The movie is based on a Vanity Fair article about the man who alerted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to a backpack containing a pipe bomb the night of July 27 at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Jewell’s quick action saved hundreds of people. One woman died and more than 100 people were injured when the device exploded but countless others were able to escape unharmed.
Federal and state law enforcement focused on Jewell as a suspect in the days after the bombing. The Justice Department later released a statement clearing Jewell. He died in 2007 at the age of 44.
Several media companies including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution were sued after reporting that Jewell was a suspect, and the litigation outlived him. The Georgia Court of Appeals in 2011 upheld a trial court ruling that the newspaper had accurately reported that Jewell had been a suspect. In 2012, the Georgia Supreme Court declined to review the lower court's decision.
The AJC’s former newsroom is depicted in the movie.
David Shae plays writer Ron Martz, a former AJC reporter.
Jon Hamm, featured prominently in the clip, plays an FBI investigator.
Eastwood has filmed several other projects in Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia, including "The Mule," "Trouble With the Curve," "Sully" and "The 15:17 to Paris."
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