10 Based On True Story Movies That Never Happened
7. Fargo Used Its "True Story" Framing To Trick You
The Coen brothers' masterful thriller Fargo begins with one of the most iconic "based on a true story" claims of all time, with an ostentatious title card that reads as such:
"This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred."
It didn't take long for the press to hound the Coens about the dubious plausibility of the film's ludicrously entertaining neo-noir yarn, to which Joel Coen said the bones of the crime were indeed based in fact, but the characterisations were invented and the story fleshed out for cinematic flair. He said:
"If an audience believes that something's based on a real event, it gives you permission to do things they might otherwise not accept."
Even so, following Fargo's release, there were reports of overzealous fans descending upon the town of Brainerd, Minnesota, seeking out the ransom cash buried in the snow in the film.
Most famously in 2001, a Japanese woman was even found frozen to death in the area while allegedly seeking the money, as was dramatised in the 2014 film Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter.
Today, many still hold that opening disclaimer to be true, but in a recent interview, Joel Coen clarified that while two elements of the story were indeed adapted from real, unrelated crimes, the film as a whole is indeed a fabrication:
"There are actually two little elements in the story that were based on actual incidents... There was a guy, I believe in the '60s or '70s, who was gumming up serial numbers for cars and defrauding the General Motors Finance Corporation. There was no kidnapping. There was no murder. It was a guy defrauding the GM Finance Corporation at some point... The other thing based on something real: there was a murder in Connecticut, where a man killed his wife and disposed of the body - put her into a wood chipper. But beyond that, the story is made up."