The Lost Bus: Did Kevin Mckay save his son in real life? Details explored

The Lost Bus revolves around a bus driver who must drive through a campfire while carrying a teacher and her students. The survival drama is helmed by Paul Greengrass, who has also penned it with Brad Ingelsby. The two have adapted it from Lizzie Johnson's 2021 non-fiction novel Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire. It was released on Apple TV on October 3.

Here's the official synopsis as per Letterboxd:

"A determined father risks everything to rescue a dedicated teacher and her students from a raging wildfire."

The film is based on the real-life story of Kevin McKay, who saved several lives during the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California.

The Lost Bus: Kevin McKay's reunion with his son in real life

The Lost Bus tells the real-life story of a guy named Kevin McKay, who was working as a school bus driver in Paradise, California, during the 2018 Camp Fire. During that incident, he ended up saving the lives of 22 children who were studying at the Ponderosa Elementary School.

While the film sticks true to most of the facts, it also slightly deviates from certain things to make them more dramatic. At one point, we see McKay choosing to save the children over his mother and son, Shaun. But in reality, McKay says that he knew that his family was in a safe place. Shaun and McKay’s mother had already moved to a hotel in Chico several hours before the drive started.

The film shows McKay's house getting burnt down in the end, which is exactly how it happened in real life. McKay says:

“The story of the fire—the way everything felt that day—and, you know, kind of odd to say this, but I couldn’t imagine what it would have looked like from a drone until I saw this movie."

McKay is currently employed at Fairview High School in Chico as a teacher. He had also made a special appearance in the film as a parent, which was removed from the final cut. Certain elements, including McKay ending a dog's life a day before the fire, having a troubled relationship with his son, and McKay grieving his father's loss, are taken from real life. McKay took the children and Mary Ludwig (a second-grade teacher), along with Abbie Davis (a kindergarten teacher), during the evacuation. The film does not mention Abbie.

As depicted in the film, McKay tore down his shirt to make a scrappy air filter for children during heavy smoke. In a CBS News interview, he spoke about it, stating:

"We were coughing and my eyes were hurting. I knew we had to do something and that was, you know, our best option with what we had.”

The Lost Bus is produced by Jason Blum, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gregory Goodman, and Brad Ingelsby. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, followed by a theatrical release in a limited screens on September 19.

The Lost Bus is streaming on Apple TV.