10 Insane Movies You Didn't Know Were Based On True Stories

10. Jaws

The plot of Steven Spielberg's seminal 1975 blockbuster is, like Peter Benchley's 1974 novel before it, a work of fiction, but real events and characters did play a key role in inspiring the story.

First off, two events mentioned in the film are based in fact. When Roy Schieder's Chief Brody first implores Murray Hamilton's Mayor of Amity to let him close the beaches, he cites a 1916 shark attack in New Jersey which left five dead. This really happened, although it's thought to have been the work of a bull shark rather than a great white.

Then there's Robert Shaw's famous speech about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. This is also true; the torpedoed ship did indeed sink off the coast of Japan in 1945, leaving the few survivors struggling to survive in shark-infested waters for five days.

Finally, Shaw's Quint himself is believed to have been modelled on an actual shark hunter, Frank Mundus of Montauk, New York, who became a legend after catching a 4,500 pound great white in 1964, and is said to have been just as keen on the booze as his fictional counterpart.

Though Benchley denied basing Quint on Mundus, the author knew the shark hunter well, and had spent time out at sea with him prior to writing Jaws.