At the time of the 2013 Wall Street Journal article that inspired the movie, the group of men had been playing the game of tag for 23 years, starting in 1990. The year of the movie's release, 2018, marked 28 years of playing tag. The movie rounds up and states that the men have been playing the same game of tag for 30 years, which isn't all that far from the true story.
The Tag movie's true story reveals that the decades-long game of tag began in Catholic high school in the early 1980s on the campus of Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, Washington. Back then it was mainly a slap on the shoulder or arm while going in and out of classrooms, or strolling down the halls. The first iteration of the game concluded when high school ended. Joe Tombari, who went on to become a high school teacher in Spokane, was last to be tagged. At that point, he was essentially "It" for life. Eight years later when the group was gathered together for a weekend, they reminisced about the game and the fact that Joe was still "It." Someone suggested the idea of starting the game up again. -WSJ
No. The game is only played in the month of February, and whoever is "It" at the end of the month is "It" for the rest of the year. In the Tag movie, they play during the month of May. -WSJ
No. Instead of chasing each other around the playground, the men have literally chased each other around the country, traveling by plane, car, etc. Like in the 2018 Tag movie, their wives at times act as spies and coworkers are recruited to be on the lookout for other players and bar them from entering the office. -WSJ
No. There are no direct one-to-one correlations between the movie characters and the real-life friends. For example, Ed Helm's character is a composite of several of the real Tag players (People.com), and the reporter who follows the group around for an article is male in real life, not female. The Tag Brothers certainly inspired the movie characters and their actions, but the film is only loosely based on the real people. The film's premise of banding together to get Jeremy Renner's character, who's never been tagged, is mostly fictional. However, quite a few tags in the movie indeed happened in nearly identical ways in real life.
Yes. Like Ed Helms' character in the Tag movie, Patrick Schultheis was tagged at 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
Yes. Mike Konesky waited until 2 a.m. and broke into the house where two other players lived. He did so by sneaking through the garage and finding an unlocked house door. He burst into Brian Dennehy's bedroom and quickly switched on the light. Brian's girlfriend (now wife) yelled, "Run!" but there was nowhere for Brian to go. In seconds, he was "It." -WSJ
Tag movie producer Todd Garner told Nerdist, "In real life, there's been tags at births, funerals, inceptions of kids, for real." No exact details were given on how the tag at the birth unfolded, so the movie's version could certainly be stretching the truth (in the 2018 movie, Ed Helm's character's wife's legs are spread open in the hospital room as Jon Hamm's character comes into the room for the tag.
The movie does leave out a tag that happened when one of the guys' wives was in the hospital going to chemo. "They came to be around him and support him, and they tagged him," Garner said.
In addition to flying across the country and breaking into each other's homes in the middle of the night, players have hid in trunks, put on wigs (including one member disguising himself as a granny), donned fake mustaches, and have even pretended to be homeless. -Mirror Online
No. The cast never met the real Tag Brothers prior to or during production. They were not involved in the making of the movie (Nerdist). The cast didn't meet the real guys until the premiere in June 2018, just days before the release.
Yes. "Sometimes we allow friends a grace period," says participant Joe Tombari. "Chris [Ammann] is currently enjoying time off as he has two-year-old triplets and a four-year-old son." In the Tag Brothers movie, Jeremy Renner's character has never been tagged and wants to retire since he's getting married. The other players attempt to do everything they can to make him "It" and break his streak. -Mirror Online
Expand on what you know about the Tag movie's true story by watching the interview below featuring the real group of friends.