Glen Powell’s new Netflix movie Hit Man is based on the true story of fake assassin Gary Johnson—or as the prologue playfully notes, “What you are about to see is a somewhat true story.”
Hit Man is new on Netflix Friday following the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2023 and screening a week later at the Toronto Film Festival—where it was acquired by Netflix.
The film stars as Powell as Gary Johnson, a laid-back college teacher who moonlights as a fake hitman for the New Orleans Police Department.
Meeting with unknowing clients who are seeking a hit man for hire, Gary—through the use of clever disguises and his winning personality—becomes quite successful at setting up busts for the NOPD once the would-be criminals hand over their cash.
Gary diverts from his tactics, though, when meets a client named Maddy (Adria Arjona)—a housewife caught up in a controlling and claustrophobic marriage. Sensing that Maddy is making a big mistake, Gary talks her out of handing him the money for the “hit” on her husband and recommends that she uses the cash to start her life anew.
However, since the attraction between the two is clear from the time Gary and Maddy meet, the two soon develop a romance that becomes complicated since Gary can’t reveal to Maddy who he really is.
Note: Minor spoilers for the film are mentioned in the next section.
‘Hit Man’ Is Based On A 2001 Article On Johnson
Sadly, Gary Johnson died before seeing his remarkable story become a feature film, which features a dedication before the end credits roll that reads, “Dedicated to Gary Johnson, 1947-2022.”
After the dedication to Johnson as the end credits begin to roll, Hit Man director and co-writer Richard Linklater in a classy move shows photos of the real fake assassin, noting how he was a Vietnam War veteran, a college teacher, “an animal-loving Buddhist” and the “chilliest dude imaginable.”
Also included in the photo tribute is a reference to a pivotal detail in the third act of Hit Man.
Hit Man’s prologue, “What you are about to see is a somewhat true story,” is an appropriate way to describe the film, which is based on writer Skip Hollandsworth’s October 2001 Texas Monthly article on the real Johnson, aptly titled Hit Man.
Appropriately, Texas native Glen Powell and Richard Linklater co-wrote the screenplay based on the remarkable story about their home state hero, with Linklater directing Hit Man and Powell starring as Gary.
In addition, Powell—who previously worked with Linklater on the 2016 comedy Everybody Wants Some!!—produced Hit Man with the filmmaker.
Hit Man the movie faithfully highlights some of Johnson’s skills detailed in Hollandsworth’s Texas Monthly article, which highlighted the college teacher’s acting skills.
Johnson’s acting skills were so good, in fact, that the Hollandsworth described the fake hit man as “the Laurence Olivier of the field,” a note of high praise considering the acting legend’s stage and film contributions.
Hollandsworth also wrote of Johnson, “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 writer was not alone in his assessment. In his Hit Man article for Texas Monthly, Hollandsworth quoted Michael Hinton, a Houston lawyer who previously supervised Johnson in his undercover endeavors as a Harris County, Texas, prosecutor.
“He’s the perfect chameleon. Gary is a truly great performer who can turn into whatever he needs to be in whatever situation he finds himself,” Hinton said in the article. “He never gets flustered, and he never says the wrong thing. He’s somehow able to persuade people who are rich and not so rich, successful and not so successful, that he’s the real thing. He fools them every time.”
The Texas Monthly piece discusses some of Johnson’s most notable jobs as a “hit man,” and like Powell’s version of him in the film, the article details how he would research the people who would contact him to meet about prospective “hits.”
Hollandsworth wrote of the one time Johnson met a woman who wanted to put a hit out on her boyfriend. The meeting in all likelihood inspired Linklater’s and Powell’s script when it came to Gary meeting Adria Arjona’s Maddy and talking her out of the hit on her husband.
After the real Johnson did his research on the woman, the journalist wrote, that he met her not with the purpose of carrying out the sting operation but instead to refer her to social services. As it turns out, Johnson informed Hollandsworth, the woman was a regular victim of abuse who stayed with her boyfriend out of fear.
Responding to Hollandsworth’s remark, “The greatest hit man in Houston has just turned soft,” Johnson replied, “Just this once. Just this once.”
Hit Man begins streaming exclusively on Netflix on Friday.