Lights, Camera, Heart Attack: How Hollywood Gets It (Mostly) Wrong About Heart Attacks

In a blockbuster crossover between medicine and movies, Dr. Kirsten Shaw, took a deep dive into Hollywood’s portrayal of heart attacks. Lead study author, Dr. Kirsten Shaw, is a cardiology fellow at Allina Health Minneapolis Heart Institute and supports research through the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

Dr. Shaw’s study, "Portrayal of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Popular Film: A Review of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity," published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, is like the ultimate director’s cut—except instead of action sequences, the focus is on how gender, race, and ethnicity get cast in the role of acute myocardial infarctions (heart attacks). Spoiler alert: Hollywood could use a better script to improve public understanding of the reality of heart attacks.

Key Findings

1. Men, Men, and More Men: If you thought only men have heart attacks, based on movie portrayals, you’re not alone. Dr. Shaw’s study found that heart attacks are overwhelmingly portrayed in male characters, as if women don’t experience them. News flash: heart attacks are an equal-opportunity villain, and women are more likely to die of a heart attack!
2. Where’s the Diversity?: In the Hollywood version of a heart attack, the leading man is typically white. The study pointed out that racial and ethnic minorities are often left out of the story, despite heart disease being a major plot twist for all demographics. If we’re looking for accuracy in representing heart attacks, casting directors should reconsider a fair share of the screen time for the reality of heart attacks.
3. Drama Overload: When it comes to showing a heart attack, movies tend to go for the Oscar moment—clutching the chest and dramatic collapses. In reality, heart attacks can be more of a slow burn, especially for women, who might feel queasy or unusually tired. The next time your favorite character dramatically keels over, remember real life is often less theatrical.

A key takeaway from this research – the more we understand the reality of heart attacks, the better equipped we’ll be to save lives.

It’s important for all people to read the first sentence of Dr. Shaw’s published article:

A few more interesting details about how the research was done, as shared in the publication:

Using the filtered search tool, the term “heart attack” was used to identify films depicting acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the Internet Movie Database. Movies were sorted from most to least popular per Internet Movie Database rating. To identify 100 AMI scenes in movies, 172 top- ranked movies were reviewed consecutively. Movies were excluded if they failed to show the actor experiencing AMI, or if they depicted a nonischemic cardiac arrest.

Cardiac arrest secondary to nonischemic causes was determined by cardiologist review of movie scenes and plots. Gender, race, and ethnicity data were acquired via movie plot descriptions or actor self- identification if the former was unavailable. This project used publicly available nonpatient data.