If you have watched the thriller ‘Run,’ you might ask yourself, is Run based on a true story? You are not alone as the plot takes you to the characters’ world leaving you with mixed feelings to a point you question if a true story inspires it.
The movie has a gripping story; the characters outdid themselves, and it’s the story that leaves you feeling sorry, empathetic, and angry.
It depicts the condition of Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA) in a rather unsettling way in the narrative.
It provides a backdrop of the disorder and resonates with the natural world as there have been cases about it. Let’s find out if it is based on a true story.
Is Run Based on a True Story?
Run contains elements of reality, but it is not solely based on a true story. Conversely, Chaganty and Sev Ohanian collaborated on Run’s screenplay and narrative development.
Allen, who acted as Chloe, had drawn inspiration for her role from actual events that occurred to others. She had several conversations with past victims and conducted additional research.
Run: The Plot
Hulu’s horror-thriller is among the most terrifying original movies the giant streaming service has ever produced.
In her debut feature film, Kiera Allen portrays a young woman whose mother, despite her apparent perfection and love, is concealing a life-threatening truth.
Aneesh Chaganty’s film is about Chloe (Allen), a wheelchair-using adolescent, and Diane (Sarah Paulson), her mother.
The two appear content in what looks like their approachable residence while waiting for Chloe’s college application letters.
However, not everything is as cozy as it seems, something ominous lurks, the main reason people question whether the story is real. Later on, it is revealed that Chloe’s mum suffers from FDIA syndrome and ended up abducting her from the hospital.
Although Run is not based on a particular story, it is not something new that a mother abuses and mistreats a disabled child.
Nevertheless, the entertaining film undoubtedly adheres to a recurring theme of fabricated and actual caregiver abuse, most notably FDIA, formerly referred to as “Munchausen by proxy.”
In addition, there is a progressive variation in that a real wheelchair user portrays the protagonist and is consistently portrayed as the hero rather than the victim.
The National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health describe FIDA as a severe manifestation of child maltreatment.
The ‘villain,’ typically the parent, fabricates or imitates symptoms to make the child appear ill. This occurs mainly if the mother is going through something traumatizing or she is an attention seeker.
The mother in Run lies to Chloe that she is suffering from various ailments, including arrhythmia. Arrhythmia is a medical condition in which the heart has an irregular heartbeat that causes numerous health issues associated with exercise.
In the film Run, Chloe’s mother also deceives Cloe into believing she has asthma. Well, asthma is pretty standard as a significant number of individuals suffer from the life-threatening respiratory disease.
Asthma constricts the airways, leading them to produce more mucus than required. This causes difficulty breathing, particularly during physical activity, and causes wheezing. Adverse consequences may ensue when individuals don’t have an inhaler with them.
In the movie, Chloe appears to be suffering from asthma as she always has her inhaler. However, there’s reason to believe she could be having panic attacks that result in difficulty breathing.
The drugs Chloe uses inhibitory signals to specific body regions, but it is not proven to affect the libs as shown in the movie. So why is Chloe in a wheelchair and unable to move around?
At the movie’s end, it is seen that Chloe is not disabled as she can walk short distances. The muscle relaxers her mother had given her are likely to cause her legs to be weak.
Chloe’s Mum, Diane’s Mental Illness
A terrifying aspect of Run is that Diane Sherman, Chloe’s mother, is an expert manipulator. In contrast, her deceit game is over the roof.
Run illustrates how Diane deceived many medical and school authorities into believing Chloe was ill. How she relates her falsehood makes it almost impossible for anyone to have second thoughts on Chloe’s condition.
Diane’s drug use in Run strengthened the gravity of her falsehoods. Out of concern for her health, Chloe continued to believe her for an extended period.
Chloe’s mother is believed to have suffered from Munchausen Syndrome. Run’s story is comparable to numerous news articles concerning Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. A condition in which a caretaker intentionally induces illness to obtain financial gain or attention.
Sarah Paulson’s character’s conduct resembles that in real life when an individual has Munchausen Syndrome. Run never explicitly states that Chloe’s mum is a victim of the disorder.
With every effort in her power, Chloe’s mother gives her the incorrect medication for five distinct ailments in the novel Run. For instance, she administers Ridocaine disguised as Trigoxin.
The drug’s effects are comparable to the maladies Chloe Sherman erroneously believes she suffers from. By attributing Chloe’s mental health issues to Diane’s deceit, the latter reinforces her network of deceit via psychosomatic effects.
Chloe discovers a bottle of Trigoxin tablets in Run and visits the pharmacy to determine their purpose. She finds that she has been under the influence of Ridocaine, a muscle relaxant. It’s here that she realizes the medication was not prescribed and that Diane took it for their dog.
The pharmacist explains that the drug numbs muscles. The reality hits that the only reason she’s in a wheelchair is because of the drugs, and she is not sick. We already know that the movie Run is not based on a true story, but are the drugs real? Do they exist?
Run does a job with the use of drugs as narrative devices that many films fail to achieve, to the extent that many individuals question the integrity of the Ridocaine Chloe consumes. In the novel Run, Chloe consumes tablets modeled after actual medications.
Scholars hypothesize that the effects of Digoxin, an alternative name for Trigoxin, are comparable to those of the former.
Digoxin regulates the strength and efficiency of the heart and maintains its rhythm, thereby improving blood flow.
As the film depicts comparable outcomes associated with the authentic Trigoxin, this medication probably draws inspiration from it.
Run does an exemplary job of using drugs as narrative devices, which many films fail to achieve. They showed the effects of the drugs so well that most people questioned their existence. This was after Chloe took the medication and showed side effects.
The drugs are real. Scholars hypothesize that the effects of Digoxin are almost similar to Trigoxin. Digoxin regulates the strength and efficiency of the heart and maintains its rhythm, thereby improving blood flow.
Run’s Ridocaine medication finds inspiration in the fact that both humans and canines can use Ridocaine.
Ridocaine numbs bites and injuries in both humans and dogs. Ridocaine comes in jelly or ointment form, but Trigoxin in the movie comes as pills. Regardless, it’s clear the drugs were based on actual medications sold at the drugstore.
But Chloe’s mum has endured a great deal of severe mental trauma. Attributing all of her negative behavior to a single psychological condition would be unjust to the victims, who are children.
The shocking revelation in the end is that Chloe was not born prematurely as depicted when the movie began. Diane left with Chloe shortly after her birth to console herself for the loss of her biological daughter.
To prevent the loss of another daughter, she devises methods to confine her, such as Trigoxin. She even visits multiple physicians while fabricating accounts of her ailments.
In reality, Chloe doesn’t suffer from anything. The symptoms she shows are a result of anxiety and possibly the drugs her mother prescribes.
A Similar Movie: The Act
The Act, another 2019 Hulu film based on a true story, shares similarities with Run. Run, and The Act are both afflicted with Factitious Disorder Imposed on.
A mental health condition is described as when one acts as if the individual they are caring for has a mental or physical illness when that individual is not ailing. Some will just call it as it is, a form of abuse.
In the other movie, Gypsy Rose’s mother, Dee Dee, lied to her daughter about having leukemia and muscular dystrophy when she was an infant.
Dee Dee informed Gypsy that she required the use of a wheelchair, administered various medications to her, and subjected her to unnecessary treatments.
Gipsy finally outgrew the lie, and she sought escape from her cruel mother. Gypsy met a guy online, and the guy was convicted for the murder of Dee Dee. The guy was convicted of a life sentence while Gypsy pleaded guilty and was served ten years.
Conclusion
Now that we have answered the question is Run based on a true story? We have found it’s not, but there are real-life experiences of such victims.
Prolonged immobility would have resulted in muscular weakness for Diane, potentially facilitating her persuasion of Chloe regarding her actual paralysis status.
In reality, Chloe is ultimately not as ill as Diane portrays her. This is all an attempt by the selfish mother to have her by herself.
Furthermore, Chloe’s usage of the drugs Trigoxin, manipulation, other medications, and inhalers all played a part in her legs being weak.
