of Johnson looks on a body generated by the Half Life game engine is the real letdown.

In a move that is as bewildering as the scene was impassable, how the film received the green light and slipped through the final stages of production goes beyond logic, and no amount of timeline pressure should be able to justify it. One has to assume they blew the budget or their time elsewhere, yet I cannot help but wonder what the results would have been had they nailed the scorpion king.^[10]