Differences from the book Various aspects of Billy Hayes's story were fictionalized or added for the movie: In the movie, Hayes is in Turkey with his girlfriend when he is arrested. But in real life, he was traveling alone. Although Billy spent 17 days in the prison's psychiatric hospital in 1972 in the book, he never bit out anyone's tongue, which, in the film, leads to him being committed to the section for the criminally insane. The book ends with Hayes being moved to İmralı prison, on an island from which he eventually escapes by stealing a dinghy, rowing in a raging storm across the Sea of Marmara, traveling by foot and by bus to Istanbul, and then crossing the border into Greece. In the film, that passage is replaced by a violent scene in which he unwittingly kills the head guard who is preparing to rape him. (In the book, Hamidou, the chief guard, was killed in 1973 by a recently paroled prisoner, who spotted him drinking tea at a café outside the prison, and shot him eight times.) The attempted rape scene itself was fictionalized; Billy never claimed in the book to have suffered any sexual violence at the hands of either his Turkish guards, wardens, or fellow inmates, but engaged in consensual homosexual activity while he was in prison. The film depicts Hayes becoming very intimate with fellow prisoner Erich the Swede, but stopping short of having sexual intercourse with him. There is a fleeting reference to the popular restaurant The Pudding Shop, in the bazaar. It is actually on Divan Yolu, the main avenue through historic Old Istanbul.
Differences from the book Various aspects of Billy Hayes's story were fictionalized or added for the movie: In the movie, Hayes is in Turkey with his girlfriend when he is arrested. But in real life, he was traveling alone. Although Billy spent 17 days in the prison's psychiatric hospital in 1972 in the book, he never bit out anyone's tongue, which, in the film, leads to him being committed to the section for the criminally insane. The book ends with Hayes being moved to İmralı prison, on an island from which he eventually escapes by stealing a dinghy, rowing in a raging storm across the Sea of Marmara, traveling by foot and by bus to Istanbul, and then crossing the border into Greece. In the film, that passage is replaced by a violent scene in which he unwittingly kills the head guard who is preparing to rape him. (In the book, Hamidou, the chief guard was killed in 1973 by a recently paroled prisoner, who spotted him drinking tea at a café outside the prison, and shot him eight times.) The attempted rape scene itself was fictionalized; Billy never claimed in the book to have suffered any sexual violence at the hands of either his Turkish guards, wardens, or fellow inmates, but engaged in consensual homosexual activity while he was in prison. The film depicts Hayes becoming very intimate with fellow prisoner Erich the Swede, but stopping short of having sexual intercourse with him. There is a fleeting reference to the popular restaurant The Pudding Shop, in the bazaar. It is actually on Divan Yolu, the main avenue through historic Old Istanbul.