The Heartbreaking True Stories Behind Your Favorite Movies

31. Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse that inspired the 2003 equestrian film that was named after him. The film starred Tobey Maguire as his jockey, Red Pollard. Although he was first overlooked due to his small nature, Seabiscuit proved to be a true underdog story when he became a champion horse. His unlikely success brought many people hope, as his success came around the time of the Great Depression. He became a symbol of prosperity during the tough economic times.

32. Dallas Buyers Club

The heartbreaking film tells the story of a real-life AIDS patient – Ron Woodroof – who was diagnosed in the mid-80s when the treatment was under-researched and practically unavailable and experimental. Woodroof smuggled unapproved medication into Texas for his symptoms and soon would start to distribute it to other people with AIDS – a group that became known as the “Dallas Buyers Club”. Although Rayon and Dr. Eve Saks are fictional, their characters were based on interviews with transgenders AIDS patients, activists, and doctors for the film.

33. United 93

Back in 2001, tragedy struck in New York that affected people all over the world, leaving everybody shaken to their core. The film documents United Airlines Flight 93, one of the flights hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists as a part of the September 11 attacks. Paul Greengrass, the director of the film, used any available information to create this film, including stories from surviving family members, cockpit recordings, and a few other sources. This flight was the only one that didn’t reach the hijackers’ target as a result of passengers regaining control of the aircraft.

34. Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures is a biographical drama film that tells the story of three brilliant female African American mathematicians who worked at and made great contributions to NASA during the Space Race. The women depicted in the film are Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. The film covers important events such as when Katherine Johnson calculated flight trajectories for missions such as Project Mercury. Although the story has mostly remained true to reality, several liberties have been taken in order to create a bit more drama for the film.

35. American Hustle

The film American Hustle is based on the real-life events that took place in the FBI ABSCAM (Abdul Scam) operation in the late 70’s and 80’s. It told the story of how the Feds used a real con man to help them track down which public officials were willing to allow an Arab sheik (who was a fake set up by the Feds themselves) to bribe them into giving him a fast-track citizenship as well as other illegal favors. 19 people, including several congressmen, a mayor, and a senator were convicted in the case.

36. Beauty And The Beast

The beloved Beauty and the Beast story is actually based on a true, and rather heartbreaking, story. Obviously, the actual story did not involve a curse, but instead, a man who suffered from a genetic condition called hypertrichosis that caused an abnormal amount of hair growth on his body, including his face. He was brought as a gift to Paris to the court of King Henry II of France, where he was given an education and later married off to a beautiful woman named Catherine. They had seven children, four of which were also affected by hypertrichosis.

37. The Terminal

The film The Terminal was inspired by the true story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who spent 18 years living in Terminal 1 of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. He lived there between the years of 1988 until 2006. Nasseri is a refugee from Iran and after being expelled from his home country, found himself without anywhere to go. Since he legally entered the airport, he could not be sent out, but he could not enter France legally either, so he had to live in the airport for all of those years.

38. Jackie

Natalie Portman portrays former first lady Jackie Kennedy in the film Jackie, which tells the story of her life following the assassination of her husband, John F. Kennedy. The film is based off an interview she gave with Life magazine in Hyannis Port by Theodore H. White. Jackie stayed at the White House for two weeks following the event and also requested from newly inaugurated Lyndon B. Johnson that the space center in Florida would be renamed the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

39. Hacksaw Ridge

Hacksaw Ridge chronicles the life of Desmond Doss, who was a pacifist combat medic who served during World War II. As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, Doss did not agree to carry or use any weapons or firearms. Doss made history when he became the first person to receive that Medal of Honor as a conscientious objector after he made many contributions during the Battle of Okinawa. Andrew Garfield portrayed Doss in the film and received an Academy Award for Best Actor.

40. American Gangster

American Gangster fictionalizes the true story of Frank Lucas, who was a drug lord and gangster from North Carolina who became known for smuggling hard drugs into the United States on American service planes who were coming back from the Vietnam War. He became prominent during the 1960’s and 70’s in Harlem and was notorious for cutting out the middleman and buying the substances directly himself from the source in the Golden Triangle.

Credits: newsd.co

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