10 Based On True Story Movies That Left Out The Craziest Part

In Michael Mann's crime drama, Public Enemies, FBI agent, Melvin Purvis leads the manhunt against infamous bank robber and killer, John Dillinger. Halfway through the movie, the authorities manage to arrest Dillinger and several members of his gang. The criminals are transported to Indiana, where they are locked up in the county jail.

While in his cell, Dillinger carves a wood block into the shape of a gun and paints it black. He holds his "pistol" towards the cops and orders them to release him. When they unlock his cell, he takes three of them hostage while raiding their weapons store.

Even though the film seems grounded in reality, some viewers found this scene ridiculously far-fetched. Fooling the authorities with a fake gun sounds like something that would happen in a screwball comedy; not a biographical drama. But the truth is far more absurd. In reality, Dillinger didn't take three cops hostage with a prop weapon; he took 17!!

However, the film scaled it back to only three hostages, worried that the scene would come across as cartoonishly silly if events were depicted accurately.