10 Times Movies Changed Real Life For Being Too Unbelievable
1. Von Stauffenberg's Refusal To Take Morphine - Valkyrie
Near the start of the historical political thriller Valkyrie, Wehrmacht Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is brutally wounded in an air raid, causing him to lose his left eye, right hand, and two fingers on his left hand.
Yet while director Bryan Singer was conceiving the film, he insisted that one real-life aspect of von Stauffenberg's ordeal be left out: his refusal to take morphine as a painkiller for fear of becoming addicted to it.
Singer instructed writers Nathan Alexander and Christopher McQuarrie to elide this fact for fear of making von Stauffenberg appear too macho and badass. In his own words:
"There were things I actually left out because I knew people would think we were making them up... Imagine Tom Cruise saying 'No morphine!' People would think it's a contrivance."
In this case, it was very much the right call. Tom Cruise playing von Stauffenberg was already a colossal reach - and his casting proved one of Valkyrie's most critically divisive aspects - and so having him also coolly turn down morphine would only further accentuate that.