The July 13, 2024, attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life stunned Republicans and Democrats alike, but it was hardly the first time an assassin sought to change the course of American history with a bullet. Now, a new documentary shines a spotlight on one of the men who tried to kill a sitting commander-in-chief—and gives him a chance, after more than three decades, to tell his own story.
Hinckley (streaming August 30) is a non-fiction film about John Hinckley Jr., who on March 30, 1981, shot President Ronald Reagan as he was exiting Washington, D.C.’s Hilton Hotel. The crime shocked the nation, as did the revelation that Hinckley had carried out his plot in order to impress Jodie Foster, the then-teenage actress who had mesmerized him in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Found not guilty by reason of insanity, Hinckley was institutionalized until his release in 2016—thus paving the way for him to speak about his life and actions in Neil McGregor’s forthcoming doc.
“I’m John Hinckley. I shot the President of the United States. When you shoot the president, you expect to be killed,” states Hinckley in the film’s theatrical trailer, during which he also discusses his fixation on Foster, whom he used to call and send letters to because “that’s just what an obsessed person does.” Moreover, he confesses that his motivation for trying to execute Reagan was more than a bit unhinged: “It’s a pretty big delusion to think you can shoot the President to impress somebody.”
