Glen Powell
Gary Johnson
Hit Man
“He's not a killer, but he can pretend.”
2024
1h 56m
Director: Richard Linklater
Overview
A mild-mannered professor moonlighting as a fake hit man in police stings ignites a chain reaction of trouble when he falls for a potential client.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
6 min readMasks, Mirrors, and the Pleasure of Becoming Somebody Else
Richard Linklater’s Hit Man starts with a conceit so breezy it almost feels like a dare: what if the most ordinary man in the room turns out to be unusually good at pretending? That’s the movie’s engine, but also its little philosophical trap. latestnetflix.com's take is that Linklater has spent decades making films about talk, time, and the slippery business of self-invention; here, he folds those concerns into a crime comedy that keeps revealing itself as a romance, then a farce, then something nervier and stranger.
I came in expecting a lightweight genre lark. I left thinking about how often people build themselves from borrowed gestures and half-remembered roles.
What makes Hit Man more interesting than the typical high-concept crowd-pleaser is that Linklater doesn’t treat identity as a punchline. He treats it as a habit. Glen Powell’s Gary Johnson is a professor with the posture of a man who apologizes to chairs when he sits down, and the movie understands that his talent isn’t for violence but for reading the little social cues others miss.
He’s a kind of amateur anthropologist of bad intentions. When he starts impersonating a contract killer for police stings, the gimmick works because Powell plays Gary as someone who’s always been a few inches away from his own life. That distance matters.
Linklater keeps returning to it.
There’s been a fair amount of conversation around the film’s origin story — the 2001 Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth that inspired it, the fact that the real Gary Johnson was a Houston-area philosophy professor who became a remarkable undercover asset, the way Linklater and Powell used the premise to build something more elastic than a true-crime adaptation. That background helps explain why the movie feels less like procedural reconstruction than like a thought experiment with a heartbeat.
Linklater isn’t interested in documenting the case so much as in asking what happens when a person discovers that acting can become a way of moving through the world. He’s always been drawn to that borderland. Think of Before Sunrise, where speech is romance, or Bernie, where performance becomes social camouflage. Hit Man sits comfortably in that family, even if it arrives wearing fake facial hair and a bad leather jacket.
The movie’s central joke is also its most useful idea: Gary gets better at being “a hit man” precisely because he’s a less convincing version of himself. Each undercover persona he invents — the bland suit, the fake accent, the grim little mannerisms — isn’t really a disguise so much as an exaggeration of a possible self. Linklater stages these scenes with an almost comic patience.
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsGlen Powell’s Double Life: The True Story Behind Hit Man (2024)
Richard Linklater’s Hit Man (2024) isn’t just another action-comedy—it’s a rare Hollywood beast: a film based on a stranger-than-fiction true story, co-written by its leading man, and shot in the director’s Austin backyard. Here’s what we know about the making of this noir-tinged rom-com, latestnetflix.com contends, where a mild-mannered professor moonlights as a fake assassin and stumbles into real trouble.
From Real-Life Gig to Big Screen: The Gary Johnson Story
The film’s premise sounds like a pitch meeting gone wild: a philosophy professor in New Orleans gets roped into a police sting operation, posing as a hit man for undercover cops. But the wildest part? It actually happened. Hit Man is based on the real-life exploits of Gary Johnson, a college instructor who spent years playing the role of a contract killer for the NOPD 
. Johnson’s double life—juggling lectures by day and fake murder-for-hire gigs by night—became the foundation for Linklater and Powell’s script.
Powell, who stars as the fictionalized version of Johnson, didn’t just sign on to act; he co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater, marking his first major foray into screenwriting . The actor’s deep dive into Johnson’s story reportedly included interviews with the real professor, though details of those conversations remain under wraps. What’s clear is that the film leans into the absurdity of Johnson’s gig, blending dark comedy with the kind of romantic tension Linklater excels at (Before Sunrise, anyone?).
A Linklater Production: Low-Budget, High-Concept
If Hit Man feels like a throwback to the indie charm of Linklater’s early work, that’s no accident. The director, known for his Austin roots and lo-fi aesthetic (Slacker, Dazed and Confused), shot the film in his hometown with a modest budget and a tight-knit crew . While the evidence doesn’t specify exact figures, the production’s scale aligns with Linklater’s preference for practical locations and naturalistic performances over CGI spectacle.
The cast reflects this scrappy approach. Powell and Adria Arjona (as the woman who hires his "hit man" services) anchor the film, but the supporting players—including The Office’s Retta and The Walking Dead’s Austin Amelio—bring a mix of comedic and dramatic chops that feel plucked from Linklater’s usual ensemble playbook 
. Notably absent? Big-name cameos or studio-mandated reshoots. This is a director-driven project, plain and simple.
Release and Reception: A Netflix Gamble
Hit Man premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2023, where early buzz described it as a "charming, offbeat caper" . But the film’s path to audiences was anything but straightforward. After a brief theatrical run in select cities, Netflix swooped in, snagging the rights for a global streaming debut in May 2024 . The move aligns with the platform’s recent push into mid-budget, star-driven originals, though it’s unclear how the film’s hybrid release (theatrical first, then streaming) will impact its awards prospects.
Critics have been kind, praising Powell’s performance as a career-best turn—equal parts deadpan and smoldering—and Linklater’s ability to balance crime tropes with romantic whimsy . Still, the film’s tone is a tightrope walk: too much quirk risks alienating audiences, while too much noir could undercut its comedic edge. Early reviews suggest Linklater sticks the landing, but the real test will be whether Netflix’s algorithm gives it the spotlight it deserves.
Unanswered Questions and Rumors
For all the evidence we have, Hit Man’s production remains shrouded in a few mysteries:
- The Real Gary Johnson’s Role: Was Johnson involved beyond interviews? The evidence doesn’t say, but given Linklater’s documentary-like approach to some projects (Bernie, Apollo 10½), it’s plausible he contributed more than just anecdotes.
- Powell’s Writing Process: How much of the script came from Powell’s pen? The actor has called the film a "passion project," but specifics about his collaboration with Linklater are scarce .
- Netflix’s Marketing Push: Will the streamer lean into the film’s true-story angle, or bury it in the algorithm? The lack of a major trailer or press tour suggests the latter, but Powell’s rising star power (thanks to Top Gun: Maverick) could change that.
**Why Hit Man Matters**
In an era of franchise fatigue, Hit Man is a reminder that original, character-driven stories can still thrive—if they’re given the right mix of talent and creative freedom. Linklater’s fingerprints are all over it: the dialogue-heavy scenes, the Austin setting, the undercurrent of existential humor. Powell, meanwhile, cements his transition from rom-com sidekick (Anyone But You) to leading man with range.
The film’s biggest gamble might be its tone. Noir comedies are a tough sell, but if Hit Man finds its audience, it could join the ranks of cult favorites like The Nice Guys or Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. For now, it’s a love letter to the weirdos, the underdogs, and the guys who accidentally become someone else for a living.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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