10 Real Life Happy Endings That Became Disturbing Movies

4. The Revenant (2015)

Nominated for twelve Oscars, winning three (including Best Director and Best Actor), Alejandro González Iñárritu’s epic, savage, beautifully shot Western was based on Michael Punke’s novel of the same name, which in turn was based on an episode in the life of frontiersman Hugh Glass.

In Iñárritu’s film, Glass is mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his fur trading expedition, who also murder his son. Surviving on nothing but white hot hate, Glass embarks on a mission of revenge.

Throw in Leonardo DiCaprio as Glass, and Tom Hardy as the racist son-of-a-motherless-goat that betrayed him, and you can begin to see why the Academy got so hot in the trousers over the film. Of course, Iñárritu and Mark L Smith’s screenplay plays fast and loose with historical accuracy in the name of creating the epic narrative they were after.

It's interesting to note that eastern newspapers and magazines desperate for rollicking tales of the wild frontier were already fictionalising Glass’s life in his lifetime, and that Glass himself never mentioned a bear attack in any historical documents.

Not only that, but there’s no evidence to suggest that he was married or had children, never mind had a half-Pawnee son murdered in front of him. Finally, Glass did go looking for the men who left him to die… but he didn’t achieve his vengeance.

Instead, according to all the evidence, Glass found and forgave them. He was most bothered about the loss of his rifle, which he recovered undamaged.