What is the true story behind Man on Fire on Netflix?
Hollywood veteran Denzel Washington retained his strong demeanor playing the bodyguard of a nine-year-old girl in Tony Scott’s 2004 thriller, Man on Fire.
Serving as one of Dakota Fanning’s first blockbuster roles, Man on Fire has recently been added to the bursting Netflix catalog, and viewers are wondering if the film is based on a true story.
The True Story Behind Man on Fire
The film, Man on Fire, is not directly taken from a true story but instead inspired by a novel of the same name written by A.J. Quinnell and adapted for the big screen by Brian Helgeland and Tony Scott.
English thriller novelist, Phillip Nicholson, used the pen name, ‘A.J. Quinnell’, to write his novel Man on Fire, which was inspired by two real-life events.
The first event revolved around the kidnapping of a Singaporean businessman’s eldest son, who was held for ransom by The Triad. The businessman refused to pay the ransom in case his other children became targets. His son was consequently killed because of the refusal, but none of his other children were harmed.
The second event that inspired the novel was the kidnapping of J. Paul Getty’s grandson. Getty was known as one of the richest men in the world at that time and his grandson was kidnapped while he was in Rome and held for a ransom of $17 million dollars.
Getty refused to pay as well in order to protect his 13 grandchildren, but he was also suspicious that his grandson had staged the ransom kidnapping in order to obtain the money for himself. However, when Getty received his grandson’s ear in the mail, he agreed to pay a portion of the ransom, and his grandson was released five months after his initial kidnapping.
The second event also served as inspiration for the 2017 Ridley Scott film, All the Money in the World.
What is Man on Fire About?
Man on Fire follows CIA officer John W. Creasy (Washington) who is tasked with protecting a nine-year-old girl (Fanning).
When the girl is kidnapped by the Mexican mafia, Creasy goes to extreme lengths in order to get her back unharmed.
As a former alcoholic and burnout, Creasy throws himself into the job of retrieving Pita, with whom he has formed a close bond.
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