Movies You Didn't Know Were Based On Real People

50 First Dates is a romantic comedy about a woman, Lucy, who suffers from short-term memory loss after a car accident. Every night, she forgets everything that happens during the day and wakes up thinking it's the day of the accident again. A man, Henry, falls in love with her and tries to get her to fall in love with him again every day. A real-life story inspired this film. Michelle Philpots has a rare condition that severely harmed her memory after she was in two accidents. Every day, she wakes up thinking it's 1994. However, her condition is much worse than Lucy's because she doesn't always get a full day of memories. Sometimes, she forgets new information as soon as a few minutes. Like Lucy, she uses notes to remind herself of things she forgets, but her condition is not exactly the same as the one portrayed in the film. Michelle's husband, Ian, explained: It can be very frustrating for me but I have to be patient and understand. I have to keep calm because I love her. I am lucky we met before she had the accidents because she can remember me. Luckily we have lots of photos to remind her, otherwise she would forget it all.

In The Hills Have Eyes, a family is traveling to Los Angeles in their camper vans. Along the way, they end up stranded in the desert, forcing most of the family to wait behind while some of them go to find help. The family is horrified to discover that the place they're stuck is home to a family who have a taste for human flesh. Although a movie about a cannibal family might not seem based in reality, writer-director Wes Craven said a real-life news story inspired the film: Originally, it came from an article I saw in the New York library about the Sawney Bean family. In the 1700s, in Scotland I believe, there was an area that had a road running through it from Scotland, and people thought it was haunted because people kept disappearing from that road. The story came out when a couple was attacked by these wild-looking people, and one got away. He knew someone in the court, and they sent out an expedition, which resulted in finding a cave along the English Channel. The true story is just as horrific as the events of the movie. Sawney Bean and his partner both craved the taste of human flesh. They raised lots of children and grandchildren in a cave, which turned into a clan of about 50 family members. Like the monsters in the film, the family preyed on lost travelers for their meals, likely eating thousands of humans without needing to leave the area near their cave.

The 2023 film Hit Man tells the story of Gary Johnson, an undercover cop who takes on the role of a fake hitman to catch people paying to get someone killed. He goes against protocol when he meets a woman, Madison, who wants him to kill her abusive husband. He refuses to take the money and encourages her to use the cash to start a new life, and becomes attracted to her while still pretending to be a hit man, making the situation more complicated. The film is based on a real man, Gary Johnson, who was also a cop pretending to be a hit man. He played a role in arresting over 70 people who were looking to hire a killer. However, many of the details were changed slightly for the film, such as him living in New Orleans instead of Houston. There's also no evidence that he ever was romantically involved with a client. However, the real-life Johnson once met up with a woman who wanted her boyfriend dead, which is what inspired the plot of the film.

The Terminal follows the story of a man, Viktor, who is trapped indefinitely in a New York airport. An Eastern European tourist, he arrives in New York for a trip as a war breaks out in his own country. Security won't let him through because of the war, forcing him to live at the airport. During his time there, he falls in love with a flight attendant, which is tricky because he can't leave the terminal. This film was inspired by the story of a man named Mehran Karimi Nasseri (also known as Sir Alfred Mehran), an Iranian refugee who lived in a Paris airport for a shocking 18 years. He was expelled from his home country and lost his papers while traveling, preventing him from going to new destinations. While he lived at the airport like Viktor in the movie, the rest of the film's story is fictional. Viktor is at a different airport and from a different country (a made-up one for the film).

In It Could Happen to You, police officer Charlie realizes he doesn't have enough money to tip his waitress, Yvonne. So he promises her half the winnings of his lottery ticket. His ticket ends up winning $4 million. Even though his wife wants him to keep it all, Charlie knows he has to stay true to his word, so he gives Yvonne half of his winnings, which makes his wife determined to get all the money for herself. The plot of this movie really happened to Robert Cunningham, who gave half his lottery winnings to Phyllis Penzo. However, the similarities between fiction and reality seem to stop there. Penzo and Cunningham had been friends for about 15 years when Cunningham joked about sharing a lottery ticket as a replacement for a tip. They each picked three numbers, so Cunningham's wife thought it was fair for her to get half the money, which is far from what the movie portrays. Penzo said: Ours is really a luck story, but the filmmakers turned it into a love story. Except for the part about us winning, it's totally fiction.

This 2002 musical/crime movie is about two woman who are arrested for murder. A famous Chicago lawyer, Billy Flynn, takes on both their cases and is determined to defend them. Both women crave fame, so they remain determined to stay stars even as they await trial. There were many versions of this story before the movie musical, tracing back to the 1920s. In 1924, two real-life women were charged with killing their lovers. Maurine Watkins, a crime reporter for the Chicago Tribune at the time, was fascinated by the story. After covering the story for the newspaper, she wrote a play in 1926 that was inspired by the two women. Then, a film version came out the following year with the name Chicago, which led to the Broadway musical and the 2002 movie in the future.

The Notebook, a film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks's book of the same name, is about the romance between Noah and Allie. It takes place in the 1940s, when Noah is a mill worker and Allie comes from a rich family, so her family doesn't approve of her romance with Noah. Their relationship seems to be over when Noah leaves to serve in the war, but sparks fly again when he reunites with her, despite complications getting in the way of them being together. According to Sparks's website, this famous romance story was inspired by his ex-wife's grandparents. However, while he says their story inspired him, he has never explained which parts of The Notebook are based on the true story and which parts are entirely made up. Even so, he's made it clear that the elderly couple's connection is what he wanted to portray: But though their story was wonderful, what I most remember… is the way they were treating each other. The way his eyes shined when he looked at her, the way he held her hand, the way he got her tea and took care of her. I remember watching them together and thinking to myself that after 60 years of marriage, these two people were treating each other exactly the same as my wife and I were treating each other after 12 hours. What a wonderful gift they’d given us, I thought, to show us on our first day of marriage that true love can last forever.

In the movie Girl, Interrupted, 18-year-old Susanna ends up in a mental institution after a suicide attempt. During her time there, she meets and forms a bond with a variety of other young women, including a pathological liar and a sociopath. The movie follows Susanna's journey and gives a glimpse of the challenges the other women are facing, too. The film, which covers serious topics about mental illness, is based on a true story. It was inspired by Susanna Kaysen's memoir of the same name. In her memoir, Kaysen talks about the two years she spent as a psychiatric patient in Boston. She had taken 50 aspirin, similar to the suicide attempt of Susanna in the movie. It was one of the most famous memoirs related to hospitalization for mental illness, and although details are changed in the film, the overall idea is the same.

Dog Day Afternoon starts with three amateur robbers planning a simple bank robbery. However, what was supposed to be an easy heist ends up going wrong in every way possible. One robber chickens out and the other two end up getting locked inside the bank with several hostages. The robbers desperately try to remain in control of the situation, but it gets harder the longer they're stuck there. The film was inspired by a real 1972 crime led by John Wojtowicz, Salvatore Naturale, and Bobby Westenberg. The trio watched The Godfather for inspiration before robbing a bank, and it's no surprise their attempt began to fall apart almost immediately. It turned into a hostage situation that lasted hours, and was talked about all over the news. Although the characters and many of the details of Dog Day Afternoon were fictional, the overall plot is very similar to this real-life bank robbery gone wrong.

Goodfellas follows the story of Henry Hill, a man who grew up around gangsters. He had dreamed of being a gangster from a young age and quickly worked his way up the ranks. However, as he runs into several issues along the way, such as a drug addiction and marriage problems, he finds it harder to be successful at his job. The film is based on a real person named Henry Hill. The real-life Hill grew up wanting to be a gangster, just like the character version of him. He was involved in cases of arson, assault, and credit card fraud. He also played a big role in the Lufthansa Heist in 1978. In 1980, he was eventually arrested for drug trafficking. All this information about Hill's real life appeared in the 1986 nonfiction book Wiseguy.

Marley & Me tells the story of newlyweds John and Jenny after they bring home a mischievous puppy. He destroys furniture and struggles with obedience classes, but of course, it's impossible to say mad at his adorable puppy face. Throughout the film, Marley brings out the best in John and Jenny, even when he's causing trouble. This charming film is based on a 2005 autobiography called Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan, who had a lovable Labrador puppy of his own, also named Marley. In an interview, Grogan said he learned early on that Marley would be an amusing subject for a book. Even though he had dogs after Marley, none created quite as many stories as the chaotic pup: I think it had something to do with his guileless heart and over-the-top zest for life. Just as he was incapable of putting the brakes on his behavior, he had no bounds on his affection and loyalty, either. Not necessarily a bad thing.

The protagonist of 50/50, Adam Lerner, has always taken good care of his heath. Thus, he's extremely disappointed when he learns he has malignant tumors on his spine, giving him a 50/50 chance of survival. He tries to stay positive, but those close to him are devastated by the news. Adam does what he can to improve his health and his life, such as seeing a therapist, but he ends up developing feelings for her. Although this film is based on a real person, the number of accurate details are about… 50/50. It was written by Will Reisner, who was diagnosed with cancer at 25 years old. He wrote the character of Adam to be similar to himself, but it was still a fictional story. For example, Reisner never had a relationship with his therapist like the character did. Even though the details weren't exactly the same, Reisner could see a lot of himself in the character. He explained: While writing the movie, I knew that Adam Lerner’s (our protagonist’s) journey would embody my own, but I wasn’t trying to turn him into me. And yet, since the film’s release, I’ve had dozens of close friends and family members mention that Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance is an “astonishingly uncanny portrait” of me. I’ve been told he “nailed my mannerisms” and “even my posture.”

This iconic musical movie tells the story of Maria, a nun who works as a governess for a family with seven children. The children are hesitant at first, but she slowly wins them over with her kindness and playful attitude. She eventually develops a strong bond with the children and starts to fall in love with their widowed father. The Sound of Music is based in part on Maria von Trapp's memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. The general plot of the movie is similar to Maria's real life, which involved her spending time with a group of children and eventually marrying their father. However, in reality, she wasn't a governess for all the children and instead started as a tutor for only one child. In her memoir, she also revealed that she married the father because of how much she loved the children, not because she was in love with him.

Hustlers is about a woman, Destiny, who works as a stripper to get by. When she gets close to Ramona, the strip club's top earner, she learns how to make tons of money from wealthy clients. The 2008 economic collapse drastically hurts their profits, however, leading them to team up with other strippers to find a way to get their lives back on track. This film was based on a real group of strippers who made headlines for drugging men to steal their money. The group was discussed in a 2015 New York magazine article written by Jessica Pressler titled “The Hustlers at Scores.” Pressler interviewed the leaders of the group, Roselyn “Rosie” Keo and Samantha Foxx. Writer and director Lorene Scafaria altered some details of the story for Hustlers but wanted to stay true to the relationship Keo and Foxx shared. Scafaria explained: [I] found it to be a fascinating friendship story at its core… I thought that Jessica and Rosie’s relationship was incredibly interesting - the relationship between a storyteller and their subject.

21 tells the story of six MIT students who train to become experts at card counting. One of the students, Ben Campbell, needs to win hundreds of thousands of dollars to achieve his dream of attending Harvard Medical School in the future. The students work together to use card counting to their advantage playing blackjack in Las Vegas, which leads them to win millions. This film is based on a true story, but the appearances and names of the individuals were changed for the film. The film also featured many other changes; for example, a teacher didn't lead the students like in the movie. There also wasn't a romance between any of the students (it was added to keep the story interesting). Plus, the real-life Ben Campbell, Jeff Ma, didn't need to win the money to go to Harvard, even though that was his dream school. Ma explained: I actually did want to go to Harvard Medical School, but I didn't actually play blackjack necessarily to go to Harvard Medical School… One of the reasons I ended up not going to Harvard Medical School is because of blackjack and all the money I could make there.

Almost Famous is set in 1973, when 15-year-old William is heavily inspired by his love of music. He eventually gets a job interviewing an up-and-coming band for Rolling Stone, and tours with the band, leading him to see the world in a whole new way while he writes about his experience. This film is loosely based on journalist Cameron Crowe's experiences writing for Rolling Stone. Many of the characters in the film are fictional counterparts of real-life people. For example, Lester Bangs and Ben Fong-Torres were real journalists who helped shape Crowe's career. The fictional band, Stillwater, was inspired by a mix of bands, including Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers Band, and the Eagles. Penny Lane was meant to be a mix of Bebe Buell, Pamela Des Barres, and Pennie Lane Trumbull.