Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna (2025) Movie Script

Rolling.
This is kind of nice.
Looking cool in the wide.
Roll sound.
- Rolling.
- Ready, set.
Alright, we're all going to one.
Yeah, good luck.
It's gonna be swell.
This might be too long, right?
So, they need to get...
Joel is at krafty.
Oh, my.
Santa Fe Fire and EMS,
what's the location of the emergency?
We have two people accidentally shot
on a movie set.
We need help immediately.
Santa Fe, one female shot in the chest,
male shot in the stomach.
Requesting air flight.
Alec Baldwin was the actor
on set that pulled the trigger.
- Alec Baldwin?
- Yes, sir.
We got the bird right here.
Gunshot underneath the right arm,
went through all the way to the back left.
Can you carry this back for me, sir?
- I got it.
- You got it?
Is she gonna be all right?
I don't know. I... I...
don't even know what's...
what's gone going on, what's happening.
Nothing like that, so.
Can I have you guys get over there for us?
We'll have to gather everybody up,
get everybody's names.
Everybody who was on scene, okay?
How many people were
in the room at the time?
I'd say six? Maybe seven.
Joel's doing okay.
He is? What's her story?
Little bit rougher.
It was the shoulder though?
On Joel?
On Halyna? Where did it hit her?
Hers appeared to look...
It went through her,
her right underarm,
and the exit point was on
her back left shoulder blade.
Oh my god.
So it went across her body?
It went... It went through.
So...
life-threatening.
Was it an actual gun?
It's a .45.
He shot, and then he shot.
He got the gun from the armorer,
who I have in my car.
Okay, what is your full name?
Hannah.
H - A - N - N - A - H.
Gutierrez.
What's your place of employment?
Rust.
Let's walk, follow me,
I gotta go to my car real quick.
Okay. -
I'm just curious
why he's going down?
He was also - had hands on
with the prop gun as well.
How's it going, sir?
Um, so I-- my understanding, um,
is that you were in the room
when the lady,
- when someone was shot?
- I was the one holding the gun, yeah.
We need a date of birth for the med.
Yeah, date of birth and social.
- Hutchinson?
- Uh, Halyna Hutchins.
Actor Alec Baldwin
fired a deadly shot
while filming his new movie.
The film's director of photography,
Halyna Hutchins,
died from her injuries earlier today.
The second victim,
the film's director, Joel Souza,
he's being treated in Santa Fe.
There were three people
that if they had done their job that day,
this tragedy wouldn't have happened.
This has rocked
the film industry all across the world.
Whatever these big public spectacles,
they take on a life of their own.
Accidents like this one,
they're not supposed to happen, ever.
That bullet
went through her and then into me.
It's an awful thing
to share with somebody.
I have to know how it happened.
Why isn't she here anymore?
The sun was shining just like that.
They airlifted her in the helicopter
from right here,
and she died in the sky
at this exact time.
The last time I saw her,
we were hiking with our kids.
- Jonah!
- Halyna and I were friends.
We did it!
We were both filmmakers and moms.
She came here to Santa Fe
to make a film...
...and never came back.
After Halyna died, her husband Matt
asked me to make a film about her life.
Kiss him, that's it!
But I realized I couldn't
make a film about her life
if I didn't understand how she died.
- Ready, everyone?
Rolling.
Can we start at the beginning?
Can you set the stage for me?
Yeah.
Alec was like forefront
of the zeitgeist at the moment.
For whatever reason, he liked my writing.
He said, "Oh, well,
let's do something together."
I said, "Well, I got two ideas.
I got a cop movie, and I got a Western."
He said, "Oh, I've never done a Western.
Let's do the Western."
It was like that.
I have my hires.
The cinematographer is one of them.
I just keep a list of cinematographers
whose work I like.
I'd see something,
I'm like, "Oh, that's good,"
and I'd just, you know,
write it down, and,
"Oh, she's one of these
10 cinematographers to watch."
I saw her like a month before she left,
and she was super excited
to go and shoot this film in New Mexico,
and was so happy for her.
Halyna and I
didn't really connect in person
until we were in New Mexico.
Oh, Joel, look-- look at this.
If we start this way, it's kind of empty,
and you can bring him this way?
- Yeah, he's coming in here.
- And then sort of, yeah.
Yeah, he's coming down.
We were scouting together,
and it was just like me and her.
Uh, Phantom could come off--
come down here too, if you wanted to.
When you meet with the director,
you start conversation,
and every thought, they say something,
and you have 10 ideas right away.
- For the old Thin Red Line shot.
- Uh-huh.
We would talk and talk and talk.
I love that kinda first spark.
It's tough when you're hiring
a cinematographer.
You don't want someone that
you're gonna argue with all the time.
You want a collaborative process.
I'm a very direct person,
so I prefer working with people
who are open and just say what they think.
We spent all day, every day,
in and out of the office.
She had to, like, you know, find her team.
Prep is always my favorite part.
And then, uh, we get to first day
of photography...
it's like, this is movies.
Like, you have a script you write.
You were the only one in the world
who cares about it.
And then, you start
handing it off to people.
Now, it's everybody's movie.
You have a better version of it
because everybody
brought themselves to it.
Okay, Reese.
To walk onto a set
of a Western is so cool.
It's like getting to take a time machine.
Big wind, big fire,
big explosions, big shootouts.
- Woo-hoo!
- Yeah!
It was, for me, this exciting raising
of my career and dreams,
- and the things that I want.
And I know that Halyna
was in that same place.
I saw this woman, just...
this, this, this, that.
And I thought, she's running the set.
She the first AD? What's she doing?
It turns out she was the DP.
A director of photography
takes the script
and makes the words into visual language
that delivers the emotional ride
for the audience.
Halyna's films, they are just,
like, naturally so beautiful.
The kind of films
that she was, uh, working on,
they were small,
small independent films, short films,
micro-budget films with little money,
little time, and little crew.
I think, for Halyna,
Westerns were something
she had never done
but really wanted to try.
- Thumbs up.
- Thumbs up.
Whoo!
Thumbs up.
Alright, back to work.
Get back to work.
The first AD on set,
I suppose if you were going
to equate it to another job,
it would be very much like what a foreman
on a construction site might do.
"Here's what we're doing today.
Here's how we're gonna do it.
This is when we're gonna do it."
And, uh...
one of the responsibilities
of the first AD
is that they're the safety coordinator.
What kinds of things
did you think
in terms of safety,
that might be necessary?
Well, certainly,
we were working with guns.
And that was a primary safety concern.
Here we go! Three, two, one!
My first day,
coming out of hair and makeup,
in my full costume,
and Alec is at base camp,
and he's in his costume.
And, uh, this girl comes over
and interrupts our conversation.
She's got an arm full of guns,
just barreled her way in.
And I thought, it was very unsafe
to be walking around base camp
with a whole bunch of guns
in your hand.
Like, have they been cleared?
Why are you doing this?
And Alec, he seemed a little, you know...
"What's she doing?"
Then, I found out she was the armorer.
I thought, "Wow."
I knew that she had little experience.
I would say this one probably is
used more regularly.
But my concern over
lack of experience was tempered
by knowing that her father was Thell Reed.
The fastest gun in the West.
I'm Thell Reed.
I'm a world-champion fast drawer.
Every actor, just about,
that you see spinning a gun
and doing it really nice
has been trained by Thell Reed.
I learned how to be an armorer
mostly from my father over the years.
As the armorer, I was obligated
to check the weapons every day.
I was obligated to maintain the weapons,
um, obligated to train the actors as well.
Okay, well...
Just so you guys know, those are clear.
I arrived on the 11th, that Monday,
had dinner with Halyna
and Joel that night.
Uh, Tuesday, I went to go rehearse
with the wrangler, with the horses.
I rode the horses,
and I did my gun safety rehearsal
with Hannah Reed
on, uh, Tuesday the 12th as well.
Me and Alec, we met at the church,
and I said, "We're gonna go over
how to shoot all your weapons,
how to load them, how to make them safe."
We went outside and we started
practicing with blanks.
Where Alec would come out the church
and bang-bang, bang-bang.
Alec, from the outside,
it's like he's coming
onto this low-budget Western indie.
I got the sense
that he was like equally excited
about being there, and the story,
and what we were making.
He's part of a-- a generation
of old Hollywood movie star.
Yeah, there's a gravity
to having Alec on set.
Ready, and action!
One more, one more, one more.
I forgot the recoil stuff.
No, no, right away, right away.
- Let's reload.
- Here we go.
Things started feeling off
when, uh, Alec showed up,
but it wasn't like--
he wasn't doing anything wrong.
An actor of that caliber
with that producer title,
it was-- was kind of intimidating.
It was like, you know, the pacing
of the set got a little quicker.
- Things picked up faster.
- Picture down.
It-- it was a tonal change on set.
Every indie set I've ever been on,
we don't have enough time,
and we don't have enough money.
It's such a puzzle figuring out
how to get a movie done.
You're always
working against that entropy.
You're always working against the chaos.
Tight schedule sucked. It was tough.
The director is very involved.
When you work on a film set,
typically you work 12-hour days.
There's an understanding
that it's-- it's gonna be hell.
- Background action.
- Back to one.
Calling for Stacey in makeup, is she...
We ran into all sorts
of problems with money, mostly,
production money, uh,
how we're gonna pay for this,
how we're gonna pay for that.
And we had to balance out
what we could get, versus what we need,
versus what we want,
versus how can we make this work.
By and large, we did okay.
And you're working crazy hours
and you're doing crazy things
in insane conditions.
But it was just fun.
Right up until it wasn't.
I was, you know, um, on-- on set,
and you could see walkies and people.
I was like, "What is going on?"
I remember seeing Halyna,
and she didn't look happy.
And she always looks happy.
I was like, "What's going on?"
And she was like, "My crew left."
So, Lane was the first AC on Rust.
Lane is responsible for the day-to-day,
make sure that our department's
running smoothly.
Every problem that we could have
potentially had, uh, is on his shoulders.
A lot of the issues we had,
Lane started to bring up to producers,
like, "Hey, are we gonna deal with this?"
We felt like we weren't respected
or taken care of,
and, like, no one
really gave a shit about us.
Between production
and the camera team,
there was always disharmony.
And it just-- they sort of never got off
on the right foot together.
A lot of people on production knew
that the camera department was,
I guess you would say
kind of a squeaky wheel.
The camera crew
were the dark clouds on our set.
They were rude.
They talked crap about everybody.
They chose to walk off on a day
when we're having the biggest shootout
of the whole show.
Camera went from having like,
I don't know,
9 or 11 guys or something,
to like two or three.
She was not wild about what happened.
She was hurt by it.
What was impressive was
how quickly Halyna was able to pivot.
Yeah, it is. Well, that's what I'm saying.
Sometimes we might have to come up
with simpler solutions, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
I took Dave Halls aside and Halyna aside,
and I'm like,
"Look, we can't finish this day,
"so let's just do this.
"We got a scene in front of us.
We're gonna work our way through it,
and we're gonna worry
about tomorrow, tomorrow."
We were not freaking out about it.
We just accepted, it is what it is,
and we'll figure it out.
So, at lunch, she looked over at me,
she was like, "We have to hang out."
I was like, "Absolutely.
Let's go out tonight."
And she reached over
and she grabbed my hand and squeezed it,
and she was like, "Alright, we'll do it."
And then, she got-- got on the van,
and that's the last time I saw her.
So...
So, we returned to the set after lunch.
Um, we were setting up for a shot
with Alec Baldwin
sitting in the church pew.
Halyna, uh, told me she was ready,
and I went on a walkie, "Camera's ready,"
and that sets off a whole thing in motion.
Dave Hall started calling for the gun.
I opened up his weapon,
uh, and I went ahead
and took a brush and cleaned it out.
And then I loaded the last dummy in there.
Alec Baldwin
arrived on set, sat in the pew.
Hannah, the armorer,
appeared on my left-hand side
and said, "Let's do the gun check."
And she said,
"I put dummy rounds in the gun."
And I just spun
the cylinder for him completely.
I saw what appeared to me
to be dummy rounds.
Halyna is standing to the right
of the cameraman to my left.
She's saying, "Yeah, right there.
What-- how does that feel?"
I go, "Now, you want to see me
cock the gun?"
She goes, "Well, tilt it down
and just kind of cheat it,
so I can see your thumb.
Great, I like that."
99% of the time, you got a-- a tent
that's got a-- a number of video monitors.
that are showing the camera's view.
The director and the DP, typically,
they stand in video village
where they're looking at the exact shot
of what's gonna be on film.
They're, you know, 20, 30 feet away.
And so, that day, there was a walkout.
We didn't have video village that day,
and so because of that,
they put Halyna and Joel...
in front of the camera.
We're aiming, and she's instructing me.
Finally, I said, "Now, do you
wanna see me pull the hammer back?"
She was actually looking
right at the shot like this, getting...
you know, telling camera
what she wanted him to do.
So, the only thing between her
and the gun was her own hands?
Yes. Yes.
I know I came back in,
and I came up behind her shoulder,
and I was trying to get a look
over her shoulder.
It sounded like an explosion.
Sound and the smoke, and it was so loud.
First thing I did was I turned my head
and I go, "Oh, man."
Oh, my God. Fuck!
"Hannah's gonna be getting yelled at now."
Are they okay?
I say, "Wait, was it the gun?"
And Dave said, "Yeah, it was the gun."
I screamed out like, "Oh, my God,
Joel, I am so sorry."
If someone were in a scene
and they're gonna get shot in the chest...
...I would have a button,
and I would fire that little charge--
it's called a squib--
that would send the blood flying.
And my first thought,
I looked down at my hand at the button,
and I thought to myself,
"Why the hell did we squib her?"
That was just my first thought.
I saw this, and-- and I looked down,
and there's no-- no button.
And that's when I said,
"Oh, my God, she's been shot."
You know, I-- I said, "What happened?"
And someone said, uh,
"The gun went off. Halyna got shot."
And so, I went directly to her
to try to figure out what was going on.
And I said, "I need Matt, because Matt
has had previous medical experience."
I'm a combat soldier,
as well as a first responder,
as well as a former police officer.
The medic pointed to Joel,
and I started taking care of Joel.
Joel stepped back and took off his jacket,
and he was looking around,
and he was like, "Am I bleeding?"
I kind of remember
feeling like somebody
hit me in the shoulder with a bat.
I couldn't really move anything.
I was laying this way
and she was laying that way.
And I remember just sort of locking eyes
with her for a minute.
I turned around and I just--
I quickly ran over to her,
and she was down on the ground,
and her back was up against the dolly.
And-- you know, I said, "Are you okay?"
She looked up at me,
said, "I can't feel my legs."
I was patrolling on the east side
of Santa Fe County.
Dispatch advised there was
an accidental shooting at Bonanza Creek.
Looks like the meds are here at the gate.
Tell them that I'll...
...they could follow us in.
They said they had two victims down
with gunshot wounds,
a male and a female.
I start looking around,
and, um, I see it's just complete chaos.
I need you to know who's in charge.
Everybody stops what
they're doing right now.
- This is a crime scene.
- Yes.
Okay, everybody stops what they're doing,
and I need the film secured.
It was just horrible. Horrible.
My job was to secure the scene.
Uh, the second thing was--
was to find out where the gun was.
'Cause does that person have a gun?
Are they gonna use it again?
I-- I really didn't know.
- You're in charge, ma'am?
- Yes, I am.
I need to know
where the gun's at right now.
Yes. Bro? Bro?
Armorer, I need to know
where the guns are at.
- Right there.
- Go and get 'em.
Right there.
Hi, I'm here.
How do I know this is the gun?
- That's the gun.
- Okay.
- Come with me.
- Okay.
Do you have those rounds I gave you?
- What? No.
- The... the...
- They're on the cart.
- Are they?
- I don't know. I didn't see them.
- Well, who would you give 'em to?
- I gave 'em back to you.
- I gave...
I'll get-- I'll get 'em.
Are these the rounds here?
So, okay, um...
- You have rounds here.
- There should-- okay, no.
So, this is the one, I'm pretty sure.
I'm-- this is the-- that's the one.
And I-- okay. Sorry.
- You're okay, just relax.
- I'm sorry.
- Just relax.
- I'm so scared. I'm sorry.
No, you're all right. Just relax.
So, here's the box that I got them out of.
Okay. Leave 'em right there.
Just leave 'em right there, okay?
- Relax. I just need you to--
- I'm so sorry.
I just need you to relax.
Just relax, okay?
I know everything on a movie set's fake.
But as soon as we got there,
everything was real.
Are you doing okay?
- No, I'm not actually.
- Okay. Yeah.
Um, crazy series of events.
So, um, we're requesting that you
and Miss Gutierrez,
uh, conduct interviews back at
the Santa Fe County Sheriff's office.
I don't know if this is
suspected blood or real blood?
- Oh, this is fake. Yeah.
- Fake, okay.
Um, and we're gonna go talk
to Miss Gutierrez right now,
'cause we're gonna request
the same information.
Who is that?
Uh, the-- the armory specialist. Alright.
Um, she's a little, uh,
sh-- shaken up, so...
A lot of people went into shock.
They basically shut down.
You start losing higher functions.
- You doing okay?
- No!
In the back of the unit,
she was just hyperventilating.
As a person,
I know either she did something wrong
or she let something happen.
You know, it's, um...
disbelief, uh...
"What?"
Then, they eventually-- this is hours--
took us into this one big, like, tent room
where we would eat, and they said...
You guys hear the helicopters up here.
Um, out of respect,
so we can do a thorough
and proper investigation,
I would ask you for cooperation
on not to speak to any of the media,
say it's an active investigation,
no comment, and-- and go on your way.
The paparazzi blocked in both gates.
We couldn't get out,
and the news helicopters were above us,
and we were just kinda stuck.
We didn't really know
the extent of anything,
'cause, you know,
why would you expect anything
to be that bad in the movie set?
It should never be that bad.
And then, what-- there was
a medic that came down.
He said, "She's gonna be alright."
Yeah, he was like, "She's gonna be fine."
I-- I glommed onto that...
and trusted that,
and the way he said it, it felt, um...
I felt a lot better then.
Hannah was taken
to the-- the sheriff's department
to-- to be interviewed,
Alec and-- and myself.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say may be used against you
in court or other proceedings.
You have the right
to consult with an attorney
before making any statement
or answering any questions.
Okay, it's just an interview
about what happened today.
- And how old are you?
- Twenty-four.
So, can you tell us what happened today?
I was...
This is a scene in the church.
You come in, and there's a lot
of disarray, there's benches tipped over.
And I sat here, and the camera was here,
and she was here, and Joel was here.
"She" being Halyna?
- Halyna.
- Okay.
And it was a very tight shot
of him pulling out the gun
from his holster.
There was no-- I heard no plan of firing.
There was no need of putting
any kind of blanks in it or anything.
It was just, tight shot of him
pulling it out and going like this.
So, I loaded it with
five of the dummy rounds
before lunch, and there was one
that wouldn't go in.
And so, when we got back from lunch,
I took the, like, little cleaner guy.
I cleaned it out really quick
and I put another dummy in there.
She cleans the barrel every time,
and she checks that the rounds
are all cosmetic rounds.
As you're loading it, do you do...
and check every single time?
- Yeah.
- Every round?
Yeah.
And you did it on this time too?
- I did it.
- Okay.
She hands me the gun.
I'm assuming she's done it the right way.
She's done it the last two weeks.
I put it in the holster.
You're assuming you have
a cold gun, there's no problem.
- Right.
- And again, a cold gun I'd had--
every time we've used guns
on this film the last two weeks,
we've never had one problem. Never.
I pull it out slow for rehearsing.
We're not filming anything.
I pull it out slow...
And as soon as I cock it, bang!
And I jump, 'cause I mean, you obviously--
that's the last thing
- you think is gonna happen.
- Mm-hmm.
And what I'm curious about
is what came out of that bullet
that went through her body
and into his shoulder.
I'm wondering if your department
is prepared to go find out
what comes out of his shoulder surgically.
- Is that a live round?
- That's what we are actually looking at.
Is that a li-- 'cause I don't--
it doesn't make any sense otherwise.
- Yeah.
- It hits her in the arm,
it comes out her shoulder,
goes into his shoulder.
And he just told me on the phone,
I talked to Joel.
He said, "They showed me the X-ray,
and the shape of the thing
in my shoulder is the shape of a bullet."
At the hospital,
they just kept telling me,
"There's a bullet in you,
there's a bullet in you."
And I'm like, "Nope.
You're wrong, I'm right."
'Cause I kept insisting
it couldn't have been that,
'cause that's not how movies work.
That's a big bullet, man.
They just got sick of me
bitching about it,
at a certain point, show me the X-ray.
It's like, "Shut up, here's a bullet."
And even then, I'm like, "No."
Because it looked... fake.
The X-ray just looked so like,
"Here's a bullet in the middle
of an X-ray."
And, uh, it's just so unheard of
that that could even be a thing.
- Uh, I could actually show that to you.
- What?
- What was in his shoulder, we did--
- Did they take it out?
That's a bullet.
That's not a movie bullet.
That's a bullet.
- It is a bullet, yeah.
- How did that happen?
Somebody put a live round in the gun.
Not only did I rehearse with a hot gun,
I rehearsed with a gun
that had a bullet inside it.
If that's what came out of his sh--
this is the most horrifying thing
I've ever heard in my life.
I am speechless.
We're here shooting,
everything was going fine.
Joel is my friend.
- I'm one of the producers on this movie.
- Mm-hmm.
We've developed this movie together
for three years.
I left my wife and six kids in New York
to come here for a month
to shoot this movie,
and I'm the one that shot the gun today
that had a live bullet
go through that woman's body
and into his body.
And I need to know, how did that happen?
Where did that bullet come from?
Where did a li-- there's--
there are no live rounds
in our kit, I'm told.
There's just...
There's no explanation, there's--
you know, to answer your question,
there's-- you know,
I've been pretty adamant about it.
There's no-- absolutely no reason
to ever have live, real ammunition...
on a film set.
And this is why
it's not adding up to us either.
Your brain just did not...
accept the fact that there was
a live round ammunition
on a film set.
- I'm, like, flabbergasted by this.
- Mm-hmm.
Um, I can't fucking imagine
how that happened.
I don't know.
I wish I would've checked it more.
I do have some very
unfortunate news to tell you.
- What?
- Um, she didn't make it.
No!
Yeah.
So, but Joel's still at the hospital...
but the other person involved
didn't make it.
Sorry.
I didn't want you to hear it...
outside of here.
And what's so fucked...
is before-- we had cops at set...
and we had people
from production at the hospital.
Before we heard anything
officially that she had passed,
it came out online.
Someone was like... "She died."
And he's-- what? I was like, "No, no."
"Go to this website," you know?
And I was like...
this-- this cannot be right.
All of a sudden, I just started
seeing pockets of people
as they f-- read the news,
just started seeing po--
pockets of people just like break down.
You're trying to hold on to hope.
And, um...
it was the worst possible outcome
for the day.
I just broke.
I just...
When Alec finally came down...
I've never seen that look.
Like his guts were ripped out.
And he was like,
"I don't-- I don't-- I don't--
I don't know what happened,
I didn't-- I..."
And at that point, everyone's like, "What?
How could there be a bullet?
That-- that's-- how, how, how?"
That night, I've never before
or since had a moment like that, where...
I'm laying there and I have this,
you know, wound in my shoulder,
and I'm sort of-- I get--
I remember thinking that night,
I'm like...
I just-- I didn't want to--
I hoped I didn't wake up the next morning.
There wasn't a why about it,
I just felt so devastated...
that I just thought,
maybe this is a good place
for it to all stop, you know?
And then I did wake up the next morning.
And we begin with that
deadly movie set tragedy.
- Actor Alec Baldwin firing a prop gun.
- ...fired a prop gun.
- Accidental shooting.
- Fired a prop gun.
Tonight, the production has been halted
and the investigation is underway.
I was driving home from New Mexico,
and my phone starts blowing up
with calls from reporters and everything.
And my husband called a little bit,
he's just like,
"There's helicopters over our house.
What's going on?"
I've never experienced
anything like it, it was horrible.
Who do you blame for
the shooting, Alec?
What people really wanted
from this was entertainment.
The dead woman's widower
had the heart-wrenching task
of bringing the cinematographer's
belongings
from the film set back to their beach home
in Venice, California.
Coming home to, you know,
people kind of hiding in the bushes.
They want a picture of the guy
that got shot by Alec Baldwin.
That's what they wanted.
Hey, Hannah, um, I'm a reporter.
What-- Hannah, got any comment?
It's surreal to turn on CNN,
and there's your face.
Now, we know that the other individual
that is a focus of the investigation
is the assistant director, Dave Halls.
We're waiting to hear from him.
Seemed like there
wasn't a, a, a press organization
in the world that didn't
want to talk to me.
And then, social networking stuff,
that blew up.
It was crazy.
Investigators are trying to determine
how a loaded prop gun
made it into the hands
of actor Alec Baldwin.
Joining us now is Sheriff Adan Mendoza
and District Attorney
Mary Carmack-Altwies.
Sheriff, obviously,
this is still ongoing investigation,
but are you able to tell us
how a live bullet got into the gun,
and how-- how close
you and the FBI might be
in determining what exactly happened?
Uh, that's gonna be, uh,
the-- the million-dollar question,
is how a live round ended up
in the revolver
that, uh, Mr. Baldwin fired.
The sheriff's office, they were building
a criminal investigation case.
We got statements
from the three individuals,
Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Halls,
and Miss Gutierrez.
I'd say it was probably
a little too narrow.
There's no way this is only
limited to three people. This--
You can't have a culture that stems
from a low-level employee,
one actor, and one member of management,
when there are much more hands at play.
Every worker in America
has a right to a safe workplace,
and that's OSHA's purpose,
is to en-- enforce that right.
Ultimately,
what I would like to do is
get pictures of where
the incident actually occurred.
Okay.
Film doesn't exactly fit
into a traditional OSHA mold
of this is a factory,
or this is a construction site.
I had probably dozens of questions
right off the bat.
During your time
on this production, how did it feel?
Attitude on set,
we were actually a pretty good crew.
They're very professional.
Like, it was all
very manageable. Like, I could handle it.
My gauge for this workplace
was that it was a good-- good culture.
Um, where it wasn't
was on the safety aspect.
To the latest on the fatal film set
shooting involving Alec Baldwin.
In just a moment,
we will speak exclusively
with the former first camera assistant
on the film Rust,
who resigned one day before the shooting,
in part over safety concern claims.
Lane, thank you
for joining us this morning.
You know, you actually weren't on set
the day of the shooting.
You resigned the day before
for several reasons,
including safety concerns.
Specify what those safety concerns were.
Well, what I put in my resignation letter
was, uh, lax COVID policies,
and specifically gun safety,
a lack of rehearsals,
a lack of, you know, preparing the crew
for-- for what we were doing that day.
Why did you feel
the need to speak publicly
so quickly after it happened?
Ooh, I didn't even want to.
For me, it felt like
they didn't really care
about, like, the crew being safe.
We wanted them to solve these problems.
It very quickly felt like somebody
was gonna get hurt
if something didn't change.
Through our interviews,
we were able to determine
that nobody was shooting
recreationally on set.
- But everyone references a misfire or two.
We were inside of a cabin set,
I was standing there,
we were getting ready to shoot,
and the firearm just went off
in the stunt double's hand.
I remember him going, "Whoa!"
And like, everybody was...
everybody was startled.
Seeing how, you know,
firearms were handled on set,
like, began to really bother me
and just how people would hold guns
and, you know,
firearms getting pointed at people.
Um, you know, I think, uh--
I think everything really came to a head
on the 16th of October, when the--
we had the two negligent discharges.
The very first weapons misfire
should have been an immediate red flag.
"Stop the work,
let's find out what happened."
Um, no one needs
to lose their job over it.
It's not the end of the world,
but you can't just ignore it.
And it was very shortly after
that first one,
that the second discharge happens.
When the second discharge happened,
that's the moment I texted the producers.
They took his complaint,
and... "Thank you for your time.
Um, we'll make a note of that."
Nothing ever actually happened.
Dave Halls doesn't know
he's supposed to investigate an accident.
As the safety coordinator,
after a misfire,
certainly, that would
be something to review.
- Did you review what happened?
I did not review.
Even Hannah
said she thought it was weird
that nobody ever asked her questions.
Did anyone ever sort of say anything?
- No, and so that's--
- Did they talk to Sarah
- or something like that?
- That was the crazy thing.
Um, I fully expected
getting canned after that.
If they did, or if anyone
talked to production about it,
it was not addressed to me.
You would expect that the people
who are in charge of production,
the producers, like the--
the adults in the room
would be adults in the room
and put stops to certain things,
and would put stops to safety issues,
and that just never happened.
Did you try to convince Halyna
that it was unsafe for herself?
I was-- I was worried about her safety,
but I-- I...
I didn't get a chan--
I didn't-- I didn't tell her.
You know, I didn't ever go, you know,
"You should leave, this is unsafe."
You know?
And-- and I should have.
The day we quit felt kind of bittersweet
'cause we were sticking up for ourselves.
Like, we were showing these producers,
"We're not gonna take your shit anymore.
Like, we're-- we're done."
But then, the moment Halyna arrived,
it-- like, all of our hearts dropped,
'cause she looked, like, blindsided.
She did not understand what was going on.
She's like, "What's going on?"
We're like, "We're-- we're leaving.
Like, we're done, like..."
She's like, "I don't understand.
Like, it feels like I'm losing
my best friends, and, um..."
My expectations was that we would leave,
and then that they would shut down
for a day and look at their safety things.
I was-- I was very surprised
that they might continue working.
I heard her, uh...
her monitor wasn't working,
and she had to...
see the frame from the Steadicam,
and I was like, well, if I was there...
I could have put her monitor
outta harm's way, I could have...
You know, I always made sure
that she was out of the danger.
Like, anytime the gun was pointed,
I would make sure that monitor was safe.
Patrick, go this way.
Sounds good. Speed.
Why wouldn't she have walked off?
My assumption, it's--
you know, and all I can do is assume.
Um, you know, she had a great
relationship with Joel.
She was very excited
about making a Western.
And I-- you know,
as a filmmaker, as an artist,
you know, when you get opportunities
like that, it's very hard
to kind of step away from yourself.
We're all creatives, we're all artists,
and we just wanna make our art.
You know,
that kinda sometimes, uh, blinds us
to, like, the craziness around it,
you know?
You know, we don't make art
with paintbrushes.
We make art with explosives and gunpowder.
Everybody on a movie has their
individual experiences that they lived.
And Lane talked about his experience,
and the media sort of picked that up
and ran with it.
It just sort of becomes
that one thing in the media's eyes.
Nothing is nuanced.
...where a half dozen members
of the camera department
walking off the Santa Fe set...
...also said that there had
been guns that accidentally discharged...
...that corners were cut
on this set in some regards.
I think corners
were definitely cut on this set.
And in reality,
it was just a remarkably complex thing.
And these days,
everybody's got an opinion,
and you can just put it online
and pay no consequences,
and never think
about the people it's hurting.
They're running with their accusations
about Alec Baldwin.
Why did you kill that lady?
You killed that lady and got no jail time?
This is how the press machine works.
He's a cuckoo bird. He's a nut job.
And usually, uh,
when there's somebody like that,
you know, this-- he-- in my opinion,
he had something to do with it.
There are two realities, right?
And they exist in parallel,
but they don't intersect a ton.
There's the reality that the sort of world
has for the situation,
this reality of, you know what's going on
because you've lived it and you're in it,
and they're not always the same.
Have you talked
about the storyline of Rust?
It is about the rush to judgment.
"There's gotta be somebody at fault."
I thought you were gonna say,
"It's about an accidental shooting."
A major portion of the movie
is about an-- an accidental shooting
and the aftermath of that.
You're just living this normal life,
and then somebody
just tips you into a blender.
And now, you're just sort of bouncing
around this blender, nothing makes sense.
My kids are in the car crying.
Because you guys are following them
- and they know.
- And all I wanna do, as a courtesy to you,
I came to talk to you.
I'm not allowed to comment
on the investigation.
I talk to the cops every day.
- Sorry.
- What other questions
- do you have, other than that?
- You met with the, uh,
the-- the, um...
I forget her name in the moment.
- But you met with her family in the days--
- Halyna.
- Yes, I met with her husband.
- Her name is Halyna.
If you're spending
this much time waiting for us,
- you should know her name.
- You don't know her name?
- Her name is Halyna.
- Come on. Halyna Hutchins.
I met with her husband Matthew
and her son, yeah, that's right.
It was just consumed.
Just an ugly frenzy around-- around it.
And they sort of erased her
from it really quickly.
Were you at the memorial?
That might be where we met, right?
- Yeah.
- What was that like for you?
Well, being there was actually really--
it was really cathartic and wonderful,
because this was the first time
I was surrounded
by the people she knew best.
I personally admire her courage,
her artistry, her tenacity...
One thing that was really wonderful
was that that was the first time
that I got to meet Matt face to face.
And it was funny
because I was kind of a wreck,
and Matt had his head on straight,
and was telling me, "It's gonna be okay."
She would have complained
that she wasn't supposed
to become famous for who she was
but for her art.
Action!
Growing up,
in the Arctic Circle,
on a military base,
with not that much to do,
I was mostly...
studying and watching movies.
We both came from different
countries to Los Angeles
to study at AFI, study cinematography.
It's not very often for a female
to study this kind of subject.
- Stop it! Gorgeous.
Right, right.
I moved to the States
because I already was
really interested in film,
and I wanted to
work my way up
and do as much as I can.
She was very much a role model for me.
I was like, "I want to be like her.
I wanna be successful cinematographer,
with a family, with a kid."
We're all angry. Like, why her?
How did this happen?
Whoa.
As I'm learning more
about the culture on this set,
the question of who is the boss
is something we have to ask repeatedly.
In this case, we have
a multitude of producers.
Their direct subordinates
would be Gabrielle Pickle
and Row Walters,
and, uh, by extension, Dave Halls.
They're all calling shots
on the work floor.
They're all making decisions.
They have hired Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
My name is Hannah Gutierrez.
I go by Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
And how did you end up
working on the Rust movie set?
Did you apply-- it sounds like
you didn't apply for this job.
Uh, no, not really.
Um, a lot of things in the film industry
are word of mouth.
And Row had mentioned
that they were running outta time,
and that, uh, two armorers had bailed
on them at the very last second,
and that they could not find
anybody in Albuquerque.
And that's why they ended up,
uh, choosing me.
Did you feel like
you had enough time and resources
to perform your armorer job duties?
Um, pretty much absolutely not.
And anyway, um, so basically,
I-- I normally have a lot
more time in the scene
to just focus on the weapons,
but due to my second job
being key assistant props,
there were a lot of times...
Hannah is only afforded
eight days as an armorer.
It's at a higher pay rate.
The rest of her time
would be as a prop assistant,
which is a lesser pay rate.
She was told by Gabrielle Pickle,
"You're spending too much
time on your firearms tasks."
"By the way,
you left a firearm unattended.
You need to pay more attention
to your firearms."
Well, which is it?
"Hurry up, but also pay attention,
but hurry up and you're taking too long."
Definitely just threw me for a loop
that somebody would want me
to not focus on the weapons.
I told them that basically
I needed time to clean the guns,
and that we needed more training time,
um, particularly with Alec.
They gave me one maintenance day,
which you're supposed to clean them
at the end of every day
to make sure that they work right.
And Gabrielle said no more training days,
and we never got to do
our last training day with him.
Where is management's priority?
Are we pushing production,
production, production,
over people's safety due to money?
It's bad enough now in movies,
they don't have enough money,
to make movies.
And that's - I did notice that
on this show.
They were super cheap,
and they were cheaping it out
every freaking way they could,
and that's why they ended up
with the lowball armorer.
Because she was the only one
who would do it
for the money they would give her.
And now, here we are.
But every accident is proceeded
by a series of failures,
which is why we issued a willful citation.
There was enough input
from management, enough knowledge,
enough warning, enough complaints,
um, all of these red flags,
and management said,
"Well, let's just move on."
We call that plain indifference.
Hannah is a symptom of an illness.
She's not the illness.
I got a call from the District Attorney
for Santa Fe.
I kind of expressed to her my reservations
about whether or not
a criminal prosecution
in this case was appropriate.
And she said, "Just let me
tell you about the facts."
So...
Obviously, everybody has said, you know...
No one ever suspected
live rounds to be on the set.
Yeah. That's a given.
Live rounds aren't allowed.
Absolutely not,
and especially wouldn't
have been brought to set,
or anything like that, either.
- Right.
- So the thing is...
There are other live rounds
that were found in other various places.
Really?
Not in that box.
Really?
Where were they found?
I'll go through the pictures
because I can't...
There's like so many
different areas, and...
I'm going to go over that
with you guys, okay?
Yeah. That's news to me. WOW.
These two,
were on the top of the cart.
Okay.
Suspected live rounds.
Okay.
Two out of the three of these
are suspected live.
This is on the top of the cart.
So, it's not like from a different area,
these were on the top oinf the cart.
Okay, yeah, I understand.
This is Alec's belt.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Also suspected live.
One of these two.
This is another box,
with one suspected live.
Okay.
Copy that.
Yeah. I'm not really sure about
this box.
Why would there be live ammo on the set?
I have no idea.
At this point,
it's kind of seeming like somehow
these were mixed in.
Did you ever do gun practice on this set?
Never.
Not once.
That's fucking crazy.
That's crazy.
That's like literally insane.
Six total.
Six-- Six-- six bullets total,
uh, live bullets
were floating around on that movie set.
And they had been
floating around on that movie set
since approximately October 10th.
They found live rounds on set.
That is absolutely unacceptable.
They believe
there were multiple live rounds.
How on earth was that even possible?
Oh, my God, on a set
where we are shooting guns every day,
the danger of that is horrifying.
I could have been the person
who shot someone,
or I could have been
the person who got shot.
Like, all of us feel that
who are around it.
Like, "Oh, my God,
we were firing guns every day."
- I can go to get 'em...
- Yeah...
- No one wanted to believe it.
- No one wanted to believe
that it could be a real bullet.
It was unthinkable.
It was-- nobody thought that
that could happen.
Sloppiness. It's just pure sloppiness.
Unprofessional.
The father of armorer
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed
speaking out to defend her.
As a father, are you concerned
that Hannah could go to jail?
No.
No.
The-- the sheriff's department
will get to the bottom of this.
I'm not worried about that at all.
Hannah Gutierrez had-- had a job.
The primary purpose
of her job is to make sure that--
that there isn't a live round
on that movie set,
that it doesn't get
mixed in, uh, with dummy rounds,
that all of those rounds are-- are tested
before they're put in the gun.
None of that happened.
With regard to Alec Baldwin,
he wasn't required to cock the gun
during that rehearsal
and he, uh, certainly wasn't required
to pull the trigger of the gun.
Uh, and there's evidence
that-- that he did those things.
He's got a real gun in his hand.
Uh, we know that he pointed it
at two people
because two people got shot.
Got countless people online saying,
"You idiot, you never point
a gun at someone."
Well, unless you're told it's empty,
and it's the director of photography
who's instructing you on-- on the angle
for a shot we're gonna do.
Never point a gun at somebody
unless you intend to shoot them.
So, yes, that rule was violated.
Clearly, Alec Baldwin
was pointing the gun towards Halyna.
The sad irony is that Halyna
was telling him where to point the gun.
Those of us that work in the movies,
we've all seen, many times,
guns being pointed at people.
This is a prop in a dramatic piece.
It's adding a dramatic element
to this scene.
We're not thinking
that this is an instrument of death.
- Do you feel guilt?
No. No.
I feel that there is--
I-I feel that-- that-- that...
someone is responsible for what happened,
and I can't say who that is,
but I know it's not me.
The idea that the person
holding the gun,
causing it to discharge
is not responsible,
is absurd to me.
Uh, every individual who touches a firearm
has a responsibility for gun safety.
So, that's how you think?
You th-- You think it was Alec Baldwin
was responsible for killing her?
Well, in the lawsuit that we filed,
we've detailed a number of ways
that he and others
were responsible for her death.
The family of Rust
cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
filing a wrongful death lawsuit
naming several crew members, producers.
They're looking to hold
a lot of people accountable.
Then, we get to Mr. Halls.
Mr. Halls is the checks and balances.
So, what Mr. Halls is supposed to do,
is he's supposed to make sure
that every round
that she's put in that gun is inert,
because we're not gonna leave
that job to just one person,
because we know that people make mistakes.
So, we're gonna make sure
that there's a second person
who's gonna also participate
in that check.
Hannah brought me the gun.
She opened up the-- the hatch...
and I saw three bullets.
And you only saw the three?
- I only saw the three.
- Okay.
Do you normally check all of them, or...
what-- what do you usually do?
- Should.
- Okay.
And he doesn't check.
I was negligent in--
in the inspection of that gun.
It could have been
a more thorough inspection.
I-- I pled guilty.
Pled guilty.
A thorough... inspection didn't happen.
I could have been a last line of defense.
Today, the Santa Fe County
Sheriff's Office
releasing its full investigation
into the tragic Rust movie set shooting.
Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office
released thousands of files.
Legal experts say the amount
of information released was unprecedented.
The family
of Halyna Hutchins is outraged.
Now, as the blame game
plays out in public,
it's the District Attorney
who will have the final say
over any potential criminal charges.
Just because it's an accident,
doesn't mean that it's not criminal.
They didn't mean to do it,
they didn't have the intent to kill,
but it happened anyway.
The trial of the film's
weapons handler began today.
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez
faces a maximum three years in jail.
She is in the courtroom all ready to go.
We are nearing the start
of the opening statements in her trial.
There she is.
Uh, she's got a much different look
than she did at the time of the shooting.
- You ready?
- Yes.
Okay. Okay, so I called the case.
So, this is a criminal case
commenced by the state,
charging, uh, the, uh, defendant
with a third amended criminal information.
I, uh, will read this to you
to remind you of what the charges are.
The difference
between the public perception
and, like, the personal perception,
there's such a chasm between it.
I know these people, and I was there,
and I'm watching things
that I was there for and saw.
Director of Photography
and as a byproduct of that camera team...
Even Hannah, it doesn't bring me any joy
to watch her go through this trial.
It's painful.
The internet is going to internet.
You know, the land of cowards
can be enraging because they're--
don't know anything about a movie set,
don't know anything
about the hearts of people involved.
Well, as you said,
we're gonna get a witness
who's gonna take the stand and explain
how that ammunition got to the set.
Yeah, the state showed
the jury police body cam video.
Jury could make a decision
on this case as early as next week.
I wanted to negotiate a plea
that would have kept her out of jail.
And it wasn't successful.
Every criminal defendant has
a constitutional right to-- to a trial,
and that was the decision that she made.
The evidence in the Gutierrez trial
clearly indicated
that Hannah Gutierrez had a job
to make sure that these guns are safe,
make sure that all
of this ammunition is inert.
It is my opinion,
and I believe that we proved it,
that she's not checking the ammunition.
She loaded a live round
into Mr. Baldwin's gun,
uh, and-- and that was
her primary failure.
Where did the bullets
actually come from?
I believe that the evidence
demonstrates that Hannah Gutierrez
brought those live rounds on set.
Did you ever discover any evidence
that Hannah Gutierrez
was the person
who brought the live rounds on set?
I guess it was circumstantial.
What circumstantial evidence
are you referring to?
She, uh, identified in her interview,
and I asked her to show me
what a box of hers would look like.
So, we had two boxes
of .45 Long Colt dummies
that were mine from the last show.
She identified one on her phone.
That picture on her phone
matched exactly that box that we had.
So, here's the box that I got them out of.
Okay. Leave 'em right there.
Leave 'em right there.
I don't know if she got
those live rounds from her dad,
if she-- if she picked 'em up
at a gun store.
I have no idea.
Uh, I can tell you that the evidence
indicates that she brought them
onto the set.
And I guess the question is,
well, why does it matter
- where they came from?
- It doesn't.
It doesn't matter where they came from.
The only reason that it matters
in Hannah's case
is because it's an additional level
of negligence and recklessness.
We're learning that the jury
has reached a verdict.
Let's keep listening in live.
We find the defendant,
Hannah Gutierrez,
guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
We will set a sentencing date.
And we need an order of remand.
What-- what were your thoughts?
I mean, I certainly don't feel good
about someone going to prison.
There's no win there.
And so, I just kind of felt awful.
I don't know
that there's any answer to this,
'cause I'm sure if it was my wife
or mother, I'd want justice.
But I don't know
how you get justice from an accident.
The sloppiness that Hannah
displayed that first day of mine...
I wish I had said something to her,
and I wish I had said something to Alec.
But I don't wanna make waves, see?
And would my alerting somebody,
would that have changed anything?
That's what...
gnaws at me.
There was part-- part of me
that felt that there is justice.
Another part of me,
I felt like I miss my friend,
and it's so personal to me, and it's--
because somebody's in jail
doesn't make me...
feel that I have my friend back.
You were the armorer.
You alone turned a safe weapon
into a lethal weapon.
But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive,
a husband would have his partner,
and a little boy would have his mother.
Please take her.
The Rust movie armorer,
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed,
has been sentenced
to the maximum amount of time in prison,
18 months, in her role for the death
of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Whenever there's some
big thing that happens with Rust,
there's always a certain amount
of devastation that comes with it.
So, it's just-- it--
and it never seems to end.
Mr. Baldwin,
would you like to say anything today?
Mr. Baldwin, how confident are you
- that the jury will find you not guilty?
- ...end in jail time?
Alec Baldwin's stoic as he entered
this Santa Fe, New Mexico courthouse.
A central question for jurors,
did Baldwin pull the trigger
or did the gun misfire?
Baldwin has long maintained his innocence.
The defense will make the case
that it's not the job of an actor
to ensure a prop gun
doesn't contain live rounds.
It's not his job to make sure
that there isn't a live round in that gun.
It is his job to handle the gun safely
once it's in his hand.
Opening statements
started this morning,
and so far,
two witnesses have been called.
Baldwin has pleaded not guilty.
If convicted, he faces
up to 18 months in prison.
Real-life drama playing out
in the trial of Alec Baldwin.
You could feel
the tension in the courtroom
as the case started to unravel.
Alec's trial was surreal,
his lawyer catching onto that piece
of missed evidence
and then just honing in on it.
They buried it.
They put it under a different case
with a different number.
We asked, "We want all the live ammunition
from the Rust set that you collected.
It's not there."
That evidence,
an envelope of ammunition
turned into investigators
earlier this year,
allegedly from the same batch
that killed Rust cinematographer
Halyna Hutchins.
This is a wild goose chase.
This has no evidentiary value whatsoever.
They were able to convince her
that this ammunition,
dropped off two and a half years later,
was somehow relevant
to the case against Mr. Baldwin.
They convinced her of that.
Now, this is critical evidence in the case
that was never disclosed to us.
This case should be dismissed, Your Honor.
This evidence is material.
The late discovery of this evidence
during trial
has impeded the effective use
of evidence in such a way
that it has impacted the fundamental
fairness of the proceedings.
It was literally a-- a movie,
it was so surreal.
Your motion to dismiss
with prejudice is granted.
We are in recess.
I was relieved
to see that it was dismissed,
and I could see the relief on him,
and just on a human level,
like, what he's been carrying with this,
and that he'll carry it forever.
A dismissal with prejudice
means that a prosecution
can't bring back this case.
It's done. It's over.
Alec Baldwin is the equivalent
of not guilty.
Outside the courthouse,
the prosecutor asked
if she let the Hutchins family down.
No, we didn't.
We did everything humanly possible
to bring justice, uh, to Halyna
and to her family,
and we're proud of the work that we did.
Uh, again, we disagree
with the court's decision,
but we have to respect it.
Mr. Baldwin, anything to say?
Mr. Baldwin, would you like
to say anything today?
Turn now to some bizarre
and surprising developments
in the production of Rust,
which announced today
that filming will restart this spring.
There's backlash that we're all getting,
you know, and a lot of people
wouldn't touch this project
with a 10-foot pole,
But those aren't-- those are people
that weren't involved, you know?
We're-- We're-- we lived it.
They said, "Matt wants it done."
And I said, "Look, I believe you.
But I'm not coming back for anything
unless I hear it from his mouth."
And they put me on a Zoom with him,
and he said he wanted it finished,
and-- and she would want it finished,
and people to see her work,
and, of course.
I was completely angry,
and not understanding, like,
how could this happen?
But then, I spoke to Halyna's mom,
and hearing her say
that she wants this movie to be done,
and she wants Halyna's work to be finished
and go out on the screens,
I felt like, you know what?
Like, we can't do anything for Halyna,
but we can do something for her mom.
-
I know that filming of the movie
Rust is resuming.
I wanted this to happen.
Maybe some people didn't want it.
But I wanted this to happen
because it was a big work of Halyna.
She wanted this movie to be finished.
I don't know why, but she really wanted
to finish this movie.
I also wanted this to happen for Andros.
I want him to be proud of his mother.
I will watch the movie.
Absolutely.
I want to see my daughter's work.
It's her big work.
Okay. There.
Maybe we can move that mountain
over just a little bit?
Hey, Dabney, can you go there?
- Does anybody?
- I got you guys, don't worry.
Got that?
And I'd like 80% less snow.
I think that's what Halyna would say.
You know, I think
a lot of people don't understand
how important every film
is to a cinematographer.
And it's like, you put everything into it.
You put your soul into it, and it--
and you know,
so much time and effort, and you give
a piece of yourself to the film.
And no one gets to watch her film
unless somebody finishes it for her.
There's a potential world
where we can use this,
because that shot turns into...
this, and that we can't use.
She fought me on this one.
Like, she wanted it, I didn't.
I'm like, "We're running outta time."
And she's like, "What you have
isn't dynamic enough."
You have things that were more like that.
- Mm-hmm.
- And I'm like, "Well, we don't have time."
She's like, "Well, make time."
- And so, we did, and now we have that.
- As the sun's going down.
You can't see the other one
that we actually did
because I didn't use it,
because this is dynamic,
- and the other thing wasn't.
- Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it's interesting.
Okay, well...
- we'll have to copy it exactly.
- Yeah.
Every image she made
that ends up on the cutting room floor,
like, breaks my heart.
Matt gave me her notebooks
from the set, and I--
- Did you bring 'em?
- I did. Do you want 'em now?
- 'Cause-- or later?
- Yeah.
- Okay, I'll bring 'em. Yeah.
- No, we're not doing anything else.
Okay, well, here.
- I could go through this forever.
- Yeah.
- This is really helpful actually.
- Oh, good.
She has, like, scene by scene,
like, what she's doing
and what the references are, and, like...
- Wow.
- It's really cool when it's like,
"Oh, that's--
that's exactly what I wanted to do."
People who maybe
just aren't creative don't understand
or could scoff at, at it feeling frivolous
to finish a movie.
It's not.
She devoted her life to-- to movies,
to cinematography.
There's nothing frivolous about that.
You know, revealing truth
through art, I mean,
what's-- what's frivolous about that?
At first, like, accepting
this task of, you know,
finishing this film for her
would-- would maybe--
you know, there were a lot of doubts
in my mind of maybe it's not right,
maybe it'll be terrible
and I'll feel bad, and maybe it--
you know, I can't do a good enough job.
But I feel like I wouldn't
ra-- rather be anywhere else.
Stay there and wide.
These were-- we got the same setup...
Guys, here we go!
B speed.
And background action. Action.
Coming back,
picking up where we left off,
reshooting some things,
being back in this wardrobe
that, like, I was in with her,
it felt like being alone
in like a sea of people.
I guess that's how, uh,
trauma and grief goes, you know?
This is my first day back,
and it's a little emotional, you know,
to see some of the crew from before,
and holding everything inside,
because I don't wanna burst into tears.
Here, bring this, sit down over here...
I'm glad there's a different
ending for the experience.
But, uh, this experience
will never be over
for anyone associated with it.
Even bother robbin' him no more?
That is great. Great...
It's something that will stick
with you forever, for sure.
It's been almost two years.
This is the first time
we've talked about it.
First time I've heard my son
talk about it.
Never has ever said a word.
It's just more sense of real loss.
I start walking?
It's hard to see some--
all the costumes,
and have her not here.
But I'm really glad that we're finishing.
It felt so...
...incomplete.
Rubber gun going in the holster.
- Can I see that rubber gun?
- You betcha.
Wow.
I can never be around a weapon
that'll fire again, in any circumstance.
I just-- I can't be around it.
I don't want anything to do with it.
I can't be near it.
There will be nothing that, uh, is capable
of any kind of discharge
in any way, shape, or form.
I mean, you might as well
be holding a paperweight.
You start to become hyper aware
of just how careful everyone has to be.
There's always gonna be a risk
because of the human factor.
But it's just about, uh,
everyone being conscious,
and everyone being aware,
and everyone being vigilant.
Andy, where are you?
- Right here.
- There you are.
Anything you want to add to that?
Yeah, I'm Andy the armorer,
and we also have
our two safety specialists here.
I'll make sure that you feel good,
you feel safe,
and you feel comfortable, okay?
When I first heard about Halyna,
I was beside myself.
I mean, my-- my heart sank.
I-- I felt terrible.
Dry firing heavy replica.
It never should have happened.
- One.
- Never.
Empty heavy replica.
This the one you're gonna use.
When I got the call, I thought, you know,
somebody has to do this,
and it-- it's-- it should,
you know, might as well be me.
Okay, guys. Dry firing.
And two more. Okay. There you go, sir.
- Ten outta six ain't bad.
- Not bad.
It's okay like that...
You know, whenever you're on a film set,
they're all treated as real weapons.
That way, everybody has
a heightened sense of safety.
I wanted to do it because of Halyna,
so that this show gets done safely,
so everybody's comfortable.
That's what the goal is, and...
everybody goes home.
Beautiful.
Everyone who knew Halyna
was crushed by her death.
and that includes the people
who worked on her last film, Rust.
After being here
and seeing what they went through,
it became so clear to me they were just
trying to finish it to honor her.
Go fast.
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
Okay, good. Good, good,
good, good, good, good, good.
Stay this, stay here. Stay here.
Perfect, perfect. Perfect, perfect.
Okay.
- That's a cut.
- Cut! Woo!
That is a wrap.
A picture wrap...
for Patrick and all of us. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.
Great work. Great work.
Thank you.
Finishing this movie feels like some step
towards, I don't know. Healing, I hope.
Everybody! One, two, three.
They're preserving
every shot they can of hers.
And it's so beautiful.
She had a specific look
that she was looking for on Rust.
She wanted the stark contrast.
A lot of sharp, a lot of light and dark.
I like, uh, stories that rooted
in reality or real characters,
but my favorite, uh, part
is actually creating, uh, the world
where the story will exist.
Genre doesn't really matter,
it's just the environment
you create around it
to convey the character's journey.
If I like the characters
and I like the-- the conflict
and the story itself--
if I wanna see this movie,
I would like to make it.
Ladies and gentlemen,
thank you for coming
to this remarkable screening.
It's a very special screening.
We organized this screening
because that was a dream
of Halyna Hutchins.
Halyna wanted to screen this film
at EnergaCAMERIMAGE Festival
where so many of her friends
gather every year.
- Oh, hey! Wow, everyone's already here.
- Yeah.
You know, it's been a long few years.
You know, it's gonna be seen soon,
and, uh, it's all outta my hands now.
I've probably spent too much time
in movie theaters in my life.
You expect the third act moment
of clarity,
or for things to make sense,
or closure, or catharsis,
and they don't come. They just don't.
It's not the way life works.
Life is not a movie.
I'd like, at some point,
to have some sort of grand moment
where everything about what happened,
there's some kind of understanding of it.
I don't know.
You know, hope springs eternal,
I guess, we'll see.
I want to thank you all for coming
to come and celebrate my friend,
and to celebrate her art and her talent.
The movie itself
is this weird little thing
just kinda sitting in the middle
of all this discourse.
And what I really want is,
that there's just a couple of hours
where, like, that kinda quiets down
and goes away.
Let's take a breath and watch this movie,
watch her work,
appreciate her work, appreciate who
she was, how she saw the world.
You get to see it up on screen,
how she saw the world.
That's pretty amazing.
Cinematography is something that
you don't do by yourself.
A film shoot is too complicated
to be handled by one person.
There's no individual authorship.
Only a group product.
But the key to a successful film is
communication with your director,
and your team.
I'm gonna hold you up
Far beyond the sky
Where angels float, oh, oh
I'm gonna pull you in
To a place where
your light's still travelin'
What a gift to let you go
Oh, oh
And when the night is cold
And silence reappears
Like melted snow
Oh, oh
I'm gonna pull you in
To the place where
the stars are gatherin'
In the wind they let you go
Oh, oh...