Throughout history, there are often stories from behind-the-scenes when making movies that are often even more intriguing than the movie itself. These go back many years and include everything from ghost stories and possible deaths on the set to curses. However, many of these are urban legends that are not true.
There are some cases where the urban legends proved to be false upon investigating the stories. There are other cases where the movie production team purposively spread a false rumor about the movie's shooting. With that said, there are also those cases where the curse may or may not be true, remaining true Hollywood legends.
Back To The Future Hoverboards Were Real
In Back to the Future II, one of the coolest things about the movie was the hoverboards of the future. Almost 30 years after the movie hit theaters, people even designed these fun items. However, a Hollywood urban legend claims hoverboards existed when the movie was made, but they had to be removed from sale because people kept getting hurt using them. It turns out that director Robert Zemeckis started that rumor, but it was completely false.
The Lion King Hidden Messages
For years, parents feared Disney was trying to warp kids' minds by putting subliminal messages into its animated movies. The most famous was when people noticed a word that seemed to appear in The Lion King when Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa looked at stars and kicked up some dust. Everyone claims it was the word "SEX." There was a word subliminally put there, but it was actually "SFX." Those are the initials that refer to the special effects department.
Goldfinger Actress Died From Bodypaint
The James Bond movie Goldfinger was one of Sean Connery's most popular efforts as Agent 007, and there is an urban legend that has followed the movie since its release. In the movie, Bond found a dead girl, covered head to toe in gold paint. The urban legend is that the actress who played the dead girl in the movie really died from asphyxiation after being covered in the gold paint. Covering a person in gold bodypaint will not kill them. Plus, actress Shirley Eaton is still alive today.
Stanley Kubrick Hinted He Faked Moon Landing In The Shining
There is a wild urban legend that the United States hired iconic film director Stanley Kubrick to film the moon landing. He wasn't hired to film the actual moon landing because these conspiracy theorists claim the moon landing never happened, and Kubrick shot it on a movie sound stage.
That leads to his movie The Shining. A scene shows little Danny wearing an Apollo spacecraft shirt, and these conspiracy theorists claim it was an homage to Kubrick faking the moon landing. There is actually an entire documentary about conspiracy theories surrounding The Shining released in 2012 called Room 237.
Ben Hur's On-Set Death
The classic gladiator movie Ben-Hur had an iconic chariot race that was extremely dangerous, and there have been rumors since the release of the movie that claims a stuntman died while shooting the scenes. There are also rumors that death was kept in the movie's final cut. In his autobiography, Charlton Heston wrote that no one was even injured in the scene, much less killed. The scene when Messala's chariot disintegrates has a dummy pulled under the chariot, simulating a human.
The Crow Shows A Real Death
There was one big movie urban legend that was based on partial facts. Brandon Lee was killed while making The Crow when he was shot and killed in a freak on-set accident. The urban legend claims that the death was kept in the movie and happened when the bad guys started shooting at Lee's Crow in the club. That not only isn't true, as the movie would not leave the real murder in the final product, but it also isn't where Lee was shot. The scene where Lee died was the apartment scene where the bad guys initially attacked him and his girlfriend.
The Blair Witch Project Was Real
The Blair Witch Project was a horror movie that was one of the first found footage films released as a mainstream release. One of the ways that it was able to get people interested was through its promotion, where the producers claimed it was not only based on a real story, but it was also real-life footage.
Of course, none of that is true. These are all actors, and while they improvised their lines to make it more realistic, it was a complete work of fiction.
Poltergeist Curse
If there is any movie that could lay claim as cursed, it is Poltergeist. The first thing that people point to is the deaths. Dominique Dunne, the oldest daughter, died after making this movie. Heather O'Rourke, who played Carol, died at the age of 12. Some things happened on the movie set that is true, including the evil clown almost killing a child while shooting when it malfunctioned and JoBeth Williams ending up learning after the fact that real skeletons were used in her swimming pool scene.
Three Men And A Baby Ghost
One of the most popular urban legends in movies came in the comedy Three Men and a Baby. The movie about three men tasked with raising a baby had one scene that people claim featured a real-life ghost. The scene had Ted Danson in a scene, and in the background, behind some curtains, a young boy stood still. The urban legend is that a boy died in that apartment years earlier, and this was his ghost. In actuality, the boy was a cardboard cutout of Danson from a dog food commercial.
Wizard Of Oz Hanging Munchkin
One of the oldest Hollywood urban legends in history came with the 1939 family movie The Wizard of Oz. There are still people over 80 years later who claim they can see one of the actors who portrayed the munchkins hanging from a tree in the background of a scene that made it into the final product. Anyone involved in the movie claim that this is an untrue legend, and the scene it took place in was shot before any of the munchkin actors was even on the movie set.