History Main / VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory

* There is some actual proof that the Scorpion King was a real person. However, the guy played by [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]] in ''Film/TheMummyReturns'' and the SpinOff movie ''Film/TheScorpionKing'' seemed to be him InNameOnly.

* ''Film/GloryRoad'' is a semi-fictionalized account of the events leading to the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, in which Don Haskins, head coach of the Texas Western College led a team with an all-black starting lineup. However, it makes it seem that Haskins turned the team into a champion in one season (it took several years), turns his playing five black players in the starting lineup into something of a personal statement about race (when, in reality, it was simply because they were his five best players) and exaggerated how much of a underdog the Miners were (they certainly weren't favored, but they'd made the tournament the last few years before 1966).

* There is some actual proof that the Scorpion King was a real person. However, the guy played by TheRock in ''Film/TheMummyReturns'' and the SpinOff movie ''Film/TheScorpionKing'' seemed to be him InNameOnly.

** The head coach of the film's Hickory High School, Norman Dale (played by GeneHackman), was very different from Milan's coach Marvin Wood. Dale was a middle-aged former college coach with a fiery temper, and also began a romance with a Hickory teacher. Wood was married with two children, soft-spoken, and all of 26 years old when Milan won the title.

** The character of "Shooter" (Creator/DennisHopper), Hickory's town drunk, assistant coach to Dale, and father of one of Hickory's other players, has no Milan equivalent. Wood had no assistant in 1953–54.

* ''Film/BoysDontCry'' is based on a true story and remains quite faithful to the facts. In all their heartwrenching nastiness.

** The character of "Shooter" (DennisHopper), Hickory's town drunk, assistant coach to Dale, and father of one of Hickory's other players, has no Milan equivalent. Wood had no assistant in 1953–54.

** The 1987 comedy movie version of ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'' parodies this with its opening announcement:

* The codifying trope is probably Jack Webb's Mark VII shows, starting with ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'', in which "the names have been changed to protect the innocent. His other productions, including ''Series/AdamTwelve'' also included the disclaimer that everything was based on true events, which is a trifle funny when the episode revolved around Jim's inability to tell jokes or Friday and Gannon's weekend sleepover.

* ''{{Cabaret}}'' is a film based on a musical based in part on part of a novel by Christopher Isherwood allegedly based on his encounters with one Sally Bowles. As a nice coincidence, LizaMinnelli ''greatly'' resembles the description of Sally in the novel.

** There's a throwaway reference in the ''DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''Lucifer Rising'' to a holodrama based on "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E5TheSeedsOfDeath The Seeds of Death]]" which is only recognisable by the character names, awash with AdaptationalAttractiveness and TokenRomance.

** There's a throwaway reference in the ''[[DoctorWho|NewAdventures]]'' novel ''Lucifer Rising'' to a holodrama based on "The Seeds of Death" which is only recognisable by the character names, awash with AdaptationalAttractiveness and TokenRomance.
** The short story "Scientific Advisior" has the Doctor get involved with a film based on "The Invasion" at UNIT's behest, to ''ensure'' it's inaccurate (including convincing the studio that no-one knows what the Cybermen were called, so they become the Zexians).

* Oh where to begin on the historical inaccuracies in both TheTudors and {{Rome}}.

* ''[[VisualNovel/SteinsGate Steins;Gate]]'' is based on an event back in 2000 where a forum poster by the name of [[[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor John Titor]] showed up on a number of boards and claimed to be a soldier from the future, sent back in time to retrieve an IBM 5100 in order to avert a disastrous BadFuture - it's just in ''SteinsGate'', he was being entirely honest about everything [[spoiler:except her name and gender]].

Not to be confused with BasedOnAGreatBigLie. While it's sometimes hard to tell the difference, this trope means that the real story is heavily fictionalized to the point of just making up stuff for the sake of telling a better story, while with that trope even the "real story" is a fabrication.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''TheExorcismOfEmilyRose''. Real story (based on Anneliese Michel), a young woman from a very religious background had some strange seizures. Based on her beliefs and those of her priests she stopped taking medication and relied on prayer. She died, but was convinced that the Virgin Mary had told her that her death would inspire many. Rather sad, especially since her death was not the result of seizures, but severe malnutrition and dehydration that arose from the ongoing exorcism. In the film, all courtroom scenes and scenes featuring doctors are flat and matter of fact. The fact that the doctors don't fully understand the condition is played up. The fact that the priest has an explanation to offer is played up. Whether his explanation makes sense is not questioned. Scenes concerning the attacks have spooky cinematography and chilling music and a general horror movie feel to engage the viewer.

* The movie ''Primeval'', while it deals with an actual, real-life giant crocodile (Gustave), exaggerates every other aspect of the events it claims to recount, from doubling his number of human kills, to depicting him seeking out and attacking entire groups of clearly defended humans (the real Gustave strikes at groups of three or fewer tourists, primarily when they are off-guard, and certainly when they lack shelter). And that's without mentioning the film's ads, which portray him as "the most prolific serial killer in history"... though, to be fair, that last [[ExecutiveMeddling probably wasn't the filmmaker's idea]]. On top of all that, it's a case of NeverTrustATrailer -- Gustave only appears in brief stretches, and most of the film deals with a local civil war, with the croc relegated to the background for the most part.
* The film ''EightBelow'' is about an American expedition in 1993 where almost all the dogs live. It was based on the true story of a Japanese expedition in 1958 in which almost all the dogs died.
* ''{{Enigma}}'': The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre Katyn Massacre]] definitely took place, and the British and US governments did indeed suppress evidence of it in order to keep their fragile alliance with the Soviet Union from falling apart, but the events as depicted in the book are entirely fabricated; the only spy to make it to the Bletchley Park station was British and passing information to the Soviets. The 2001 film takes it up a notch by cutting Alan Turing out of the film completely and assigning his role in the war to protagonist Tom Jericho, where in the book Jericho is a junior member of Turing's cryptanalysis staff.

* ''NachoLibre'' was loosely (very, ''very'' loosely) based on the life of Fray Tormenta, a real-life monk-turned-luchador who supported an orphanage by wrestling for 23 years. To his credit, JackBlack never claimed that the movie was a true story, only that it was inspired by Tormenta.
* ''ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid'': The screenwriter kindly informs us at the start of the movie that "Most of what follows is true."

* The trailer for the ghost movie ''White Noise'' opened with a minute-long explanation of EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) complete with "real" examples of the phenomena (which were actually made up) in an attempt to sell the audience on the film. It didn't quite work. Similarly, the [[ForeignRemake US remake]] of ''{{Shutter}}'' opens with an explanation of spirit photography and a montage of photos with blurry, half-resolved images showing up, complete with mentions of how the people in the photos died soon after.
* ''TheFourthKind'' opens with a disclaimer by MillaJovovich herself stating that the events in the film are based on a true story of Dr. Abigail Tyler, and claimed to use "real footage" of actual alien abduction case studies interwoven into the film footage. Similar to the ''White Noise'' example above, it was ''all'' fabrication, as the "real" Abigail Tyler shown in the "real footage" is actually just another actress, and the "real footage" was just shot in a documentary style.

* ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'' deserves special mention here, the movie is the first Disney animated story that is claimed to be "based on a true story", and by that of course, that Colonial Virginia had talking trees, magical Native Americans, numerous cliffs and nature scenes that are no where to be found in coastal Virginia and to beat a language barrier, one only need to "listen with their heart.".

* The 2001 drama ''The Believer'', starring Ryan Gosling, is loosely based on an incident in the 1960s in which a New York Times reporter uncovered the fact that a high-ranking member of the American Nazi Party was Jewish. The movie is set in the present day and makes the closet Jew into a skinhead. The portrayal of this character and his psychological profile is largely fictional, but it was inspired by anecdotes about the real person in which he would bring knishes to the neo-Nazi meetings, oddly seeming to embrace parts of his Jewish heritage even as he scorned it.

VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory often occurs because of ExecutiveMeddling, especially if some of the characters are based on living persons who might sue them if the depiction is too unsympathetic. Another reason can be to make characters less three-dimensional so as not to [[ViewersAreMorons confuse the viewers]], whom they believe won't accept a socialist, atheist, or gay hero or a villain who loves his spouse. Sometimes historical incidents will be changed because they don't fit into HollywoodHistory or because the truth would be inconvenient, as when cowboys in old Westerns were all played by white actors when [[RaceLift many real cowboys were black, Hispanic, or American Indian]].

** In his memoir Frank claims to have done exactly that (escaped out an airplane toilet). Of course his memoir might have been VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory as well. In the memoir, he had flown back to the United States on a Vickers [=VC10=], the toilet unit lifts out, so he could have escaped.

** The character of "Shooter" (DennisHopper), Hickory's town drunk, assistant coach to Dale, and father of one Hickory's other players, has no Milan equivalent. Wood had no assistant in 1953–54.

** hickory's star player, Jimmy Chitwood, sat out half the season because he was upset over the previous coach's death. Milan's star, Bobby Plump, played the whole season, and Milan's previous coach had been fired.

** The Hickory team had a roster of no more than seven players. Milan had a 10-man roster. (Interesting fact: Of the 78 boys at Milan High in that school year, 58 tried out for the team.)

* Film/{{Hoosiers}}, although not promoted as being based on a true story, is somewhat loosely based on a true story—specifically, the 1953–54 basketball season of Milan High School in Indiana, in which the school of about 160 students won the state basketball championship, defeating a much larger city school in the final. However, the story takes considerable liberties with Milan's real story. To name a few...

** Although the Hickory and Milan finals had similar scores (respectively 42–40 and 32–30) and were both held at Butler University's current basketball arena of HINKLE Fieldhouse, and the last 10 seconds of both finals were almost identical, the similarities between the two games end there.

* ''Film/{{U-571}}'' took quite a bit of flak for basically ignoring history when it came to how the Enigma was captured - starting with the fact that it was a British operation.

* ''BeyondBeliefFactOrFiction'' was notorious for this. It was a show in which several stories were presented in an episode and viewers had to true to pick out which one was true. However, many of the supposedly true stories were this at best.

* The 2012 horror movie ''The Possession'' claims to be based on a true story, specifically that of the [[http://web.archive.org/web/20051105000557/www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/rubyc/eBay_dibbuk.htm "dibbuk box"]]. The similarities between the film and the dibbuk box are as follows: the dibbuk box exists, its owners experience a wave of bad luck that they claimed was linked to the box, and that's about it. None of the stories involve a girl getting [[DemonicPossession possessed]] by whatever was living in it.