Infographic Shows 'American Sniper,' 'Imitation Game' Among Least Accurate 'True Story' Movies

'American Sniper' isn't exactly 100 percent accurate, as explained in this fascinating infographic breaking down fact and fiction in "true story" movies.

November 30, 2016

Not Available Lead — Image via Complex Original

Now that we've all taken the big leap into post-truth ludicrousness, what's the value of a super accurate "true story" movie? Is a movie that purports to be "based on a true story" any less worthy if it doesn't exactly nail the facts? Of course not. What a stupid concept. But that doesn't make this visually appealing infographic from Information Is Beautiful any less fascinating, especially for all the people out there who think Clint Eastwood's American Sniper is 100 percent the real deal.

Eastwood's fake baby movie is actually among the least accurate (at 56.9 percent) of so-called "true story" movies. Though the 2014 film did depict real events, the story "repeatedly exaggerated" the involvement of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper). "His tragic hero status was a Hollywood flourish," designer David McCandless and researcher Stephanie Smith explained in their findings. "By all accounts (including his own), he thrived off his job and it didn't bother him much."

The infographic allows readers to explore a variety of "true story" films scene-by-scene, explaining their historical accuracy with a range of descriptions from "unknown" (i.e. unverifiable sources) to "true" (i.e. pretty damn accurate). Last year's The Imitation Game, for example, didn't exactly have an overwhelming amount of "true" to boast about. In fact, Information Is Beautiful goes so far as saying the film's 41.4 percent accuracy rating "rips the historical record to shreds."

As far as movies that actually do totally nail it, there are plenty. Ava DuVernay's Selma (100 percent), Adam McKay's The Big Short (91.4 percent), and Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies (89.9 percent) lead the pack of truth-tellers while Martin Scorsese's debauchery epic The Wolf of Wall Street rocks a solid C. Peep the full breakdown here.