Is ‘American Sniper’ Based on a True Story? All About Chris Kyle

American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle, a.k.a. the most lethal sniper in American history.

Directed by Clint Eastwood, the 2014 war film — which received six Oscar nominations — is now available to stream on Netflix.

It follows U.S. Navy SEAL Kyle (Bradley Cooper) as he serves four harrowing tours in Iraq before returning to civilian life. Material for American Sniper was drawn from Kyle’s autobiography of the same name, which was published in 2012.

Here’s everything to know about American Sniper and the true story that inspired it.

Who is Chris Kyle?

Chris Kyle was a U.S. Navy SEAL who served four tours in Iraq from 1999 to 2009.

Born in Odessa, Texas, Kyle grew up hunting with his father and quickly discovered his uncanny aim. Though he always planned on joining the military after school, he participated in rodeo during high school and college. Kyle’s rodeo career ended when a bronco flipped and left him with pins in his wrists and broken ribs, among other injuries, per Slate.

Kyle joined the Navy SEALS as a sniper when he was 25. During his service, he was shot twice, survived multiple helicopter crashes and was involved in six IED attacks, according to Fox 9.

In addition to being a Navy SEAL, Kyle was also a husband and a father. He married his wife, Taya, in 2002, and the couple went on to welcome two kids: Colton and McKenna.

Is American Sniper based on a true story?

American Sniper is loosely based on Chris Kyle’s 2012 autobiography titled American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. Screenwriter Jason Hall worked closely with Kyle to create the script.

“I set about writing it and communicated with Chris the entire time, asking him questions and details and bugging him and trying to find out what drove him and what was between the lines of the book,” Hall told Military.com in 2014.

Following Kyle’s tragic death in 2013, his wife, Taya, stepped in to help Hall finish the project.

“We dove into everything,” the screenwriter recalled. “Through that process, she revealed a lot of Chris’s personality and the side of him that men don’t reveal to other men when we’re asking each other questions.”

Hall added that the script was adjusted drastically after Kyle’s passing.

“It changed about 60 percent,” he said. “This began as a war movie with elements of family, and it became a movie about war, where the sacrifice of this man was truly revealed in its totality.”

There are some key differences between the film and Kyle’s real life. One anecdote — where Kyle and his fellow Navy SEALs dine with a pro-insurgency civilian family, ultimately getting into a firefight — never actually happened. Additionally, villains like Mustafa and “The Butcher” were either exaggerated or invented, per Slate.

Was Chris Kyle really the deadliest sniper?

Yes, Kyle remains the most lethal sniper in American history with over 160 confirmed kills. By his own count, however, the number is closer to twice that, he told D Magazine. His longest recorded shot was 2,100 yards, which translates to about 1.2 miles or 21 football fields.

Kyle was such a significant threat that Iraqi insurgents placed a $20,000 bounty on his head and referred to him as “Al-Shaitan Ramad,” or “the Devil of Ramadi,” per History.com.

What happened to Chris Kyle?

Kyle retired from military service in 2009 and found purpose in helping veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), whom he would often invite to join him at gun ranges in Texas. He believed being around other veterans, sharing experiences and engaging in target shooting could have therapeutic value, per a 2013 profile in D Magazine.

On Feb. 2, 2013, Kyle, 38, and his friend Chad Littlefield, 35, were shot and killed by former Marine Eddie Ray Routh, whom they took to a shooting range in Glen Rose, Texas. Routh’s mother had asked Kyle for help with her son, whom she said was suffering from PTSD.

In 2015, Routh was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

To accommodate the expected number of mourners, Kyle’s funeral was held at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Feb. 11, 2013. The veteran’s flag-draped coffin rested on the 50-yard line, with nearly 7,000 people attending the service.

Where can I watch American Sniper?

American Sniper is available to stream on Netflix.