Yes, the 2016 film Patriots Day is based on the true story of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent city-wide manhunt for the perpetrators. The screenplay is adapted from the non-fiction book Boston Strong: A City's Triumph Over Tragedy by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge. The film aims to be a factual dramatization, chronicling the terrorist attack, the immediate response from law enforcement and first responders, and the intense four-day investigation that followed.
The film achieves its historical basis by depicting many real-life individuals and key events with a high degree of accuracy. Major figures portrayed include Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers, and Watertown Police Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese. The narrative faithfully follows the established timeline, including the bombing itself, the FBI's analysis of surveillance footage to identify the suspects, the murder of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, the carjacking of Dun Meng, and the final shootout in Watertown. To enhance its authenticity, the film integrates actual archival news broadcasts and surveillance footage from the events.
While the overarching plot and key milestones are factual, the film utilizes the common cinematic technique of a composite character for its protagonist. The main character, Boston Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders (played by Mark Wahlberg), is not a real person but an amalgamation of several different law enforcement officers who were present at critical moments throughout the crisis. This narrative device allows the audience to experience the wide-ranging events through a single, central perspective. Therefore, while individual scenes and dialogue are dramatized for cinematic effect, the core events depicted in the film adhere closely to the historical record.
