How Action Movies Influence Children's Sense of Justice

In childhood, we all absorbed something that shaped us into who we became. For some, it was books; for others, cartoons; and for many, it was films, especially action movies, where the main character burns enemies, avenges family, or simply destroys everyone in their path. These stories leave a mark on a child's mind: "This is how it should be."

The hero of an action movie is often a guy with a shattered life, challenging the system and criminals, spitting on the law and breaking it at will. For a child's mind, this represents power. When injustice occurs, it can be grabbed by the throat and twisted until all the filth spills out.

When I was little, these films awakened strange feelings in me. Watching the hero take revenge on his enemies, I thought, "Yes, that’s how it should be." In childhood, you don’t understand that revenge isn’t the solution. Everything seems simple: "They did something wrong—make them pay."

My friends and I, like true heroes, acted out our "fights" in the courtyards, defending justice. If someone did something wrong, they had to answer for it. This was our understanding of justice—simplified, instilled by action movies, where evil is always punished, and the hero rides off into the sunset.

But then you grow up, and life is full of disappointments. You realize that justice is not achieved by a fist or a gunshot. In reality, "justice" is a tangled mess where everyone lies and hides behind masks. No one wears a black hat to be immediately identified as the villain. Yet these childhood ideas of justice remain.

Films instilled in us the belief that every villain must pay right here and now. The law is just a word that doesn't apply if the interests of the powerful are at risk. We absorb the idea that life is divided into two sides: justice or evil. If you are humiliated but have a weapon, you can restore justice.

Children watch this nonsense and think that justice is fists and explosions. In this world, justice boils down to personal revenge, a debt that must be repaid.

When you grow up, you understand that this is a lie. You are no longer that child who rushes to save the world in their imagination. You see how laws work, how everything is tangled in shades of gray. It’s not a hero with a grenade launcher against a gang—it’s compromise, paperwork, quiet betrayals. But part of you still believes in simple justice, where everyone should get what they deserve. And although you know that life isn’t like in action movies, you still carry that broken piece, asking yourself: is there justice? And will the villain get what they deserve?

The image was created by the author using the Canva app