Aahana Swrup
Craig Zobel’s film ‘Compliance’ presents an unnerving true story about a fast-food employee who falls victim to the brutal effects of an insidious scam call. It’s a day like any other when Becky clocks in for her shift at Chickwich. However, things take a sharp turn when her manager, Sandra, receives a phone call that implicates Becky for a petty theft. The caller—Officer Daniels—then uses his false authority over the phone to order Sandra into strip-searching her young employee.
Consequently, a sinister series of events is set into motion in the fast-food store’s backroom. The distressing premise of ‘Compliance,’ which explores themes of exploitation and harmful obedience to authority figures, is made all the more malicious by the story’s real-life ties to a true crime instance. As such, like other narrative elements, the Chickwich fast food restaurant also ends up sporting inherent ties to real life.
The True Story Behind Compliance Actually Took Place at a McDonald’s Outlet
‘The Compliance’ is closely inspired by the events that took place on April 9, 2004, at a McDonald’s branch in Mount Washington, Kentucky. However, the film opts out of a biographical route and instead dramatizes a story that is more-or-less an identical adaptation of the true crime. For the same reason, the on-screen narrative swaps out McDonald’s for the fictionalized ChickWich. Nonetheless, the latter remains an evident counterpart to the real-life food chain involved in the horrendous case of an insidious scam call.
In real life, a McDonald’s location in Mount Washington received a phone call from an individual who pretended to be a police officer. The caller manipulated the assistant manager, Donna Summers, into isolating one of her teenage employees, Louise Ogborn, in the store’s office with accusations of theft. The voice on the other side of the phone used Summers to orchestrate a strip search. Afterward, Summer was compelled to ask her then-fiance, Walter Wes Nix Jr., to keep watch over the teenager. Eventually, as Nix conversed with the caller, he played along with the latter’s instructions to humiliate and abuse Ogborn sexually.
Ogborn suffered through hours of torment before the caller’s hoax was finally discovered. In the aftermath, charges were filed against Nix and Summers, and the authorities conducted an investigation to identify the scam caller. Nonetheless, it ended with the acquittal of the prime suspect, David Richard Stewart. Meanwhile, Ogborn sued McDonald’s for a reported amount of 200 million dollars. As per reports, the fast-food franchise had overseen similar cases in other branches and had collected lawsuits across different states. Therefore, the argument remained that McDonald’s could’ve warned its workers of the dangerous, prevalent hoax calls.
In turn, McDonald’s cited the voice message it sent out to stores regarding the hoax calls a week before the event. Nonetheless, Lisa Siddons, the manager, claims there was no mention of strip searches. Ultimately, Ogborn won the lawsuit against McDonald’s—as did Summers, who made a similar claim. While the company had to pay Summers 1.1 million dollars, later negotiated to 400 thousand, they came to a settlement with Ogborn out of court. Since the incident, the fast-food restaurant has made more vigilant efforts to protect its employees from such instances, including a revision of the manager-training program to highlight the possibility of such scams.
ChickWich is Not a Real Fast-Food Company
ChickWich holds evident ties to McDonald’s due to the real-life story behind ‘Compliance.’ However, despite the point of connection, the on-screen restaurant retains a distinction from the actual franchise. For one, McDonald’s wasn’t the only chain restaurant to fall victim to these strip search hox calls. Numerous other places, including Burger King, unfortunately, underwent similar incidents. Furthermore, ChickWich pointedly remains a Chicken-focused fast-food place, carving out a unique identity for itself.
In real life, Craig Zobel and his team used a set for the scenes of the backroom. However, a real-life chicken-based restaurant—with the logos covered—was used to create the rest of the on-screen ChickWich store. The director has shared that the establishment was a Northern chicken restaurant. Nevertheless, he never shared the name of the actual place due to previous agreements with the company. Thus, ultimately, while Chickwich has origins in a real chain restaurant, it isn’t an actual store one can visit.
Read More: Louise Ogborn: Where is Strip Search Hoax Survivor Now?
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