History Main / FreakierThanFiction

* [[BasedOnATrueStory Obviously]], the events of the film ''Film/Apollo13'' actually happened. But what they don't mention is that there were several ''additional'' malfunctions, and one or two of the events mentioned in passing in the movie were actually critical problems in reality. These were removed/downsized because, yes, producers thought no-one would believe it. No-one in the Apollo program at the time would have believed it either had it not actually happened. (The movie depicts Sy Liebergot as saying "It's reading a ''quadruple'' failure. That can't happen!" because that's what he really said. But it ''did'' happen.) Also, some test audiences reacted poorly to the ending, saying it could never happen and was totally unrealistic. After the original flight, NASA amended their training simulations to include malfunctions that happened to Apollo 13, which had previously been ruled out as impossible. [[note]]In truth, Apollo 13 created a seismic shift in how simulations were handled. While prior simulation was designed to run through likely problems and malfunctions, most of it was geared toward running the training crew down their paths for problem resolution. Post-Apollo 13, "kitchen sink" simulations became part of the repertoire where crews were forced to face catastrophic failure scenarios in order to sharpen problem solving skills and truly test familiarity with control locations, systems, and design of the vehicle. Such grueling simulations are why NASA SimSups (simulation supervisors) frequently gain a reputation for being sadists; they put the astronauts through the wringer so that if something ''does'' go totally sideways during a real mission, those astronauts have a much better chance of survival because they will remain more calm, have more confidence, and better know what systems can be called upon to solve the problem.[[/note]]

* The film ''Film/{{Changeling}}'' ran into this trope. It was, in fact, based on a true story, but nobody would believe it... when it was, in fact, not exaggerated in the slightest. So writer Creator/JMichaelStraczynski added sources to the script and such, to prove it was real! Not only that, but many of the more bizarre and freaktacular parts of the serial killer's exploits were left out, as they distracted from the main story. During an DVD extra, Creator/ClintEastwood noted that if it were fiction, no-one would believe it.
* ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}: The Golden Age'' depicts the Armada during Elizabeth I's reign, and makes mention of some casualties on the English side. In reality the English didn't lose a single ship during the Armada.
* ''Film/FiftyFifty'' is based on the screenwriter's own experiences with cancer in his twenties. In real life his best friend (Seth Rogen - who essentially plays himself in the film) got the news while he was in the toilet. They left this out of the film.

* WWII hero Audie Murphy played himself in the movie ''Film/ToHellAndBack'', based on his autobiography. During the adaptation, he requested that certain parts of his exploits (like the time he had malaria and leapt on top of a burning, half-destroyed tank-destroyer to use its pintle-mounted machine gun and single-handedly hold off an entire company of German mechanized infantry for half an hour) be watered down a little, since nobody would believe the real thing.

* The film ''Film/TheMagdaleneSisters'' depicted the plight of girls sent to live in convents as washerwomen for the crime of being pregnant out of wedlock -- or even for being accused of being "flirtatious"; many inmates were still virgins. The film actually toned down the habitual violence the girls endured under the nuns's hands and also showed the girls speaking to each other and forming friendships -- in reality, both were forbidden...
* ''Film/PainAndGain'' had several {{Not Making This Up Disclaimer}}s. They actually happened although slightly differently than shown. One of the criminals grills the severed hands of their latest victims just outside their hideout, waving to their neighbors. In real life, it was a different character and it was the hands, feet, and skulls. No one saw him, but he still did it just outside their hideout. They also try to return a chainsaw after it gets jammed on the victim's hair when they try to dismember her body. It still had her hair and some skin lodged in the teeth. In real life, they returned the first chainsaw since they forgot to put oil in it and it broke. The second one got caught on the victims hair and they said, "Fuck it," and used a hatchet. Their first victim, who miraculously survived their attempts to kill him, was actually arrested for unrelated Medicare fraud immediately after testifying in real life. This scene wasn't in the movie, likely because not even a NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer could convince people [[TheChewToy that someone had that many things happen to them]].
* The character of Amon Goeth from ''Film/SchindlersList'' was actually ''[[HistoricalVillainDowngrade nicer]]'' [[HistoricalVillainDowngrade than his real life basis]]. Despite already being portrayed as a sadistic monster who can't feel empathy, tortures and kills prisoners just ForTheEvulz, and shoots children, Spielberg deliberately toned down his inhumanity because he thought audiences wouldn't believe just how ridiculously monstrous Goeth really was (he had a torture dungeon underneath his house, fed ''live'' inmates to his dogs, would randomly shoot people from his window every day just for the hell of it, singled out crowds of children to be executed en masse, and is believed to have personally killed over five-hundred people and sent thousands more to their deaths).[[note]]And even then, some critics ''still'' thought that his pointlessly horrific villainy was "[[RealityIsUnrealistic unrealistic]]".[[/note]].

* ''Literature/MobyDick'' is one of the great classics of American literature, and the grandfather of the action/suspense novel. However, it pales by comparison to the events surrounding the destruction of the whaleship ''Essex'', which inspired it. Check out its entry at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship) the other wiki]].

** The second episode shows Malarkey bumping into a Kraut soldier who is from a nearby town to him (but with German ancestry, hence why he's in that army). In reality they were from the same town and had worked across the street from each other. Presumably this was changed because the coincidence was too unbelievable.
** Buck Compton is shown throwing a grenade at a soldier, and it explodes as soon as it hits the soldier's chest. Not only did that happen in real life - Buck had been a star baseball player - but in reality it was the soldier's ''head'' that got hit.

* One time the LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek came close to current events, but for entirely different reasons, was when it adapted the Natalee Holloway disappearance case in 2009's ''Natalee Holloway'', and finished with Holloway's mother finding solace when Van der Sloot, having been let go on lack of evidence, falls prey to a TV sting operation and is filmed saying that Holloway died in an accident and he dumped her body in the ocean. The next year, Van der Sloot contacted Holloway's mother and offered to disclose the location of the body for $250,000 in cash, after which he fled to South America, all while escaping a joint operation of the FBI and Aruban police to arrest him, and murdered Stephany Flores in Peru before being arrested in Chile by Interpol. The eerie similarities between the Flores and Holloway cases[[note]]Both happened in May 30, there were allegations of date rape drugs used, and Van der Sloot was arrested with a chart of ocean currents around Peru, leading people to believe that he had intended to dump Flores' body in the sea, but desisted when he could not find a way to get it out of the hotel without suspicion[[/note]] now cast doubt that the latter was an accident. This bizarre turn of events spurred Creator/{{Lifetime}} to produce a sequel, ''Justice for Natalee Holloway'' (2011), in what's probably a first for BasedOnATrueStory TV films.
* ''Series/SixFeetUnder'' has the evil corporation Kroehner that is progressively buying up all the funeral homes in the area, and using dirty tricks to fight anyone who won't play along. In the real world they would be shut down pretty damn quick for violating anti-trust laws and anti-competitive behavior, right? Not really, they are based on a real corporation whose reach is even greater than that portrayed. And whereas Kroehner eventually gets destroyed by the SEC, their real-life counterpart lives on, seemingly untouchable.
* ''Series/StrangerThings'' has an in-universe example. In season 2, Nancy and Johnathan, in an effort to find justice for Nancy's friend Barb who was killed by a monster in the first season, try to expose the government conspiracy that involves psychic powers, monsters, and alternate dimensions. The reporter they go to actually does believe them, but points out that no matter how much proof they have, it will be trivially easy for the government to "disprove" it, because no one will ''want'' to believe it. [[spoiler:They have an epiphany and decide to "water it down," turning it into a simpler conspiracy about a chemical spill and a cover-up. The only way the government would have beeen able to disprove the fake story would be to tell the truth, so instead they just let all the guilty people get properly punished]].

* In the musical ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix'', John Adams warns that if they strike down the paragraph in the Declaration of Independence denouncing slavery, "posterity will never forgive us!" What was ''actually'' said (by John's cousin Samuel) was "There will be [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar a trouble a hundred years hence]]! Posterity will never forgive us!" The writers admitted they left that out, because no one would believe Adams would be [[CassandraTruth that scarily accurate]].

* [[SerialKiller BTK]] Dennis Rader, of Wichita, Kansas, has probably been the basis for several fictional serial killers. He would have gotten away scot-free, right under everyone's nose, too, if he hadn't [[ManipulativeBastard decided to get himself caught]] twenty years after the fact by [[StalkerWithACrush stalking]] the local newspaper and the detective who was head of his case way back when. His crimes were horrifying, but his reported beliefs about the afterlife were worse: he thought his victims would be his eternal slaves. [[note]]Another serial killer, the Zodiac, expressed a similar belief in one of his letters. Unlike Rader, [[KarmaHoudini he was never caught]]. [[/note]] His pastor, who sat through the trial up to this point in demonstration of the belief that even killers could be achieve salvation if properly repentant, [[MoralEventHorizon stood up and walked out]] (Rader previously was president of their church council). Another major aspect of how he was caught is remarkable -- when he'd started his killings, computerization hadn't taken off. When he resumed [[EvilGloating the taunting letters]], he sent a 1.44 MB floppy disk to the local news network... [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rader#Arrest without realizing it had metadata from a deleted]] Microsoft Word file on it, which was last modified by "Dennis". [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Had he not sent in that floppy disk, he likely wouldn't have been caught.]] Not only that, but he asked police whether it could be traced, and ''[[WhatAnIdiot believed them when they claimed it couldn't]]''.

** Imperial Germany's repeated seizure of the IdiotBall until it ensured its own defeat also counts. From the invasion of Belgium which brought Britain and her Empire into the war (which wasn't actually as needed and inevitable as Schlieffen and Moltke put it), to the unrestricted submarine warfare, to the Zimmermann Telegram, an offer to divide the (neutral but pro-Entente) United States with civil war-torn Mexico, when Germany had its hands full in Europe, and that to reach its destination had to be sent by a cable controlled by Germany's enemy Britain and the United States itself. The offer could have been easily painted as British propaganda intended to make the US declare war on Germany if Germany's foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann had not come forward immediately and recognized the telegram as real. Germany's many other pre-war blunders which destroyed Bismarck's careful work to isolate France, and alienated successively Russia, Britain, Japan, Italy, Portugal and the United States also ensured that there would be a war in the first place, and that Germany could only rely on the decomposing Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires when it happened.
** Even funnier is when one considers, exactly, WHY Gavrilo Princip was able to kill Franz Ferdinand in the first place. Three attempts were made on Fredinand's life during the parade, but the perpetrators were either caught, or in one case, their hand grenade didn't go off. Depressed by this development, Princip went to a little cafe he liked to get a sandwich and sulk, when, due to a wrong turn, Ferdinand was turning around in the driveway and stopped to help an old woman with something. And Princip just happened to have his pistol on him, still...

* In the vein of the Colombian team, there was a scandal regarding GK Rene Higuita in the mid-early 1990's where he visited the recently jailed narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar in a private jail the government had built for him on the outskirts of Medellin. He was arrested for "mediating in the kidnapping negotiations of an abducted girl" and was sent to jail, where the kidnapping-related charges never came into questioning; he was rather questioned regarding his visit to Escobar. What the press didn't know, or wasn't divulged due to government intervention, [[note]]as the team was involved in a government campaign for the image of the country[[/note]] was that ''everyone'' on the squad actually visited the jail at Escobar's request and played a match in there.

* At the end of 2016 Creator/CarrieFisher passed away of cardiac arrest. Her own mother died the very next day, and her last words were [[TogetherInDeath "I just want to be with Carrie"]] -- and several people commented that if something like that happened in fiction, no one would buy it.

* An unusual case of mistaken identity used as inspiration for several fictional cases listed on the page involved [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistaken_Identity:_Two_Families,_One_Survivor,_Unwavering_Hope a car accident that claimed the lives of five college students, with survivor Whitney Cerak misidentified as Laura van Ryn and "Whitney" declared dead]]. Beyond their blonde hair they had little in common physically (6 inches difference in height, different eyes, different jaw shape), but the severity of the injuries, laying in a hospital bed and Whitney remaining unconscious for a month made for a significant news story when she woke up and was able to identify herself. At that point the Cerak family had her funeral and she was functionally BackFromTheDead, while the van Ryn family had to discover their daughter actually died a month ago. The complexities of the circumstance and subsequent drama upon discovering the truth was too insane for someone to have just made it up.

* One time the LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek came TooSoon, but for entirely different reasons, was when it adapted the Natalee Holloway disappearance case in 2009's ''Natalee Holloway'', and finished with Holloway's mother finding solace when Van der Sloot, having been let go on lack of evidence, falls prey to a TV sting operation and is filmed saying that Holloway died in an accident and he dumped her body in the ocean. The next year, Van der Sloot contacted Holloway's mother and offered to disclose the location of the body for $250,000 in cash, after which he fled to South America, all while escaping a joint operation of the FBI and Aruban police to arrest him, and murdered Stephany Flores in Peru before being arrested in Chile by Interpol. The eerie similarities between the Flores and Holloway cases[[note]]Both happened in May 30, there were allegations of date rape drugs used, and Van der Sloot was arrested with a chart of ocean currents around Peru, leading people to believe that he had intended to dump Flores' body in the sea, but desisted when he could not find a way to get it out of the hotel without suspicion[[/note]] now cast doubt that the latter was an accident. This bizarre turn of events spurred Creator/{{Lifetime}} to produce a sequel, ''Justice for Natalee Holloway'' (2011), in what's probably a first for BasedOnATrueStory TV films.

Stranger than fiction" (often misattributed to Creator/MarkTwain and quoted as "the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality always has to make sense]]"); No matter how weird, freaky, or {{squick}}y fiction gets, there will be something in RealLife that is even weirder, freakier, or {{squick}}ier.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'' has an in-universe example. In season 2, Nancy and Johnathan, in an effort to find justice for Nancy's friend Barb who was killed by a monster in the first season, try to expose the government conspiracy that involves psychic powers, monsters, and alternate dimensions. The reporter they go to actually does believe them, but points out that no matter how much proof they have, it will be trivially easy for the government to "disprove" it, because no one will ''want'' to believe it. [[spoiler:They have an epiphany and decide to "water it down," turning it into a simpler conspiracy about a chemical spill and a cover-up. The only way the government would have be able to disprove the fake story would be to tell the truth, so instead they just let all the guilty people get properly punished]].

** Imperial Germany's repeated seizure of the IdiotBall until it ensured its own defeat also counts. From the invasion of Belgium (which wasn't actually as needed and inevitable as Schlieffen and Moltke put it), to the unrestricted submarine warfare, to the Zimmermann Telegram, an offer to divide the (neutral but pro-Entente) United States with civil war-torn Mexico, when Germany had its hands full in Europe, and that to reach its destination had to be sent by a cable controlled by Germany's enemy Britain and the United States itself. The offer could have been easily painted as British propaganda intended to make the US declare war on Germany if Germany's foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann had not come forward immediately and recognized the telegram as real. Germany's many other pre-war blunders which destroyed Bismarck's careful work to isolate France, and alienated successively Russia, Britain, Japan, Italy, Portugal and the United States also ensured that there would be a war in the first place, and that Germany could only rely on the decomposing Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires when it happened.

* ''Series/CSINewYork'' based an episode around the real-life case of Whitney Cerak and Laura Van Ryn where two girls were in an accident, one killed and one surviving but too injured to identify herself, and the surviving and dead girl's identities were switched. However, there's an added twist: the spiteful mother of the "dead" girl smothered the survivor before the switch was discovered, ultimately getting her arrested for murdering her own daughter.
* An episode of ''Series/{{House}}'' ("Alone") also references the Whitney Cerak and Laura Van Ryn case mentioned in the ''CSI: New York'' entry.

* The film ''Film/TheMagdaleneSisters'' depicted the plight of girls sent to live in convents as washerwomen for the crime of being pregnant out of wedlock -- or even for being accused of being "flirtatious"; many inmates were still virgins. The film actually toned down the habitual violence the girls endured under the nuns's hands and also showed the girls speaking to each other and forming friendships -- in reality, both were forbidden...
* In ''Film/SinginInTheRain'', Cosmo says of film star Lina Lamont: "She can't act, she can't sing, she can't dance. A triple threat." Now, who in RealLife would build a musical around a Hollywood star who couldn't sing, dance or act? That would be the producers of a musical revue titled ''Two's Company'', which opened on Broadway the same year ''Singin' in the Rain'' was released. What critics had to write about Bette Davis's leading performance resembled the movie's put-down of its fictional actress. This is also a reference to a Hollywood executive's first impression of Fred Astaire: "Can't act. Can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little."

* [[BasedOnATrueStory Obviously]], the events of the film ''Film/Apollo13'' actually happened. But what they don't mention is that there were several ''additional'' malfunctions, and one or two of the events mentioned in passing in the movie were actually critical problems in reality. These were removed/downsized because, yes, producers thought no-one would believe it. No-one in the Apollo program at the time would have believed it either had it not actually happened. (The movie depicts Sy Liebergot as saying "It's reading a ''quadruple'' failure. That can't happen!" because that's what he really said. But it ''did'' happen.) Also, some test audiences reacted poorly to the ending -- saying it could never happen and was totally unrealistic. After the original flight NASA amended their training simulations to include malfunctions that happened to Apollo 13, which had previously been ruled out as impossible. [[note]]In truth, Apollo 13 created a seismic shift in how simulations were handled. While prior simulation was designed to run through likely problems and malfunctions, most of it was geared toward running the training crew down their paths for problem resolution. Post-Apollo 13, "kitchen sink" simulations became part of the repertoire where crews were forced to face catastrophic failure scenarios in order to sharpen problem solving skills and truly test familiarity with control locations, systems, and design of the vehicle. Such grueling simulations are why NASA SimSups (simulation supervisors) frequently gain a reputation for being sadists; they put the astronauts through the wringer so that if something ''does'' go totally sideways during a real mission, those astronauts have a much better chance of survival because they will remain more calm, have more confidence, and better know what systems can be called upon to solve the problem.[[/note]]
* Frank Abagnale's last escape could never have been included in ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'' due to being even less plausible than tunneling out of a landing airplane. That solitary cell in federal prison? He allegedly conned his way out by pretending to be an undercover FBI agent.
* Anyone watching ''Film/TheWayWayBack'' might wonder who in their right mind would name a [[SouvenirLand water park]] "Water Wizz". [[http://www.waterwizz.com/ They did]].

* ''Film/HacksawRidge'' actually downplays how far Desmond Doss would go to save his fellow soldiers - one such absent moment is that while Doss was being carried away in a stretcher, he jumped out and crawled to an injured man!
* ''Film/FiftyFifty'' is based on the screenwriter's own experiences with cancer in his twenties. In real life his best friend (Seth Rogen - who essentially plays himself in the film) got the news while he was in the toilet. They left this out of the film.
* ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}: The Golden Age'' depicts the Armada during Elizabeth I's reign, and makes mention of some casualties on the English side. In reality the English didn't lose a single ship during the Armada.
* ''Film/ITonya'' has Shawn Eckardt, who was Tonya Harding's bodyguard and arguably the reason the attack on Nancy Kerrigan happened. The man is so outrageously egotistical that he claims to be an international counterterrorism and securities expert in an interview on live TV. Then, during the end credits, ''actual'' footage from Shawn Eckhardt's real-life interview plays and the viewer realizes that if anything, the movie ''toned down'' his level of delusion.
* The character of Amon Goeth ''Film/SchindlersList'' was actually ''[[HistoricalVillainDowngrade nicer]]'' [[HistoricalVillainDowngrade than his real life basis]]. Despite already being portrayed as a sadistic monster who can't feel empathy, tortures and kills prisoners just ForTheEvulz, and shoots children, Spielberg deliberately toned down his inhumanity because he thought audiences wouldn't believe just how ridiculously monstrous Goeth really was (he had a torture dungeon underneath his house, fed ''live'' inmates to his dogs, would randomly shoot people from his window every day just for the hell of it, singled out crowds of children to be executed en masse, and is believed to have personally killed over five-hundred people and sent thousands more to their deaths).[[note]]And even then, some critics ''still'' thought that his pointlessly horrific villainy was "[[RealityIsUnrealistic unrealistic]]".[[/note]].

* Literature/MobyDick is one of the great classics of American literature, and the grandfather of the Action/Suspense novel. However it pales by comparison to the events surrounding the destruction of the whaleship ''Essex'', which inspired it. Check out its entry at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship) the other wiki]].

** One of the better "we can't make this shit up" examples might be "Hands Free," where the detectives believe an eccentric crossdresser is responsible for the body that's shown up in pieces in trash cans all over New York City. Based strongly - yes, down to the crossdressing - on the case of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Durst Robert Durst]].

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': ''Many'' of their stranger episodes have been based on actual events. [[note]]See that page's entry on RippedFromTheHeadlines for the sleep-destroying list of episodes based on real crimes.[[/note]] As it turns out, serial killers and sadists often have severe mental issues and do things that seem like the work of PulpMagazine villains. Like building death courses in meat packing plants, keeping their victims chained for years in their basement, [[{{Idiosyncrazy}} centering their crimes around bizarre obsessions and signature murder rituals]], and taunting the authorities with CriminalMindGames.
* An episode of ''Series/{{House}}'' ("Alone") references the real-life case of Whitney Cerak and Laura Van Ryn where two girls were in an accident, one killed and one surviving but too injured to identify herself, and the surviving and dead girl's identities were switched.
** ''Series/CSINewYork'' also based an episode around this story, with an added twist: the spiteful mother of the "dead" girl smothered the survivor before the switch was discovered, ultimately getting her arrested for murdering her own daughter.
** A game in the ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' series also used this plot. Of course, this case bought in actual mediums to talk to the dead, which is what drives the surviving sister to murder.
** One of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII's'' major twists also resembles this case.
* The ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "No Exit" featured the ghost of the United States's first documented serial killer, one H.H. Holmes. Holmes's actual exploits -- which included building a "murder hotel" whose guests sometimes didn't check out -- can be read about in Rick Geary's ''Treasury of Victorian Murder'' series and in Creator/ErikLarson's book ''The Devil in the White City''. And yes, his tomb was sealed in concrete.
* One time the LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek came TooSoon, but for entirely different reasons, was when it adapted the Natalee Holloway disappearance case in 2009's ''Natalee Holloway'', and finished with Holloway's mother finding solace when Van der Sloot, having been let go on lack of evidence, falls prey to a TV sting operation and is filmed saying that Holloway died in an accident and he dumped her body in the ocean. The next year, Van der Sloot contacted Holloway's mother and offered to disclose the location of the body for $250,000 in cash, after which he fled to South America, all while escaping a joint operation of the FBI and Aruban police to arrest him, and murdered Stephany Flores in Peru before being arrested in Chile by Interpol. The eery similarities between the Flores and Holloway cases[[note]]Both happened in May 30, there were allegations of date rape drugs used, and Van der Sloot was arrested with a chart of ocean currents around Peru, leading people to believe that he had intended to dump Flores' body in the sea, but desisted when he could not find a way to get it out of the hotel without suspicion[[/note]] now cast doubt that the latter was an accident. This bizarre turn of events spurred Creator/{{Lifetime}} to produce a sequel, ''Justice for Natalee Holloway'' (2011), in what's probably a first for BasedOnATrueStory TV films.
* ''Series/SixFeetUnder'' has the evil corporation Kroehner that is progressively buying up all the funeral homes in the area, and using dirty tricks to fight anyone who won't play along. In the real world they would be shut down pretty damn quick for violating anti-trust laws and anti-competitive behavior, right? Not really, they are based on a real corporation whose reach is even greater than that portrayed. And whereas Kroehner eventually got destroyed by the SEC, their real-life counterpart lives on, seemingly untouchable.
* ''Series/BandOfBrothers'':
** The second episode shows Malarkey bumping into a Kraut soldier who is from a nearby town to him (but with German ancestry, hence why he's in that army). In reality they were from the same town and had worked across the street from each other. Presumably this was changed because the coincidence was too unbelievable.
** Buck Compton is shown throwing a grenade at a soldier, and it explodes as soon as it hits the soldier's chest. Not only did that happen in real life - Buck had been a star baseball player - but in reality it was the soldier's ''head'' that got hit.
** Guarnere is shown getting news of his brother's death when he accidentally puts on someone else's jacket and finds a letter in the pocket. It seems like a ContrivedCoincidence but he swore it really happened. What's more is that he read the letter while sitting on the toilet - which the miniseries changes to him watching a movie with the rest of the men.
* ''Series/StrangerThings'': In season 2, Nancy and Johnathan, in an effort to find justice for Nancy's friend Barb who was killed by a monster in the first season, try to expose the government conspiracy that involves psychic powers, monsters, and alternate dimensions. The reporter they go to actually does believe them, but points out that no matter how much proof they have, it will be trivially easy for the government to "disprove" it, because no one will ''want'' to believe it. [[spoiler:They have an epiphany and decide to "water it down," turning it into a simpler conspiracy about a chemical spill and a coverup. The only way the government would have be able to disprove the fake story would be to tell the truth, so instead they just let all the guilty people get properly punished]].
* According to the showrunner Craig Mazin, when making the ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'' miniseries, they actually had to tone down the drama at some point in order to avoid the viewers accusing them of upping the drama.

* Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''Evita'' is a retelling of the life of Eva Peron, a poor actress who rose to become the powerful First Lady of Argentina, and nearly Vice President, before a young death. The story ends here, possibly because what happens next — the widower president is overthrown, remarries a nightclub dancer, is elected back to power, makes ''this'' wife Vice President then dies, causing the politically ignorant nightclub dancer to become president, who then falls under the spell of a sinister mystic, she is then overthrown and the country goes to war with Great Britain — would make for a somewhat zany epilogue.
* In the musical ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix'', John Adams warns that if they strike down the paragraph in the Declaration of Independence denouncing slavery, "posterity will never forgive us!" What was ''actually'' said (by John's cousin Samuel) was "There will be [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar a trouble a hundred years hence!]] Posterity will never forgive us!" The writers admitted they left that out, because no one would believe Adams would be [[CassandraTruth that scarily accurate.]]

* [[SerialKiller BTK]] Dennis Rader, of Wichita, Kansas, has probably been the basis for several fictional serial killers. He would have gotten away scott-free, right under everyone's nose, too, if he hadn't [[ManipulativeBastard decided to get himself caught]] twenty years after the fact by [[StalkerWithACrush stalking]] the local newspaper and the detective who was head of his case way back when. His crimes were horrifying, but his reported beliefs about the afterlife were worse: he thought his victims would be his eternal slaves. [[note]] Another serial killer, the Zodiac, expressed a similar belief in one of his letters. Unlike Rader, [[KarmaHoudini he was never caught.]] [[/note]] His pastor, who sat through the trial up to this point in demonstration of the belief that even killers could be achieve salvation if properly repentant, [[MoralEventHorizon stood up and walked out]] (Rader previously was president of their church council). Another major aspect of how he was caught is remarkable -- when he'd started his killings, computerization hadn't taken off. When he resumed [[EvilGloating the taunting letters]], he sent a 1.44 MB floppy disk to the local news network... [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rader#Arrest without realizing it had metadata from a deleted]] Microsoft Word file on it, which was last modified by "Dennis". [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Had he not sent in that floppy disk, he likely wouldn't have been caught]]. Not only that, but he asked police whether it could be traced, and ''[[WhatAnIdiot believed them when they claimed it couldn't]]''.
* Descriptions of Jørgen Haagen Schmith's last stand (also his first stand, since he was the driver) are considerably more amazing than the version of events shown in ''Flammen og Citronen''.
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ''in general'' would make a terribly, terribly [[http://squid314.livejournal.com/275614.html implausible TV show.]]
** Just in general, the fact that leader of Nazi Germany was once a homeless Austrian who failed as a painter and the leader of the Soviet Union was an ex bank-robbing Georgian makes it look like our timeline was written by a whack Alternate History writer.
* Ditto for the start of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI -- who'd imagine that the death of an Archduke would cause practically ''every'' country in the first-world to declare war?
** Every country ''but one''. And even Italy's justification to stay out (namely that their alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany was defensive in nature and that Austria-Hungary had been the one to declare war first) is unbelievable, both for the sheer balls of it and the expansionist Italy throwing away an easy victory with possibilities for fruitful colonial expansion to pursue their territorial squabble with Austria-Hungary.

* The world's most proficient sniper, UsefulNotes/SimoHayha; a.k.a. "The White Death", has over 700 confirmed kills. Yes, seven hundred. All achieved in about ''three months'' in far less than optimal conditions, which includes the lack of a scope (he never used one, as the light glinting off of a scope can reveal a sniper's position). Wiki/TheOtherWiki has more information on the guy, but needless to say, if he was fictional, this would be considered ridiculous if it was played for anything other than [[PlayedForLaughs laughs.]] His SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome is either the time he was hit in the face with a round meant to be used against ''tanks,'' got back up, and killed the one who fired it, or the time he shot ''eight'' enemy soldiers with ''one'' bullet, sending all the others [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere running for their lives]] thinking a whole squad was targeting them.

%%* Any case of a CargoCult.

%%* Real life instances of OnlyInFlorida.

** In the vein of the Colombian team, there was a scandal regarding GK Rene Higuita in the mid-early 1990's where he visited the recently jailed narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar in a private jail the government had built for him on the outskirts of Medellin. He was arrested for "mediating in the kidnapping negotiations of an abducted girl" and was sent to jail, where the kidnapping-related charges never came into questioning; he was rather questioned regarding his visit to Escobar. What the press didn't know, or wasn't divulged due to government intervention, [[note]]*as the team was involved in a government campaign for the image of the country* [[/note]] is that ''everyone'' on the squad actually visited the jail at Escobar's request and played a match in there.
* The massive cyber-attack '[=WannaCry=]' that hit the world in May 2017. Writer Creator/CharlesStross submitted the actual facts as a novel ("Zero Day: The story of [=MS17-010=]"). It received this [[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2017/05/rejection-letter.html rejection letter]] for being "totally implausible".
** Not quite - Charlie wrote the ''rejection letter'', not the novel it was supposed to be based on. But he wrote it ''because'' the whole WannaCry fiasco was so utterly unbelievable.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Udeen_Al-Harith Jamal al-Harith]] was a convert to Islam from the United Kingdom, who in 2002, after travelling to Afghanistan was captured by the Taliban believing him to be a British spy. After the US military toppled the Taliban, found him imprisoned among other foreigners, they secured his release... but then they found his story of a backpacking trip to Pakistan to be implausible, and themselves held him in Guantanamo Bay for over two years. He was later released without charge when no evidence emerged that he was a security threat, and sent back to the UK along with five other British detainees. He became something of a cause celebré for human rights groups to rally around against the usage of torture by the United States government in the War on Terror, and even (unsuccessfully) sued then-US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for the torture he received in 2004. Fast forward to a decade later, he joins the Islamic State, and in February 2017, carries out a suicide bombing at an Iraqi army base. British tabloids expressed outrage particularly over the fact that he received £1 million in compensation. Some of his relatives insist that during his imprisonment in Guantanamo, he was not a terrorist, and it was actually the difficulty he experienced in rebuilding his life from the stigma of the "terrorist" imprisonment, that pushed him toward Islamic extremism.

* The character of Amon Goeth ''Film/SchindlersList'', believe it or not, was actually ''[[HistoricalVillainDowngrade nicer]]'' [[HistoricalVillainDowngrade than his real life basis]]. Despite already being portrayed as a sadistic monster who can't feel empathy, tortures and kills prisoners just ForTheEvulz, and shoots children, Spielberg deliberately toned down his inhumanity because he thought audiences wouldn't believe just how ridiculously monstrous Goeth really was (he had a torture dungeon underneath his house, fed ''live'' inmates to his dogs, would randomly shoot people from his window every day just for the hell of it, singled out crowds of children to be executed en masse, and is believed to have personally killed over five-hundred people and sent thousands more to their deaths).[[note]]And even then, some critics ''still'' thought that his pointlessly horrific villainy was "[[RealityIsUnrealistic unrealistic]]".[[/note]].

* The character of Amon Goeth ''Film/SchindlersList'', believe it or not, was actually ''[[HistoricalVillainDowngrade nicer]]'' [[HistoricalVillainDowngrade than his real life basis]]. Despite already being portrayed as a sadistic monster who can't feel empathy, tortures and kills prisoners just ForTheEvulz, and shoots children, Spielberg deliberately toned down his inhumanity because he thought audiences wouldn't believe just how ridiculously monstrous Goeth really was (he had a torture dungeon underneath his house, fed ''live'' inmates to his dogs, would randomly shoot people from his window every day just for the hell of it, singled out crowds of children to be executed en masse, and is believed to have personally killed over five-hundred people and sent thousands more to their deaths).[[note]]And even then, some critics ''still'' thought that his pointlessly horrific villainy was "[[RealityIsUnrealistic unrealistic]]".[[/note]] The real Amon Goeth was so evil in fact, that his officers fired him (in part) for ''mistreatment of prisoners''. To reiterate, he was ''fired'' by his fellow Nazis '''[[EvenEvilHasStandards for being too cruel to his prisoners in a concentration camp]]''' '''''[[EvenEvilHasStandards during the Holocaust]]'''''.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Udeen_Al-Harith Jamal al-Harith]] was a convert to Islam from the United Kingdom, who in 2002, after travelling to Afghanistan was captured by the Taliban believing him to be a British spy. After the US military toppled the Taliban, found him imprisoned among other foreigners, they secured his release... but then they found his story backpacking trip to Pakistan to be implausible, and themselves held him in Guantanamo Bay for over two years. He has later released without charge when no evidence emerged that he was a security threat, and sent back to the UK along with five other British detainees. He became something of a cause celebre for human rights groups to rally against the usage of torture by the United States government in the War on Terror, and even (unsuccessfully) sued then-US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for the torture he received in 2004. Fast forward to a decade later, he joins Islamic State, and in February 2017, carries out a suicide bombing at an Iraqi army base. British tabloids expressed outrage particularly over the fact that he received £1 million in compensation. Some of his relatives insist that during his imprisonment in Guantanamo, he was not a terrorist then, and it was actually the difficulty he experienced in rebuilding his life from the stigma of the "terrorist" imprisonment, that pushed him towards Islamic extremism.

* UsefulNotes/NorthKorea would be considered a cliche StrawDystopia if it wasn't real. It would have been invaded long ago if it weren't for it's ally China but it's too crazy for said ally to trust it with much aid. Not to mention that the country was born from, and largely owes it's failures to, a controversial political and economic ideology. If an author wrote it, people would think it was cliche author track. Indeed there are quite a lot people who actually don't believe North Korea is as bad as it is, and some have even attempted to travel there to see what's what for themselves.

* Having had a foreign coach on the 1980s that eventually won a World Cup with another team (Carlos Bilardo with Argentina) Colombian fans pleaded for a foreign coach for three decades; the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the Colombian side started in 2011 with the usual flunky team that the country had been used to for the last fourteen years. The first coach, beloved former player Leonel Alvarez, was ousted due to bad results. He was replaced with the last qualifying coach the team had had, Hernan Darío "Bolillo" Gomez. He was flunking too until there was a twist worthy of a SoapOpera where he repeatedly struck a woman who had accompanied him into a pub (presumably his mistress). Various groups against violence towards women denounced the coach, who had to resign and dig up a hole to hide into. The Colombian federation resorted to hiring someone that the press and the public could not possibly object to in veteran Argentinian coach Jose Pekerman, who had extensible experience in the U-20 World Cups for Argentina. Pekerman wound up taking Colombia to its first World Cup in 16 years and further than they had ever been before (Quarter-finals). As such, Colombian fans often joke that they have to thank "Bolillo's Mistress" or "Bolillo's Floozy" for their triumphant run.

* UsefulNotes/NorthKorea would be considered a cliche StrawDystopia if it wasn't real. It would have been invaded long ago if it weren't for it's ally China but it's too crazy for said ally to trust it with much aid. Not to mention that the country was born from, and largely owes it's failures to, a controversial political and economic ideology. If an author wrote it, people would think it was cliche author track.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* The film ''Film/TheMagdaleneSisters'' depicted the plight of girls sent to live in convents as washerwomen for the crime of being pregnant out of wedlock - or even for being accused of being "flirtatious"; many inmates were still virgins. The film actually toned down the habitual violence the girls endured under the nuns's hands and also showed the girls speaking to each other and forming friendships - in reality, both were forbidden...
* In ''Film/SinginInTheRain'', Cosmo says of film star Lina Lamont: "She can't act, she can't sing, she can't dance. A triple threat." Now, who in RealLife would build a musical around a Hollywood star who couldn't sing, dance or act? That would be the producers of a musical revue titled ''Two's Company'', which opened on Broadway the same year ''Singin' in the Rain'' was released. What critics had to write about Bette Davis's leading performance resembled the movie's put-down of its fictional actress.
** This is also a reference to a Hollywood executive's first impression of Fred Astaire: "Can't act. Can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little."
* The film ''Film/{{Changeling}}'' ran into this trope. It was, in fact, based on a true story, but nobody would believe it...when it was, in fact, not exaggerated in the slightest. So writer Creator/JMichaelStraczynski added sources to the script and such, to prove it was real! Not only that, but many of the more bizarre and freaktacular parts of the serial killer's exploits were left out, as they distracted from the main story. During an DVD extra, Creator/ClintEastwood noted that if it were fiction, no one would believe it.
* WWII hero Audie Murphy played himself in the movie ''Film/ToHellAndBack,'' based on his autobiography. During the adaptation, he requested that certain parts of his exploits (like the time he had malaria and leapt on top of a burning, half-destroyed tank-destroyer to use its pintle-mounted machine gun and single-handedly hold off an entire company of German mechanized infantry for half an hour) be watered down a little, since nobody would believe the real thing.
* [[BasedOnATrueStory Obviously]], the events of the film ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'' actually happened. But what they don't mention is that there were several ''additional'' malfunctions, and one or two of the events mentioned in passing in the movie were actually critical problems in reality. These were removed/downsized because, yes, producers thought no one would believe it. No one in the Apollo program at the time would have believed it either had it not actually happened. (The movie depicts Sy Liebergot as saying "It's reading a ''quadruple'' failure. That can't happen!" because that's what he really said. But it ''did'' happen.) Also, some test audiences reacted poorly to the ending - saying it could never happen and was totally unrealistic. After the original flight NASA amended their training simulations to include malfunctions that happened to Apollo 13, which had previously been ruled out as impossible. [[note]]In truth, Apollo 13 created a seismic shift in how simulations were handled. While prior simulation was designed to run through likely problems and malfunctions, most of it was geared toward running the training crew down their paths for problem resolution. Post-Apollo 13, "kitchen sink" simulations became part of the repertoire where crews were forced to face catastrophic failure scenarios in order to sharpen problem solving skills and truly test familiarity with control locations, systems, and design of the vehicle. Such grueling simulations are why NASA SimSups (simulation supervisors) frequently gain a reputation for being sadists; they put the astronauts through the wringer so that if something ''does'' go totally sideways during a real mission, those astronauts have a much better chance of survival because they will remain more calm, have more confidence, and better know what systems can be called upon to solve the problem.[[/note]]

* ''{{Film/Elizabeth}}: The Golden Age'' depicts the Armada during Elizabeth I's reign, and makes mention of some casualties on the English side. In reality the English didn't lose a single ship during the Armada.

[[folder: Literature ]]
* Literature/MobyDick is one of the great classics of American literature, and the grandfather of the Action/Suspense novel. However it pales by comparison to the events surrounding the destruction of the whaleship Essex, which inspired it. Check out its entry at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship) the other wiki]].

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* ''Series/CSINewYork'' also based an episode around this story, with an added twist: the spiteful mother of the "dead" girl smothered the survivor before the switch was discovered, ultimately getting her arrested for murdering her own daughter.

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* {{Website/Cracked}}.com is practically in love with this trope as much as boobs, writing humorous articles on true stories and facts that seem utterly ridiculous half the time even though it's real.
* When WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd reviewed various UsefulNotes/GameBoy accessories, he said he was going to make up a bunch of fake ones as a joke to stick in at the end of the episode (a common practice of his), such as a Game Boy attachment that picks up dog poop. However, he ultimately decided not to bother, because nothing he could come up with was weirder than the very real (though unreleased) Pedisedate -- a Game Boy attachment intended to be used by hospitals that would administer sleeping gas to children about to go in for surgery while they played.

[[folder: Other ]]

* Everyone knows the British love a SpotOfTea. What people don't know is that they ''hollowed out a mountain'' in order to build a power station that could respond to sudden spikes in electricity demand caused by everyone putting their electric tea kettles on at once (such as during half-time of the F.A. Cup final). Built in 1974, Dinorwig power station in Wales is the fastest operating power station, able to generate 1,650 MW of electricity in ''seconds'' should the need arise.
** It is inside the mountain in order to contain the enormous ''explosion'' that will result if it ever fails to cope with demand.
** British armored vehicles all contain a boiling vessel (BV or bivvie) to heat water. This can be used for field (boil-in-the-bag) rations but is usually used for making tea. American troops initially mocked this until they realized it's extremely handy to be able to boil water in the field at a moment's notice. Tip: don't ever approach a British tank asking for a cup of tea or coffee because the cup will almost certainly be skiffed (look it up at your own risk).
* [[SerialKiller BTK]] Dennis Rader, of Wichita, Kansas, has probably been the basis for several fictional serial killers. He would have gotten away scott-free, right under everyone's nose, too, if he hadn't [[ManipulativeBastard decided to get himself caught]] twenty years after the fact by [[StalkerWithACrush stalking]] the local newspaper and the detective who was head of his case way back when. His crimes were horrifying, but his reported beliefs about the afterlife were worse: he thought his victims would be his eternal slaves. [[note]] Another serial killer, the Zodiac, expressed a similar belief in one of his letters. Unlike Rader, [[KarmaHoudini he was never caught.]] [[/note]] His pastor, who sat through the trial up to this point in demonstration of the belief that even killers could be achieve salvation if properly repentant, [[MoralEventHorizon stood up and walked out]] (Rader previously was president of their church council).
** Another major aspect of how he was caught is remarkable - when he'd started his killings, computerization hadn't taken off. When he resumed [[EvilGloating the taunting letters]], he sent a 1.44 MB floppy disk to the local news network... [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rader#Arrest without realizing it had metadata from a deleted]] Microsoft Word file on it, which was last modified by "Dennis". [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Had he not sent in that floppy disk, he likely wouldn't have been caught]]. Not only that, but he asked police whether it could be traced, and ''[[WhatAnIdiot believed them when they claimed it couldn't]]''.

* Ditto for the start of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI - who'd imagine that the death of an Archduke would cause practically ''every'' country in the first-world to declare war?

* The world's most proficient sniper, UsefulNotes/SimoHayha; AKA "The White Death", has over 700 confirmed kills. Yes, seven hundred. All achieved in about ''three months'' in far less than optimal conditions, which includes the lack of a scope (he never used one, as the light glinting off of a scope can reveal a sniper's position.) Wiki/TheOtherWiki has more information on the guy, but needless to say, if he was fictional, this would be considered ridiculous if it was played for anything other than [[PlayedForLaughs laughs.]]
** His SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome is either the time he was hit in the face with a round meant to be used against ''tanks,'' got back up, and killed the one who fired it, or the time he shot ''eight'' enemy soldiers with ''one'' bullet, sending all the others [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere running for their lives]] thinking a whole squad was targeting them.

* Having had a foreign coach on the 1980's that eventually won a World Cup with another team (Carlos Bilardo with Argentina) Colombian fans pleaded for a foreign coach for three decades; the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the Colombian side started in 2011 with the usual flunky team that the country had been used to for the last fourteen years. The first coach, beloved former player Leonel Alvarez, was ousted due to bad results. He was replaced with the last qualifying coach the team had had, Hernan Darío "Bolillo" Gomez. He was flunking too until there was a twist worthy of a SoapOpera where he repeatedly struck a woman who had accompanied him into a pub (presumably his mistress). Various groups against violence towards women denounced the coach, who had to resign and dig up a hole to hide into. The Colombian federation resorted to hiring someone that the press and the public could not possibly object to in veteran Argentinian coach Jose Pekerman, who had extensible experience in the U-20 World Cups for Argentina. Pekerman wound up taking Colombia to its first World Cup in 16 years and further than they had ever been before (Quarter-finals). As such, Colombian fans often joke that they have to thank "Bolillo's Mistress" or "Bolillo's Floozy" for their triumphant run.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Udeen_Al-Harith Jamal al-Harith]] was a convert to Islam from the United Kingdom, who in 2002, after travelling to Afghanistan was captured by the Taliban believing him to be a British spy. After the US military toppled the Taliban, found him imprisoned among other foreigners, they secured his release...but then they found his story backpacking trip to Pakistan to be implausible, and themselves held him in Guantanamo Bay for over two years. He has later released without charge when no evidence emerged that he was a security threat, and sent back to the UK along with five other British detainees. He became something of a cause celebre for human rights groups to rally against the usage of torture by the United States government in the War on Terror, and even (unsuccessfully) sued then-US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for the torture he received in 2004. Fast forward to a decade later, he joins Islamic State, and in February 2017, carries out a suicide bombing at an Iraqi army base. British tabloids expressed outrage particularly over the fact that he received £1 million in compensation. Some of his relatives insist that during his imprisonment in Guantanamo, he was not a terrorist then, and it was actually the difficulty he experienced in rebuilding his life from the stigma of the "terrorist" imprisonment, that pushed him towards Islamic extremism.
* At the end of 2016 Creator/CarrieFisher passed away of cardiac arrest. Her own mother died the very next day, and her last words were [[TogetherInDeath "I just want to be with Carrie"]] - and several people commented that if something like that happened in fiction, no one would buy it.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': ''Many'' of their stranger episodes have been based on actual events. [[note]]See that page's entry on RippedFromTheHeadlines for the sleep-destroying list of episodes based on real crimes.[[/note]] As it turns out, [[CaptainObvious serial killers and sadists often have severe mental issues]] and do things that seem like the work of PulpMagazine villains. Like building death courses in meat packing plants, keeping their victims chained for years in their basement, [[{{Idiosyncrazy}} centering their crimes around bizarre obsessions and signature murder rituals]], and taunting the authorities with CriminalMindGames.

* [[SerialKiller BTK]] Dennis Rader, of Wichita, Kansas, has probably been the basis for several fictional serial killers. He would have gotten away scott-free, right under everyone's nose, too, if he hadn't [[ManipulativeBastard decided to get himself caught]] twenty years after the fact by [[StalkerWithACrush stalking]] the local newspaper and the detective who was head of his case way back when. His crimes were horrifying, but his reported beliefs about the afterlife were worse: he thought his victims would be his eternal slaves. His pastor, who sat through the trial up to this point in demonstration of the belief that even killers could be achieve salvation if properly repentant, [[MoralEventHorizon stood up and walked out]] (Rader previously was president of their church council).

Stranger than fiction;" (often misattributed to Creator/MarkTwain and quoted as "the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality always has to make sense]]") No matter how weird, freaky, or {{squick}}y fiction gets, there will be something in RealLife that is even weirder, freakier, or {{squick}}ier.

Stranger than fiction;" No matter how weird, freaky, or {{squick}}y fiction gets, there will be something in RealLife that is even weirder, freakier, or {{squick}}ier.

Originating in the Creator/MarkTwain quote that "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't." No matter how weird, freaky, or {{squick}}y fiction gets, there will be something in RealLife that is even weirder, freakier, or {{squick}}ier.

* [[BasedOnATrueStory Obviously]], the events of the film ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'' actually happened. But what they don't mention is that there were several ''additional'' malfunctions, and one or two of the events mentioned in passing in the movie were actually critical problems in reality. These were removed/downsized because, yes, producers thought no one would believe it. No one in the Apollo program at the time would have believed it either had it not actually happened. (The movie depicts Sy Liebergot as saying "It's reading a ''quadruple'' failure. That can't happen!" because that's what he really said. But it ''did'' happen.) Also, some test audiences reacted poorly to the ending - saying it could never happen and was totally unrealistic. After the original flight NASA amended their training simulations to include malfunctions that happened to Apollo 13, which had previously been ruled out as impossible.

** His CrowningMomentOfAwesome is either the time he was hit in the face with a round meant to be used against ''tanks,'' got back up, and killed the one who fired it, or the time he shot ''eight'' enemy soldiers with ''one'' bullet, sending all the others [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere running for their lives]] thinking a whole squad was targeting them.