Films Inspired by Real Stories Turned Out To Be Fabrications

A much bigger audience is drawn to the idea of watching a film that’s based on a true story. They feel it is something they can readily relate to, and they’re excited to learn about history in a fun way. Knowing that the events that transpire in the narrative are real makes audience members feel that such things could happen to them too. This raises the level of interest in seeing such films.

More than two decades after the movie Fargo was released, the truth behind the story was revealed. It turns out that most of the events that played out in the 1996 film were a product of the imagination. 

This historical drama about the Canadian Caper back in 1979 has been lauded by movie critics for its sustained intensity in depicting how six US diplomats were rescued from Iran and harbored in the home of the Canadian ambassador.

Daniel Ruettiger’s unquenchable desire to play football for the University of Notre Dame is beautifully portrayed in the sports biography film Rudy. It has been deemed one of the best sports movies of all time.  

From the final cracks of John Du Pont’s revolver that killed Dave Schultz, it actually took days before the authorities could capture the billionaire murderer. The movie Foxcatcher does away with all that, turning the end of the otherwise biographical story into a work of fiction. 

The Blide Side impressively portrays how Michael Oher was able to make it big in the National Football League, overcoming his tough economic conditions growing up. The film focused on the period after he was adopted by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy.

Critics barraged the makers of A Beautiful Mind, which is based on the life of mathematical genius John Nash, with questions about why they fictionalized events in the story. While the Nobel Laureate (Economics) did become a professor at MIT, the Wheeler Laboratory portrayed in the film never existed. 

Were you excited to experience Formula One competition on the silver screen? The movie Rush fulfilled everyone’s big-screen racing dreams, but it also had its share of exaggerations. They added some antagonism between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, when in fact, the on-track rivals were so friendly that they were even housemates at one point. 

Philippe Petit did more than just complete a tightrope walk between the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. He did it eight times and even showboated for the cheering audience below. Prior to this incredible feat, the movie showed him falling into a lake while practicing. This never happened.  

At the end of the movie, the audience walked out of theaters with a warm feeling of positivity and hope, satisfied with Chris Gardner’s success. His rags-to-riches story is indeed true, but Gardner wasn’t as poor as the film showed. He also didn’t work for free with Dean Witter. He was actually paid $1,000 monthly for ten months.

Adrian Cronauer, the inspiration for the film Good Morning Vietnam, could only wish he was as talented and witty as the radio personality portrayed by Robin Williams. If he had been as kooky as the character Williams portrayed, he might have been kicked out of the role (as was portrayed in the film). 

Chances are you wouldn’t recognize the real blackjack team that inspired the movie 21 if you saw them. That’s because the real team members are Asian. Adding to the fiction is the fact that they were not led by an MIT professor. Instead, the group was founded by John Chang, J.P. Masser, and Bill Kaplan.

James J. Braddock’s unlikely victory over Max Baer in 1935 earned him the nickname “Cinderella Man.” His biopic shared the same title. Although nominated three times for an Academy Award, the film enraged Baer’s family over their patriarch’s vilification. 

Micky Ward beat Shea Neary by TKO in 2000 and was later celebrated in The Fighter as a world boxing champion. The truth is that the title he won from the World Boxing Union as a junior welterweight was not considered a full-fledged title.

It’s not every day that we hear about multiple abductions implicating the involvement of UFOs, so it’s understandable that such a film would attract a lot of people seeking answers. Apparently, these abduction stories have become a nuisance to town officials in Nome, Alaska, where they supposedly took place.

The biographical story about rap group N.W.A. is missing some unsavory details concerning Dr. Dre. Although the latter has issued a general apology about the matter, his violent acts against TV host Dee Barnes were glaringly left out in the story. She was assaulted by Dr. Dre in 1990 for hosting a segment that concerned Ice Cube’s bitter exit from the group.

There is no evidence to back up the idea that frontiersman Hugh Glass had a relationship with a Pawnee woman. He didn’t have a son either, although the movie is driven by his desire to seek revenge for his son’s murder.

When you have two divers accidentally left behind in the ocean, there is so much creative space to make anything up, and this is what happened in the film Open Water. The movie depicts what Tom and Eileen Lonergan went through near the Great Barrier Reef. 

What actually happened to the fishing vessel Andrea Gail when it crashed into a combination of a hurricane and two raging weather fronts? Although clearly depicted in The Perfect Storm, the events will always be a mystery. The story was fictionalized by Sebastian Junger, and his book was later turned into the film of the same name.

Film director Steven Spielberg swore that every scam in this movie was pulled off in real life by con man Frank Abagnale, who began swindling people at the age of fifteen. But Abagnale himself denies he ever posed as a replacement French teacher. This was the first scam shown in the film.

The Israeli government seeks revenge for the killing of its athletes during the 1972 Summer Olympics by sending out a team led by Avner Kaufman code-named Operation: Wrath of God. Contrary to the events shown in the film Munich, the targeting of Black September was actually done by several hit squads, and not just by Kaufman’s. 

In the movie, rodeo cowboy Ron Woodroof smuggles unapproved medicines to treat himself and others suffering from AIDS, leading to the creation of the Dallas Buyers’ Club. The real Woodroof was an electrician and merely a fan of the rodeo. Contrary to his fictionalized character’s misogynistic and homophobic nature, the real Ron was never known to be that way.

In real life, a bunch of bodybuilders, all members of the Sun Gym Gang, dressed up as ninjas in one of their multiple attempts to kidnap a businessman (Marc Schiller). This was the basis of the movie Pain and Gain, but it was filled with many fictional characters – as if the real deal wasn’t funny enough!

Jimi: All Is By My Side, a biopic released in 2013, failed to get the American musician’s fans on its side due to its many inaccuracies. First off, the rock legend wasn’t featured in the film playing his original songs.

Whip Whitaker, a boozy pilot, prevents his aircraft from crashing by deftly maneuvering the aircraft upside-down. He saved all the passengers who couldn’t thank him enough. They would thank him more if they could, except Whip doesn’t exist. 

Frank T. Hidalgo’s autobiography tells of his incredible experiences as an endurance rider in America and describes his friendship with Buffalo Bill and Black Elk. The movie Hidalgo recounts his challenges competing against Bedouins in the Ocean of Fire. It has beautiful scenes and sweeping landscapes – an ideal match for what critics describe as Hopkins’ delusions.

The Disney animated classic, Pocahontas doesn’t go out of its way to claim that it’s an authentic retelling of history; however, the film is riddled with historical inaccuracies. In reality, Pocahontas was the nickname given to the girl named Matoaka. In 1607 when the Virginia Company and John Smith arrived, Matoaka would have only been a 10 or 11 year old child.

For an inspiring Olympic underdog story, look no further than 1993’s Cool Runnings. This film depicts the story of the Jamaican bobsled team of 1988 to a dramatized extent. For example, many of the characters are fictionalized, including Coach Irv. Furthermore, the team itself wasn’t made up of four sprinters from Jamaica. Instead, two Americans selected army recruits in an attempt to put together a bobsled team.

The Greatest Showman became an instant hit with it’s catchy musical numbers and star-studded lineup including Hugh Jackman, Zack Effron, and Zendaya. The film is based on the creation of the Barnum & Bailey Circus and follows the life of P.T. Barnum. However, while the film puts Barnum in a positive light as a supporter of the downtrodden, in real life he was known to expl0it marginalized people for profits.

The Imitation Game tells the story of Alan Turing during World War II as he sets out to crack the Enigma Code of the Germans. However, the true story differs from what you see on screen. The film enjoys giving Turing all the credit for the code-breaking success when in actuality Polish scientists greatly assisted in the feat by cracking earlier codes and helping Alan Turing with his code-breaking machine.

The critically acclaimed classic film, Lawrence of Arabia may be well-known but wasn’t well-researched. For starters, the depiction of Arabs and Arabs soldiers was largely misrepresented. The film depicts them as tribal and undisciplined when in actuality they were considered classy, educated, and well-trained at the time.