10 movies you didn't know were based on true stories
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Sometimes, part of a movie's marketing campaign is to tout that it's based on a true story, like "All the President's Men" or "Philadelphia."
Yet sometimes movies seem too weird or unbelievable to be true.
Steven Spielberg's "The Terminal" was based on a real man who was stuck inside an airport for 18 years.
A woman in England wakes up every day thinking it's 1994, like Drew Barrymore's character in "50 First Dates."
When you think of movies based on true stories, you might not think of horror movies like "The Conjuring" or rom-coms like "50 First Dates," but — while it may seem unbelievable — they are based on things that really happened.
Even "Footloose," which has a premise that seems impossible (a town outlawing dancing) is based on a real town in Oklahoma.
Keep scrolling to learn about 10 movies you may be shocked to learn are based on real events.
There was a real town in Oklahoma that outlawed dancing, just like in "Footloose."
The real town, according to the BBC, was Elmore City, Oklahoma. In 1979, high school students wanted to plan their senior prom, but were informed that it would be illegal due to "a not-forgotten ordinance from the late 1800s that forbade dancing within the city limits." The teens went up against the local minister, who believed that dancing was a tool of the devil, but eventually, the law was overturned.
Five years later, Kevin Bacon would star in "Footloose," a film about a small town that made dancing illegal due to a very strict pastor.
Although the rom-com portion of "It Could Happen to You" is fictional, the actual lottery ticket incident is real.
The real story: In 1984, a waitress named Phyllis Penzo agreed to split a lottery ticket with one of her frequent patrons, a police officer named Robert Cunningham, in lieu of a tip. When that ticket ended up winning Cunningham $6 million, he honored their agreement and split the money with her.
The 1994 film starring Nicolas Cage as the police officer and Bridget Fonda as the waitress took more liberties — their characters end up falling in love, of course.
"The Conjuring" is based on the real stories of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the most famous paranormal investigators of the modern era.
The Perrons (husband Roger, wife Carolyn, and their five daughters) moved into what was known as the Old Arnold Estate in 1970. Almost immediately, the family reported paranormal activity, such as floating or moving furniture, doors opening and closing, disembodied sounds, and even being pushed, pulled, and hurt by unseen spirits.
Upon calling in paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, they found that the property was haunted by various ghosts, but that one particularly malevolent spirit called Bathsheba was preying on them. Bathsheba, who lived on the property in the 1800s, had been a suspected Satanist, and was charged for the violent murder of her first child.
"The Conjuring" was released four decades later.
"Cheaper by the Dozen" is based on the 1948 semi-autobiographical novel by siblings Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.
Both the original 1950 film and the 2003 remake were based on the life of the Gilbreth family, who had six boys and six girls over the course of 17 years while living in Montclair, New Jersey. As the New York Times wrote, the patriarch of the family was "a construction engineer and efficiency expert who originated the science of 'motion study' and believed that its factory management principles could be applied to the household," which explains the 12 kids.
The 2003 remake starred Steve Martin in that role, with Bonnie Hunt playing his wife.
While it might sound too wild to be true, "Catch Me If You Can" is based on the real life of Frank Abagnale Jr.
Abagnale published his autobiography ("Scam Me If You Can") in 1980, explaining how, from the ages of 15 to 21, he forged "$2.5 million of phony checks in every US state and 26 countries," according to US News. He's one of the most prolific con-men of all time — but as he grew more and more infamous, he attracted the focus of the FBI and was eventually caught. Incredibly, he began working for the FBI to catch other fraudsters.
The film, directed by Steven Spielberg and co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale and Tom Hanks as the determined FBI agent Carl Hanratty, was released in 2002.
The New York City Newsboys' Strike of 1899 was brought to life in "Newsies."
Typically, when you think of Disney musicals, the phrase "Based on a true story" doesn't come to mind. But Kenny Ortega's directorial debut was loosely based on the real New York City Newsboys' Strike of 1899, which aimed to force William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer to lower the prices of their newspapers to make them more affordable for the newsies to purchase. The strike was notable for being organized, mostly, by kids.
"Six Degrees of Separation" follows the life of real con artist David Hampton, who successfully convinced people he was the son of Sidney Poitier.
In the late '70s and early '80s, Hampton was able to convince many members of New York society that he was actually the son of legendary actor Sidney Poitier, and a classmate of many of their children at Ivy League colleges. He conned his way into their homes, lives, and out of a significant amount of money.
"Six Degrees of Separation" was first a play, and then later adapted into a film starring Will Smith as the Hampton character, renamed Paul.
"Dead Ringers" is the all-too-creepy true story of twin gynecologists who died within days of each other.
The Marcus twins shared a gynecology practice, an apartment in New York City, a house in the Hamptons ... and eventually their deaths.
Apparently, 45-year-old Stewart and Cyril Marcus were addicted to barbiturates. When their decomposing bodies were found, their mysterious deaths were first ruled as being caused by an overdose, then by withdrawal (they may have been attempting to wean themselves off the drugs).
Some say that Cyril outlived his brother by a couple of days and continued to live in the apartment before eventually dying himself.
The 1988 film is set to receive a TV reboot soon on Amazon Prime, with Rachel Weisz starring.
Just like in "50 First Dates," there's a real woman in England who wakes up every day thinking it's 1994.
Though "50 First Dates," a rom-com starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, has been criticized for its portrayal of amnesia, its general premise is based on a real woman.
According to Cosmo, Michelle Philpots is a British woman who suffered two traumatic brain injuries in 1985 and 1990. And now, for the last two decades, Philpots has woken up every morning convinced it's 1994. Just like Lucy in the film, she has to be reminded by her husband every day of her condition.
Though the events of "The Terminal" seem outlandish, there really was a man, Mehran Karimi Nasseri, stranded inside Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport for almost 20 years.
Nasseri was stranded inside the Paris airport for around 20 years. He claimed to be expelled from his native country of Iran, but since he didn't have a working passport, he also couldn't legally enter France. He refused to return home, and he also refused to travel anywhere other than the UK, which wouldn't let him in. Nasseri was eventually brought into a Parisian hospital, and he now lives in a shelter.
"The Terminal," which stars Tom Hanks, changes a fair amount of Nasseri's story — Hanks plays an Eastern European visitor who becomes stranded in a New York City airport because his passport is rendered invalid. His home country had a military coup, and he becomes "stateless."
Read more:
50 must-watch films starring Hollywood's most popular actors
26 actors who played the president of the United States, and how they compare to the real thing
The shocking real-life age differences between 35 fictional parents and their children
Read the original article on Insider
