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

The film never went out to market itself as "based on a true story", even though its recreation of the landings at Omaha Beach on D-Day were powerfully accurate according to many veterans of the landings who saw the film.

But there were confusing claims that the story of the four Ryan brothers in the film was based on real-life events.

The story of the Niland brothers served as the inspiration for Saving Private Ryan. Two brothers were killed in the Normandy landings, whilst a third brother was presumed dead but later turned up alive in a Japanese POW camp in Burma.

This left the eldest brother serving in France, who as part of U.S military policy in such cases, was ordered to return from the front and shipped back home. But he wasn't rescued in the manner seen in the film, and he also wasn't the last surviving member of his family, even without the missing brother in Burma.

In the film a major part of the decision to recuse Private Ryan comes with the revelation that his mother will receive the news of the death of three of her sons all at once. In reality, this never happened, and she was not living alone at the time but actually had two daughters left with her as well.