Hit Man was one of the most watched movies on Netflix last weekend, and it's the latest reminder that reality really is stranger than fiction.
The movie sees Glen Powell deliver a career-best performance through a hysterical exploration of the hit man as a popular myth.
The story follows college professor Gary Johnson as he helps the local police by posing as a killer-for-rent in order to catch ill-intentioned would-be clients. Gary gets very invested in this side job, doing extensive research to adapt his appearance and even his accent to what other people expect of him.
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However, when a desperate Maddy Masters (played by Good Omens' Adria Arjona) steps into his path, everything changes.
Hit Man is already one of the best movies of 2024, and here's the true story behind it.
Is Hit Man based on a true story?
Yes, Hit Man is based on the true story of Gary Johnson.
Back in October 2001, director Richard Linklater came across an article published in Texas Monthly magazine, detailing the strange story of a normal guy working as a fake hitman. "I loved that character. What a weird job!," Linklater told Digital Spy in an exclusive interview.
In the article, the writer Skip Hollandsworth describes 54-year-old Gary Johnson as "tall but not too tall, thin but not too thin, with short brown hair that has turned gray around the sideburns."
A Vietnam War veteran, he lived with two cats (like Powell's character in the movie) and his home in the north of Houston (Texas) was plagued with numerous philosophy books.
"For the past decade, more than sixty Houston-area residents have hired him to shoot, stab, chop, poison, or suffocate their enemies, their romantic rivals, or their former loved ones," writes Hollandsworth, detailing Johnson's deal with the police to fool these clients in order to stop them before their lethal desires go forward.
As he explains, the police could not arrest these people without proper evidence — Johnson helped them get the suspects to incriminate themselves through verbal confirmation and an exchange of money.
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As depicted in Hit Man, Gary Johnson took this job really (really) seriously. And he was terrific at it.
In the piece, Hollandsworth calls him "the Laurence Olivier of the field," and says that "in law enforcement circles, he is considered to be one of the greatest actors of his generation, so talented that he can perform on any stage and with any kind of script."
The piece collects a few cases Gary worked on, including a couple of cases featuring beautiful women who wanted their partners killed — a lab technician who was after her husband's life insurance, and a young woman who wanted to escape an abusive relationship.
Both were probably the inspiration behind Adria Arjona's character, Maddy, although the ending of the movie is far from what really happened in the real story.
"The end of the article is about a third of the way into the movie. So everything from then on it's just us," says Linklater.
What happened to the real-life Gary Johnson?
After working with the police for many years and building a reputation in Houston, Gary Johnson retired and eventually passed away in 2022.
Hit Man features a dedication before the end credits, which reads: "Dedicated to Gary Johnson, 1947-2022." Afterwards, we see some real-life pictures, describing him as "an animal-loving Buddhist" and the "chillest dude imaginable."
Richard Linklater reached out to Gary Johnson before making the movie.
"Yeah, I got to know him a little bit!," he told Digital Spy. In fact, he wanted to invite him to the set, but sadly Johnson passed away before filming began.
"I was having trouble getting a hold of him! But he wasn't getting back to me, and he always did. The film was finally happening, and I wasn't hearing from him," Linklater recalls. "It was horrible, he had this pulmonary issue. He was a Vietnam vet, probably some of this Agent Orange thing, he had a pulmonary shutdown. It's sad."
Hit Man is now out on Netflix.
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Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
