Skip to main content
Games Radar
  • Newsarama
  • Total Film
  • Edge
  • Retro Gamer
  • SFX
Total Film The smarter take on movies
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Subscribe
  • Podcast
  • Newsletter
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
View
Trending
  • Best Netflix Movies
  • Best movies on Disney Plus
  • Movie Release Dates
  • Best Netflix Shows

Recommended reading

A still from the volcano documentary Fire of Love
Movies The 32 greatest documentaries ever made
The 30 best horror movies of all time: pictures from The Wicker Man, The Shining, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Hereditary.
Horror Movies The 30 best horror movies that will haunt you long after the credits roll
Lulu Wilson as Doris Zander in the horror movie Ouija: Origin of Evil.
Horror Movies The 25 best Netflix horror movies to watch right now
Hugh Grant as Mr. Reed in Heretic
Amazon Prime Video The 25 best movies on Amazon Prime to watch right now
Embalmed hand from Bring Her Back (2025) website blackangeltapes.net net to the embalmed hand from Talk To Me (2023)
Horror Movies New horror movie Bring Her Back launches in-universe black market website all but confirming Talk To Me connection, and its contents will terrify you
Lupita Nyong’o in Us
Movies The 25 best movies on Netflix to watch this week
Tom Holland in new Netflix movie The Devil All the Time
Thriller Movies The 25 best Netflix thrillers to watch right now
  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies

20 Shocking Documentary Facts

Features
By Joshua Winning published 14 January 2011

Scary but true nuggets of information

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Anvil have been going for 32 years

Anvil have been going for 32 years

Where We Learned It: Anvil! The Story Of Anvil (2008)

Why So Shocking: Sure they’re the most influential heavy metal band ever (don’t believe us? Go talk to Slash, Tom Araya, Lemmy and Lars Ulrich), but can they really have been going that long? Director Sacha Gervasi confirms it for us with his doc. Anvil, we bow at your feet.

Page 1 of 20
Page 1 of 20
You can get a free gun by opening a bank account

You can get a free gun by opening a bank account

Where We Learned It: Bowling For Columbine (2002)

Why So Shocking: Next they’ll be handing out real grenades with every Happy Meal sold at McDonalds. Accuse Michael Moore of anything, but there’s no denying he rooted out some truly shocking facts about everyday America’s obsession with firearms.

Page 2 of 20
Page 2 of 20
Homeless people live in underground New York tunnels

Homeless people live in underground New York tunnels

Where We Learned It: Dark Days (2000)

Why So Shocking: That’s no way to live, surely. Even one of the men who’s taken up residence in the railroad tunnels below the Big Apple’s streets acknowledges: “Nobody in his right mind would come down here.” It sounds like something from a Neil Gaiman novel, which just makes the fact that it’s true all the more spectacular.

Page 3 of 20
Page 3 of 20
Big Edie and Little Edie Beale lived in abject squalor

Big Edie and Little Edie Beale lived in abject squalor

Where We Learned It: Grey Gardens (1976)

Why So Shocking: They live in a nice part of town, flanked by stately homes, but the Beales' Grey Gardens mansion is sliding into decay. The same can be said for mother and daughter, who were once high class society members, but are now cooped up in their ruin of a home. Just how does that happen?

Page 4 of 20
Page 4 of 20
Apocalypse Now nearly killed Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Sheen

Apocalypse Now nearly killed Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Sheen

Where We Learned It: Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991)

Why So Shocking: We know making films takes every ounce of effort a filmmaker has to give, but it’s a whole other ball game when a project threatens the health of its cast and crew.

Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during filming, while Coppola was under tremendous strain as he attempted to steer his epic towards completion.

Page 5 of 20
Page 5 of 20
Its possible to walk for four hours with a broken fibula

Its possible to walk for four hours with a broken fibula

Where We Learned It: Restrepo (2010)

Why So Shocking: The sheer audacity of it is brilliant in itself. Photographer Tim Hetherington broke his fibula when he fell down a mountain, but a medic assured him it wasn’t broken as they were four hours away from base.

Hetherington therefore had to walk using an essentially useless leg. “That was not a very good evening,” the photographer laughs.

Page 6 of 20
Page 6 of 20
Timothy Treadwell was eaten by a bear

Timothy Treadwell was eaten by a bear

Where We Learned It: Grizzly Man (2005)

Why So Shocking: It’s as tragic as it is horrifying. Poor Timothy, a bear enthusiast, spent 13 consecutive summers in the Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, where he became so close to the bears there that he felt they completely trusted him.

But tragedy struck when both he and his girlfriend were killed and partially eaten by one of the beasts.

Page 7 of 20
Page 7 of 20
Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda believes he is the Second Coming

Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda believes he is the Second Coming

Where We Learned It: Religulous (2008)

Why So Shocking: It’s one of the more bizarre facts thrown up by documentary maker Larry Charles. In his quest to debunk just about every religion on the face of the Earth, he encounters Jose, who explains how Christ’s bloodline travelled from the Holy Land to France, then Spain and finally to Puerto Rico.

He has 100,000 followers.

Page 8 of 20
Page 8 of 20
The world record top score for Donkey Kong is 1,049,100

The world record top score for Donkey Kong is 1,049,100

Where We Learned It: The King Of Kong (2007)

Why So Shocking: To put that into context, the average Donkey Kong player generally maxes a top score of about 126,000 - which makes Steve Wiebe’s record-breaker all the more impressive.

As a coda, that 1,049,100 top score has actually been bested numerous times by competitors Bill Mitchell and Wiebe himself, the latter regaining his world record title with a score of 1,064,500. Guys, seriously? Enough is enough.

Page 9 of 20
Page 9 of 20
A Florida doctor was murdered by an anti-abortion extremist

A Florida doctor was murdered by an anti-abortion extremist

Where We Learned It: Lake Of Fire (2006)

Why So Shocking:
It’s extremism taken to the extreme. Most shocking is that the murderer in question, Paul Hill, a former Presbyterian minister, had gone on film saying that all abortionists should be executed.

Not long later, he killed a Florida doctor (and his bodyguard) for the practices that he carried out. He became the first abortionist killer to be executed on Death Row.

Page 10 of 20
Page 10 of 20
The Catholic Church knowingly aided a sex pest priest

The Catholic Church knowingly aided a sex pest priest

Where We Learned It: Deliver Us From Evil (2006)

Why So Shocking: The Catholic church’s ongoing struggle against the sickening actions of some of its clergy members is given a new slant here, as it’s revealed that priest Oliver O’Grady was a known sexual predator who was moved around various California parishes whenever his misdeeds were exposed. That director Amy Berg gets him to talk on camera is equally as shocking.

Page 11 of 20
Page 11 of 20
Inmates at the Bridgewater State Hospital were treated worse than animals

Inmates at the Bridgewater State Hospital were treated worse than animals

Where We Learned It: Titicut Follies (1967)

Why So Shocking: It’s a sickening expose of just how inmates were treated by their keepers. With guards dressed in uniforms eerily similar to those worn by policemen, we see an aged inmate named Jim being savagely shaved by a barber and taunted by guards, before being thrust naked into his empty cell.

Stomach-churning even to this day, Follies only became available for viewing in 1991 after the hospital sued filmmakers for violating their patients’ privacy.

Page 12 of 20
Page 12 of 20
George W. Bush sat in a classroom for seven minutes after learning of the second attack on the World Trade Centre

George W. Bush sat in a classroom for seven minutes after learning of the second attack on the World Trade Centre

Where We Learned It: Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Why So Shocking: As we all sat glued – transfixed – to our TV screens, watching those sickening events unfold, the most powerful man in the Western world chose not to jump to action, but to take a time out in a classroom.

Director Moore’s agenda with his treatise on the September 11 attacks is quite plainly to ridicule and discredit Bush, but this segment remains as blood-curdling as ever. And just what does that look on Bush’s face mean?

Page 13 of 20
Page 13 of 20
Aileen Wuornos spent her formative years being sexually abused by family members

Aileen Wuornos spent her formative years being sexually abused by family members

Where We Learned It: Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer (2002)

Why So Shocking: It’s no excuse for any of Aileen’s blood-letting actions later in life, but it at least goes part way in explaining just how a young girl from Michigan turns into a renowned serial killer.

Most disturbing is Wuornos’ ability to lie convincingly through her teeth before admitting her falsehoods with the dismissive flick of a hand.

Page 14 of 20
Page 14 of 20
The odds against Ali in his Rumble In The Jungle fight were 7-1

The odds against Ali in his Rumble In The Jungle fight were 7-1

Where We Learned It: When We Were Kings (1996)

Why So Shocking: It’s easy to forget how the odds were stacked up against Ali in hindsight. After famously beating opponent George Foreman, Ali became everybody’s favourite boxer, but this look at the lead-up to his Rumble In The Jungle clash reminds us that things weren’t always so rosy. Even Ali, despite his bravado, didn’t expect to win.

Page 15 of 20
Page 15 of 20
Three Memphis teens stood trial for the murder of three young children

Three Memphis teens stood trial for the murder of three young children

Where We Learned It: Paradise Lost: The Child Murders At Robin Hood Hills (1996)

Why So Shocking: As an outrageous example of a miscarriage of justice, Paradise Lost is unbeatable. On 5 May 1993, three eight-year-old boys were found dead in a wooded area. The police arrested three local teens for the crime, who were put on the stand.

But it wasn’t as easy as all that, as directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky show. Has to be seen to be believed.

Page 16 of 20
Page 16 of 20
Jumping into a black hole would make an astronaut just one molecule in width

Jumping into a black hole would make an astronaut just one molecule in width

Where We Learned It: A Brief History Of Time (1991)

Why So Shocking: Do you know how small one molecule is? We’re throwing our Atkins diet books out right now.

As Physicist Brandon Carter notes in this off-shoot from Stephen Hawkin’s best-selling tome, if an astronaut fell into a black hole, he “might” see the history of the universe spinning back to the moment of creation – but at that point he’d be so elongated that he’d be only measure a molecule around.

Page 17 of 20
Page 17 of 20
Kenneth Pinyan liked having sex with horses

Kenneth Pinyan liked having sex with horses

Where We Learned It: Zoo (2007)

Why So Shocking: First of all – ouch. Second of all – ew. But that’s just our opinion.

Kenneth Pinyan was fascinated with tangoing with stallions, and ended up paying the ultimate price when he died of peritonitis after having sex with a horse. Once again, ouch.

Page 18 of 20
Page 18 of 20
Klaus Kinski was almost killed by Indians

Klaus Kinski was almost killed by Indians

Where We Learned It: Burden Of Dreams (1982)

Why So Shocking: Perhaps most shocking is that it wasn’t director Werner Herzog threatening Kinski this time. Despite the pair’s famously tumultuous relationship, filming of Fitzcarraldo so incensed nearby Indian natives that a Chief offered to kill the troublesome Kinski himself.

Page 19 of 20
Page 19 of 20
Roughly 24 people kill themselves every year by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge

Roughly 24 people kill themselves every year by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge

Where We Learned It: The Bridge (2006)

Why So Shocking: That’s a number that really adds up over time. Considering the amount of people that decide to commit suicide by launching themselves off the bridge every year, it’s strange that nothing more has been done to stop it.

Page 20 of 20
Page 20 of 20
Joshua Winning
Social Links Navigation

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.  

See more Movies Features
Read more
A still from the volcano documentary Fire of Love
The 32 greatest documentaries ever made
The 30 best horror movies of all time: pictures from The Wicker Man, The Shining, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Hereditary.
The 30 best horror movies that will haunt you long after the credits roll
Lulu Wilson as Doris Zander in the horror movie Ouija: Origin of Evil.
The 25 best Netflix horror movies to watch right now
Hugh Grant as Mr. Reed in Heretic
The 25 best movies on Amazon Prime to watch right now
Embalmed hand from Bring Her Back (2025) website blackangeltapes.net net to the embalmed hand from Talk To Me (2023)
New horror movie Bring Her Back launches in-universe black market website all but confirming Talk To Me connection, and its contents will terrify you
Lupita Nyong’o in Us
The 25 best movies on Netflix to watch this week
Latest in Movies
Jacob Elordi as Nate Jacobs in Euphoria
Tom Holland and Jacob Elordi are reportedly being considered for Denis Villeneuve's Amazon James Bond movie
A group of guests at a birthday party during Parasite, one of the best movies on HBO Max.
What's the best movie of the 21st century so far? Thousands of people – and Julianne Moore – agree that it's 2020 Best Picture Oscar winner Parasite
The Shrouds
It may feature corpses, missing limbs, and AI, but with The Shrouds, legendary director David Cronenberg has made the ultimate meditation on grief: "To me, there is no afterlife"
Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards in Fantastic Four
Spider-Man director reveals why he stepped down from making Marvel movie Fantastic Four: "I knew I didn't have what it would've taken to make that movie great"
Ivanna Sakhno as AM3LIA in M3GAN 2.0
M3GAN 2.0 star Ivanna Sakhno explains how she brought horror villain AMELIA to life and what it was like having a creepy animatronic version of herself on set: "I cannot begin to tell you how unsettling it is"
Borderlands (2024)
Disastrous Borderlands movie gets the faintest of praise from Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford, who says it's a "miracle" the film even exists, which makes it "amazing" in his eyes
Latest in Features
One-Punch Man season 3: Saitama punching while in mid-air during the anime One-Punch Man.
Anime Expo 2025: dates, announcements, and why One-Punch Man fans should be excited
The Shrouds
It may feature corpses, missing limbs, and AI, but with The Shrouds, legendary director David Cronenberg has made the ultimate meditation on grief: "To me, there is no afterlife"
A full setup for Fate of the Fellowship with cards, tokens, and pieces all laid out
Legendary board game designer says his upcoming Lord of the Rings project is "definitely the most thematically and mechanically rich game I’ve worked on"
Promotional artwork for the Steam Summer Sale 2025 which runs from June 26th - July 10th at 10am PT
I've spent six hours exploring the Steam Summer Sale with our Games Editor, and these are the 10 best games on discount I'd recommend so far
The Outer Worlds 2 screenshot of Aza, a cultist companion with short pink hair who holds a dagger
The Outer Worlds 2 is "going deeper and more complex" with its companions, and I'm already making grabby hands at this RPG
Ruffy runs across the ocean on wooden crates in Ruffy and the Riverside, with the GamesRadar+ Indie Spotlight logo
Banjo-Kazooie and Paper Mario mix together in this delightful puzzle platformer that has me swapping textures to solve puzzles by changing the world
  1. Sam fires at the ghost mech squid boss in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
    1
    Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review: "This tarpunk delivery epic is more Metal Gear Solid than ever, for better and worse"
  2. 2
    Rematch review: "As with Rocket League, the just-one-more-game pull is magnetic"
  3. 3
    Tron: Catalyst review: "Disc slinging is a thrill in this gorgeous rendition of the series, but I'm let down by a time-loop story that falls flat"
  4. 4
    FBC: Firebreak review: "A disappointingly bland multiplayer FPS that's missing far too much of what made Control special"
  5. 5
    Dune: Awakening review: "Both extremely compelling and extraordinarily boring, sometimes at the same time – yet still a true Dune love letter"
  1. M3GAN doll in M3GAN 2.0
    1
    M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"
  2. 2
    28 Years Later Review: "Enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy”
  3. 3
    Predator: Killer of Killers review: "Great characters, thrilling action, and gorgeous Arcane-esque animation"
  4. 4
    From the World of John Wick: Ballerina review: "Brilliant action, even if the plot gives you a sense of déjà vu"
  5. 5
    Karate Kid: Legends review: "Better than Karate Kid (2010), nothing on Karate Kid (1984)"
  1. Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3
    1
    Squid Game season 3 review: "A staggeringly excellent final season wraps up one of the greatest Netflix shows ever"
  2. 2
    Ironheart review: "A relic of Marvel's content-at-all-costs era"
  3. 3
    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 review: "The show's most assured run of episodes to date"
  4. 4
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 8 spoiler review: 'The Reality War' is "a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly baffling"
  5. 5
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start to the season finale, with hints of WandaVision

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...