What Gran Turismo's Controversial Crash Scene Gets Wrong

When it was revealed that PlayStation's most successful series was getting a feature-length film adaptation, both gamers and racing fans were ecstatic. What separates this movie from other video game adaptations, such as "Need for Speed," is that "Gran Turismo" is based on real-life events. "Gran Turismo" follows the story of Jann Mardenborough, a sim racing champion turned world-famous racing driver.

The film portrays Jann as a true underdog in the racing scene. Everyone, including his washed-up driving coach Jack Salter played by "Stranger Things" David Harbour, doubted that video game experience could translate to the real world and allow him to compete with the best of the best. In reality, even though Jann's skills were indeed questioned, Jack Salter and even Orlando Bloom's character Danny Moore are fictitious. But that's not the only part of the story that is fabricated, as Jann's tragic crash in 2015 is also misrepresented in the film.

With the help of Jann himself, the writers of "Gran Turismo" took some liberties with the timeline surrounding the crash, and some viewers aren't happy.

The film does a relatively decent job of using CGI to portray the incident in 2015 on the Nordschleife circuit at the Nürburgring when Jann's Nissan GT3 Nismo took flight at around 125 mph and slammed into the track's fencing over 100 feet away, killing one spectator and injuring many others. However, one glaring alteration was made to the event for the adaptation. Hardcore racing fans will notice that the film's crash and subsequent comeback do not align with Jann's real-life career.

The film shows the crash as a wake-up call for Jann to take the sport more seriously and train harder. His hard work would later pay off when he scored an impressive third place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans competition. The problem is that his podium finish was in 2013, two years before the crash. So, it had nothing to do with his success at the event. "Gran Turismo" alters the timeline to put the crash first to give Jann a satisfying narrative arc.

It's not uncommon to manipulate events or fabricate internal conflict in a biopic to make for a more compelling story. For example, in the formula movie "Rush," famous driver Niki Lauda contemplates retirement after his fiery crash that scared his face badly. In reality, Lauda claims to never once entertained the notion of getting out of the driver's seat for good.

The reason people are up in arms about the liberties taken by screenplay writers Jason Hall and Zach Baylin in the timing of the crash is that the event was fatal for one spectator. Many believe that framing the crash as a plot point in Jann's life is disrespectful to the victim and their family.

In her film review, London Evening Standard's Charlotte O'Sullivan argued that "suggesting the incident helped propel Jann to greatness is not only false, it's reprehensible." She is not the only one that feels this way, as many other critics and audience members were appalled by this intentional inaccuracy in the film once they discovered the truth. Despite the controversy, "Gran Turismo" is still performing well at the box office. Although the consensus among critics is that even with the altered timeline, the story isn't very compelling.

Jann did more than just provide his story for "Gran Turismo." Not only was he a stunt driver for his on-screen counterpart, but he is also credited as a co-producer for the film. Thus, the formula driver was heavily involved in the making of the film from the planning stage onward. So, what does Jann think about the inclusion of the crash?

The gamer-turned-racecar driver told Driving.co.uk that the crash had to be in the film because "It's my life; it's part of my story." Jann noted that he made a conscious effort to portray the crash as accurately as possible, stating, "It needed to be correct because somebody lost their life in this accident." Although the timing of the crash and hospitalization are skewed in the film, Jann explained that they accurately represent what happened. Jann said the movie conveyed the "deep dark moments of my life when I was in the hospital by myself... how can you rebound and achieve something."

So, Jann gives validity to his rebound story post-crash. It just didn't happen where the film wants you to think, as a turning point that went on to net him a third-place finish.