15 Major Historical Inaccuracies That Undermine Famous Movies

Captain Phillips in an unbearably tense thriller about the hijacking of a US cargo ship by Somalian pirates. It rises on the strength of Paul Greengrass' brilliant use of handheld camerawork and great performances from the cast, including Tom Hanks as Captain Phillips. It's a terrific movie but there is one incredibly distracting inaccuracy that ruins the film's credibility somewhat.

Captain Phillips is depicted as a noble, self-sacrificing captain; he is a very sympathetic character and he's also played by Tom Hanks, who is scientifically impossible not to love most of the time. The truth is, in real life Captain Phillips was no hero. In fact, many members of the ship's crew have since sued him for putting them in danger and ignoring all the warnings that they were in pirate-infested waters.

Prior to the hijacking Phillips had a bad reputation as self-righteous and arrogant and many of the crew members on the MV Maersk Alabama have criticized the film for being too kind to Phillips.

Captain Phillips did not voluntarily give himself up to the pirates for his crew nor did he lock the bridge or coordinate the efforts of the crew members to hide. Phillips himself has said that he doesn't feel like he was a hero in the slightest and disagrees with the way in which the media have portrayed him as such. Since the audience is aligned with Phillips throughout the film, this inaccurate representation may be highly distracting for some viewers.