Unintentional “Paleo Lifestyle” Movies

The other night, my wife and I were watching Office Space for the first time in a while, and it struck me that the movie unintentionally advocates for living a Paleo lifestyle.  Seriously!

So, this got me to thinking about other movies that are unitentionally Paleo, and I came up with the following list.  (Yes, I took lots of creative liberties):

Office Space:  “Michael, we don’t have a lot of time on this earth! We weren’t meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements.”

This was the quote that made me pirk up and think “hey, that’s extremely Paleo of Peter Gibbons to say!”  Let’s look at the Paleo-ness of this quote:

1. No, we weren’t meant to sit all day.  In fact, studies have shown that sitting for prolonged periods of time is actually pretty bad for you.  Plus, being at work all day creates work-play-sleep balance issues.  In fact, did you know that the average American works 9.3 hours per day and sleeps for only 7.7 hours per day?  We were meant to be up, active, and outside.
2. Staring at computer screens, especially at night, can cause people to have a tough time falling asleep, which further exacerbates work-play-sleep balance issues.

Moral of the story – be active, get outside, and disconnect!

Fight Club:  “This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.”

I think Fight Club has a bunch of Paleo lifestyle qualities.  Let’s look:

1. It’s countercultural, which, one could argue, is an adjective that describes living a Paleo lifestyle.  It’s sad, but it’s true.
2. One of the themes of the movie is you are not the sum of your possessions.  As I’ve stated before and highlighted in my interview with Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist, I firmly believe a minimalist lifestyle is a pillar of the Paleo lifestyle.  Want less, get more sort of thing.
3. These dudes got ripped by beating the crap out of each other.  Not sure it gets more Primal (another adjective for Paleo) than that!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating that you join a fight club (that’s a very, very bad idea), but I’d be willing to bet you’d get more out of doing something crazy like climbing a tree or throwing boulders than you would by trying “death by cardio” on a treadmill.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: “I am not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I’m going to take a stand. I’m going to defend it. Right or wrong, I’m going to defend it.”
(Bet you thought I was going to go with the “life moves pretty fast quote,” huh?!)

I love this quote and think it epitomizes what it means to be Paleo:

1. You’re not going to sit back and let others control your life.  You’re going to make an educated and informed decision to eat the foods and do the activities to which your body best responds.
2. You’re going to stand up for what you believe in.  Whether that’s standing up to the smell of delicious doughnuts in the office breakroom and resisting the urge to partake, or whether that’s standing up for yourself when people call you crazy for following a “fad diet,” either way, you’re going to stand up and defend it.

To be honest, I didn’t really think long and hard about this post because I knew if I did, I’d have a list of dozens of movies with Paleo lifestyle undertones.  So, this is where you come in:

What are some movies you think have Paleo lifestyle undertones?  Share your thoughts with the community by leaving a comment below!

Disclosure: The opinions expressed above are 100% my own. This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”