Warning: The following article contains spoilers from Sound of Freedom. The 2023 drama film Sound of Freedom chronicles the story of Tim Ballard and his pursuit to end child sex trafficking. Jim Caviezel plays Ballard in the movie, as requested by the ex-Department of Homeland Security Agent himself, and the film has opened to a slew of rave reviews. Sound of Freedom is inspired by real events — Ballard's true story — and with Ballard involved with the making of the production, the movie got a lot of things right about what happened to him in real life.
However, whenever filmmakers adapt a true story for the big screen, there are always details and events that must be altered or left out for the sake of runtime and storytelling. Sound of Freedom is no different since there are a few elements of Ballard's life that director Alejandro Monteverde had to change or cut from the movie. Despite this, most of the moments in Sound of Freedom are inspired by events that actually happened to Ballard.
True: Tim Ballard Quit His Job To Rescue Children
The premise of Sound of Freedom revolves around Ballard's growing frustration over the lack of children saved from human sex trafficking. Ballard was an ex-CIA agent who ed the Department of Homeland Security and helped the agency target and arrest pedophiles who ed and observed child exploitation content (which the movie never shows onscreen). He did that job for 12 years and, as Caviezel's character says in the film, captured 288 criminals. However, Ballard hadn't saved many of the exploited kids from the trafficking trade, so he quit his job to do so.
For the most part, Sound of Freedom accurately depicts Ballard's decision to leave the Department of Homeland Security and track down and save children from human sex trafficking. He was working in Colombia on a case when his bosses told him to abandon the mission and return home. However, that was the last straw, so Ballard quit his job and stayed in Colombia to finish what he came there to do.
False: Katherine Ballard Convinced Her Husband To Stay In Colombia In Sound Of Freedom's True Story
Ballard is confident in his decision to quit his job and save children subjected to human sex trafficking in Sound of Freedom. However, that wasn't the case in real life. According to History vs Hollywood, Ballard called his wife, Katherine Ballard, before quitting to get her input on the idea. He had initially (secretly) hoped that she would convince him to stay with the Department of Homeland Security, especially because they had six kids of their own to take care of. But Katherine knew that quitting his job was the right thing to do.
Katherine never hesitated in ing her husband in his new pursuit. She persuaded Ballard to stay in Colombia and save the children, which, in hindsight, proved to be the right call. But since the Sound of Freedom filmmakers wanted Ballard's character to be a bit more confident and steadfast in the decision to quit his job, they cut his hesitations out of the movie.
True: The Little Boy Asked Tim Ballard To Save His Sister
One of Ballard's most significant motivators to stop child trafficking in Sound of Freedom is when he encounters a little boy at the port of entry at the southern border of the United States. The child gifts Ballard a necklace that his sister, who is in the custody of traffickers, gave him and asks the man to save her. The experience moves Ballard and convinces him that he needs to do more when it comes to saving children from human sex trafficking.
The interaction with the little boy happened in real life to Ballard. In fact, the Sound of Freedom cast and crew filmed that scene in the exact spot where it happened — in Calexico, California, at the port of entry booth where Ballard worked as a Department of Homeland Security agent. So, the film's production team took the extra step to ensure that the scene depicted was accurate to what happened in real life.
False: Tim Ballard Had To Get Funding To Complete His Mission In Real Life
Since Ballard quit his job to stay in Colombia and save children from trafficking, he had to seek funding for his operation. Unfortunately, this part of his story was cut from Sound of Freedom for the sake of runtime. In reality, Glenn Beck, a conservative political commentator and entrepreneur, gave Ballard the money he needed to complete his mission. Beck played a significant role in the original script, but the writers cut his part because they needed to fit other parts of Ballard's story into the movie.
True: How The Traffickers Lured Children
In Sound of Freedom, a woman claiming to be a talent recruiter convinces a man to let his two kids audition for a young talent program. He drops his son and daughter at an apartment filled with other children seemingly also trying out for the program. However, when the man returns to pick them up, the room is empty, and his kids are gone.
The film slightly changed the original story of how the criminals lured children and kidnapped them from their families, but the gist of the ruse is accurate for the most part. In real life, a former beauty queen was the one who persuaded parents to bring their kids to auditions for a modeling agency. She was one of the five human sex traffickers Ballard arrested.
False: The Number Of Kids Rescued Was Greater In The True Story
At the end of Sound of Freedom, Ballard and his team free 54 victims of human sex trafficking, with 29 of them being under the age of 18. However, this wasn't the case for the real-life Ballard and the Colombian officials that raided the criminal's island. The operation, dubbed Operation Triple Take, resulted in the rescuing of 123 individuals, with 55 of them being minors. For some unknown reason, the filmmakers significantly reduced the number of saved sex trafficking victims in the movie.
True: Tim Ballard Founded A Non-Profit To Combat Child Trafficking
Following Operation Triple Take in Colombia, Ballard founded Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.). O.U.R. is a non-profit organization that specializes in rescuing children from human sex trafficking. After saving the children in Colombia, Ballard was inspired to do more work to put an end to child trafficking, which is why he founded the non-profit. According to O.U.R.'s website, the organization has been involved with over 4,000 operations, has impacted more than 7,000 lives, and has been involved with over 6,500 arrests. So just like Caviezel's character in Sound of Freedom, Ballard has continued to combat human sex trafficking.
Sources: History vs Hollywood and O.U.R.
