These 7 'Based on a True Story' Movies Are Full of Lies (But Still Entertaining)

Over the years we've had the pleasure of watching some incredible, unbelievable true stories turned into realistic cinematic experiences for all to see. These movies are not them.

The Blind Side (2009)

7.6 on IMDb

In 2009, the inspiring 'true' story of Michael Oher touched lives all around the world. The Blind Side follows his journey as an impoverished African-American student who is adopted by a white family and goes on to become a football star, changing his and their lives forever.

Sadly, very little of the story turned out to be true. Oher was never adopted by the family, knew how to play football and didn't need to be taught, hated the fact that he was portrayed as 'simple' and felt that his story was twisted. He was also recently involved in a lawsuit against the couple who took him in, claiming extortion and an unusual conservatorship that he felt they tricked him into signing.

Pearl Harbor (2001)

6.2 on IMDb

This emotional historical drama was enormously expensive and extremely inaccurate. Detailing the fateful bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese and the American pilots who bravely took action, the war movie is powerful and moving, but wrong in many ways.

For example, it shows Japanese planes attacking a civilian hospital. This horrific act never happened, and it is common knowledge that the Japanese avoided attacking civilians.

Many of the planes depicted in the film were incorrect, from their models to their maneuvers and colors, and many had technology that did not exist at the time. With its many embellishments and main character dialogue that probably didn't happen, Pearl Harbor is certainly not a historical account, but it is explosively entertaining.

Catch Me if you Can (2002)

8.1 on IMDb

The epic adventures of a con man who fooled all of those watching and made us believe in an impossible but entertaining story.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays the real Frank Abagnale Jr. in a movie based on his autobiography. During his lifetime, he forged checks, impersonated high-ranking officials, escaped from prison, and even flew as a pilot for Pan Am to more than 82 countries without any qualifications. This made for an exceptionally exciting movie, but it turned out to be yet another fraud by Abagnale Jr.

Many of his claims, the events depicted in the movie, were proven to be fabricated. He did pull off many frauds, thefts and aliases, but not on the glorious scale depicted in the movie or his book.

U-571 (2000)

6.6 on IMDb

Another nail-biting war movie, U-571 recounts the daring Operation Primrose mission in which a U.S. submarine crew attempts to steal the Enigma machine from a German submarine. The story takes place in 1942, but the thing is, the British already had the Enigma machine and cracked the code in 1942. Let's not forget to add the dates, the name of the mission, and the fact that it depicts American heroes when in fact it was a British vessel and crew on the mission.

Braveheart (1995)

8.3 on IMDb

The same movie that gave us the inspiring and unforgettable line 'They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!' is easily one of the least accurate historical accounts ever.

William Wallace's life and leadership in the Scottish battle against England is exciting, but extraordinarily fabricated. Parts of his backstory are completely false, and his motivation for waging war against the English was also invented. Braveheart was not even associated with Wallace, but rather with Robert the Bruce, a national hero whose heart was carried in an iron case to fulfill his desire to join a crusade.

Aside from the whole story being a complete lie, the battles, clothing, and weaponry were inaccurate for the time period in which Braveheart takes place.

The Conjuring (2013)

7.5 on IMDb

The Conjuring universe didn't become the highest-grossing horror franchise of all time by sticking to the facts. Many of us would probably have saved ourselves some sleepless nights if we had known how heavily the "based on a true story" movie relies on fiction.

The first movie and all that followed are based on the "real" case files of ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren, although many dispute that their stories are true at all. Ed and Lorraine are real, the Perron family and their home were real, and the ghost named Bathsheba was a person who once existed, but many of the interactions and events in the film are fictionalized, for fear, of course.

The Imitation Game (2014)

8.0 on IMDb

Well, this version certainly didn't copy the real story.

Set in World War I, the historical drama follows the real-life English mathematical genius named Alan Turing, who was part of the team that attempted to crack the German Enigma code. The movie was full of dramatizations to make the 'math' exciting, but one edit changed everything and felt like a slander.

In addition to Alan being portrayed as autistic in some way, part of the story involves him discovering a Soviet spy in his team and being blackmailed into secrecy. Apart from being untrue, many found it offensive and argued that Alan would never have allowed such a thing to happen.