Who is War Dogs Based on: Is War Dogs Based on a Real Story?

The movie War Dogs by Todd Phillips was based on real events, but the real story was not the same as what was shown in the movie. The story of War Dogs is based on a true story. It came out 11 years after Lord of War, in which Nicolas Cage played a real-life gun runner in a famous way. In 2016, Warner Bros. released War Dogs.

The movie is based on the true story of two best friends, Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz, who made a huge arms deal with the Pentagon. War Dogs was a funny bro comedy that got average reviews and made $86.2 million worldwide on a budget of around $40 million.

The most interesting thing about the movie is the wild true story at its heart. Their contract says that it is their job to give weapons to US allies in Afghanistan. When things go wrong, the two go on a world tour where they get involved with corrupt politicians and dangerous arms dealers to make a few extra dollars. Reviews of the movie War Dogs say that it is better than average.

The real-life story that War Dogs is based on seems hard to believe. But War Dogs dramatises some parts to make them better for the big screen, but the main story stays true to what really happened. How much of the real story and history of War Dogs did make it to the movie?

What The Film Gets Right About The War Dogs True Story

There are a lot of good things about War Dogs. Rolling Stone was the first publication to write about the story in detail. Guy Lawson’s article grew into a book called Arms and the Dudes, which was the basis for the biopic about Phillips.

Phillips and his co-writers, Stephen Chin and Jason Smilovic, were able to make a pretty accurate account of what happened. In War Dogs, the backstories of David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, who are played by Miles Teller and Jonah Hill, are based on real events.

Before Packouz met up with an old high school friend, he worked as a massage therapist and sold sheets he bought from textile companies in other countries. Diveroli, on the other hand, was sent to Los Angeles when he was in the middle of high school. There, he sold guns with his uncle and learned how to do it before teaming up with Packouz to do it on a larger scale.

Efraim went on to make a million dollars at the age of 18. He did this by using his knowledge to outbid bigger companies for smaller, less important deals.

All of the details about how he learned about the business and how he used it are true, right down to the website where the Department of Defense used to put weapon contracts up for auction. In the movie War Dogs, Jonah Hill from the movie Don’t Look Up played Diveroli’s life with a lot of conviction.

In War Dogs, the facts about how the government affected Packouz and Diveroli’s lives were also true. For example, they were put under pressure to level the playing field after being questioned for giving no-bid contracts to big companies. There were a lot of well-thought-out details in the characters and stories.

Details like the fact that both of them got high before a big meeting with top military leaders are true and make the whole thing even stranger. Even Ana De Armas’s character, Iz, who is Packouz’s girlfriend, was based on a real person, even though some people think she was just added to the movie to make it more interesting.

Even though War Dogs gets the main points of the story and characters right, some creative licence was taken to make things more dramatic. This is a common way for true crime stories to be told on screen. Diveroli did not shoot off a gun after a deal fell through, as shown in the trailer and poster for the movie.

Diveroli’s obsession with money and power is clear in this scene, but he wasn’t as reckless in real life. In the same way, none of the things that happen in War Dogs actually happened. Packouz and Diveroli were in dangerous situations, but most of the time it was from behind a computer screen.

To make the story more interesting, Phillips makes their jobs seem much more dangerous than they were. When they went to other countries, it was for things like gun shows. They never got shot at for carrying arms, and they never even went through Iraq’s Triangle of Death.

Another important thing that didn’t really happen was when Bradley Cooper, who played Henry Girard in Maestro, took Packouz away. The series starts and ends with War Dogs, but it was all made up. Even in Albania, Packouz wasn’t in charge (where he gets kidnapped).

Girard was also based on a real person. Henri Thomet, who sold Swiss Army knives, was the model for Girard. Even though Thomet tried to cheat them out of money and was soon cut from the big deal as a result, no one was taken and tortured in any way. People also say that Efraim and David are about the same age, which isn’t true. Efraim was 19 and David was 23 when they met again.

War Dogs True Story: Where Are They Now?

What did Packouz and Diveroli do after what happened in the movie War Dogs? Where are they now? War Dogs shows Packouz and Diveroli as best friends, which is true, but the two haven’t talked to each other in the years since their arms business was shut down.

Packouz’s life is going in a different direction, which is partly because he was in the Todd Phillips movie. In fact, Teller and Phillips talked to Packouz directly about the project. This is why so many of the details and small details are right. He even went to the set and the premiere of the movie, which shows that he is not ashamed of his past and wants this story to be told well.

Packouz is now a musician who runs his own business selling electronic drum kits. He does this when he isn’t travelling the world, which he likes to do, or taking care of his daughter. His days of selling guns are long gone.

Diveroli was last trying to get money for making the movie War Dogs and a share of the money it made. Aside from this, he runs a media company called Incarcerated Entertainment, but he spends most of his time in court, since Warner Bros. isn’t the only company suing Diveroli. He was also accused by Packouz and Ralph Merrill, who worked with them, of holding back millions of dollars in profits.

David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli’s Net Worth

People who watch movies and TV shows are always interested in how much famous people are worth. David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli are still millionaires even though they no longer have access to hundred-million-dollar contracts.

Packouz is thought to have a net worth of about $2.9 million because of his music business and his work on the movie War Dogs. There is less certainty about how much Efraim Diveroli is really worth, which could be anywhere from $15 million to $25 million.

This information is based on how well “Once a Gun Runner” and his other businesses seem to have done, and the differences between the different estimates are probably due to his many lawsuits.

When everything is taken into account, the real Packouz and Diveroli are doing pretty well. This is especially true when you compare what happened to Packouz and Diveroli to other high-level criminals who died mysteriously, got life sentences, or are still being hunted by the police.

Neither Packouz nor Diveroli are likely to get deals with the government worth millions of dollars any time soon, but the fact that they are each worth about $2.9 million and $15 million shows that these former War Dogs are finally playing their cards right.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is War Dogs Based on a Real Story?