10 Films Inspired By Real Life Events (That Never Actually Happened)

There were several inaccuracies that were recognised straight-away when the casino caper 21, allegedly based on a student Blackjack team from MIT, was first released.

But whilst it was possible to ignore the whitewashing of the cast, and the liberties that were taken with the number of individuals involved (the movie team has 6 members and in reality there were nearly 80), as well as much story tampering, it was largely accepted that a lot of the events in the film did take place.

Or did they?

The film is based on a book of the same name released in 2003, and like the film, the book changed the name of its protagonist whose real-life counter-part is former MIT student Jeff Ma, who served as the chief source of information for the book and a consultant on the film.

But critics and journalist have disputed whether or not many of the events that Ma claims happened ever did at all, and even former team members have come forward to actively debunk many of the events that are in both the book and the film.

Both The Boston Magazine and Globe ran investigations examining the book's claims and concluded that aside from Ma, no other character in the book was based on any single individual and that the author had largely exaggerated or outright fabricated the events and characters featured in the book.

Shadowy investors allegedly staking the team never existed, tales of hidden underground casinos proved false, and the harassment and violence that some members of the team are insinuated to have experienced in both book and film never happened.

Whilst there was a very real and active MIT Blackjack team the one seen in 21 is not even close to being anything other then fictitious.