From thrilling adventures in outer space, to high-speed car chases; a trip to the cinema to see the latest blockbuster movie is a fantastic way to escape reality. But what happens when the film portrays something as truth, when it isn't actually true?
A factual mishap in a movie can bring you back to reality with a bump. It can break the magic of the silver screen and send you down an internet rabbit hole trying to find out what exactly did happen.
Bitesize brings you five factual movie tweaks that you won't be able to unsee the next time you reach for the popcorn.
1. Larger than life Velociraptors: Jurassic Park
The Jurassic Park film series already stretches the truth about what science is actually capable of, as the oldest DNA ever sequenced is around 2 million years old, and dinosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago. But if we ignore that fact, the science of cloning is actually possible.
However, one thing that filmmaker Steven Spielberg and author Michael Crichton embellished when making the film was the size of the ferocious Velociraptor. In reality, the terrifying carnivore was only about the same height as a turkey, standing at a not-so-scary 50cm tall.
The Raptors in the film are based on the much larger Deinonychus, as not only would this make them seem more menacing on screen, but as Jurassic Park was a film that used many practical effects, increasing the size of the Velociraptor meant that a person could fit inside a dinosaur suit for many of the scenes.
2. Sharks in the Colosseum: Gladiator 2
Sir Ridley Scott's 2024 sequel to the Oscar winning Gladiator saw Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascall and Denzel Washington step into the sandals of Russell Crowe as they continued the epic story that Maximus started. Movies and TV shows get lots of things wrong when it comes to gladiators, but there is a 'great white' wrongdoing in Gladiator 2 that could claim the Emperor's crown when it comes to factual movie misrepresentation.
In one scene that sees the Colosseum flooded for an epic naval battle, known as a Naumachia, we also see ferocious sharks swimming in the water alongside the Roman ships. The movie's director, Sir Ridley Scott, hit back at criticism of the sharks saying: “Dude, if you can build a Colosseum you can flood it with water… And to get a couple of sharks in a net from the sea? Are you kidding? Of course they can!”
However, transporting sharks is a difficult process even today, and Rome is about 45 minutes away (by car) from the coast. So while historians say that exotic animals like lions and tigers were brought to the Colosseum, sharks did not make an appearance in the ancient amphitheatre.
3. Killer shark: Jaws
Speaking of sharks, perhaps the most famous shark in movie history is the great white shark in 1975's Jaws. Nicknamed 'Bruce' by fans of the movie, this bloodthirsty fish is the perpetrator of many attacks in the waters around Amity Island in New England, USA, even going so far as to destroy the boat belonging to Quint the shark hunter.
Although the idea of a rampaging shark is good for the plot of a movie, in reality great white sharks generally avoid humans, with their main prey being seals. According to the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) there are fewer than 80 unprovoked shark attacks on humans each year, making it extremely unlikely that you would be attacked by a shark in the water. It seems as if the shark is a victim of unconscious bias.
There was a big backlash against sharks following the release of the film in 1975, with thousands of fishers setting out to catch them across the east coast of the USA. Director Steven Spielberg has said he "truly regrets" the decimation of the shark population following the success of the Oscar-winning film.
4. Soldiers not sprinters: Cool Runnings
As far as sports movies go, 1993's Cool Runnings has it all; the unlikely underdogs battling the odds to make it to the Winter Olympics. But not everything is what is seems in this feel-good family comedy.
The story of the Jamaican bobsleigh team is based on reality, as the team did qualify for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. However, in the film we see two failed Olympic sprinters, along with a pushcart racer and a local tough guy, make up an unlikely team of sledders, whereas in reality the team was made up of soldiers from the Jamaican Defence Force.
Like in the film, the real team failed to win any medals at the Winter Olympics, but the final crash scene was different in reality. In the movie version, the team carries the sled across the finish line on their shoulders to rapturous applause, whereas the real athletes walked across the line beside their sled to a few polite claps.
5. Winston Churchill on the Tube: Darkest Hour
Sir Gary Oldman won an Oscar for his portrayal of Sir Winston Churchill in the 2017 World War Two epic, Darkest Hour. The film is set during the early days of the war, as British troops are waiting to be evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk while Germany advances through France and Belgium.
In one memorable scene from the film, Churchill travels on the London Underground, something that surprises the regular passengers riding the train; it's not every day that you see the Prime Minister riding on public transport after all.
However, according to historian Antony Beevor, Churchill probably never used the Tube in his life. This is disputed by another historian, John Charmley, who talks about Churchill using the Tube in the 1920s. But there is no record of Churchill riding the London Underground during World War Two.
You can read more about about Churchill and five more times war films bent the truth here.
This article was published in January 2026.
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