King of the Apocalypse (2025) Movie Script

[dramatic music playing]
[Dakota] Yep, there we go.
We will see if that's any better
or more stable.
-[beeping]
-[Dakota] Hooray!
Oh, no sound.
Whoops.
Okay.
I am Dakota Adams,
and a time of massive change
is supposed to arrive soon.
But thankfully for you,
my logged-in few,
if Armageddon is indeed upon us,
you're in the right place.
My entire life has been spent
preparing for the end times.
My father,
the man the Feds consider
to be one of the masterminds
of the January 6th riot,
and founder of the now infamous
Oath Keepers,
was Elmer Stewart Rhodes III.
From inside our world,
he was heroic,
and was going to save America
from the end of the world.
[crowd clamoring]
[Dakota] Living for
the apocalypse is nothing new.
Humanity has been terrifying
itself with Armageddon
since the first deep thinker
came out of a cave asking,
"What happens if the sun
doesn't rise tomorrow?"
Stewart's vision
of the future starts
with a tyrannical government
that would take away our guns
and our liberty.
We'll then be plunged
into civil war,
a desperate fight for survival
that would ultimately destroy
America as we know it.
Most outsiders
will simply believe
this is all just
conspiracy bullshit.
But for Stewart,
the fear was all-consuming,
and the dangers extremely real.
He believed we should stand up
to the government,
and taught me
about great patriots
who ended up paying a heavy,
heavy price.
Great out here.
The rains have come this summer.
The grass is tall,
it's still green.
My cows are fat.
[Dakota] This is LaVoy Finicum.
Like Stewart,
his beliefs are deeply rooted
in the US Constitution,
and he felt the law of the land
had been violated.
He chose to make a stand by
taking over federal park land.
[dramatic music playing]
[Lavoy] I am putting everything
on the line!
I am putting my life
on the line.
I am putting my children's life
on the line.
And so,
you must decide for yourself.
If you're not ready,
that is fine.
But for me, myself,
just LaVoy Finicum,
this simple man,
this simple redneck,
I will stand.
This is no longer
the land of the free.
In order to be free,
you must be brave.
I'm gonna meet the sheriff.
The sheriff is waiting for us.
So, you do
as you damn well please!
This is LaVoy Finicum.
You wanna shoot me,
you shoot me!
Thomas Jefferson taught
we have to defend our rights,
or they are taken from us
by a greater force.
This is about freedom.
This is about America.
[man] They're out there.
-[Lavoy] Hang on! Hang on!
-[woman] Okay, they're shooting.
[woman] Stay down here.
[Lavoy] Go ahead and shoot me.
-[woman] Stay down.
-[Lavoy] Go ahead and shoot me.
[woman] Stay down,
stay down, stay down.
Stay down. Stay down.
Shoot me!
You'll have to shoot me!
[woman] Did they shoot him?
-[girl] Oh, my God!
-[woman] Watch out. Watch out.
Stay down.
[girl] Did they kill him?
God, keep us safe, please.
[woman] Please.
Please protect us, God.
[girl] Please, God. God...
[woman] Please protect us.
Please protect us.
[man] We got lasers still on us.
LaVoy got out.
I think they killed LaVoy.
[dramatic music playing]
[Lavoy] Stewart would make me
aware of many,
many stories like this.
Each taking us one step
closer... to the end times.
There's nothing to be afraid of.
["Ring of Fire" playing]
I fell into
A burning ring of fire
I went down, down, down
And the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns
The ring of fire
The ring of fire
The ring of fire
The ring of fire
The ring of fire
The ring of fire
[dramatic music playing]
[Dakota] To help you understand
how an apocalyptic obsession
has defined my life
and the lives of everyone
I care about,
I want to take you back
to the start
and begin with the most
obsessive human thing of all.
Long before Stewart would become
America's Most Wanted,
a long, long time before,
he met my mom, Tasha Adams.
[soft music playing]
[Tasha] I was working
at Arthur Murray Dance Studios.
And... I looked out
from the training room
where I was studying
for my big dance teacher test.
And I thought,
"Oh, there's a young person."
Everyone in the studio
is so old.
So, I noticed him.
A few days later,
the assistant manager
of the dance studio
brought me into her office.
She was just so glamorous,
and she had danced everywhere.
And when she brought me
into her office,
she surprised me because
instead of talking about
the dance students
and the schedule,
she started telling me
this long story
about how she met her husband.
And she was working
on a cruise ship as a performer,
and she just believed in love...
true love.
And then she ended it by saying,
"This can't go outside of here,
'cause dating students
is strictly against
all Arthur Murray protocol."
"But I have
just this strong feeling."
"I really want you to meet
my new student,
his name is Stewart."
And we met
another few days later at a,
don't laugh, a Dance-O-Rama.
It's a competition.
Everything is glamorous
except the champagne,
which is really cheap.
So, we met, and we danced,
and we started secretly dating.
I thought it was probably
the most romantic event
of my life, really.
He would just tell me
he'd never met anyone
as smart as me.
[chuckles]
I had grown up Mormon.
He let me know
he had been baptized Mormon.
He did not explain to me
that he had been baptized
in every church.
He had gone
to five different high schools
from all his parents
moving around.
And he didn't even know
what a vowel was.
You know, he had to ask me,
"What does that even mean?"
But he seemed like,
if someone just loved him
enough,
and cared for him enough,
that he could realize
his potential.
[minister] Now, with the legal
authority vested in me,
I pronounce you
husband and wife,
and you may kiss your bride.
-[chuckles]
-[guests applauds]
[soft music playing]
[Tasha] We had six kids.
[Tasha cheers]
He also got into
Yale Law School,
which was a big deal.
[Dakota] Stewart wrote a paper
while at Yale
about how the government
had eroded the Constitution
since the 9/11
terrorist attacks.
It was highly regarded,
it even won an award.
[Tasha] He had all these
bright plans for the future.
Kept saying what the country
really needed was a group
based on people who had sworn
an oath to the Constitution.
-I...
-I...
...do solemnly swear...
...do solemnly swear...
...that I will bear true faith
and allegiance...
...that I will bear true faith
and allegiance...
...to the
United States of America.
...to the
United States of America.
One of the names he had written
down was Oath Keepers,
as I thought,
"Well, that's a winner."
Yeah, I mean, I thought...
"What's not to like?"
You know? [chuckles] Right?
You're gonna keep your oath
to the Constitution.
What could go wrong? [chuckles]
[crowd clamoring]
[rioter] I was invited here
by the president!
An angry pro-Trump mob
storms the US Capitol.
[reporter]
What you're witnessing is,
I think, fair to say,
unprecedented.
Some of these rioters
who are coming out from here.
These are, I believe,
Oath Keepers.
The Oath Keepers
have been around since 2009.
It describes itself online as a,
quote,
"Nonpartisan association
of current and formerly serving
military police
and first responders," unquote.
And the group claims
to have 30,000 members.
The Oath Keepers were seen
at the insurrection
walking in line through the mob.
Investigators accused the group
of playing a key role
in conspiring
to incite violence.
USA!
[reporter] Research by the
Program on Extremism,
which currently tracks
all 711 cases as of today,
highlights at least
24 Oath Keepers
who are part
of this overarching conspiracy.
And while Stewart Rhodes
is not named directly
in these indictments,
he is identified as person one.
And throughout these
indictments, you can really see,
as the government alleges,
this kind of leadership role
that he takes on
the ground on that day.
[police siren wailing
in distance]
[Dakota]
Twelve months after January 6th,
facing negative press
from both sides,
Stewart sat for an interview.
It would be his last
as a free man.
[TV host] I kind of wanna
just hear, like...
what your last six months
has been like.
As expected...
except for all the demonization
from the so-called right.
I'm getting people declaring
that, "Oh, he's a fed,
he must be a fed,
he hasn't been arrested yet."
So, it turns out
the political right,
the media on the right,
everybody is as disingenuous
and partisan and--
What's the right word?
Irresponsible,
as the media on the left is.
And the people that read
the media on the right,
everybody is non-thinking,
accepting of whatever
they're being told
by their talking head.
-It's the same crap. Both sides.
-Did that surprise you?
Uh, no, not really. No.
So, the narrative on the right
is how you just laid it out.
What's the narrative
of you on the left?
Oh, that I'm the bad guy,
at that I conspired to invade
the Capitol,
and I'm the Grand Poobah,
and kingpin behind the scenes.
'Cause it's the big lie.
And the big lie is that
there was some concerted plan
to enter the Capitol,
there just wasn't.
At least, not on the part of any
Trump supporters that I know of.
Certainly not on our part.
What I would tell
your average leftist is,
I want you to remember
what it was like
during the Bush years.
When 9/11 happened,
and the Bush administration
began to set aside
the constitutional restraints,
like on detention
of American citizens,
and torture, and everything else
that they were doing
in the name
of the War on Terror.
And think back to what
you thought about it back then.
Quite a few people
on the political left
were opposed to it,
and so was I.
And think about the unease
and fear you had
that that was being turned
into a weapon
against political dissidents.
So, if they said
you're a terrorist,
they can just whisk away
your rights
and, you know, put you into
a whole different
lower level of proof,
and lower level of everything
and mess with you.
I think what they're doing
to the January 6th accused
is very similar,
because they're not doing
what's normal.
What's normal is you get bail.
Unless they can prove
you're a flight risk,
or that you're about to go
and commit
some horrible criminal act.
But they're just alleging
these guys are bad guys
who may commit other bad actions
based on what though?
Just the mere accusations,
'cause they walked
in the Capitol.
And most of these people have
no criminal record whatsoever.
Do you imagine yourself
getting whisked away?
Like, are you mentally preparing
for that?
Yeah, I'm ready for it. If
they do it to me, I'll just...
deal with it.
I'm ready for that.
In some ways, it'll help me.
It'll start knocking back this
bullshit about me being a fed.
You know?
Of course, they'll still say,
"He's still a fed," somehow.
He's still a fed."
So... But actually,
it'll probably improve
my standing
in the patriot community.
Frankly.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter]
The Department of Justice
has filed seditious
conspiracy charges
against a number
of January 6th rioters,
including the head
of the Oath Keepers,
Stewart Rhodes,
who was arrested today in Texas.
The leader of the Oath Keepers
sits in jail
on charges of sedition,
the harshest indictments yet
related to the attack
on the Capitol.
[reporter 1] It's as serious
as a heart attack.
I mean, seditious conspiracy
is one step down
from absolute treason.
[reporter 2]
Prosecutors are saying
this was something
that was well planned,
and this group,
the Oath Keepers,
were a key part.
The case of Stewart Rhodes,
according to prosecutors,
he was coordinating.
He was giving locations
to other people,
telling them
what weapons to bring,
and helping to coordinate
the assault
on the US Capitol.
[Tasha] Yep,
kind of how I remembered it.
Bunch of Stewart's crap still.
"Oath Keeper's email
alert list." [chuckles]
Um, well, this is the thing.
-[host] That looks bad.
-[Tasha chuckles]
This is just the kind of thing,
when you're looking
through bins,
you just have to be careful.
This is actually just smoke,
but you wouldn't know
unless you... [chuckles]
You just never know.
There could be pepper spray
or something worse or...
Oh, nice! [chuckles]
My wedding vows! [chuckles]
Wow.
This is something
his mother put together.
[sighs]
Stewart had very little contact
with his dad.
There was one point
where the mother
sort of sent him over there
as a teenager.
And Stewart wanted to learn
about how to be a man.
His dad had been a horse trainer
and a blacksmith.
He had done boxing,
he was a Marine.
But Stewart said
when he went there
to spend the summer with him,
he would just sit
on the couch every day
and watch television,
and wouldn't even spend
any time with him.
He did one boxing lesson
and said,
"Here's how you punch."
He punched Stewart in the jaw
and knocked him out
in the garage,
and that was the extent
of their boxing lesson.
And then the way
he turned out was just...
[sighs]
He turned out the way he did.
[birds chirping]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Dakota]
Far from being a villain,
when I was growing up,
Stewart was the redeemer.
The man who would save America
from the end of the world.
I was raised to be
my father's heir apparent.
Stewart's wish was for me
to be his mirror image.
A strong,
all-conquering Renaissance man
who could outfight
and outthink anyone,
except Stewart.
Built to reflect
all glory onto him
as the source of my bloodline
and all of its power.
[Stewart] And you can hear
the camera guy saying,
"I see something."
[soft music playing]
[Dakota] The year is 2008,
and Stewart has just started
Oath Keepers.
We, his family,
are living in a rental house
on the outskirts of Las Vegas.
Oh, God! Stop it! Jesus Christ!
Our mom is homeschooling us,
and plans had just been shared
that we would all
soon be moving to Montana.
As Stewart saw,
it was my responsibility
to protect the family
from attack.
So, by this time,
I was mostly just doing
training.
I was 12 going on 13.
My job had been to somehow,
in suburban in Las Vegas,
learn wilderness survival skills
and practical skills
for living in the bush...
for when we... moved to Montana
and started up our compound,
like right before
the apocalypse,
whereas effectively
Stewart was staying in Las Vegas
to make as much money
as a lawyer as possible
up until the last minute
before we left,
so that we could better
situate ourselves
for the apocalypse.
We would play a game
where he'd be trying to train
in situational awareness.
So, he would step back
and disappear
while we were
in a grocery store, and then...
circle around and see
if he could sneak up on me,
and then lunge out
from behind a shelf and scream,
"Stab, stab, stab,"
and pantomime shanking me.
And everybody would look
and be like,
"What the fuck was that?"
If he'd been an assassin,
I would have died.
The second eldest child
is my sister, Sedona,
a fearsome fighter,
champion grappler,
and martial artist,
probably the toughest
of all of us.
She was the first
to see through Stewart,
so at this point,
she thinks he's full of shit,
and is saying it constantly.
The disrespect causes fights
between us.
She's nine years old.
She's mostly found
away from the house,
practicing survival skills.
She's annoyingly strong
at those.
[Sedona] We had a lot of
survival books laying around.
I read pretty much all of them,
all the way through,
and I would go back
and read them again
and use as many of the skills
in there as possible.
Stalking up to animals.
A lot of it was just deer.
But sometimes, I'd also find
more interesting things,
like... mountain lion tracks
that had a bloody trail
behind it
that I followed for miles.
If I heard something, and...
certain kind of ways of doing it
to where I could
kind of pinpoint
where the animal might be at,
'cause sometimes
they're kind of like
ventriloquists,
and you can't tell
where they are,
and they do that on purpose.
I stayed outside
as much as possible
because Stewart's just not
very great to be around.
So, he would say,
If you... aren't always armed,
then...
one day someone's going to try
to assault you or something.
He would be like, "If you have
something on the side,"
he was like, "That's just
an open invitation for them
to stab you
with your own knife."
So, then he'd have a knife
like this
that you can't really see it.
And then he'd have us practice
pulling it out like this
over and over and over again.
You have to pull it out
and hold it a certain way,
and make sure your wrist
is straight and all this.
And it would take
literally hours
to just practice
one tiny movement,
until we got it down perfectly.
And we knew we have to get it
down perfectly,
otherwise we can't go to bed
or do anything else. [chuckles]
[Dakota] Despite his apparent
deep understanding
of apocalyptic dangers,
Stewart's plans for Judgment Day
had not come together well.
He had struggled to hold down
a job with legal firms,
and we were constantly broke.
Red bills had been arriving
for some time,
along with the threat
of eviction.
Then, overnight,
Oath Keepers swept us up.
As well as providing our family
with a modest income,
it gave Mom something new
to focus on.
[Tasha]
I looked after the website,
did most of the writing
and correspondence.
You had all these
military veterans
from Afghanistan and Iraq
who just wanted to be useful.
Stewart completely related
to that
because he'd been
in the army.
He had to drop out
because of an accident.
He broke his back
in a parachute fall.
A little while later,
he also accidentally shot
out his own eye.
He didn't like talking
about that in the public.
But leaving the military
without really serving,
it left a gap in him,
which he felt he
needed to make right.
[Dakota] By the time
Oath Keepers appeared,
the US had spent the last
six years fighting wars,
which many troops on the ground
felt were unwinnable
or unjustified.
Many of these ex-military guys
said the same thing.
The government had let them down
and it could not be trusted.
So, Stewart's calls
to respect the oath
spoke loudly to them.
Interestingly,
after the Vietnam War,
the same thing happened.
Then two militia groups
sprang up
with thousands
of disgruntled veterans
looking for something
to believe in and belong to.
Mom was so caught up
with managing the first few days
of Oath Keepers as a blog
that the power did get shut off.
It immediately turned
into a phenomenon
that became extremely real,
extremely quickly.
Seeing all of the things that
Stewart talked about around,
like, the kitchen table
suddenly becoming
matters of national news
validated a lot of
belief systems
in the family home.
The greatest threat
to our freedom
would be our own government.
And I hope every American
is watching your show today
and realize now
that we cannot depend
on our politicians
in Washington, D.C.,
to keep their oath and follow
and defend
the United States Constitution.
Right. Right.
[Dakota] I was extremely proud
to have Stewart as my father.
My mom, especially,
very much believed in destiny
and believed
that she had been predestined
to support and assist Stewart
in doing something
world-changing.
We are trying to prevent
this country
from suffering the abuse
and the violation of rights
that has happened in other
countries in recent history.
-How so?
-How so?
By keeping the oaths
to the Constitution.
It's not to any one man,
whether he gives you
a thrill up your leg or not.
-It's to the Constitution.
-Yeah.
It felt...
sort of vindicating
the way it took off
exactly the way
he said it would.
Felt like destiny.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 3]
The leader of the far-right
extremist group,
the Oath Keepers,
is due to appear
in federal court.
[reporter 4] After making
more than 700 arrests
connected to the January 6th
Capitol attack,
it now appears investigators
are moving up the food chain.
[reporter] Rhodes has repeatedly
denied any wrongdoing,
claiming he never told his
members to enter the Capitol.
[Durbin] The insurrection
should be a wake-up call.
A reminder that America
is still confronted
with the age-old menace
that's taken on a new life
in the 21st century.
Terror from white supremacists.
[Dakota]
After the attack on the Capitol,
many called the Oath Keepers
white supremacists.
In the years that followed
Obama's election in 2008,
militia groups grew
by some 700%.
Barack Obama
is the first illegal
that needs to be removed from
the United States of America.
[crowd cheer]
[Dakota] But summing up
the entire militia motivation
as white supremacy
is missing a lot.
Stewart would call
the racism accusation a lie.
His grandparents were Mexican.
Yet at the same time,
he would appear
on conspiracy theorist favorite,
Alex Jones,
talking about how terrible
the Mexican problem was.
Look, you've had Mexican people
waving the Mexican flag
and burning the US flag.
That's not who we want here.
You could even deploy troops
into Mexico, as Wilson did,
to go and hit them
before they get to the border.
[Dakota]
He would also gladly point out
that there are Black members
in Oath Keepers.
I'm not gonna stand by
while some white supremacist
is going around murdering people
'cause of their skin color.
I'm gonna fuck him up.
I'm gonna smoke him.
He's gonna take a dirt nap.
And a lot of my guys
feel the same fucking way.
Ask Whip how he feels
about that. [chuckles]
[Dakota] Michael Whip Simmons
was his head of security
for January 6th.
Like Stewart,
he's also indicted.
[Michael] I got indicted like...
two days after
I told his attorneys
I would take
the stand for Stewart.
[TV host]
Why did you think that was?
Um, you know,
I can't say for sure.
Personally, they probably
was trying to keep me
from taking the stand.
And so,
they figured if they indict me,
I wouldn't take the stand.
I mean, if I take the stand
while I'm indicted,
you give up your right
to the Fifth Amendment.
So maybe they thought
it was a good move.
[soft music playing]
[Dakota] Whip fits
exactly the kind of image
that Oath Keepers wants
to present to the world.
An all-American boy,
wrestling champion,
signed up to the US Army,
served in combat in Iraq,
and then left feeling betrayed.
I'm not a member
of the Oath Keepers.
I'm just somebody who
Stewart brought in to do a job.
For me,
it just generated income.
But I could get behind
what the group was doing.
I mean, I follow politics,
but, you know, I don't vote.
You gotta understand,
nothing ever changes
in the neighborhoods
or in the ghettos
or what people would call
these "urban areas," you know?
Doesn't matter
whose ass sitting
in the presidential chair,
nothing ever changes
in the neighborhood.
That shit doesn't matter.
All these people talking about
"The election's been stolen,
the election's been rigged,"
shit.
Talk to anybody
from any one of these areas,
they'll tell you,
"Elections been rigged forever."
So I don't vote.
You know, that shit for what?
What's the difference?
What's gonna change
where I live at?
[Michelle] It's too much.
Our government worries
about keeping their own--
They're doing too much
to their own citizens.
Way too much.
[Michael] It's all political.
[Michelle]
That's why, you know what?
I don't deal with the political.
I don't get involved with it.
None of that.
None of that.
[Michael] Man, I got an email
to go back to Iraq.
It's a government contract.
[Michelle] The same government
that's trying to prosecute you?
Now, you gonna go work for them?
[Michael]
It's just another job for me.
Stop going to war for them,
'cause they ain't going
to war for you.
All they wanna do is keep people
and they so damn dumb,
they keep their own citizens
against each other.
So if something was to come
to America,
we so busy fighting each other
that we can't even stand
together
to even war nothing off
if something was to happen here.
Let's look at the big picture.
Who are we fighting for?
All this stuff going on
with Trump
is a distraction
of what's really happening.
Our government ain't never
told us the truth,
-about nothing.
-[dramatic music playing]
That's why I don't get
involved in it.
I don't vote,
'cause they're gonna do whatever
they wanna do in the end.
Nothing else that the government
got theyself connected to
should you be involved in,
nothing.
Nothing.
Find another job.
[Michael] Doing what?
Anything but that.
[Dakota] "Trust nothing
and no one," we were told.
You might say
that's understandable.
Stewart said
under no circumstance
discuss what happens
within our family
or home with anyone,
not even another Oath Keeper.
In 2010,
the place we called home
was about to radically change.
We moved from
our small Las Vegas rental
a thousand miles north
to Trego, Montana.
Montana has a few things
that would appeal
to those who trust nothing.
Very few human beings
live there.
The land is vast,
so hiding is easy.
Those human beings
who do live there
are often independent-minded
and isolated,
more likely to keep
to themselves.
Many come here to hide.
When we moved to Trego,
that's when Steward began
to get into his defense
planning phase.
It started
with the escape tunnels.
Stewart had been for a long time
very concerned
with how he would get out
of being besieged by the feds
and very concerned
with not being stuck
in a standoff situation
with no escape route.
It was really before
even putting in gardens,
the first major project
that we embarked on.
[medieval music playing]
[Dakota] There were two sets
of escape tunnels,
one that would be
a long L-shaped trench,
essentially, in the ground,
dug with a backhoe
and finished by hand.
That would be covered
with two-by-four and plywood,
and tarp ceiling with
rocks scattered over the top
and sod to conceal it.
And the way that would work
is a concealing shed
would be put against one wall
of the house
in the daylight basement,
covering over
a ground floor window.
And the floor of the shed
would have a trap door
that would drop into the tunnel.
And so,
in the event of a federal raid,
everybody would be able
to run into the basement,
file through this window,
drop down into the tunnel,
grab a 72 hour go-bags...
and take off
through this tunnel...
out to where it would drop
into the tree line,
and from there,
go into the woods.
If necessary, button hook around
to cross the stream
further into the woods
to lose the scent
of tracking dogs,
and then hike
to a prepared getaway car
that was not registered
to anybody associated
with Oath Keepers,
staged on a logging road.
And from there, take the network
of logging roads out of Trego
to make our way
towards Idaho or anywhere else
where there was
a friendly support network
that could take us in.
[Tasha]
Now, we're in the mountains...
-I can't! You're laying on it.
-No, Dakota!
...and things did
not feel right.
I spent my entire adult life
being Stewart's wife.
Stewart's wife.
That's all
anyone ever called me.
Lots of people
never knew my name.
My kids had never been
to school...
really never socialized
outside of the movement,
outside of very controlled
circumstances,
with Stewart approving of it...
with Stewart getting in there
and controlling
the conversation.
And one of his things
was all conversations
flow through me, through him.
And so, everything had to be
sort of directed around him.
Like, all of us and the people
we were allowed
to socialize with
were sort of satellites
around him.
And so, what began to happen
is we began
to be isolated in plain sight.
And by the time
started thinking
this is terrible, I was trapped.
Stewart was king of our house.
Everywhere we went,
people come up to you,
"You're so lucky,
so lucky to be married
to such a wonderful man."
"He is on a mission from God."
[playful music playing]
[Dakota] While we were at home
preparing for the apocalypse,
the Oath Keepers was blossoming
into a large movement.
Thousands of new paying members
were joining.
They came from all parts
of society,
but many importantly,
had positions of authority.
Police, military, even politics.
All bought into
Stewart's apocalyptic worldview.
[Stewart] Your own government,
what they're going to do
is trigger an economic collapse,
let people kill each other,
let them starve
for three or four months,
let the cities implode,
and then come in
like the cavalry and say,
"We're here to rescue you."
"Turn in your guns,
you get a food cart."
"Turn in your neighbors,
you get a food cart."
"Those crazy patriots
are resisting us
"and shooting at us
at checkpoints
are the enemy."
Now, I put my neck
on the chopping block
and my family's neck
on the chopping block
by starting Oath Keepers
and saying
what I'm saying today.
I do it because
I have no choice.
I do it for my children.
I am urging you
to take this seriously.
[Dakota] Along with his
dire warnings about the future,
membership continued to grow
giving Stewart more power
and influence.
As a result, the Oath Keepers
were making themselves seen,
helping with disaster relief.
They even sponsored
a NASCAR racing team.
They also showed up
at potential standoffs.
One such event
was at Bundy Ranch.
Much like the situation
LaVoy had lost his life for,
there was a dispute
about federal land,
a popular standoff situation.
What we will do is
we will stand and we will fight
and we will die
if the government tries
to oppress the Bundys
or tries to attack us.
[Dakota] Law enforcement was met
with an armed camp
that grew larger,
more heavily armed,
and more paranoid by the day,
and refused to stand down.
Fearing a drone strike
against his men,
Stewart ordered Oath Keepers
forces to retreat
into the desert and withdraw.
Following the incident,
rumors started to spread
that he had been spoken to
by the feds and threatened.
A real model citizen.
[Dakota] He never confirmed
all of that to us,
but it's true
that from then on in,
strange stuff started to happen.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Tasha]
We could hear what sounded
like feedback in the house.
It was odd.
Stewart was convinced
we'd been bugged.
But I don't know.
I think, really,
for the most part,
I just thought
he was completely insane.
Like the more...
Sometimes I'd have
more of a moment of, like,
"Whoa, this is really bad."
[Stewart]
The name of national security,
during the Quasi-War
with France...
[Tasha]
He became more paranoid
because he's this now
supposedly famous person
that's running Oath Keepers.
The feds were gonna
hunt him down
and kill him or something.
People are following
what he says instantly.
People are gravitating to him
like a sun, you know?
[chuckles]
Like the sun is rising,
and they're gathering around
for the warmth.
I mean, they're basking in it.
And that's how it seemed.
I'm Stewart Rhodes.
I'm the founder of Oath Keepers.
Everyone here who has taken
an oath to support
and defend the Constitution,
please stand up
and raise your right hand
in the air.
[Tasha] But at the same time...
Put your right hand up
if you swear an oath.
...his mental state really...
degraded, spiraled.
[Dakota] There's a certain point
where things in Trego
really started to fall apart.
The supposed savior of America
is nestled upstairs in the loft
where he's constructed a nest...
all the way around himself
of piled survival gear.
And in his day to day,
he was completely fine
with peeing in bottles
and curling up
in his filthy blankets,
and occasionally...
wandering downstairs
to scream at people.
Not showering...
not cleaning up
his prosthetic eye
until the whole thing ruptured.
Everything you could imagine,
he was letting go.
[Dakota] And hit the absolute
peak of his isolation.
He'd slump over
mid-screaming tirade,
and then an hour later
come unpaused and snap awake,
resuming his tirade
exactly where he left off.
But he was so incoherent
that there wasn't really
anything to engage with.
You just had to wait
until he was over,
like a weather pattern.
[Tasha]
He had a huge meltdown
about two o'clock
in the morning one night
where he drug
everybody out of bed.
And Sedona said, "That's it."
I will not sleep
in the house again
when he's in the house.
And she built a hut
out in the woods.
And even when it was
minus ten degrees out,
she slept outside.
She would heat rocks
in the fireplace at night,
and she had a little pit
inside of her hut...
and she would put
these heated rocks in it
and put straw over it
to warm her bed
and put a little fire that
would go out by morning
in front of it.
And she'd sleep out in the woods
every night if he was home.
And I worried about her
freezing to death.
Sometimes it was so cold out.
She said, "I can't.
I just cannot be in that house
with him. I can't."
You never know
when he's gonna drag you
out of bed in the night,
and he's just screaming
at the top of his lungs.
But he saw that as her
embracing survivalist skills.
But honestly,
she just sort of disappeared,
'cause she just felt like
she had nowhere to go.
[Sedona] I saw my mom
as scared also...
of the whole thing.
I think there's not much
that any of us
could have done, really.
[dramatic music playing]
[Tasha] He would have
these meltdowns,
and I would have to apologize.
[door slamming]
[gun cocking]
[Tasha] And then,
he just drew his gun, you know?
And... [chuckles softly]
But he didn't point it at me.
You know, he pointed it
at the ground,
and he would rack the slide back
and look at it and make sure
it was loaded and...
It was probably to be dramatic.
He knows it's loaded.
He knows it's chambered.
You know?
And then, he just plopped down
on the floor
and pointed it at his own head.
And...
"See what you made me do."
And so, this was something
that was happening a lot.
Like, a lot.
And he would always say,
"What are you gonna do?"
"You're gonna call the police
and say I'm suicidal?"
You know,
"I'm not threatening you."
[laughs]
Because...
he suddenly has more power.
I thought, there's really
no way out of this.
How would we ever
get out of this?
How are we gonna
get out of this?
I think anybody
looking at it would think,
"Oh, someone's gonna die."
"They're not all
getting out of this alive."
[reporter 1] A tragic accident
in Arizona today
when police say
a four-year-old boy
accidentally shot
and killed his father.
A tragic school shooting
this morning in Perry, Iowa.
This is the second
school shooting just four days
into the new year.
[reporter 2]
Two people have been killed.
At least 13 have been injured.
[reporter 3] A Delaware County
man accidentally shot
and killed himself
while climbing over a gate
earlier this week.
[reporter 4] Police say
the toddler picked up the gun
from her parents' nightstand
and accidentally fired
that weapon.
The bullet grazed
the girl's cheek
before hitting her mom
in the back of the head.
[Dakota] No one outside America,
and even some inside America,
understands
our relationship with guns.
Our life with Stewart
was full of guns.
We had about 60 loaded rifles
stored all around the house,
so there was always one to hand.
As a libertarian,
Stewart believed
that any gun control laws
were against the Constitution.
Having lots and lots of guns
is completely normal
for many libertarians.
[Dakota] Okay, libertarian.
What is a libertarian?
-[epic music playing]
-[narrator] From the dawn
of history, a better way of life
has been man's dream,
man's goal.
A better way of life
with freedom from the work...
-the worry, the hazards...
-[groans]
...and in time,
they formed a new nation...
dedicated
to a better way of life,
liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.
[bluesy music playing]
[Dakota] A libertarian believes
in liberty for the individual...
political freedom,
freedom of thought,
freedom of choice.
-Freedom is everything.
-Uh-huh.
Freedom is the red line
worth defending
by any means necessary.
This is why,
for the libertarian,
the gun is such
a fundamental thing.
No one quotes Marx more
than American libertarians
reciting that political power
flows from the barrel of a gun
for making society unfriendly
to a military occupation...
or a police state.
[interviewer] You are promising
America tonight,
you would never abuse power
as retribution against anybody.
Except for day one.
[Dakota] When Trump first
stepped up to politics,
libertarians loved him.
He seemed to stand for
everything they understood,
someone completely outside
-the political system...
-[crowd cheering]
...someone who feels comfortable
putting the needs
of the individual first.
But once he got
into the White House,
we all witnessed
his limitations.
For the Libertarians,
this centered around
his lack of respect
for the Constitution.
After January 6th,
even Stewart struggled
to be convinced by him.
I think Trump
is a buffoon, frankly.
I think he's an egomaniac,
just wanted to be president,
and he got in there
and didn't know
what he was doing.
Just straight up, okay?
He's not the sharpest tack
in the box.
And he doesn't know
the Constitution.
He has no concept
of how it works.
He's in favor
of stop-and-frisk,
in favor of red flag bills,
you know, we'll do...
"take the guns now,
worry about due process later."
The guy doesn't understand
the Constitution, okay?
That's just the hard truth.
[Dakota]
We should stop this here.
Now, this doesn't mean
Stewart wouldn't back Trump.
He obviously still does.
People like Stewart
will forgive Trump anything,
because he's on their side.
So, moving on.
The place of gun rights
in the US Constitution
is the Second Amendment.
"The right of the people
to keep and bear arms
shall not be infringed."
All Americans
have a very strong view
about the Second Amendment,
even those that have
no interest in politics.
You know, I kind of stray away
from anybody
who kind of speaks against
the Second Amendment.
I mean, you know, 'cause...
I mean,
who are you gonna depend on
if you can't depend on yourself?
Britt, if you call the police,
how long it take?
[Britt] Right now,
I mean, in Dallas...
[clears throat]
...30, 45 minutes. Easy.
Now, think about this.
If I was coming to your house
to do malice,
how much damage do you think
I can do to you, your house,
and your family in 30 minutes?
By myself?
Think if I got two
or three people with me...
you know, so,
I don't get behind any gun ban
or any ban to restrict
magazine capacity. For what?
You know what I mean?
Like, I don't want a fair fight
if I gotta defend my life.
Like, shit, hell,
I think every house
should have at least two guns.
AR-15, AK, shotgun, whatever
you can get your hands on
to help better defend you.
You know what I mean?
Hell, you don't want
the fight to be fair.
You don't ever want a gunfight
to be a fair gunfight.
Who does that?
Shit, if you got three rounds,
or four rounds, or five rounds,
and I got 30, you should've
bought more bullets.
[bluesy music playing]
[Whip] Now I'm indicted...
so everything has changed.
Generally,
when you get indicted,
they treat you like
you've already been convicted.
No matter
what the Constitution says,
the DOJ don't give a shit about
your constitutional right.
And it's generally
for the safety of, like...
the officers
coming to your house.
So,
when I knew I was indicted...
took all my shit out the house.
I wasn't going to let them
seize my weapons.
Some people might say...
[chuckles]
...this is a bit excessive.
[stammers]
But, you know,
it's a collection.
I mean,
weapons are tools for me.
And, you know,
I like collecting shit, too.
Like, I got a lever action
somewhere.
One of these bags.
Might be this one.
Yeah.
Well, you know,
get my John Wayne on.
I mean, hell, man, I like...
I like guns,
'cause they're guns.
I like shooting.
I mean, it's a sport.
It's recreational.
It's relaxing.
Hell, it's peaceful
on the gun range.
You know, nothing but you,
God, and the weapon.
I might have 20
or more weapons here.
[chuckles softly]
Like another 15 or 20
at the other spot
where I got my other weapons at.
Hell, there's ten in this box.
What, what'd they say?
Pray for peace, prepare for war?
[bluesy music playing]
[train tire screech]
[Dakota] While awaiting trial,
Stewart has been held
in a Washington, D.C. jail.
He's been sending out
recorded statements.
[Stewart]
This is Stewart Rhodes,
founder of Oath Keepers.
I'm speaking to you
from solitary confinement.
I've been held
in solitary confinement
for nine months now
on 22-hour-a-day lockdown.
I only get out of my cell
two hours a day.
Some of my co-defendants
have been
held in solitary confinement
for 18 months, awaiting trial.
You could look at the endurance
of Nelson Mandela,
who was in prison for 20 years,
and he maintained his innocence
and did not bend the knee.
So that's my model.
That's what I intend to do.
Our show trial begins next week.
I do not expect a fair trial.
We will still fight,
and with God's grace
perhaps God can touch the hearts
and minds of the jurors
to open their eyes to the truth
and give them the courage
to do what's right.
God bless America.
[Dakota] In 2018,
in the isolation
of our Montana home...
-[pensive music playing]
-...we, his family,
had become imprisoned
with Stewart,
along with his all-consuming,
ever-increasing
amounts of crazy.
As per Stewart's orders,
we maintained
operational security.
No one,
even inside Oath Keepers,
knew what was happening
in our home.
Alone in a house filled
with enough paranoia
and weaponry
to start a small war,
something had to change.
[tense music playing]
[Dakota] We had this plan
fully developed
for a long time scale
before we started to think
that our mom might be on board.
[Tasha] They brought me
into what they called
their kid meetings,
and just sort of told me,
"You got to get out of this."
And they could help.
Stewart was becoming
increasingly unstable,
and was talking about
moving us to Alaska.
So the worst-case scenario
became, in the near future,
being in the hills somewhere,
much more isolated
and much farther away
from escape
than we were at the time.
[Tasha] It took me about six
months to find an attorney...
because nobody
wanted to deal with this.
In October...
2017, I finally found one.
We met with her,
and we made a plan.
We jokingly,
in kind of a fit of dark humor,
called it
the "Trying Not to Die Plan."
[Dakota]
We had set things in motion
that were not cancelable.
My mom had filed for divorce,
and we had gotten
the paperwork together
to file
for the restraining order.
The retainer on the lawyer
had been paid.
We'd been smuggling guns
out of the house
to sell for the down payment
on the attorney,
and for living expenses
in the immediate aftermath.
And none of that
could be taken back.
[Tasha] My attorney filed
for divorce on February 9th...
and then we made a plan
to try to get out
the night of the 12th,
because we thought
there was a good chance
the sheriff would serve
the divorce papers to him
that next day,
is what my attorney thought.
And she said, you know,
you make your escape and you go,
you file for the temporary
restraining order.
So...
I did everything
I could to get him
in the best mood possible.
The night before,
we went on a little date.
We had a romantic evening.
[sighs]
Everything was set.
And I got really hit
with this feeling of...
[sighs]
"Why do we have to do this?"
Maybe we could just not do it,
and everything
could just stay the same.
And I set the plates
on the table.
And we had a normal dinner
and everything.
And everything's going to change
the next day. And I really...
I kept thinking...
"I hope we all live
through this."
"I hope we all live
through this."
[foreboding music playing]
[Dakota] All of this planning
that had gone into it.
And on the final day,
Stewart woke up at 4:00 a.m.
in a manic frenzy.
So, at the time that
we should have been
slipping out
while he was asleep,
and doing the last loading
of the truck before dawn,
Stewart was rampaging
around the house,
frantically rearranging
survival gear.
[thudding]
[Tasha] We were like,
"There's no way
-he's gonna go to bed."
-[glass breaking]
[Tasha] So, we just said,
"We're going to take this
broken oven," whatever it was,
"to the dump."
"We'll load it up in the truck
and take it to the dump."
And we acted like
it was just Dakota and I,
but the kids were all hiding
in Dakota's truck.
[truck engine rumbling]
[Dakota] At the last second,
Stewart ran out onto the porch
and started yelling
from the porch
as we were pulling out
into the driveway.
[Tasha]
We thought we were caught.
Like, what do we do?
Do we floor it and run?
But we didn't. We stopped.
And he said,
"Hey, pick up some steaks
on your way home."
[laughs]
And...
"Okay, okay, we'll do that."
And I just drove out.
And...
I applied for
a temporary restraining order.
I walked into
the police department here,
and they said... [clicks tongue]
"Best bet,
get back in your car...
go on back to your husband,
and pretend none of this
ever happened."
"That's the best thing
you can do right now."
"That's the best thing."
"We're not really
equipped to deal with this."
"And you're in the middle
of a divorce."
"A restraining order has to go
through the court system."
"That's not something
we can do here." [inhales]
So, they told me
I had to go up to Libby,
which, you know, that's a two
and a half hour drive...
over the mountains in February.
[chuckles softly]
So, we did that.
And I went
into the justice court,
and I filled out the form.
And then, they said,
"Yeah,
this isn't going to work."
[chuckles] And so, then I went
to the district court,
and I filled out their form.
And they said,
"Well, we'll let you know."
Ultimately, the restraining
order was denied.
When we did go back
to the house,
Stewart was gone.
He never came back.
But we felt scared.
So, we stayed up in shifts.
And we just took turns
guarding the living room
with a rifle. [chuckles]
Like, I feel proud of myself
for all of the hard work
that went into arranging
that and facilitating it.
And I feel proud of Stewart's
profound sense of betrayal
that he expressed
to many people after the fact.
And I worked that angle.
I would send him,
like, flattering,
ego-stroking text messages
about the important work
he was doing
and how I was praying
that he would stay safe,
so that he would keep
his mood buoyed up
while he was out
on Oath Keepers operations
and stay longer with the bros
and give us more time to act.
Like, I faked it...
for that two years. [sniffles]
and put on the world's
greatest facade of being...
a true and loyal son,
and true believer.
[reporter] The founder
of the far-right Oath Keepers
organization,
Stewart Rhodes has testified
-in his own defense today...
-[soft music playing]
...at his seditious conspiracy
trial here in Washington.
Elmer Stewart Rhodes
is coming across as a smart,
articulate person.
He's trying
to establish a rapport
and trying to tell the jury
a little bit about who he is.
[Tasha sighs]
Well, him taking
the stand makes me,
I don't know,
it makes me nervous.
It makes me nervous
for multiple reasons.
I know he thinks
he can sway people.
He thinks
he's a traveling preacher.
And he's going to... [chuckles]
He's going to save himself.
Just trying to pick and choose
what I'm selling in here.
I'm about at the end of things.
I've got no child support.
So, I'm bringing in
some magazines, and...
hope that'll bring in
some money,
and going to try to sell
some of these guns.
But honestly,
they're just in such bad shape.
I don't know if they're
gonna wanna buy them.
They were Stewart's
when we were married.
Honestly, these are the ones
he left behind.
[recorder beeps]
[Stewart] No matter how long
they imprison us,
we will maintain our innocence.
And I think it's important
for us to not give an inch
and to always maintain
the legitimacy of a protest,
and the illegitimacy
of this post-constitution,
fraudulent regime.
And you're going
to face betrayal.
Christ was betrayed.
He suffered false witnesses.
Keep your perspective
about your mission.
Do not give up is the ambition.
[Tasha] When you're trying
to keep yourself safe,
and you're in a really
unsafe situation...
it feels like
you have two options.
You can hide.
And... you can hide
and stay very hidden.
Or... you can be very,
very out front in public
so that everybody's watching.
And it seemed like hiding
wasn't really an option for us.
[TV host] My next guest knows
the Oath Keepers
better than just about anyone.
Tasha Adams is married to
and estranged from Oath Keeper
leader Stewart Rhodes.
Every moment
he wasn't personally
terrorizing us as a family,
he was preparing to terrorize
the rest of the nation.
He believes that
he is sort of a chosen person.
And I think he believes
he almost has magical powers,
so that he can...
[chuckles] He's chosen
to rise up and be this...
what my kids mockingly call
"The King of The Apocalypse."
[chuckles]
What do you want the world
to know about him?
I want them to know
he's dangerous.
He's a monster.
Every moment
was about manipulation.
Every moment was about
controlling the fear.
[bell ringing]
[Tasha] After they did
a series of interviews,
I noticed a coldness
around town.
Because I didn't just
call out Stewart,
I called out the movement.
And most people feel
very supportive of January 6th.
The cashiers weren't
asking me about my day.
Maybe roll their eyes
and just like,
"What do you want?"
You know, I turned my back
on my husband,
and I'm supposed
to be supporting him
in this difficult time,
and one day I'll get mine.
So, I got a lot
of messages like that.
I mean, he was digging tunnels
to run from the feds
in my yard
long before Bundy Ranch.
So, even the FBI asked me, like,
"What was he digging
the tunnels for?"
"Who was he running from?"
I have no idea.
I need him at least put away
until the kids are safe,
until the kids... the youngest
kid turns 18. That's ten years.
So, that's what
I need out of it,
is for him to be
put away that long.
[TV host] In court documents,
it's noted that you testified
that he would often brandish
firearms in the family home.
Maybe it's because
I was born in Vegas. [inhales]
It's like betting
on something, right?
I put it all, I bet everything
on him being locked away
forever. [breathes shakily]
[birds chirping]
[solemn music playing]
[TV host] How important
is the outcome
for how this is viewed?
I can't believe it.
I think he's a true believer
that's been set up
this whole time.
[reporter] This has to
result in a conviction,
because much more than the law,
we're talking about
a fight for the soul
of this nation.
[Tasha] Notifications again.
[gasps]
Hey, guys, there's a verdict.
We don't know what it is yet.
The judge says,
"We have received a note
from our jury that simply says,
'Verdict reached.'" [sniffles]
Wait. Wait. Hold on.
Are they reading it?
No. That can't be.
Is that right?
[sighs]
[sobs]
"Stewart..." [sobs]
"Stewart Ross is found guilty
of seditious conspiracy."
[sniffles, chuckles]
-Oh, shit. [groans]
-[somber music playing]
[sobs]
The government's evidence showed
that almost immediately
following
the November 2020 election,
defendant Stewart Rhodes,
the founder and leader
of the Oath Keepers,
began planning
to oppose by force
the peaceful transfer of power.
[reporter]
The jury was told that Rhodes
desperately tried
to get in touch with
then-President Trump
after the 2020 election
to convince him
to seize voting machines
and invoke the Insurrection Act
to stay in power.
He needs to know from you
that you are with him,
that he does not do it now
while he is Commander in Chief.
We're going to have to do it
ourselves later
in a much more desperate,
much more bloody war.
Let's get it on now
while he is still
the Commander in Chief. Hooah!
[reporter 1] "We aren't
getting through this
without a civil war."
He said days after
the insurrection that, quote,
"My only regret is that
they should have
brought rifles."
"We could have fixed it
right there and then."
[reporter 2]
Eighteen years.
That is the sentence
a federal judge
handed down
to Elmer Stewart Rhodes.
In delivering the sentence,
Judge Amit Mehta
said Rhodes presents
an ongoing threat
and a peril to this country
and to the republic
and to the very fabric
of this democracy.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dakota] Shortly after
his conviction,
we had the final
divorce hearing,
and Stewart never logged into
his Zoom link from prison.
With this one last no-show,
my mom was finally divorced.
Freedom from Stewart
released us, his family,
from his views,
although escaping
the apocalyptic thinking
he drilled into us is much,
much harder.
And apocalyptic thinking is now
everywhere,
alongside newer, more extreme
versions of Stewart.
You swore an oath
to uphold the Constitution
of the United States.
Get your hands off the gun.
[Dakota] Like Mike Dunn,
who was only 19
when he helped to popularize
the militia group,
the Boogaloo Boys.
-Stop pushing me!
-[officer] You're pushing me.
[Alex] Mike Dunn is a well-known
Boogaloo boy,
a constitutional adherent,
20-year-old former
Trump-supporter-
turned-libertarian.
I guess he was
in the Marines too as well.
-So, Mike, thanks for coming on.
-[Mike] Thank you, Alex.
To start with,
we see people like you, Alex,
who... used to be my hero
as a young man,
we see y'all bendin'
the knee repeatedly.
You have your talk shows,
you give your speeches,
but y'all don't actually
stand against tyranny,
and that's disheartening
as a young man.
The idea that you portray
and the message that you carry
-sometimes tend to look like...
-[epic music playing]
...you're just there
to create merch.
But your generation
and the ones before you,
they put it on
my generation's heads.
My generation didn't stand down.
It's the fact that you're doing
the same thing
that's been done for years,
and it's not
accomplishing anything.
The only thing that's gonna
accomplish it
is forcing a revolution.
I am not doing the same thing.
I'm not Democrat, Republican.
I'm exposing
the globalist program.
Do you understand
that information is powerful?
They're scared of it?
You're talking.
That's all you're doing.
You're doing the same thing
that's been done
for years, brother.
We're done talking.
We're done doing all of this.
We're going to go out there
and take a stand next.
As horrible as war is,
if they want a war,
let it begin with us
because our fathers didn't.
No offense, Alex,
but your generation didn't.
And so our children
don't have to.
We see it as,
there has to be a revolution.
[gunshots]
[Dakota] For Mike, the police
are part of the problem
and therefore a target.
He and his group
arrange protests
with the aim of provoking them
into a response.
[indistinct chatter]
[Mike] We have one million
police officers in the US
who are funded like a military,
armed like a military,
equipped like a military,
trained like a military,
and act like
professional military units.
We might as well
prepare for war with them.
They are the standing army
that our forefathers
warned against.
Are we all in agreement
that nobody gets arrested today?
-We all in agreement on that?
-[man clears throat]
-[man] Absolutely.
-[Mike] Good. So,
if a police officer begins
to harass any one of you
or attempt to arrest you,
I will put myself physically
between that officer and you.
At that point,
if they proceeded,
a warning would be given.
And after that, y'all know
that we will defend ourselves
within the protected rights
enshrined in the Constitution.
Either we all come home
or nobody comes home.
We've got several boys
coming out
that have had
their wills notarized.
I've written notes
to my loved ones
and let them know where
to find them
if I don't make it home.
And certain people
that mean a lot to me
will receive notes from me
if I don't make it home.
And... I mean,
as prepared as we can be,
I reckon, so.
[Dakota] I could easily
have been Mike...
had I followed
my father's ambition.
[indistinct chatter]
[reporter] In a defiant protest
against the arrest of four men
who carried firearms
to a school board building,
the Boogaloo Boys assembled
at the same property
with more men and larger guns.
They were effectively
daring the police
to try to arrest them.
Ultimately, no police officers
responded to the scene.
I figured the sheriff's office
would show up a lot.
I figured they'd show up here.
Maybe they're just
lettin' y'all be.
[bluesy music playing]
[Dakota] For Stewart,
and maybe Dunn too,
an apocalyptic future seems
to actually make more sense
than the one
we are currently living in.
It's about control,
security, and I suppose,
a fear of the unknown.
[Mike] Now we got a guy
with a speaker and a microphone
coming up here.
[Dakota] But America
is the land of the free.
What could be more uncontrolled
or unknown than that?
[protestor 1] Mike Dunn,
you're a shit-talking,
loud-mouthed
little dumpy motherfucker.
Fuck you and fuck the police.
-Fuck the police.
-Police are good, man.
No, they're not.
No police are good.
All cops are bad.
-We're gonna have to disagree.
-We're gonna have to disagree.
-But we all dislike Mike Dunn.
-[protestor 3] Me and you
gonna have a problem
if you say, "Fuck the police."
[protestor 1]
Well, fuck the police, sir.
-There are good people here.
-No, they're not.
-All cops are bastards.
-[protestor 2] Where are they?
Where are they for this guy?
[protestor 1] Why are they
not doing anything?
[protestor 2] Where are they
here to get him
off the school property?
[protestor 1] Where's your cops
doing something?
[protestor 2]
Yet again, Mike Dunn
gets to break the wall.
-[protestor 3] Call them.
-[protestor 1] You call them.
You call them.
Your law enforcement is allowing
these men to stand on
your school property with guns.
You think the police need
to come arrest me for talking?
-Guys, relax. Smoke a joint.
-[protestor 2] We love the cops.
And then Mike Dunn tells 'em
how much he loves 'em...
[protestor 1] Don't tell me
what to do. Fuck you.
..."Tyrannical government.
It's a tyrannical government."
"We love you."
[indistinct chatter]
Well, I am happy he's exercising
his right to protest,
and I support that 100 percent.
[protestor 1] Fuck Mike Dunn!
[Dakota] For Stewart,
the future he seemed to want
actually looked
a lot more like the past.
And I'm not sure that living
in an imagined bygone world
where men are men
would really suit me.
[solemn music playing]
[Dakota] Now, I can decide
who I want to be
and what I want to believe in.
So, I've chosen to lightly
engage with politics.
I'm doing some canvassing
for some Independent
and Democrat candidates.
It gives me a chance to see
what people really feel
about things.
[birds chirping]
[dog barking]
[Dakota sighs] Okay.
Nobody home,
which seems to be...
I am showing up
when no one is home about
three-quarters of the time.
Hello.
[interviewee] Take them
Democrats and shove them
right up your fucking ass.
[Dakota] Do you want me
to leave a flyer?
-[interviewee] Absolutely not.
-All right.
-[interviewee] A Dumbocrat.
-All right.
[interviewee] Bullshit.
[Dakota]
Well, you have a good evening.
[pensive music playing]
[Trump]
Take a look at your cities.
Your cities are going to hell.
You take a look at
what's going on.
They're filthy dirty.
They're crime-ridden.
And an entire generation
of young people
could very well be decimated.
And it'll never happen with me,
I can tell you that.
-It will never happen with me.
-[crowd cheering]
And if I win,
we will treat those people
from January 6th fairly.
We will treat them fairly.
And if it requires pardons,
we will give them pardons.
[Tasha] I have definitely
been keeping
the idea of a Trump victory,
not just in the back
of my mind, but... [sighs]
...that whole idea is something
I've been completely ignoring.
Yeah, the idea
that he could be pardoned.
Yeah.
But if... You know.
That was a big bet,
and I could still lose.
[Trump] Friends, delegates,
and fellow citizens,
we will have
an incredible victory,
and we will begin
-the four greatest years...
-[crowd cheering]
...in the history of
our country.
That sucks.
[Dakota] Stewart would
most likely say
that him being a threat
to us is laughable.
But after the years
of apocalyptic anxiety
he drilled into us, it's hardly
surprising we feel this way.
Even as a little kid,
I was extremely conscious of...
not having the connection
that I wanted with my father.
When I wouldn't say
the right things
or respond in the right way
and he would get upset,
I thought that was something
wrong with me,
and that just got
worse with time.
It left me
with a lifelong feeling
of being defective
and inadequate.
I've struggled
to make connections
and make friends and interact
with people in regular life.
In point of fact,
for a long time,
I was actively suicidal.
[foreboding music playing]
[Dakota] I looked up a chart
of the exact angle
for shooting yourself
with a pistol to make sure
that you don't
accidentally survive
with a hole through
the back of your neck
and a spinal cord
or a brain injury.
And I saved that to my computer,
and that was my plan
for the next step
for after I made sure
that the rest of my family
was okay.
Because I was so afraid
of becoming like Stewart
that I didn't think that
I was ever going to be happy
in life as myself anyway.
[crowd chanting] USA! USA! USA!
[soft music playing]
[train horn blaring]
[Tasha] I don't know
what the future holds.
All I know is
I won't run and hide,
and neither will my kids.
I thought, maybe I just need
to start again.
And this sounds
a little radical,
but I threw out
everything I owned,
and I moved into a really
generic Airbnb with two boxes
and a trash bag of clothes,
and that's it.
And I never felt so peaceful
because I just wanted to just...
not be this Tasha and that Tasha
and not be everywhere
spreading myself thin,
trying to make safe spaces
and umbrellas for everyone.
I just wanted
to shut it all down
and just kind of restart.
And... Dakota's finally...
finding a place
where he can be himself.
[music playing on radio]
[indistinct chatter]
[Tasha] And he can do
what he's good at.
I tried to tell ya
Or she won't buy me
No rubber dolly
[Dakota] Hey. Good to see you.
Yeah, thanks for coming out.
All right, thank you all
for coming out. It's...
It was certainly something
opening the door
and seeing everybody in here.
A lot of you do know me,
but just briefly for people
that I'm meeting tonight
for the first time,
my name is Dakota Adams.
I am the estranged eldest son
of Elmer Stewart Rhodes,
the founder and president
of Oath Keepers
and one of the ringleaders for
the January 6th insurrection.
And my family
has been in the area
since we moved to Trego
to wait out the apocalypse.
Hasn't happened yet.
I am applying to be
your representative
in the Montana State Legislature
to extend the ideals
of community service
and civic responsibility.
[crowd applauding]
[somber music playing]
[Dakota] So, this is the part
of the film where,
with rousing music,
I emerge heroically
as a Democrat.
I think overall
I fit better with them.
What I believe in
is collaborative government,
cooperative government
that is not some
distant antagonistic force
strange to you but a structure
put together by you, the people.
Stewart used to give speeches
where he would say,
"Trust no one. In the end,
you only have yourself."
But treating everyone
as the enemy is exhausting
and just makes paranoia worse.
So, I choose to try
and live my life without fear.
[Tasha]
You're really good at this.
I hope so!
To engage with people...
and maybe use my experience
to help bring
some understanding.
And whatever happens
with Stewart,
this time,
I'm choosing to live in a world
without the apocalypse
as my future.
Until next time.
This is Dakota Adams,
signing off.
["Ring of Fire" playing]
-[cameraman] Thanks, Dakota.
-[Dakota] All righty.
Well, I hope you are happy
with the footage.
I kind of think that I'm never
going to put this on again.
I think I...
I meant to have sold it.
-Bound by wild desire
-[grunts]
I fell in
To your ring of fire
I fell into
A burning ring of fire
I went down, down, down
And the flames got higher
And it burns, burns, burns
The ring of fire
The ring of fire
The ring of fire
Let me burn
In your ring of fire
Look out, baby
And the flame went higher
And higher and higher
Let me burn
In the ring of fire
Let me burn, baby
The fire burns
And the fire learns
Oh, I'm burning
Away now, baby
Burning up
In the ring of fire
Well, I'm burning...
[music concludes]