5 Movies Somehow Based on True Stories

Hollywood loves to base things on true stories; it takes the whole idea-generating process out of the equation. In fact, even some stories that seem like they had to have been dreamed up by some coked-out bigwig have turned out to be, as improbable as it sounds, inspired by actual events. Such as…

The sensationalist crime- and jazz-infested world of Chicago in the ‘20s was, of course, real, but so was its pair of merry murderesses. Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner’s stories mirror Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly’s down to the tiniest detail, like Annan’s insistence that she and her extramarital lover both reached for the gun and her confession that she “danced around the apartment and listened to music until her husband returned home hours later.” Both women were incarcerated in the Cook County Jail together in 1924, though it’s unknown if they participated in any choreography.

Has there ever been a more perfect concept for a teen movie than “town where dancing is illegal”? It’s the most wholesome rebellion imaginable, making it impossible to be on the uptight adults’ side. Such stark juxtaposition of righteous kids and wrongheaded adults never happen in real life, except when the youths of Elmore City, Oklahoma really did have to fight to have a senior prom in 1979. In fact, the law in question was an old 19th-century ordinance, not one recently passed due to a memorable tragedy, so the pro-dance faction was even more obviously correct.

It’s not just that Magic Mike is based on a true story — we all know strippers exist. It’s that it’s Channing Tatum’s true story. He developed the story based on his experiences as a stripper in Florida when he was 18 and 19 years old. All the characters and events in the movies are fictional, though he says his experience was more like the newbie character than his own, and though he only did it for about eight months, it was weird filming in some of his real stripping grounds in Tampa. “Doing it sober this time was fun,” he said.

It’s not quite clear how an evil spirit traveled across the country from person to person to finally possess Devon Sawa’s murderous appendage in Idle Hands, but it’s likely they were just dealing with an epidemic of alien hand syndrome. Those afflicted report that one of their hands seems to have a mind of its own and even fights them, including the first observed patient in 1908, a 57-year-old woman whose hand tried to strangle her in her sleep. Okay, it might not be demonic possession, but it’s arguably freakier.

Speaking of medical conditions that don’t seem possible, the amnesia suffered by Drew Barrymore’s character in 50 First Dates sounds like made-up Hollywood bullshit. In fact, neurologists have gone on the record that the idea of waking up every morning only to forget everything that happened the day before is made-up Hollywood bullshit. But it’s not. There’s a woman who’s perpetually stuck in 1994 after a series of traffic accidents. Luckily, she met her husband before she started losing her memory, but he does have to show her a photo album every morning to convince her that they’re married. Further fortunately, she doesn’t have to keep finding out that he’s Adam Sandler.