Gran Turismo Massively Mishandles a Tragic Real-Life Accident

The true story of Gran Turismo features an accident that stole the life of a civilian, but the film twists the truth for narrative purposes.

The true story of 2023's Gran Turismo is as baffling as they come, paving the racetrack for an inspirational story of how a gamer became a racing driver. While named after the racing simulator of the same name, it's more based on the career of racer Jann Mardenborough, the winner of the GT Academy with only experience as a sim racer. Like most biopics, Gran Turismo mildly fails to stick to the true events for the sake of dramatizing the narrative.

The event in question that's left early Gran Turismo reviews mixed is the real-life crash that Mardenborough was involved in while racing in the 2015 VLN endurance race in Nürburgring. The crash left one spectator dead and many injured after Mardenborough's Nissan GT3 Nismo vaulted off the track and landed in the crowd. The ultimate cause of the crash was not put on Mardenborough, as the twisty and hilly Nordschleife circuit had a devastating reputation for causing cars to go airborne with viewers in close proximity. The accident was portrayed in the climax of Gran Turismo as Mardenborough considers it a "dark moment" of his career, but crucially in the wrong timeframe of Mardenborough's career.

How Gran Turismo Portrays the Real-Life Tragedy

The crash is replicated almost verbatim to the real-life accident, with Mardenborough (portrayed by Midsommar's Archie Madekwe) going airborne while driving over a steep hill on the track and crashing in the crowd. When he wakes up in the hospital, Mardenborough is devastated by the news that the accident caused a civilian death and decides to call it quits on his ambitious dream of being a racer. This comes after grueling criticism from competitors and professionals to put an inexperienced racer on the track, whose only experience was from a video game.

It's not until Mardenborough's trainer Jack (a fictional character played by David Harbour) takes him onto the track where the accident occurred and explained how the horribly designed track ultimately failed to accommodate the high speed at which Mardenborough's car was going. He encourages Mardenborough to persevere through the guilt by telling him a similar story of a crash he was involved in, which he ultimately ended his career over. Jack finally opens up about his past and the heartfelt motivation reinforces the bond between racer and trainer, ultimately giving Mardenborough the wake-up call to prove the critics wrong. He agrees to move forward with the 24 Hours of LeMans in France, which is considered a beast of a race.

Gran Turismo's Altered Timeline Comes Off as Tasteless

The accident is pretty accurate to a T in Gran Turismo, except for the placement in the timeline. Mardenborough had already competed in the 24 Hours of LeMans two years prior to the tragedy, meaning the timeline of the events was modified to serve the hero's journey. The reality of Mardenborough's career, even as extraordinary as it is, wasn't enough for Sony to depict as is. It had to place the accident conveniently before the biggest race of Mardenborough's early career, just so a setback would dramatically up the stakes.

The reframing of events is tasteless toward the victims, who are grieved in the film, but Jack's own dreadful past and Mardenborough's motivational wake-up call take precedence. It's set up as an "If you fall off the horse, get back on," situation, because critics of Mardenborough warned against the dangers of putting an unqualified gamer on a dangerous obstacle. But Mardenborough's acceptance that accidents happen to even professionals proved them wrong. In reality, though, Mardenborough was already a well-experienced racer with plenty of achievements under his belt, and criticism was only thrown at a faulty racetrack design.