Fact-checking 'The Iron Claw': What's real (and what's not) in Zac Efron's wrestling movie

Spoiler alert: We're breaking down plot points in Zac Efron's new movie "The Iron Claw" (in theaters now). Beware if you haven't seen it yet.

Movie fans know about Dwayne “The Rock" Johnson, Dave Bautista and John Cena – pro wrestlers who became stars in pop culture. Those same people might not know about the legend of the Von Erich family, though, and they're who director Sean Durkin wants to reach with “The Iron Claw.”

The real-life drama chronicles the successes of the wrestling Von Erich brothers – Kevin (Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), Mike (Stanley Simons) and Chris (who isn't seen in the movie) – and their tragedies: Four of the five siblings died between 1984 and 1993, three by suicide.

“Iron Claw” is a movie about the love of wrestling, but “it’s really a family story,” Durkin says. “It’s about the ideas of masculinity that we put into boys about what a man should be and how those can be crushing."

The film is based on the true story of the Von Erichs but, like the world of wrestling itself, figuring out what’s real and what’s not can be tricky. Durkin talks through what's fact versus fiction in “Iron Claw.”

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Did Fritz Von Erich’s name change flirt with a family curse?

When Kevin takes future wife Pam (Lily James) on a first date, he tells her how his father, Fritz (played by Holt McCallany), adopted his grandmother’s surname, even though it was seemingly cursed because her family had weathered all sorts of tragedy.

“I think that’s true,” Durkin says of Fritz (born Jack Adkisson), who started using the Von Erich name as a hated Nazi ring villain in the 1950s and ‘60s before running the World Class Championship Wrestling organization. “There are certain things that you pick up in the world of wrestling that are myth and some that are not. I had it in my mind that was a reliable story I had heard.”

The “Von Erich curse” now refers to the deaths that befell the family's sons: David, 25, in 1984 (from a ruptured intestine); and Mike, 23, in 1987, Chris, 21, in 1991, and Kerry, 33, in 1993 (all by suicide). A sixth son, firstborn Jack Jr., was accidentally electrocuted and drowned at age 6 in 1959.

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Did Kevin Von Erich receive a posthumous postcard from his brother David?

In the movie, the family is mourning the unexpected loss of David, who suffered medical problems in Japan, when Kevin receives a postcard that David mailed him with the note “I miss you, brother.”

“I made that up,” Durkin says, though the suicide notes in the movie were verbatim. “The idea of David not having a note but having something written to create the symmetry between the brothers felt important.”

Did Kevin and Kerry Von Erich flip a coin to see who would wrestle Ric Flair for the heavyweight title?

David was supposed to take on Flair for the National Wrestling Alliance heavyweight title – the belt Fritz had always dreamed of having in the family – at a big Texas event. When he dies, Fritz has Kevin and Kerry – who takes up the family business when his Olympic dreams are dashed – flip a coin to see who gets the match instead. Kerry wins, and that night after his victory, he gets in a motorcycle accident that costs him his right foot.

Kerry did defeat Flair just months after David’s death in 1984, but the accident actually happened in 1986. The flip, though, was legit, Durkin says. “If Kerry doesn't wrestle that match and get in the accident, what's his life like? When I look at the family, I see these alternate paths: If David doesn't go to Japan and he goes to a doctor, does the chain of events ever start? If Mike doesn't kill himself, do Chris and Kerry ever kill themselves?”

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Were there really fake Von Erich family members?

Over the years, wrestlers took on the Von Erich moniker who weren’t related to the family: In 1985 after Mike was injured, Fritz Von Erich hired Ricky Vaughn to play cousin “Lance,” the son of Waldo Von Erich, Fritz’s tag-team partner and "brother."

That time when Fritz tried to keep the dynasty going after David's death is represented in a quick scene. Mike is sidelined with toxic shock syndrome after shoulder surgery, Kerry’s not back in action yet after losing his foot, and Kevin is seen unhappily wrestling a tag-team match with Lance Von Erich (real wrestler Maxwell Jacob Friedman).

“I was so fascinated by that period,” Durkin says, though this “imposter” plays a fleeting role. “At that point in the movie, it's about Kevin's emotional journey through all the loss that he was going through, and that just felt much more important.”

Why isn’t Chris Von Erich portrayed in 'The Iron Claw'?

The most noticeable aspect of the movie for hardcore wrestling buffs is who's not there: The youngest Von Erich brother is missing from the narrative. Chris' story shares thematic aspects with other siblings, and Durkin was “years” into writing the “Iron Claw” script when he “recognized that unfortunately there's a repetition to that tragedy that would be hard for a movie to sustain. I grappled with that for a very long time and finally made the tough decision, (but) it felt like the right one.”

Streamlining the Von Erich saga into a feature-length movie was “an impossible task. There's so much that got left out,” Durkin says. The death of David's daughter of SIDS at 13 weeks old is not shown, nor is Kerry's family depicted. “There was never going to be room for everything, and so every decision was a difficult one, made with care and consideration to get it into a focused movie that is at the core about Kevin's survival.”

If you or someone you know needs support for mental health, suicidal thoughts or substance abuse call, text or chat:

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: 988 and 988lifeline.org

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Iron Claw' fact check: The tragic true story behind Zac Efron's movie