Summary

• Clint Eastwood's The Mule is inspired by the true story of Leo Sharp, an elderly war veteran who became a prolific drug trafficker.
• Earl Stone, portrayed by Eastwood, was a successful horticulturist whose business failed due to the internet, leading him to transport drugs for a cartel.
• The Mule made significant changes to the true story, including the duration of Stone's drug-running career and the portrayal of his character as a more sympathetic figure.

Clint Eastwood's The Mule true story follows the life of a World War II veteran who ultimately becomes the oldest — and one of the most prolific — drug traffickers in the history of the United States. Eastwood stars as Earl Stone with Bradley Cooper as DEA Special Agent Colin Bates. With a supporting cast including Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Ignacio Serricchio, and Dianne Wiest, The Mule follows Stone, a horticulturist and Korean War veteran who earns money transporting drugs after his business goes under.

In Clint Eastwood's The Mule, Earl Stone was once a prominent member of the horticulturist community, but the advent of the internet forced him out of business, costing him his home as well. He's recruited to deliver drugs through Illinois for a cartel. Although he's successful, he's eventually caught by the DEA and sentenced to prison. All of this was inspired by the New York Times article "The Sinaloa Cartel's 90-Year-Old Drug Mule," which includes quotes from the federal agent who arrested him.

While not Clint Eastwood's most prominent movie, The Mules earned over $174 million at the worldwide box-office, over triple its budget of $50 million (via Box Office Mojo).

What Is The Mule True Story?

Clint Eastwood's Drug Trafficking Movie Is Inspired By Leo Sharp

In The Mule, Eastwood's Earl Stone is based on Leo Sharp, who was known within the Sinaloa Cartel as El Tata. Sharp was an aging World War II veteran who became a pioneering horticulturist after his airline business failed, particularly working with daylilies. But when that business started to fall by the wayside, too, he was recruited into drug trafficking and was so good at it that he became somewhat of a myth within the cartel.

He was arrested by the DEA and sentenced to three years in prison, of which he served one. Leo was released from prison in 2015 because he was terminally ill, and he died in 2016 at the age of 92. Cooper's Agent Bates is based on real-life DEA Special Agent Jeff Moore, who caught Sharp in 2011. While Stone's arrest in The Mule was quite dramatic, Sharp's arrest happened practically the same way, being caught on an interstate highway while driving a Lincoln pickup truck.

After being arrested, Sharp pleaded guilty to the charges but attempted to avoid actual jail time by offering to pay his fine by growing Hawaiian Papayas for the US government. Stone, meanwhile, fully accepted responsibility in the film. In both cases, Sharp/Stone was able to maintain his daylily farm while in prison.

What The Mule Changed About Leo Sharp When Creating Earl Stone

Clint Eastwood Made Several Changes To The Real-Life Story Of Leo Sharp

In The Mule true story, Eastwood's Stone is also a war veteran-turned-horticulturist who turned to drug-running after his business went south, but rather than having fought during World War II, the character is supposed to be a Korean War vet. Interestingly, though, Stone makes several remarks about Nazis, particularly when talking to Serricchio's character. Given the timeline of The Mule, it makes sense that the film moved up the war from WWII to the Korean War to retain the character's age.

While he was transporting drugs for the cartel in The Mule true story, Stone also went by the codename Tata. While The Mule is inspired by a true story, there are changes to the narrative. Eastwood's Stone is purely fictional, and how he lived his daily life is created for the film. Only the crux of the true story remains, which is that Sharp was an elderly war veteran who began transporting drugs across the Midwest. The estranged wife, daughter, and granddaughter from The Mule were fictional.

Other things in the movie were changed from The Mule true story on the surface level, with the names of certain characters changed and Sharp's home city becoming Chicago instead of Detroit. Eastwood also changed a lot of what happened on the road, since there was no way of knowing what happened when Sharp was by himself. "We don't know what he incurred when he was on the road doing all these trips," Eastwood said (via USA Today). "He was able to get his farm out of hock and live a rather odd life."

The Mule Put A More Positive Spin On Leo Sharp's Career

The Real Drug Trafficker Behind Earl Stone Operated For A Decade

The biggest change from The Mule true story was that the movie showed him only going on a dozen runs in total over several months. In reality, Stone ran drugs for 10 years as one of the biggest couriers for the cartel. This was likely the cause of his prison sentence, even at the age of 90. Prosecuting attorney Christopher Graveline explained what happened in an interview (via USA Today).

"He got paid about a thousand dollars per kilo he was delivering, and his normal load was about 250 kilos to Detroit. People should realize it was fictionalized from what was actually occurring with Leo Sharp."

In both versions, Stone/Sharp spent much of his money helping other people, almost like a modern-day Robin Hood. However, the real Sharp was not as innocent as the fictionalized version, as Sharp's lawyer told the New York Times for the story that influenced the film,

"He has Mexican fellas working on the farms. They happen to know people who introduced him to other people who asked him if he wanted to get involved in something."

Sharp passed away shortly after he was released from prison due to his deteriorating health. While it's fair to presume the same fate befalls Eastwood's Earl Stone at the end, the film leaves that part of The Mule true story ambiguous.