Is Hit Man based on a true story? Inspiration behind the film explored

Richard Linklater’s American romantic black comedy Hit Man has finally arrived on Netflix. The film first premiered at the 80th Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2023, and was later released in a few theatres in the United States on May 24, 2024. It then released on Netflix on June 7, 2024.

Hit Man is loosely based on a true story. The film is inspired by real-life incidents that took place in the life of Gary Johnson, a fake contract killer for the New Orleans Police. The storyline of the movie draws inspiration from Skip Hollandsworth's October 2001 Texas Monthly article of the same name, which focuses on the professional killer in Houston.

The plot of the film revolves around a philosophy professor named Gary Johnson, who is hired by the police as a fake hit man and an undercover agent. Gary serves as a replacement for an undercover cop who is on temporary leave.

The official synopsis of the film reads:

"A mild-mannered professor moonlighting as a fake hit man in police stings ignites a chain reaction of trouble when he falls for a potential client."

The film stars Glen Powell, Austin Amelio, and Retta among others in lead roles.

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What is the inspiration behind the film Hit Man?

The title was inspired by the life of Gary Johnson, who was raised in Louisiana and earlier worked as a military policeman. Later, he began working for the Houston-based Harris County District Attorney's Office as a staff investigator and undercover police officer. He helped the police arrest people who were seeking a hit man.

Johnson would convince the client and make them confess that they wanted to hire a hit man to commit a crime on their behalf and then the police would arrest them. It was an easy job for Johnson, who would always be disguised when he went on an undercover operation.

The story revolving around Gary Johnson written by Skip Hollandsworth in the Texas Monthly seemed fascinating to the director of the film, Richard Linklater. He shed light on the 2001 article, and told TODAY.com:

"I never forgot it. But it was kind of on the back burner, as like, 'How would that (movie) work?'"

After going through the same article, Hit Man producer Glen Powell got in touch with Linklater to discuss if they could make a film based on the same. He later learned that Linklater was also interested in turning the story of Gary Johnson into a film. Glen Powell shed light on his inspiration and told the same publication:

"I learned the history. And lots of people had optioned it over the years and tried to do stuff with it, but nobody could crack it. It was really interesting how effortless the process was. Rick and I just kept talking about it... and that’s when you know you have something special, when you can’t forget about it.”

However, the team behind the film decided not to stick to the facts completely and chose to focus on a brief anecdote from the article in which the fake serial killer, Johnson, refused to set up a police sting operation to catch a certain woman. The woman in question had hired Johnson to kill her abuser and he fell in love with her.

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Powell co-produced and co-wrote the film with Linklater and also starred in the lead role as Gary Johnson.

The film is now streaming on Netflix.