The film Patriots Day is a docudrama based on the true story of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent manhunt for the perpetrators. The movie adheres closely to the actual timeline of events and incorporates real individuals involved in the incident. However, to streamline the narrative for a cinematic format, it also utilizes composite characters and dramatic license.
The film's factual foundation is derived from the non-fiction book Boston Strong: A City's Triumph over Tragedy. It accurately recreates key moments, including the bombing itself, the FBI's meticulous process of identifying the Tsarnaev brothers from thousands of hours of footage, the murder of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, the carjacking of Dun Meng, and the intense shootout in Watertown. Many characters, such as Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis and FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers, are based on their real-life counterparts. The primary narrative device is the central character, Sergeant Tommy Saunders (portrayed by Mark Wahlberg), who is not a real person but a fictional composite created to represent the collective experiences and actions of multiple Boston police officers who were central to the investigation and response.
By blending real events and figures with a fictionalized protagonist, Patriots Day maintains a high degree of historical accuracy while providing a focused, personal perspective for the audience. The film's primary objective is to document the procedural and emotional reality of the city-wide response to the attack. The use of a composite character is a common filmmaking technique in docudramas to condense a complex, multi-faceted true story into a cohesive and accessible narrative without altering the core facts of the event.
