How accurate is ‘Only the Brave’?
Only the Brave (in theaters now), the movie starring Josh Brolin and Miles Teller, tells the true story — one version of it, anyway — of Arizona’s Granite Mountain Hotshots. But how accurate is the depiction of the Yarnell Hill fire and what happened before it?
The film’s ending probably doesn’t require a spoiler alert. The hotshots’ fate was well-documented at the time. But if you’re hoping to avoid learning about specific plot twists, proceed with caution.
TRUE: REAL-LIFE CHARACTERS
The real Granite Mountain Hotshots are played by actors including Brolin as Eric Marsh, the crew’s leader, and Teller as Brendan McDonough, the only surviv- ing hotshot, who was posted as a lookout on the day of the fire. Every member of the 20-man crew has a real actor playing him.
TRUE: THE CHARACTERS’ DARKER SIDES
The movie pulls no punches in depicting the two hotshots’ challenges. Marsh’s past troubles with substance abuse are referenced, an attempt to connect him with McDonough. The rookie firefighter is first seen sitting on a couch with a buddy and a bong, stoned out of his mind. Later, he’s shown stealing a vehicle’s GPS unit and trying to raise bail money. All are true events.
NOT QUITE: MCDONOUGH IS BITTEN BY A RATTLESNAKE
In real life, McDonough had a lingering case of the flu in the days leading up to the Yarnell fire. Snakebite treatment is never mentioned in any official reports as a reason McDonough was placed on lookout duty instead of the fire line.
NOT QUITE: CONVERSATIONS BEFORE THE FIRE
At a bar the night before, McDonough tells his boss he wants to leave the crew; he needs regular hours so he can give his daughter more attention. In the movie, Marsh reacts angrily, accusing McDonough of walking away from the team. Later, Eric and Amanda Marsh (played by Jennifer Connelly) fight on the drive home. Amanda tells her husband she has decided she wants a family. The next morning, the couple reconciles, and on the drive to Yarnell, Marsh tells team captain Jesse Steed (James Badge Dale) that this will be Marsh’s last season. Most of these sequences were invented, or at least reimagined and moved out of order.
TRUE: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOTSHOTS
The movie sticks to the official record once the crew arrives in Yarnell. Much of the dialogue is taken from radio transcripts. No attempt is made to invent reasons for the crew’s movements, and no scenes try to answer why the crew left a seemingly safe area and descended into a canyon that became a trap.
NOT QUITE: THE ENDING
McDonough appears dramatically at a school in Prescott, revealing to horrified family members that he was the only hotshot who wasn’t lost in the fire. He’s shown walking outside, where he’s comforted by Amanda Marsh.
In reality, the wives and family members learned of the deaths more haphazardly, through the media or social media.
In his book, McDonough wrote that he spoke with wives and mothers of the lost crew: “My place was with the families.”