Inside the Terrifying True Story Behind "Deepwater Horizon" Caroline BlairWed, March 4, 2026 at 8:31 PM UTC 0 'Deepwater Horizon' movie poster; the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosionCredit: TCD/Prod.DB / Alamy Stock Photo; U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Deepwater Horizon is based on the tragic 2010 oil rig explosion and spill The 2016 movie took inspiration from the people who survived the explosion — including Mark Wahlberg's character, Mike Williams Many of the cast members portrayed real people who shared their accounts with the filmmakers Deepwater Horizon tells the real story of the people who ...
Inside the Terrifying True Story Behind "Deepwater Horizon"
Caroline BlairWed, March 4, 2026 at 8:31 PM UTC
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'Deepwater Horizon' movie poster; the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosionCredit: TCD/Prod.DB / Alamy Stock Photo; U.S. Coast Guard via Getty -
Deepwater Horizon is based on the tragic 2010 oil rig explosion and spill
The 2016 movie took inspiration from the people who survived the explosion — including Mark Wahlberg's character, Mike Williams
Many of the cast members portrayed real people who shared their accounts with the filmmakers
Deepwater Horizon tells the real story of the people who survived the 2010 oil rig explosion.
The 2016 biographical disaster movie stars Mark Wahlberg as the real-life oil rig technician Mike Williams who helped save members of the crew after the BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion resulted in the deaths of 11 people on the rig. The devastating disaster also led to the largest marine oil spill of all time.
In addition to Wahlberg, the film also stars Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Dylan O'Brien and Kate Hudson as real people involved in the explosion. The movie, which hit Netflix on March 1, was heavily adapted from the lengthy New York Times article, "Deepwater Horizon's Final Hours." Director Peter Berg further interviewed Williams and had him involved in the project.
"It's very anxiety-inducing. Reliving each of those critical moments, those critical time stamps, they're all very vivid in my memory, and of course we didn't capture all of it," Williams told PEOPLE in 2016. "We condensed 12 hours into two hours, and so it was difficult to capture everything. But we did get the highlights, and what is portrayed in the film is all accurate."
Here's everything to know about the real-life story of Deepwater Horizon.
Is Deepwater Horizon based on a true story?
Kurt Russell, John Malkovich and Gina Rodriguez in 'Deepwater Horizon'Credit: Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo
The 2016 movie Deepwater Horizon is based on the final hours and events that took place after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded.
On April 20, 2010, over 100 crew members were working on the rig that was owned and operated by Transocean and drilling for BP in the Macondo Prospect oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast. The rig, which was one of the largest and most up-to-date rigs of its time, and its crew were scheduled to finish the "well from hell" that was behind schedule, per The New York Times.
By the evening, gas had spread into the rig and ignited resulting in massive explosions. Flames quickly emerged and encompassed the rig, sending crew members to frantically flee and enact safety precautions, most of which were not triggered fast enough or failed.
The explosion led to 11 crew members' deaths, and 17 others being injured. The destruction also caused damage to other areas in the rig — including the seals that initiated the devastating oil spill.
What caused the Deepwater Horizon to explode?
The Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010Credit: U.S. Coast Guard via Getty
After a full day of drilling in the Macondo Prospect on April 20, the Horizon crew had to run one more test to determine the pressure inside the well before they could seal it. If the test found that pressure had built up inside, then oil and gas could be leaking and lead to an explosion.
BP higher-ups disagreed over the test results, so they repeated the test and came to an agreement that the Macondo was stable at around 8 p.m. local time. A little before 10 p.m., several barrels of oil and gas had been leaking into the well and surpassed the rig's blowout preventer — a mechanism that is meant to be the final prevention of gases penetrating the rig.
Crew members started to see mud coming from the well and determined that they needed to start precautions for a blowout. However, several factors — including fewer crew members, locked doors and technical procedures — hindered the first few people aware of the blowout from alerting other crew members.
Not before long, a cloud of gas started to appear and surround the rig setting the gas alarms off. Despite the warnings from several eyewitnesses, the general master alarm was not immediately called.
"It was a lot to take in," bridge officer Andrea Fleytas recalled in her testimony, per The New York Times. "There was a lot going on."
As the gas continued to spread and thicken, crew members attempted to shut it in the well and seal it. Unfortunately, the fail-safe blowout preventer had already been destroyed and was later found to be lacking the recommended maintenance to make it effective in an emergency situation. The situation caused a massive blackout and at least two explosions along the engines. The rig ultimately sank two days later on April 22, 2010.
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Were the characters based on real people?
Mike Williams at the 'Deepwater Horizon' premiere in September 2016Credit: Eric Charbonneau/Getty
Several of the people who were directly involved in the tragedy were portrayed by actors in the film. Wahlberg starred as Williams, the chief electronics technician on the oil rig, who risked his life to rescue those who were trapped and helped them escape via lifeboats.
Williams was present for much of the filming and helped both Wahlberg and director Berg ensure the film's accuracy. Despite his involvement, Williams said he was still "very conflicted" when it came time to watch the movie in its entirety.
"We sat and watched it, and there were multiple scenes that I covered my face. I simply couldn't watch, it was very difficult," he told PEOPLE in 2016. "There are four elements in the film that I did not watch them film it. I had nothing to do with the editing, I had no input whatsoever as to what happened during those scenes, and that was the first time I was going to see them in the version that was going to be put out to the public."
Williams explained that he had accepted the pain and trauma of reliving the experience to honor his 11 colleagues who died in the explosion.
"It's an important tribute to my 11 brothers. When I agreed to assist them with this project, it was under the direction of 'I have to speak for 11 people who cannot speak,' " he shared. "I have to tell these guys how to get this right so that their image is held up in the highest light possible. That was my motivation for the entire project."
Meanwhile, Fleytas was depicted by Gina Rodriguez, Kurt Russell played Transocean offshore installation manager Jimmy "Mr. Jimmy" Harrell and John Malkovich played BP well site leader Donald Joseph Vidrine, who pleaded guilty for his role in the disaster.
Seven of the victims — 35-year-old Jason Anderson, 37-year-old Aaron Dale "Bubba" Burkeen, 22-year-old Shane Roshto, 28-year-old Gordon Jones, 48-year-old Dewey Revette, 24-year-old Adam Weise, 40-year-old Stephen Ray Curtis — were portrayed by Ethan Suplee, Jason Kirkpatrick, Henry Frost, Jonathan Angel, J.D. Evermore, Jeremy Sanders and Jason Pine, respectively.
Other real-life characters in the movie included Felicia Williams (Kate Hudson), Caleb Holloway (Dylan O'Brien), Robert Kaluza (Brad Leland), David Sims (Joe Chrest), Patrick O'Bryan (James DuMont), Captain Curt Kuchta (Dave Maldonado), Alwin Landry (Douglas M. Griffin) and Anthony Gervasio (Juston Street).
What happened as a result of the explosion?
Two workers cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in June 2010.Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty
There were no shortage of consequences that occurred as a result of the devastating Deepwater Horizon explosion. Shortly after the explosion took place, the defective cement and preventer systems failed and caused the biggest marine oil spill of all time.
Over the course of the next three months, approximately 134 million gallons of oil from the well leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The spill caused damage across the body of water and its inhabitants — including hundreds of thousands of marine mammals, coral, birds and fish.
The oil spill took years to clean up, and crews collected an estimated 4.6 million pounds of material that had been ruined by the oil as of 2013, according to NPR.
In addition to the years-long environmental effects, the companies in charge of the rig — both BP and Transocean — faced billion-dollar lawsuits. The United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against BP, and they settled in November 2012 for a record-breaking $4.525 billion. BP pleaded guilty to 11 counts of felony manslaughter, two misdemeanors and one felony count of lying to Congress.
Six years after the spill, BP paid an additional $20.8 billion in fines, according to NOAA. The total amount of additional fines, penalties and cleanup costs have totaled a staggering $65 billion, Reuters reported in 2018.
Meanwhile, Transocean also had to take accountability for their role in the disaster (although Congress determined BP was primarily responsible). The company paid $1.4 billion to settle government charges, per NBC News. Transocean also paid an addition $212 million to settle individual lawsuits but was expected to receive $560 million in insurance proceeds for losing the rig, per Reuters. It's unclear if they received the insurance proceeds.
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: March 4, 2026 at 03:46PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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