Sometimes, the truth can be much stranger than fiction, so it’s not surprising that movies based on real-life events are often so compelling. From Oscar-winning epics about important historical events to family dramas and incredible survival tales, even the most imaginative writers wouldn’t come up with the twists and turns that real life has to offer. Some stories would even be hard to believe if they hadn’t actually happened.
Bright Side recently asked our readers to share some of the movie-worthy moments of their lives, and we bring you some of the most touching and intriguing answers.
- I think my life isn’t really all that interesting, but I had a wonderful AND nightmarish childhood, married and divorced my childhood love, married and divorced, and married again. I worked for the Air Force and had top-secret clearance for 36 years. Had 3 children that did (do) extraordinary things, and have literally blessed the world. And continue to do so. So much more, but I think my life has been nothing special. See? Everyone has a movie in them!
- I took on a fake identity so that I could figure out who my husband was cheating with. I found her and made her and her whole family fall in love with me and my son. They were shocked and appalled that he would do this to us. And I got a divorce from that creep. Regrets? Heck no!
- Weathering out all night on a large sailboat on an island south of Grenada during Hurricane Ivan.
- After a tumultuous life, at 58, getting hired as a chef on a 100-foot sailboat, sailing to 24 countries across 7 seas for 10 years, falling in love with the owner/captain after 6 years of adventures as shipmates, and living seemingly happier ever after.
- My career has been as an administrator of an assisted living home for 25 years. The hilarious stories, the sad stories, the relationships with hundreds of residents over the years.
- My childhood. I grew up on a cattle ranch in Africa. It was like an episode of The Waltons with giraffes.
- The time when I was 19 and had a hiking accident. I was stationed in Kodiak, AK, and was hiking with a friend. We got turned around in a snowstorm that came up. The day it happened, the Coast Guard was doing search and rescue until they got grounded that night. The next morning it was search and recovery. I survived at least 4 life-ending issues and events that night, but still walked out.
- When I got blown out to sea as a skinny 12-year-old, rowing out to dad’s boat in Jackson Bay to get him a net needle. The wind blew me past the boat, past Flowerpot Rock, and I was on my way to Oz! Truly magical. Wasn’t scared. Dad looked from the front of the house where he was mending the trawl net and ran up the road to get “Spacey” to rescue me in his fuzz boat! Wonderful childhood.
- In my early days as a travel manager at a company in southern California, I was booking a flight for a newer employee who was traveling to Decatur, IN. I booked him to Decatur, IL. He arrived safely in Illinois eager to find our manufacturing plant, only to find out he was in the wrong state.
- Back in the late 1980s, my organization developed an innovative program that helped thousands of laid-off steelworkers in Pittsburgh to save their homes from foreclosure. And then, the state adopted a version of this same program to save the homes of tens of thousands of unemployed people across the state.
- My adoption story. I have had the opportunity to meet all of the significant players in my life story — my birth mother and her family, my foster mother and her family, and my adoptive mother and her family. I am definitely a “Heinz 57” blessed by many people who loved and cared for me through the years.
- Living with my Mom while she had dementia. Interesting, sad, joyous, and confusing. And that’s just ONE DAY in our life! But, I love her even though she sometimes forgets that I am her daughter, and calls me “mother.”
- That time when I caught my ex-husband not only cheating on me, but also pretending to be a single dad overseas. Good stuff.
- Oh, definitely when I walked into a patio window twice on the same holiday. Would probably be a blockbuster thriller comedy.
- My brother and I have talked about writing a book about our fantastical existence with our father. It’s a cross between A Beautiful Mind and Glass Castles, with a bit of losing our mother and having to deal with him for the next 36 years. It’s been a roller coaster ride our whole life.
Which one of these stories do you think would make a blockbuster? If you have an incredible life story you want to add to the list, share it with us in the comments.
Bright Side/Curiosities/22 Movie-Worthy Stories Shared by Our Readers That Made Us Feel a Bunch of Mixed Emotions
