8 Times Hollywood Got It Wrong (And It Made Films Better)

4. Captain Phillips

There were some major liberties taken with the story of Captain Richard Phillips and his ship's hijacking by Somali pirates. Major liberties. The most egregious has turned out to be Tom Hanks' ultra-heroic portrayal of the titular captain. Whereas in the film, the pirates show up and attempt to take over his ship due to some impressive scouting and almost implausible feats of daring, in real life, several of his former crew accused Phillips of acting recklessly by ignoring safety protocols and making it way too easy for the pirates. In the movie, Phillips follows all precautions, ordering his crew to "tighten up security" even before there's any reason to believe their cargo ship will be attacked. His former crew-mates insist Phillips did everything possible to jeopardize the crew and their cargo, ignoring the detailed anti-piracy safety plan laid out by the International Maritime Organization because of his own arrogance. So that's...not what we saw in the movie. And although that could have been a very interesting variant to what we saw in Tom Hanks, there's one small problem with that: the scene where Hanks breaks down from shock after being rescued would be gone. Or at least the gut-punch feeling that it left everyone with would be. If Phillips was such an all-around egotist and careless captain, there's no reason for us to feel much joy when he's rescued by the Navy SEALs. ...Which is pretty much the greatest, most heart-tugging scene of 2013.