A gang of friends who have been playing the game of Tag for more than 20 years continuously. This isn't a pitch for a comic book, this is a real-life story.
An action-comedy film released in 2018 perfectly captured the essence of friendship and how they turn into family.
It consists of a stellar cast such as Ed Helms, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Kevin Sable, and Jake Johnson just to name a few.
The movie is truly one of a kind, not only due to its unique plot but also due to the fact that all of it is based on a true story.
Many have seen movies based on true stories, horror-related, war-related, and conspiracy-related, however, Tag is an action-comedy film.
That is what makes it feel that the true story that it is based on must be some concept ripped right out of a comic book.
The Tag brothers exist in real life
The Tag movie features five friends in total for the gang, however, in real life a total of ten friends participate in the game.
They are Bill Akers, Patrick Schultheis, Sean Raftis, Mike Konesky, Brian Dennehy, Joe Tombari, Rick Bruya, Joey Caferro, Chris Ammann and Mark Mengert.
What's so special about @tagthemovie? It's based on a true story about a group of friends who have kept in touch by playing an epic game of tag every February.
— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) June 14, 2018
Tonight on @NBCNightlyNews, @LesterHoltNBC talks with the film's stars, as well as the guys behind the game. pic.twitter.com/MYlidqsF0X
Sadly, the real group of friends who served as the movie's inspiration and the actors never really met before the end of production for the film.
In addition, the group of buddies does indeed have a written contract regarding the game. Certainly, it's a tale that deserves to be read and turned into a film.
They have been at it since 1990
The Tag Brothers started their game all the way back in 1990. They even played a rough version of the game we all know them for back in the early 1980s.
They played the game for about eight years before that game came to an end.
After that, however, a four-page document was drafted by the Tag Brothers and lawyer Patrick Schultheis in January 1990.
The contract outlines the rules of the game, which we see the movie characters follow to the letter.
The agreement also states that the new version would never come to an as their previous version became at the end of their high school.
Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough
The Tag Brothers never had a geographical limit. Therefore, the brothers literally traveled across the country to tag their friends.
It did not matter where the next target could be, you could bet their turn of becoming "it" will never be too far from their friends' reach.
Don’t get in the way of this golf cart chase. Watch #TagMovie now on Digital and @movies_anywhere: https://t.co/n1wFl8gxvh pic.twitter.com/hY1uh2RTi3
— Tag The Movie (@tagthemovie) September 1, 2018
They would even sneak into each other's homes for the sake of the game. Even a hospital was not out of the question.
These brothers play beyond hardcore and it is a shame not a lot of people know their legendary lives even exist.
Almost no moral line exists in the game
There was even that time when a member got tagged at a funeral. Not any funeral, it was his father's funeral.
"I was in the front row, and so, guys were going up to communion, pattin' me on the shoulder, and Beef comes up and patted me on the shoulder and mouthed to me, 'You're It.' ... My dad would've thought it was funny." -CBS Sunday Morning
There have been tags that have happened when one of their wives is literally giving birth.
The movie may exaggerate the moment, but it is still something that you would only imagine happening in a comic.
Todd Garner told Nerdist, "In real life, there's been tags at births, funerals, inceptions of kids, for real."
There was even a tag that got left out from the movie. It was when one of the friends' wives was going through chemo.
The entire gang showed up to support their friend and tagged him at that moment. One could understand why the movie did not include this tag.
"They came to be around him and support him, and they tagged him."
The movie is great, the biography is even better
The movie is great by all means. It has its own set of unique tags and its own behind-the-scenes stories.
One of them was that the actor, Jeremy Renner, broke bones in both of his arms in one stunt.
In an act of killing two birds with one stone, the actor did the stunt again right after failing it the first time and managed to get CGI arms for the rest of the scene.
As amazing as that story is, it does not compare to the stunts the actual Tag Brothers have pulled off. Such as disguising themselves as a granny or a homeless person.
Hiding in trunks, breaking into each other's homes in the middle of the night, etc.
The fact that all of it is real and you can potentially meet these legends makes their lives just that much more legendary.
Prerna
