The Real Story: Tom Hanks's other big award season movie, Captain Phillips, is based on the real-life capture of merchant mariner Captain Richard Phillips by Somali pirates in 2009. The screenplay is based on Phillips's 2010 memoir, A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea.
How the Movie Differs: Both the film and Phillips's account have been hotly contested by some of his crew members involved in the pirate takeover. They even filed a lawsuit against their company, Maersk, alleging that Phillips deliberately drove them into pirate-infested waters against repeated warnings. One crew member also claimed that the scene in the film where Phillips, played by Hanks, makes a stink about following antipiracy procedures before setting off to sea is completely untrue. The unnamed crew member claimed that Phillips refused to follow antipiracy protocol, which could have helped them avoid being taken as hostages.
