The Lost Bus Fact vs. Fiction: What Matthew McConaughey’s Film Gets Right and Wrong

Wildfires keep getting scarier and more frequent, and not just in the usual summer window — LA literally had brutal fires in January. So yeah, Paul Greengrass dropping a disaster drama right now feels pointed. His new film, The Lost Bus, digs into the 2018 Camp Fire and zeroes in on one ordinary guy who did something extraordinary. Producer Jamie Lee Curtis is even calling it the most important movie she will ever make. Big talk, but the story backs it up.

What the movie is

Greengrass (Captain Phillips, United 93) directs, Matthew McConaughey stars, and the film follows a school bus driver who turned full-on hero during the Camp Fire — driving 22 kids and their teachers out of a nightmare. It is tense, loud, and occasionally unbelievable. And by design, very timely.

Based on a true story? Yes — and a very specific one

The Lost Bus adapts a section of reporter Lizzie Johnson's nonfiction book Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire. It focuses on Kevin McKay, a bus driver in Northern California's Butte County, who navigated 22 children and their teachers to safety while the 2018 Camp Fire — one of the most destructive wildfires in California history — tore through the area.

How much of it actually happened

Short version: the core heroics are real. But the movie adds plenty of heat and speed to a day that, in reality, involved a lot of gridlock and grit.

• McKay's teenage son, Shaun: In the film, his safety is a live worry during the bus run. In real life, Shaun had evacuated hours earlier, so McKay was not juggling that fear in the moment.
• The action beats: The movie amps them up. There was less high-speed weaving through flames and more sitting in standstill traffic while making hard calls.
• Looters banging on the bus door: That armed encounter is a dramatic invention.
• Parking in an empty field/park: Another story addition for suspense.
• Comms going dark: The movie leans into communication blackouts more than accounts suggest.

So yes, take the wildest beats with a pinch of salt — the essence of what McKay did is true, the set pieces are movie-sized.

The omissions (and some inside baseball)

There were two teachers on that bus. One of them, Abbie Davis, then 29, asked not to be included in the film's narrative. The movie honors that request by leaving her out. The only named teacher we see is America Ferrera's character, Mary Ludwig.

What the film does not get into: the aftermath

The movie stops short of the legal fallout. In the real world, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) accepted responsibility for the Camp Fire, citing faulty equipment. The company pled guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter, plus one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire.

Greengrass has a pretty clear rationale for not turning the film into a PG&E takedown. As he told Time:

"It is not really a film about PG&E... Their failure to maintain the infrastructure was the prime cause of the fire, but the thing that movies do best is portray the resilience of human beings in the face of adversity and peril."

Agree or not, that framing explains why the movie narrows in on the bus instead of the courtroom.

Where to watch

The Lost Bus is streaming on Apple TV+.