Is Legacy Of Lies Based On A True Story?
Throughout his career, performer Scott Adkins has become a well-known name among dedicated action movie fans. While he has had supporting roles in films such as "The Bourne Ultimatum," "The Expendables 2," and "Doctor Strange" (via IMDb), it's his work in films such as the "Undisputed" franchise that impressed many. This led to him going from a supporting character in "Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing" to the main character in "Undisputed 3: Redemption" and "Boyka: Undisputed," the third and fourth entry in the franchise, respectively.
One of Adkins' latest roles is in the action thriller "Legacy of Lies." Written and directed by Dutch filmmaker Adrian Bol, the 2020 film follows Martin Baxter (Adkins), an ex-MI6 agent currently leading a nomadic existence with his daughter Lisa. As teased in the movie's trailer (via YouTube), Martin's life is interrupted when he is roped back into the career he left behind, and he must keep his daughter safe while protecting top-secret files from falling into the hands of U.K. and Russian spies. Given this story's use of the Secret Intelligence Service, aka MI6, one of the biggest questions viewers may have is whether "Legacy of Lies" is based on a real story. Here's what we know.
Legacy of Lies is not based on an existing story
Although it's a thrilling tale, "Legacy of Lies" is entirely fictional and not based on a real story. The biggest indicator of this is that director Adrian Bol has the sole screenwriting credit, per the movie's IMDb profile. In an interview with Deepest Dream, Bol talked about his process in writing the film. He explained, "What I try to do when I'm writing is – I try to have a very clear theme and then have this theme on different levels in the story. For me, it's truth versus power, it's truth versus secret agencies, and the power of governments. It's about truth and lies. This theme is also incorporated in the relationship between Scott's character and his daughter."
The "Legacy of Lies" director went on, explaining how the story he crafted for his latest movie is not entirely focused on these larger themes: "It's also incorporated in the relationship with him and his ex-wife that died in the past. [...] What I tried to do was have one clear starting point and then try to layer it on different levels, so it feels very rich and broad but, at the same time, it's about the same thing."
Adkins also participated in the interview with Deepest Dream, sharing his reasons for joining the project and opening up about how the father-daughter element of Bol's project interested him. However, neither the "Legacy of Lies" director nor the actor pointed to any real-life elements that influenced the writing. As such, we can safely guess, this movie is not based on a real-life story, as it likely would have been mentioned by Bol or Adkins.
"Legacy of Lies" is currently streaming on Netflix.