In 30 Minutes or Less, Jesse Eisenberg, right, plays a pizza deliveryman who robs a bank after two fumbling masterminds strap a bomb to his chest. Aziz Ansari plays Eisenberg's partner in crime.
Image courtesy Sony Pictures

In new film 30 Minutes or Less, Jesse Eisenberg plays Nick, a pizza delivery guy who gets kidnapped, has a bomb locked to his chest, and is forced to rob a bank. The premise, played for laughs in the movie, bears a striking resemblance to a bizarre, real-life crime that ended in the death of a pizza deliveryman named Brian Wells.

In 2003, 46-year-old Brian Wells was killed after a bizarre bomb he was forced to wear around his neck during a bank robbery exploded. (Read Wired’s account of the real-life collar bomb story.)

Wells’ family recently expressed frustration over 30 Minutes or Less, which opens Friday. “It’s hard for me to grasp how other human beings can take delight and pride in making such a movie and consider it a comedy,” Wells’ sister said in a statement to the Associated Press.

The studio, however, claims that the people behind 30 Minutes or Less, directed by Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer, weren’t entirely aware of the case. “The writers were vaguely familiar with what had occurred and wrote an original screenplay that does not mirror the real-life tragedy,” said Steve Elzer, a spokesman for Sony Pictures’ Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, in a statement.

“Neither the filmmakers nor the stars of 30 Minutes or Less were aware of this crime prior to their involvement in the film,” Elzer said.

With that in mind, and without giving away the entire film, here are a few ways in which the movie and the tragic true story are similar — and different.

(Spoiler alert: Major plot points follow.)

 
30 Minutes or Less, rated R, hits theaters Friday.