Sometimes reality is the real horror! Welcome to Watchmojo, and today we’ll be looking at the Top 30 films that were based on true stories but left out key factual details that would have made their conclusions even more depressing.
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00:00 No.
00:01 Hello, I need Dr. Rosen's office, please.
00:03 You've got to stop her, John.
00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we'll be looking at the top 30 films that were based on true stories,
00:12 but left out key factual details that would have made their conclusions even more depressing.
00:17 Courthouse got papers to prove it, and we got papers proving he's free!
00:21 Number 30, The Aftermath Alive.
00:24 [Sounds of a plane crashing]
00:31 The true story that inspired this movie is chilling, and its representation on the screen stops short of the full picture.
00:38 Alive is an account of the aftermath of the Andes flight disaster involving Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571.
00:45 Crash survivors spent 72 days in the harsh Andes Mountains before they were rescued.
00:50 This point marks the end of the 1993 dramatization.
00:54 [Sounds of a plane crashing]
01:01 After returning home, the survivors were heavily criticized when it was revealed that they had resorted to eating their dead friends for sustenance.
01:09 We shouldn't murder innocents to live.
01:11 What about our innocence?
01:13 What's going to become of our innocence if we survive as cannibals?
01:17 Even with such a great loss to bear, the father of one of the dead victims was arrested for grave robbing
01:22 when he went up to the mountain himself to retrieve his son's remains after they were buried.
01:27 Number 29, The Abandoned Bus, Into the Wild.
01:30 Is there anybody here?
01:34 Guess not!
01:38 Into the Wild details the life of Christopher McCandless, who hitchhiked across North America and ended up in the Alaskan wilderness.
01:45 McCandless camped out in an abandoned green bus where he eventually passed on, reportedly due to starvation.
01:51 Would you see then...
01:53 what I see now?
01:59 After being documented in the biographical book of the same title, McCandless' story became a cultural phenomenon
02:05 and inspired quite a lot of people to tread the same path as him.
02:09 If you want something in life, reach out and grab it.
02:13 Over the years following the book's publication, many hikers journeyed to McCandless' abandoned bus,
02:18 with two people losing their lives in the process and countless others needing to be rescued.
02:23 To prevent further harm, the bus was removed from its original location.
02:27 It currently sits in a museum at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
02:32 Number 28, Mulan Ends Her Life, Mulan.
02:36 Mulan is a badass in this movie, and she is just as cool in the legends that the film was based on.
02:42 Mulan did join the army, according to Chinese legends, and she kicked ass throughout her military career.
02:47 Disney said that she was cast aside when her identity was discovered,
02:59 but proved herself when she saved the Emperor from the Huns.
03:02 You have saved us all.
03:11 This reveal plays out differently in the legends,
03:16 but there's a version of her in the 1695 story "Sui Tong Romance" that sees a very sad conclusion.
03:23 After returning from the war, she discovers her father has passed.
03:27 Instead of being forced into service as a concubine, she ends her life at her father's grave.
03:32 She didn't deserve that.
03:34 The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter.
03:40 I've missed you so.
03:43 I've missed you too, Baba.
03:45 Number 27, Anastasia Didn't Survive, Anastasia.
03:50 Fox's animated movie about a lost Russian princess has more of a historical basis than other entries on this list.
03:56 In the early 1910s, Russia was ruled by the imperial Romanov family.
04:01 Mark my words, you and your family will die within the fortnight.
04:08 I will not rest until I see the end of the Romanov line forever.
04:15 In the movie, former advisor and sorcerer Grigori Rasputin sparks the Russian Revolution,
04:21 causing Anastasia to be separated from her family while being evacuated from danger.
04:26 Take my hand. Hold on to my hand.
04:29 Don't let go.
04:31 Anastasia.
04:35 Anastasia.
04:38 But that is an alternate history retelling.
04:41 In the real world, Rasputin was assassinated in 1916,
04:46 before the execution of the Romanovs in 1918 by Bolshevik revolutionaries.
04:51 This film was based on the rumors that Duchess Anastasia escaped
04:55 due to a number of impostors who had come forward in the years since.
04:58 Haven't you been listening? I've had enough.
05:02 I don't care how much you have fashioned this girl to look like her,
05:06 sound like her or act like her. In the end, it never is her.
05:10 Her remains were eventually found, confirming her horrible fate.
05:14 Sleeping Beauty is another Charles Perrault-inspired story
05:23 that leaves out shocking moments from its source material.
05:26 Before the sun sets on her 16th birthday,
05:29 she shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die.
05:35 Perrault's story plays out similarly, albeit with some later troubles
05:39 after The Prince Awakens the Princess.
05:41 But Perrault simply adapted another version of the folk tale,
05:45 published by Italian author Gian Battista Basile.
05:49 It's Aurora! She's here!
05:51 And Philip!
05:57 In his version, the Sleeping Beauty, named Talia,
06:00 is beset upon by a wandering king.
06:03 He brings her to bed, leaves, and she gives birth to twins, all while asleep.
06:08 Once the king comes back, his queen tries to remove Talia and the children
06:12 from the equation, but the king instead turns on his wife
06:16 so he can now commit to his new family.
06:18 This one is both weird and disturbing.
06:21 How shall you deal with me, your prince, and all the powers of hell?
06:28 I'm not gonna fall off! I'm not gonna fall off!
06:38 Dieter Dengler was a pilot for the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War
06:44 who was captured and held prisoner for six months.
06:47 Dengler managed to escape and spent the next 23 days in the jungle
06:51 before he was found and rescued by an American pilot.
06:54 His harrowing ordeal was first reconstructed in the documentary
07:02 Little Dieter Needs to Fly, before it was dramatized in this 2006 film
07:07 starring Christian Bale.
07:08 Empty what is full.
07:12 Fill what is empty.
07:17 Scratch where it itches.
07:22 The movie gets its happy ending in Dengler's rescue,
07:25 but the real-life events take a sad turn afterwards.
07:28 While he regained his physical self, Dengler never fully recovered
07:32 from his traumatic experience.
07:34 The decorated pilot was diagnosed with ALS years later
07:38 and ended up taking his own life.
07:40 And the thing is, from that moment on,
07:45 little Dieter, he needed to fly.
07:49 Many British World War II veterans took umbrage with the Oscar-winning film
08:01 The Bridge on the River Kwai.
08:04 It portrays a British commander played by Alec Guinness,
08:08 who takes pride in ordering his imprisoned men to build a bridge
08:11 for the Japanese.
08:13 In actuality, when forced to build the Burma Railway,
08:16 British officers encouraged sabotage.
08:19 In a BBC interview, a former prisoner said that an officer
08:27 like the movie's narrator,
08:29 Nicholson, would have been killed.
08:33 Conditions, too, were far worse than the movie depicts.
08:36 Tens of thousands of laborers from Thailand, Burma and Malaysia
08:40 were conscripted to aid in construction.
08:42 The appalling conditions have made us dangerously thin.
08:45 We have no beds, inadequate shelter, atrocious diet and no sanitation.
08:50 By the end of the war, 13,000 POWs died from exhaustion, thirst,
08:56 starvation and disease.
08:59 Between 80 and 100,000 civilians also died.
09:03 The Birth of a Nation was the first blockbuster ever produced.
09:13 It was also replete with lies from beginning to end,
09:23 covering both the end of the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era.
09:26 The movie doesn't just spin history, it invents it.
09:29 The film shows black militias roaming the hillside,
09:33 murdering southern families.
09:35 The KKK, however, are just honest white folk defending their homes.
09:51 Black politicians steal elections and corrupt the government thanks to Reconstruction.
09:57 History reveals that the opposite was true.
10:00 The KKK and similar groups attacked communities all over the American South,
10:05 stamping out black voting whenever possible.
10:08 In Opelousas, Louisiana, a sister organization to the KKK
10:12 murdered 200 black people to stop their votes.
10:16 Corruption and murder killed Reconstruction in its infancy.
10:20 Ku Klux Klan was born in 1865-1866,
10:24 and they used terrorism right away against black voters.
10:28 My Friend Dahmer doesn't delve into the outright horror
10:35 that serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer would become known for,
10:38 but that doesn't mean it's not without its tenser moments.
10:40 Sorry, man.
10:42 My mom will just kill me if I don't get home for dinner on time, so...
10:48 I just...
10:50 Yeah, I'll see you on the flip side, Dahmer.
10:52 Adapted from the graphic novel of the same name by John "Derf" Backderf,
10:56 the film recounts Derf's relationship with a young Jeffrey during their high school years.
11:01 Sorry.
11:02 Why'd you do that?
11:04 I just wanted to see what its insides looked like.
11:08 Throughout the film, a series of red flags regarding Jeffrey's behavior goes largely unnoticed,
11:13 and the film ends with him picking up a hitchhiker named Stephen Hicks,
11:17 who was Dahmer's first victim in real life.
11:19 My name's Jeffrey.
11:21 Stephen Hicks. Nice to meet you.
11:23 Obviously, the film never purported to be about the murders,
11:26 instead opting for a fascinating look at nascent psychopathy.
11:30 Plus, there are other biopics that do get into the nitty-gritty of it all.
11:34 Number 21. 67 Exorcisms. The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
11:39 Don't ask it any questions, or pay any attention to what it says.
11:45 Bit?
11:47 We won't be dealing with Emily tonight.
11:50 Part demonic possession movie, part courtroom drama,
11:53 The Exorcism of Emily Rose tells the story of a college girl who dies sometime after a failed exorcism,
11:59 and the subsequent trial of the priest for negligent homicide.
12:02 Though alleging to be about a real person named Emily Rose,
12:05 the film actually took inspiration from the story of a German woman named Anneliese Michel.
12:10 And I am Lucifer, the devil in the flesh.
12:15 Whereas Emily has a single exorcism performed on her in the movie,
12:19 hence the singularity in its title,
12:21 Michel reportedly underwent a whopping 67 over the course of 10 months,
12:26 before succumbing to malnutrition.
12:28 Did you encourage her to eat?
12:30 Yes, every time I saw her, but the few times she tried, it seemed like...
12:35 it seemed like she couldn't swallow or she couldn't keep it down.
12:39 We can understand why the movie would want to streamline things,
12:42 but truth really is stranger than fiction.
12:45 Is there anything else you'd like to say about Emily?
12:48 No.
12:53 The defense rests.
12:58 Number 20. Career struggles. Ed Wood.
13:01 This is the one. This is the one I'll be remembered for.
13:06 If you know anything about the real Ed Wood,
13:08 then you know that his whole career was filled with ups and downs.
13:11 Mostly downs come to think of it.
13:13 But his real life, post-Plan 9 from outer space,
13:16 doesn't exactly match the tone of the final scene.
13:18 Let's get married.
13:20 Huh?
13:21 Right now, let's go to Vegas.
13:23 But Eddie, it's pouring and the cars have to stop.
13:25 Boy, it's only a five-hour drive and it'll probably stop by the time we get to the desert.
13:29 Heck, it'll probably stop by the time we get around the corner.
13:32 Let's go.
13:33 After the premiere of the aforementioned flick,
13:35 Ed and Kathy go off to get hitched.
13:37 The on-screen text at the end alludes to his descent into alcoholism and nudie films,
13:41 but that barely even scratches the surface.
13:44 In addition to adult movies, Wood wrote upwards of 80 sex novels just to get by,
13:48 often spending the money immediately on booze.
13:52 Though he and Kathy stayed together until his death,
13:54 their home life wasn't exactly swell, to say the least.
13:57 Number 19.
13:59 Hindered acceptance speech, A Beautiful Mind.
14:02 Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind is an emotionally wrought exploration
14:05 into a psyche that is both brilliant and damaged,
14:08 showing the toll schizophrenia had on mathematician John Nash.
14:11 You saw my name on the lecture slate.
14:14 You lied, son of a bitch!
14:16 Who are you talking to? Tell me who you see.
14:19 Though the depiction of the disease wasn't entirely accurate to Nash's experiences,
14:23 they work in a narrative sense.
14:25 After a heavy two-plus hours of runtime, Nash accepts the Nobel Prize
14:29 and dedicates it to his wife, Alicia, in a speech.
14:32 It is only in the mysterious equations of love
14:36 that any logical reasons can be found.
14:42 I'm only here tonight because of you.
14:44 As cathartic as this moment is, Nash's disease prevented him
14:47 from making any such speech in real life.
14:50 Though the movie came out 14 years prior,
14:53 it should be at least mentioned that Nash's story would end tragically
14:56 as he and Alicia were killed in a car accident in 2015.
15:01 Number 18.
15:02 Failed businesses, Schindler's List.
15:05 As if Schindler's List wasn't horrific enough.
15:07 And no, what we're about to describe is nothing compared to the actual horrors of WWII,
15:12 but it is interesting nonetheless.
15:14 I could have got more.
15:16 I don't know. I mean, if I just...
15:19 I could have got more.
15:21 Oskar, there are 1,100 people who are alive because of you.
15:24 Look at them.
15:25 After the war, Oskar Schindler found himself financially reeling,
15:29 proving no good deed goes unpunished.
15:31 He moved to Argentina and raised chickens for a while,
15:34 but this venture eventually went belly up and he returned to Germany.
15:38 As to be expected, startup problems.
15:40 This isn't pots and pans. This is a precise business.
15:43 His subsequent business ventures were even less successful,
15:45 forcing him to declare bankruptcy in 1963.
15:49 On-screen text acknowledges this, but not long after, Schindler suffered a heart attack
15:54 and from then on was sustained on donations from the families that he helped save.
15:58 Though there's some heartwarming humanity there,
16:01 it's still saddening to hear that he didn't prosper as much as he deserved.
16:05 Number 17.
16:06 Divorce and allegations of mistreatment, The Theory of Everything.
16:10 If someone is prepared to offer it, I'm willing to reject.
16:22 The Theory of Everything definitely depicts the fraught ending
16:25 to Stephen Hawking's marriage to Jane Wild.
16:27 But while the punctuating on-screen text is right in that they eventually stayed friends,
16:32 it leaves out a good portion during which they decidedly were not.
16:35 I did my best.
16:37 During their marriage, Hawking became close to one of his nurses, Elaine Mason.
16:41 Hawking actually left Wild for Mason in 1995,
16:44 but his second marriage may not have been so peachy either.
16:47 In the early 2000s, police started an investigation on concerns that Hawking was being physically abused,
16:53 but it was quickly closed when Hawking refused to make a statement.
16:56 Hawking and Mason divorced in 2006 before his passing in 2018.
17:00 Number 16.
17:01 No revenge, The Revenant.
17:04 It's a little weird to call an ending horrific because it didn't actually have a violent confrontation,
17:09 but such is the nature of The Revenant.
17:11 In the movie, frontiersman Hugh Glass goes through hell after his son is murdered and he's left for dead,
17:17 ultimately tracking down, then getting revenge on the man responsible.
17:33 In reality, Glass got no such revenge.
17:36 Of the two men who left him for dead, Glass tracked down a man named Bridges,
17:40 but ultimately spared him on account of his youth and inexperience.
17:44 The other, the John Fitzgerald depicted in the film, was virtually untouchable having enlisted in the army,
17:50 Glass telling him that he would kill him should he ever leave.
17:53 The intent was there, but it's definitely less climactic.
17:57 Unless he re-enlisted so he could justify killing again.
18:00 His tracks right here is.
18:03 Number 15.
18:04 The Davies Boys' Unhappy Endings.
18:07 Finding Neverland.
18:08 If you need evidence that real life is far from a fairy tale, look no further than The Davies Boys,
18:14 the inspiration for Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.
18:17 Finding Neverland ends sadly enough, with Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie adopting The Davies Boys
18:22 after the tragic death of their mother, Sylvia.
18:25 She went to Neverland.
18:27 And you can visit her anytime you like, if you just go there yourself.
18:37 The final scene has a sadly uplifting undertone, but tragedy would follow the family in real life.
18:43 Eldest son George was killed in a World War I battle in 1915,
18:47 and in 1921, second youngest Michael drowned alongside a friend,
18:52 with some questioning if it was wholly accidental.
18:54 Mere months after Jack succumbs to lung disease in 1959, Peter himself took his own life,
19:01 having struggled greatly for being the namesake of Peter Pan.
19:05 Number 14.
19:17 Wales' Ambiguous Fates.
19:19 Big Miracle.
19:20 Everyone loves an uplifting story about humanity banding together to save animals in need.
19:25 So it's not surprising that Big Miracle ends with the trapped grey whales escaping their icy prison to freedom.
19:31 Though Operation Breakthrough, the real life rescue mission on which the film is based,
19:38 ended in a similar manner, there wasn't nearly as much optimism to be had.
19:43 "Just stop fighting.
19:45 That baby is gone.
19:47 You can't change that."
19:50 Though the baby whale did indeed die while the parents were freed from the section of ice that they were trapped in,
19:56 their physical state after such an ordeal meant little hope that they'd survive much farther past very similar terrain.
20:03 No evidence was ever found either way, but many experts believe that the whales didn't get nearly as big of a miracle.
20:09 Number 13.
20:10 Unhappy Marriage.
20:12 My Left Foot.
20:13 Christie Brown was a man who endured many hardships in his life.
20:17 While the biopic My Left Foot doesn't shy away from that fact, it did leave out a dark chapter of his story.
20:23 His relationship with his wife, Mary Carr.
20:25 The film depicts Christie meeting Carr at a charity event,
20:33 and the film ends with them celebrating with a bottle of champagne.
20:37 "What do we drink to?"
20:39 "Let's drink to Dublin."
20:43 "To Dublin? Why?"
20:45 "Because Christie Brown was born there."
20:49 Unfortunately, their happily ever after may not have been so happy after all.
20:55 When Christie Brown died at the age of 49, a post-mortem analysis showed bruising on his body.
21:01 Many suspected that the bruises were from neglect or from someone physically harming him.
21:05 A biography was also eventually published that depicted Carr as being unfaithful.
21:10 "Is he good looking?"
21:12 "Who?"
21:13 "Your appointment."
21:15 "Yeah, there's a way he's nice."
21:19 "It doesn't matter to me. You can meet whoever you like."
21:25 Number 12.
21:26 PTSD and Alcohol Issues.
21:28 Unbroken.
21:29 Unbroken tells the riveting true story of Louis Zamperini,
21:33 an American soldier who survived a bomber crash over the Pacific
21:37 and endured a series of POW camps before the end of World War II.
21:40 Sadly, as is the case with many veterans,
21:53 Zamperini was plagued with post-traumatic stress disorder in the years following his return home.
21:58 He had nightmares of confronting his captors that were so intense
22:01 that he once attacked his wife at night before regaining his senses.
22:05 When Zamperini turned to alcohol as a way to sleep better,
22:14 he only further damaged his psyche.
22:16 Thankfully, Zamperini found closure with his ordeal and did improve.
22:20 This was further covered in a faith-based sequel, Unbroken Path to Redemption.
22:25 Number 11.
22:26 Nazi Headquarters.
22:28 The Sound of Music.
22:30 "The hills are alive with the sound of music."
22:37 When you're singing along to the happy Sound of Music track,
22:40 you're probably not thinking about Nazis living in the hills.
22:44 But that's the sad reality.
22:45 "Life in every mountain, war in every stream."
22:55 Sometime after the von Trapp family vacated their Salzburg home in 1938,
23:00 the house was seized and used as a headquarters for Nazi operations.
23:04 It specifically served as the summer home for Heinrich Himmler,
23:07 who was a major architect of many war crimes.
23:10 The von Trapp home was even visited by Adolf Hitler himself.
23:13 Thankfully, the estate was turned back over to missionaries after World War II.
23:18 We're not surprised that the von Trapps left out a song about the house's regrettable history.
23:23 "Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye."
23:42 Number 10.
23:43 The Dark Final Years, The Aviator.
23:46 While Martin Scorsese's The Aviator gave us a pretty solid preview
23:50 of what Howard Hughes' life would ultimately become, it didn't portray every detail.
23:55 "Go away. Just for now, but I'll see you soon."
24:00 The movie depicted how he would sequester himself from the outside world for months on end.
24:04 In real life, his isolationist tendencies only continued.
24:08 His germophobia also prevented him from seeing his own wife for several years before they divorced.
24:14 By the time that Hughes died in 1976, he was so unkempt that his body was almost unrecognizable.
24:20 "He used to open the bag with his right hand and hold the bag out to me at a 45 degree angle
24:26 so I may reach into the bag without touching the paper."
24:33 Although Hughes had a stature of 6'4", he weighed a paltry 90 pounds by the end of his life.
24:39 While we can't list all the crazy details here, we encourage you to look them up.
24:43 They're as fascinating as they are disheartening.
24:46 "The way of the future. The way of the future. The way of the future."
24:55 Number 9. The Bearded Lady's Life. The Greatest Showman.
24:59 "It's you, isn't it?" "Sir, I have to ask you to leave."
25:03 "You are so talented and blessed. Just try to leave."
25:09 Most audiences knew that The Greatest Showman wasn't entirely factually accurate,
25:14 especially since P.T. Barnum had a notorious history.
25:17 But it turns out the movie was omitting more than just the uglier parts of his story.
25:21 Lettie Lutz, the bearded lady, was based on Annie Jones.
25:25 She was surrendered to his custody when she was just an infant.
25:28 Not one to despair, Jones was an advocate for the rights of so-called freaks,
25:33 and even broke away from Barnum to promote her cause.
25:36 But her dire financial straits forced her to return to work with him.
25:40 "I'm not scared to be seen. I make no apologies. This is me."
25:47 Jones would succumb to tuberculosis at just 37 years of age.
25:51 It's definitely not the big happy family ending the movie implied.
25:56 "Maybe you are a fraud. Maybe it was just about making a buck.
26:02 But you gave us a real family."
26:05 8. A Firing - Remember the Titans
26:08 Remember the Titans is an inspiring true tale of uniting in the face of cultural and racial divides.
26:14 But not every person involved was infallible.
26:17 Eight years after leading T.C. Williams' first racially integrated football team to a state championship,
26:23 coach Herman Boone was fired.
26:25 "We will be perfect in every aspect of the game.
26:30 You drop a pass, you run a mile.
26:32 You miss a blocking assignment, you run a mile.
26:34 You fumble the football, and I will break my foot off in your John Brown Hind parts."
26:40 The main reason he lost his position was because he was accused of harming his own players.
26:45 "This is no democracy. It is a dictatorship. I am the law."
26:51 Although the firing was something of a shock to the city of Alexandria,
26:54 three assistant coaches had threatened to walk if Boone was not relieved of his duties.
26:59 Ironically, a movie called Remember the Titans forgot to talk about the unceremonious end to coach Boone's career.
27:06 "You did a good job up here. You were in a tough camp from what I can see."
27:11 "Well, I'm very happy to have the approval of a five-year-old."
27:14 7. Billing the Family of a Musician Who Lost His Life - Titanic
27:20 "What's the use? Nobody's listening to us anyway."
27:23 "Well, they don't listen to us at dinner either. Come on, let's play. Kip a swarm."
27:28 "Off he is."
27:30 8. The RMS Titanic
27:33 We know this epic disaster drama couldn't cover every single tragic story involved, even at over three hours.
27:40 But this one is particularly interesting.
27:42 After the RMS Titanic sank, over 1,500 people lost their lives.
27:47 One of the bodies recovered was Jacques Hume, a violinist who valiantly played amongst his compatriots as the ship sank.
27:54 But his brave final actions were dishonored.
27:57 "Right. That's it then."
27:59 "Goodbye, Molly. Good luck."
28:02 "Bye, Molly. So long, Richard."
28:04 The company that employed Hume had the audacity to bill his father for the damage done to the uniform Hume was renting.
28:12 And how did it get damaged? We have a feeling it had something to do with the tragic sinking of the Titanic.
28:17 Thankfully, Hume's father chose not to pay the bill.
28:20 "Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight."
28:24 6. Death After Release - Conviction
28:28 Starring Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell, Conviction is a fairly under-seen legal drama about a woman who works to become a lawyer
28:36 so she can personally get her incarcerated brother exonerated for a murder he didn't commit.
28:41 A lot of grueling work later, the conviction is indeed overturned 18 years later, much like in real life.
28:48 And the film ends with Swank's Betty Ann Waters sharing a tender moment with Rockwell's Kenny.
28:53 "Knowing you were out here, work is hard for me.
28:59 No one knew she loved me that much."
29:06 Curiously, the ensuing on-screen text omits the fact that the real Kenneth Waters tragically died in an accidental fall only six months after his release.
29:16 This information certainly would have put a damper on the story, though it does feel somewhat crucial to getting the whole picture.
29:23 5. Ostracization and Death - The Accused
29:28 This is a really depressing list, isn't it?
29:30 "That's the best you can do, and your best sucks. Now, I don't know what you got for selling me out, but I sure as shit hope it's worth it."
29:38 In the powerful film, The Accused follows Jodie Foster's Sarah Tobias, a woman who is assaulted and ultimately able to have a betters convicted in addition to her attackers.
29:48 "We find the defendant, Matthew Haynes, guilty of criminal solicitation."
29:53 While Tobias herself is fictional, she and the movie are based on the story of Cheryl Arruggio, who in 1983 went through much the same experience.
30:02 However, only four of the six charged with the crime were convicted, serving at most six and a half years.
30:08 The trial itself exhibited suggestions of victim-blaming, and Arruggio was subsequently ostracized in the town of New Bedford, Massachusetts.
30:16 She then moved to Miami, but tragically died at 25 in a car accident while reportedly being heavily intoxicated.
30:24 4. What Really Happened to Pocahontas? Pocahontas
30:28 This animated Disney movie is notorious for its factual inaccuracies, especially when it comes to the ending.
30:34 "You have to go back." "But I can't leave you." "You never will. No matter what happens, I'll always be with you. Forever."
30:45 Although the film concludes with John Smith's departure from the Americas, it doesn't show that the real-life Pocahontas was subjected to a number of atrocities.
30:54 She was captured by the English and used as a pawn in negotiations with her father, the chief of the Powhatans, for a full year.
31:01 In 1614, she got married to tobacco planter John Rolfe, but it's unknown whether Pocahontas had a choice in their union.
31:09 "But if you know any impediment why you should not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, you will confess it."
31:18 She was subsequently taken to England and used primarily as a propaganda symbol.
31:23 Unfortunately, she passed away from an unconfirmed illness at just 21 years of age.
31:29 "Your dear mother, Rebecca, fell ill in our outward passage at Gravesend."
31:35 Number 3. The town's continued decline. Aaron Brockovich
31:40 While the real Aaron Brockovich deemed the film to be about 98% accurate, this fascinating people's interest story doesn't exactly address what happened after David slayed Goliath.
31:51 "He's gonna make them pay $333 million."
31:56 Brockovich's class action suit was indeed successful, in that the business PG&E was mandated to compensate the families affected by the company's tainted water a whopping $333 million.
32:12 In real life, many found that their cut was less than they expected.
32:16 The film firm took roughly 40% of that cut, which is shown, but what's not shown is how unsatisfied many were with where the chips fell.
32:24 "Boy, do I know how you feel. The first time I heard that number, I said, 'You've got to be kidding me. 40 goddamn percent?'"
32:32 "Aaron."
32:33 "I'm the one that's injured, and this joker sits at a desk all day, and he wants to walk away with almost half my reward?"
32:39 From there, the town of Hinkley, California turned into a proverbial ghost town.
32:44 The fears of the water's furthered contamination drove away many residents.
32:48 "By the way, we had that water brought in special for you folks. It came from a well in Hinkley."
32:54 "Uh, you are?"
33:03 "I'm the devil, and I'm here to do the devil's business."
33:08 Much like Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is pretty upfront about changing historical details,
33:15 specifically in regards to the Sharon Tate murders.
33:18 Most everyone knows that pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four others were brutally murdered by members of the Manson family in 1969,
33:27 so those watching this movie were probably expecting to see it.
33:30 However, in an awesome display of cinematic justice, Tarantino has the Masonites taken out themselves by fictional actor Rick Dalton and his stuntman Cliff Booth,
33:40 while Tate and the others are safe and sound.
33:42 While some of the other entries probably could have included their real endings, this is one historical retconning we can totally get behind.
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34:22 Solomon Northup was a free black man living in New York when he was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in the southern United States.
34:30 As the title suggests, he endured 12 grueling years before eventually regaining his freedom and reuniting with his family.
34:37 I apologize for my appearance, but I've had a difficult time these past several years.
34:53 Afterwards, he wrote the memoir of the same name and became an abolitionist.
34:57 But four years after returning home, he disappeared again without a trace.
35:02 It's possible that he was resold into slavery or that someone took his life.
35:07 But his final fate is a sad mystery.
35:10 Although the film acknowledges the uncertainty regarding his death, it omits just how bleak the end of his life might have been.
35:16 Which of these endings did you expect to see in the film?
35:28 Let us know in the comments.
35:30 "Here we are! Oh please, please be real!"
35:34 Do you agree with our picks?
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35:42 [music]