Stepping aside from movies and not going into LE or security situations, I got a severe jolt at about age 7 when I turned a corner in a Ft. Worth museum and saw a full mount of a big jaguar. It wasn't behind glass, either!
It was the first full mount I'd seen of an animal and it looked ready to pounce.
Got another jolt when I was sitting in a car protecting a home where the owner had received death threats. I'll skip most human issues there for now, but the wildlife along the stream in the woods behind that luxury home was interesting. I saw many animals that you wouldn't expect in a very affluent neighborhood in a major city.
But the case at hand was seeing a Great Horned Owl coming out of the darkness, right at my face!
At the last second, it realized that I was behind the windshield and flared off. It twanged my radio antenna pretty badly. I don't know if it attacked me as a human, or saw my white face in the shadows and mistook me for a rabbit or opossum.
I could tell true stories about an aggressive big male grey fox there, too, or the time I looked out my window and saw two Doberman Pinschers trot past. Probably escaped a neighbor's yard. I was just lucky to have been in the car when the dogs and that owl showed up.
I wore a S&W Model 66-3 but am glad that I never had to fire it, at man or beast. It was loaded with Federal 158 grain .357 Hydra-Shok ammo. I loaded that in part because I knew there were big dogs and was worried about a possibly rabid fox or raccoon, as much as the possible need to shoot into a car.
But I'd hate to have tried wingshooting a rapidly approaching owl! I didn't even see it until it flew into the light under the arch connecting the servants' quarters to the main house. At that point, it was within 15 feet of me and on the windshield almost immediately.
I did have a scary time when stopping arsonists from burning out the next door neighbor, a lawyer who'd made enemies in court. But that's another story, for another time.
I do sometimes worry at the zoo that one of the raucous kids who thump on the glass in the reptile house may break the glass and release a fast moving, virulently venomous snake, like a black mamba. They have a big crocodile monitor lizard there, too.
My son had an Argentine guest a couple of years ago, and they went out to my son's land about 100 miles from Austin.
The guest was from Buenos Aires and a big city guy, an urban author who's never seen many venomous snakes. He almost stepped on a water moccasin. It took off, thankfully, for they are often very aggressive. My son drew his .45 auto and chased the snake with bullets, hitting it several times before it died.
I'm sure there are dangerous snakes in Buenos Aires, but most residents in higher class neighborhoods don't see them. This guy had never seen an Urutu, a Jararaca Pintada, or a Tropical Rattlesnake outside of a zoo. He was lucky, and probably, pretty scared.
Let's have one more, also about a moccasin. When my kids were little, my daughter, about 13, had a tiff with her brother and took off walking alongside a stream that ran through the apartment grounds where I lived. It's one of those big garden style apartments and had some animals around, including snakes, turtles, etc. The kid shouldn't be out of my sight, partly because of natural threats and partly because she's very attractive and might have caught the eye of a man with evil intentions.
I saw her and went after her, calling her name. The landscapers had mown the grass along the stream and cut, dried grass was strewn by the water. I nearly stepped on a snake that launched itself from right under my foot, from beneath that dried grass cover. It dived into the water and I was able to get my heart back out of my throat after a few minutes.
I'm pretty sure that it was a water moccasin/cottonmouth. May have been another water snake, but many of them are aggressive and have a painful bite, although not venomous.
The moccasin has a really nasty bite that often costs victims a limb.
I talked to my daughter about dangers, including snakes, telling her about my adventure. She's very intelligent, especially for a blonde, ha! Now has a Master's degree with high honors from a prestigious university. But she's sometimes emotional like her mother, my ex. (Not as bad, but enough so, and just didn't think.) All she thought about at the time was how mad she was at her brother. It nearly cost me dearly. Yes, it was scary, more than anything I've seen in a movie theater.
I guess one of the scariest movies I've seen was, "Jaws." It isn't as good as the book, but being on film is more visual. When we went to see it in a theater, my then - wife soon got scared and insisted that we leave. I didn't get to see that movie until after my divorce, on the VCR.
And I could feel the dread and despair of a train car load of Belgian refugees in the Congo about 1962 (in the film) as their car broke loose from the rest of the train and began rolling downhill to where an army of savage Simba rebels were waiting to inflict unspeakable horrors on them. Later, a white mercenary captain (Rod Taylor) went into the village to save some diamonds and anyone he could. It was quite scary seeing him walk around trying not to be recognized.
