American Made, a 2017 action-crime film directed by Tom Cruise, is based on real-life former TWA pilot Barry Seal, who turned to drug smuggling. The film is a semi-fictionalized account of Seal's misdeeds and his complete 180-degree turn to working for the US government. The plot follows Cruise as Seal, a TWA pilot making some cash on the side smuggling Cuban cigars into the US by flying through Canada. A CIA agent named Monty Schafer recruits Seal to fly clandestine reconnaissance missions for the agency over Central America.
After a few years of flying successful missions for the CIA, Seal is asked to act as a courier between the CIA and General Noriega in Panama. During one of his courier missions, Seal is apprehended by the Medellin Cartel, who asks him if he wouldn't mind flying cocaine into the United States on his way back from his CIA trips. The CIA turns a blind eye to Seal's double dipping, but one of the US's other alphabet agencies, the DEA, does not.
The idea for American Made came from screenwriter Gary Spinelli in 2013, who was looking for a project based on real events, "little pieces of history." The screenplay for American Made was featured on Hollywood's Black List in 2014, and the following year, Tom Cruise and Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman signed on to make the film. The film's cast includes Sarah Wright, Jesse Plemons, Jayma Mays, and Domnhall Gleeson.
Principal photography on American Made began on May 18, 2015, in Atlanta, Georgia, and continued on location in Medellin, Colombia. On the last day of filming, the crew was met with tragedy when two pilots, Alan D. Purwin and Carlos Berl, were killed in a plane crash caused by foggy conditions. Captain Tom Cruise purposely crashed four different planes in preparation for a scene in the film, which he was required to crash a fifth plane on camera.
American Made was released in Europe on August 23, 2017, and in the United States over a month later on September 29, 2017. The movie grossed $134.9 million against a $50 million budget, making a fair profit during its theatrical run. Director Doug Liman sums up the movie as "a fun lie based on a true story."
