John 'Chickie' Donohue fact-checks 'Greatest Beer Run Ever': 'This might have been a dumb thing to do'

If you’re delivering booze to your buddies in a war, street smarts can be helpful. That’s the most fascinating aspect Zac Efron found about John “Chickie” Donohue, the real-life guy he plays in “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” (now streaming on Apple TV+).

In 1967, the merchant seaman, then 26, brought his suds to his neighborhood pals serving in Vietnam. In the movie, members of the military assume he’s with the CIA, and Chickie doesn’t correct them as he makes his improbable trip.

The onscreen character mostly maintains his cool. But Efron? “I would be terrified,” the actor confesses. “I would cave in seconds.”

Director Peter Farrelly agrees: “That's probably the craziest thing, that he would do that. I'd be afraid they'd blow my brains out.”

More: 'Greatest Beer Run Ever' takes Zac Efron 'outside of my comfort zone' and into Oscar territory

Ask Donohue about how he pulled it off, and he credits his mustache. “The military don't have facial hair – at least they didn't in those days,” he tells USA TODAY. “I don't remember the letters ‘CIA’ ever mentioned, but they thought I was some sort of federal agent. And when I was forced to tell them actually who I was, I'd tell them I was a merchant mariner. Most of them didn't even know what the term meant, so they just left me alone.”

The crazy true story of “Beer Run” – based on Donohue and J.T. Malloy’s 2017 memoir – was “the stupidest idea I've ever heard of,” Farrelly says, explaining why he had to direct the film. “This is like ‘Dumb and Dumber’ meets ‘Apocalypse Now.’ ” But it did actually happen, and Donohue, 81, attended the recent premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival with all four friends he brought beers to on his epic quest. “It was like the ultimate old man's Disney World: surrounded by beautiful women, no lines to wait in and everything paid for,” he says of his big night.

Donohue breaks down the facts (and occasional fiction) of key “Beer Run” moments:

Was Chickie's far-fetched mission really inspired by a stirring bar speech?

In the film, Chickie’s out with his friends at their local hangout when their bartender, The Colonel (Bill Murray), takes issue with anti-war protesters calling American soldiers “baby killers and murderers.” It was a scene that also played out in real life. “It affected me. That, in addition to so many funerals and so many young guys who had already died,” Donohue says.

When the Colonel wished he could bring beers to the boys over there, “I said, ‘All right, I can do that,”’ Donohue recalls. And because of his experience as a former Marine and knowledge of military lingo, “I knew I had a good chance of getting there.”

Did Chickie (played by Zac Efron) actually haul a duffel bag of beer all the way to Vietnam?

Efron’s Chickie packs up a duffel bag with Pabst Blue Ribbon cans, heads to Vietnam and quickly finds his pal Tom Collins (Archie Renaux) partying all night with his fellow MPs. But in reality, the original stash didn’t make it.

Donohue took a job in the engine room of a World War II Victory ship for the monthlong voyage to Vietnam. “After a shift, I would go upstairs and have a couple of beers. So if I had two beers for 31 days, that's what, 62 beers? That's a lot of beers,” he says. But he knew where to get more once he arrived: “I went to the enlisted men's clubs and refurbished the beer.”

The visiting civilian almost sat in a pile of elephant poo

In the movie, Chickie is on a road late at night when a pack of elephants inexplicably walks in front of him. Next thing he knows, a Jeep approaches; it turns out to be his friend Kevin McLoone (Will Ropp), who’s shocked to see Chickie in the country. In real life, Donohue randomly ran into McLoone, but “I didn't actually see elephants,” he admits.

That said, an earlier scene in which Chickie found pal Rick Duggan (Jake Picking) and went to sit on what he thought was a rock actually happened. “He said, ‘That's not a rock, Chickie. That's elephant (poop).’ I said, ‘What the hell, there's no elephants here.’ So he says, ‘Oh yeah, (the Viet Cong) use them to carry their artillery and their heavy weapons.”’

Russell Crowe’s photographer is an amalgam of personalities

In Saigon, Chickie meets photojournalist Arthur Coates (Crowe), who helps him when things get hairy during the Tet Offensive and wants Chickie to tell folks back in America what’s really happening in Vietnam. Coates is a composite of people Donohue met there, including journalists and also a businessman who sold computers to the Vietnamese government.

As in “Beer Run,” Donohue would often talk with them at the rooftop bar of the Caravelle Hotel. “I had a concern about them throwing a hand grenade or something into the restaurant, (but) I didn't know anybody even playing for the Yankees who could throw a ball that high,” Donohue says.

Chickie saw the truth of war up close and personal

The film is mostly a lighthearted adventure until Chickie visits Rick, has to run for his life during an ambush and spends the night in a foxhole. Like his onscreen counterpart, Donohue felt in danger for the first time. “I realized this might have been a dumb thing to do (but) there was no turning back,” he says.

The whole bonkers trip gave Donohue a new perspective. His initial attitude of duty for to country became “a big distrust of what our government and every government says. It was clear that we weren't defending the United States of America. It was purely political.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Greatest Beer Run Ever': Zac Efron's real counterpart fact-checks