‘War Dogs’: True Story Inspired Jonah Hill and Miles Teller’s Hit Movie

War Dogs, a hit crime-comedy movie starring Jonah Hill and Miles Teller, is one of the top films on Netflix right now, but many may know it was inspired by a true story. War Dogs follows the story of two real-life arms dealers, Efraim Diveroli (Hill) and David Packouz (Teller), who bid for a U.S. Army contract to supply ammunition for the Afghan National Army. They win the contract which is worth approximately $300 million, and things quickly began to go sideways. In addition to Hill and Teller, the film also stars Ana de Armas, Kevin Pollak and Bradley Cooper, who also served as an executive producer of the film.

The movie was released in 2016 and was written by Stephen Chin, Todd Phillips, and Jason Smilovic. Phillips, who is most well-known for helming the Hangover franchise and Joker, also directed the film. War Dogs exaggerates some details for the sake of creative storytelling, but the overall plot is pulled from Diveroli’s and Packouz’s real-life experience as arms dealers. Most of the story is adapted from a 2011 Rolling Stone article by Guy Lawson, as well as Efraim Diveroli’s 2016 memoir Once a Gun Runner.

When the two men first linked up to do business together in 2005, Diveroli was 19 years old and Packouz was 23. Diveroli has founded his own arms company, AEY Inc., and by the end of 2006 the two men had been awarded nearly 150 military contracts. They eventually landed a major contract, the aforementioned deal worth $300 million. However, the company had violated the terms of its contract and attempted to cover it up.

When they were caught in 2008, Packouz was sentenced to seven months of house arrest for conspiracy to defraud the United States. Diveroli pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and was sentenced to four years in prison on January 4, 2011. He was further sentenced for possessing a weapon while out on bond but had his overall sentence reduced for cooperating in the investigation of the offense.

In recent years, Diveroli has continued to be a businessman, and even still runs an arms-dealing company. However, he is banned from bidding on government contracts until 2025. He attempted to sue Warner Bros. over War Dogs but was unsuccessful. Packouz went on to become a musician and invented a popular guitar pedal drum machine, the BeatBuddy. He did not have an issue with the film and even made a cameo as a musician in a retirement home. War Dogs is currently streaming on Netflix.