Super Size Me Director Morgan Spurlock Dies Days After Film's 20th Anniversary

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has died roughly two weeks after the 20th anniversary of the release of his seminal film "Super Size Me." The Oscar-nominated documentary took on fast food giant McDonald's (which has more than 41,000 restaurants worldwide) and helped shake up the industry. The film follows Spurlock as he spends a month eating nothing but food from McDonald's and delves into the ill health effects he suffers as a result.

The surprise hit helped catapult Spurlock's career as a documentarian and producer of several other food-related projects, including one that looked at the rebranding of the fast food industry as healthy and a television series that touched on binge drinking and overeating. The 53-year-old, originally from West Virginia, died from complications from cancer on May 23, 2024, according to the Associated Press. In the years since its release on May 7, 2004, "Super Size Me" has come under fire for its accuracy. Nonetheless, the indy doc was pivotal for its role in bringing to light some of the gross things you should know about the fast food industry.

In "Super Size Me," Morgan Spurlock spent 30 days eating only McDonald's food with the caveat that if the restaurant server prompted him, he would have to Super Size his meal. His cholesterol shot up, he gained more than 20 pounds during this time, and he developed other health issues. Although the film was made on a shoestring budget of $65,000, "Super Size Me" became part of the rising Slow Food movement dedicated to improving the food industry and ended up grossing $22 million.

The Oscar-nominated documentary almost certainly led to changes in the fast food industry. After the film's success, McDonald's pulled its Super Size option but claimed the move had nothing to do with the film. However, Spurlock believed "Super Size Me" had an overall positive effect. "I do think the film did open people's eyes, and at least opened the door to an even bigger conversation," he told Civil Eats in 2010.

Following the release of "Super Size Me," the fast food industry rebranded itself as being healthier, which prompted Morgan Spurlock to once again turn his gaze on these corporations with his 2017 sequel "Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!" In the documentary, he dives into the complexities of the U.S. chicken industry and fast food corporations' deceptive practices by starting his own fast food restaurant. These days, the industry is booming and the pendulum has swung back to the other side with heftier items like Burger King's Triple Whopper and the December 2023 McDonald's announcement that it would be making its burgers bigger.

In 2017, at the start of the #MeToo movement, Spurlock penned a blog post in which he admitted to having been accused of rape in college, being involved in a sexual harassment suit, and being a serial philanderer. He also wrote of his own childhood abuse and shared that he had been overconsuming alcohol since the age of 13. This last revelation gave rise to speculation in The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere that the liver issues that arose during "Super Size Me" may not have been entirely related to his fast food diet.

Ultimately, Spurlock's career as a muckraking documentary filmmaker had a lasting impact on American culture. "Film is such a powerful medium," he told Mother Jones in 2004. "It can really affect change; you can affect so many different people in different ways."