FILM · 2016 · HONG KONG
Patriots Day
27 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (27)
- #001
When Katherine Russell was shown a photograph of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body, it was the real photograph taken by an investigator and later leaked to the public.
- #002
The Military Police in the film are real-life members of the Massachusetts National Guard. Some of them had responded within the week following the attack.
- #003
The film uses real surveillance footage from the bombing site and the days that followed, including the still image of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev released to the media, footage showing Dzhokhar in a store and at an ATM, and Manny's escape from the gas station.
- #004
The film's screenplay was a combination of two separate scripts. One was titled "Boston Strong" and focused more on the action-thriller side of the story. The other, "Patriots' Day," was more of a fact-based drama. The final screenplay was a mix of the two, ensuring the film was both based on facts and had tense action to keep the audience engaged and entertained.
- #005
The interrogation team that interviews Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow is part of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG). The HIG was created in 2009 by order of President Obama and is housed within the FBI but operates under the auspices of the National Security Council. Its task is to interview terrorism suspects immediately after their capture in order to obtain information about another terrorist threat. The interrogation depicted falls into a special category called "Quarles" interrogations, carried out when law enforcement believes a threat to public safety still exists. No information obtained during a Quarles interrogation can be used in a later investigation. For this reason, officers were instructed not to Mirandize Katherine Russell when she was taken into custody.
- #006
Real news broadcast footage was used in the scenes following the detonation of the bombs.
- #007
Mark Wahlberg's character in this film, unlike in his previous collaborations with Peter Berg, is a fictional character created for the film. He is a composite of many Boston police officers who worked the marathon and helped in the manhunt after the bombing.
- #008
While Manny talks with the girl about cheerleading in the pizza shop, the real-life Manny is sitting at another table.
- #009
Normally, an actor who drops an "F-Bomb" on live television is fined and penalized by the FCC. Two days after David Ortiz's speech on April 20, 2013, the FCC announced that the speech would not be penalized. This is the only instance in which the FCC has refused to penalize such an incident. The FCC commissioner at the time was Boston native Julius Genachowski.
- #010
The FBI assigned the MBTA Transit Police S.W.A.T. team, which would remove Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from the boat and take him into custody. The handcuffs used were kept at the Transit Police headquarters in Boston. The S.W.A.T. team scenes were cut from the film.
- #011
Alex Wolff, who plays Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, bears a striking resemblance to his character and said that people gasped as he passed through the crowd just before the bombing scene. In an interview, he stated that getting into Tsarnaev's head was very difficult and that the violent scenes were hard on him. In real life, he is Jewish.
- #012
The name derives from the Massachusetts state holiday commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. It is always celebrated on a Monday, and the Boston Marathon is also run that day. On April 19, 2013, the 238th anniversary of the battles, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed and his brother Dzhokhar was captured after a shootout with police.
- #013
David Ortiz's speech, shown at the end of the film, was delivered on April 20, 2013. It was the first home game played at Fenway Park after the bombings, and the second bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was taken into custody the following day. The speech was entirely improvised.
- #014
The scene in which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is captured and arrested was filmed on the third anniversary of his actual capture and arrest.
- #015
This is the third collaboration between Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg, following Lone Survivor (2013) and Deepwater Horizon (2016). Like their previous collaborations, this film is based on a true story.
- #016
When the first two police officers stop the Tsarnaev brothers on a Watertown street and they begin shooting, one officer leans to the left and a white spot appears above the headrest. It is never focused on, but it is actually a bullet hole that would normally have gone through the officer's head. This is entirely real and is described in detail in the book Long Mile Home, which tells the story of the bombing and the manhunt that followed.
- #017
The film received a standing ovation at the AFI Film Festival.
- #018
Following David Ortiz's speech, the Boston Red Sox went on to win the World Series that year.
- #019
Mark Wahlberg is a Boston native from Dorchester.
- #020
The University of Massachusetts campus at Dartmouth did not permit filming on its grounds.
- #021
The film was shot at the same time as Stronger (2017), the other Boston Marathon bombing film, and was released in theaters eight months earlier.
- #022
Dicky Eklund Jr. appears in the film as a Boston police officer. His uncle is the boxer "Irish" Micky Ward, whom Mark Wahlberg portrayed in The Fighter (2010).
- #023
Mark Wahlberg's nephew Brandon appears in the scene with the children playing video games.
- #024
This is the second time Kevin Bacon has played a senior FBI agent in Boston. The first was in Black Mass (2015).
- #025
Mark Wahlberg was initially against making the film and turned down the role. After reading the script, he realized he would be one of the few actors who could do the film right and accepted the offer.
- #026
Two sets were built: an 850-meter stretch of Boylston Street in Boston, consisting of two groups of storefronts about 500 meters apart; and the eleven houses on Laurel Street in Watertown, where the police confronted the Tsarnaevs, were reconstructed on and around a runway at the former Naval Air Station in South Weymouth, Massachusetts (now the Union Point sports and apartment complex). The first group of storefronts, the one closest to the finish line in the film, had been built almost a year earlier in front of the spot on the runway where two crosswalks were painted for the Ghostbusters (2016) set in Times Square. The grandstands, barriers and other equipment at the location were the equipment newly used at the 2016 Boston Marathon. Green screens were used above and around the storefronts and grandstands in post-production to extend the set. The Watertown set was built because the residents of Laurel Street, especially right after the event, did not want intense gunfire and explosion effects filmed in front of their homes. When director Peter Berg decided he did not want to expose these residents to the action effects either, plans to shoot on a similar street in Malden were canceled at the last minute. Production designer Tom Duffield, who was ordered to build a replica of the street at Union Point, found a small road near the runway where houses could be built quickly. Berg was able to shoot the action there exactly as he wanted. After filming was completed, the sets were purchased from the production company by LStar, Union Point's management company at the time, which wanted to leave them standing and make them available for other film and TV productions to shoot in, with the aim of shaping Union Point into a potential mini film studio. The Watertown set was used to train police and fire departments. The sets later fell into disrepair, and the Watertown houses were subjected to heavy graffiti and other vandalism. As of October 2020, all of them had been demolished, and only the Boylston Street sidewalk remained.
- #027
Themo Melikidze had to wear dark contact lenses for his character, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. In real life, he has blue eyes.
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