22 Movies ‘Based on a True Story’ That Were Actually Accurate

When a movie is advertised as “based on a true story,” “based” is usually doing a lot of heavy lifting, and not in an annoying meathead way. The fact of the matter is that real life just isn’t that cinematic most of the time, which is why we have movies in the first place. “For example, there was a recent post on r/TodayILearned saying that nearly every claim by Frank W. Abagnale, Jr. in Catch Me if You Can has been debunked, even though the movie claims to be ‘based on a true story,’” Redditor 7216345 told r/Movies.

But that’s not always the case. Some movies depict events as faithfully as possible, even if they’re not all that exciting, tidy or sexually attractive. “This led me to wonder about which movies actually followed the truth, without stretching or exaggerating it,” 7216345 went on. 

They then asked, “Which movies accurately depict what really happened?” and their fellow Redditors brought all kinds of reality to the proceedings.