Netflix's 'Hit Man' is based on a true story. Here's what the movie gets right and wrong about Gary Johnson's life. (2024)

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Fiction: Gary Johnson volunteered with the New Orleans Police Department

In "Hit Man," Gary's journey as a phone hitman begins with him volunteering for the New Orleans Police Department to help with their sting operations.

He initially works with their audio equipment. But when Jasper (Austin Amelio), an undercover cop, is suspended just before a sting operation, Gary takes his place as the fake hitman. Gary is successful, and the police decide to use him for future operations.

But according to the original 2001 Texas Monthly report, Johnson operated in Houston rather than New Orleans.

Linklater, who directed "Hit Man," told Texas Monthly in May that they originally set the movie in Houston, but there were no tax incentives.

"It was set to be a real Houston movie, with all of Houston's eccentricity. But our state thought otherwise, so off we went to New
Orleans, which is even more humid than Houston, I found out," Linklater said.

Texas Monthly reported in 2001 that Johnson worked with the police most of his life. He began his career as a military policeman in Vietnam before returning to his hometown to become a sheriff's deputy in a parish in Louisiana.

In the mid-1970s, he moved to Texas, where he worked as an undercover drug dealer with the Port Arthur Police Department. He later became an investigator for Houston's district attorney's office.

In 1986, the police became aware of a lab technician named Kathy Scott trying to hire a person to kill her husband. The DA used Johnson as a phony hitman to get a confession from her.

Johnson went undercover as a biker called Mike Caine and met Scott at a bowling alley in Houston, where she asked him to kill her husband. Scott was sentenced to 80 years in prison, and Johnson became the new undercover star in Houston.

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Fiction: Johnson taught at a college in New Orleans

In "Hit Man," Gary works full-time as a psychology professor at the University of New Orleans.

According to the 2001 Texas Monthly report, Johnson dreamed of teaching psychology in college. He took night courses at McNeese State University in Louisiana and tried and failed to enter the doctoral program in psychology at the University of Houston. Afterward, Johnson went to work with the DA and so never became a full-time college professor.

After his success as an undercover hitman, Johnson did teach courses on human sexuality and general psychology at a local community college, according to the report.

"His students, no doubt, think of him as just another mild-mannered professor, albeit one who has a tendency to drone on in his lectures about human beings' lack of coping skills during times of stress," Hollandsworth wrote.

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Fact: Johnson stopped a woman from hiring him as a hitman

In the movie, Gary excels at his fake hitman job until he meets Madison (Adria Arjona), a domestic violence victim who wants to murder her husband to escape his abuse.

Madison and Gary, who is undercover as a hitman called Ron, flirt when they first meet, and Gary decides on a whim to stop her from hiring him. Instead, he advises Madison to take her money, divorce her husband, and start a new life.

This is loosely based on a real case during Johnson's career.

Per the 2001 Texas Monthly report, a young woman was once referred to Johnson after she asked a Starbucks employee in Montrose, Houston, if they knew a hitman to get rid of her abusive boyfriend.

Johnson researched the woman and learned that her boyfriend regularly physically abused her, so he referred her to social service agencies and a therapist. He also got her into a women's shelter to help her escape.

It is the only time the Texas Monthly article describes Johnson helping someone trying to hire a hitman.

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Fiction: Johnson married Madison

Though the start of Gary and Madison's story is accurate in the movie, the rest is fictional. They never date, get married, or have children, and they never kill two people to hide their secret.

According to Hollandsworth's report, Gary married and divorced three times.

Like in the movie, he is friends with one of his ex-wives, Sunny.

"The true essence of Gary is that he is a loner," Sunny told Texas Monthly. "He'll show up at parties and have a good time, and he's always friendly, but he likes being alone, being quiet. It's still amazing to me that he can turn on this other personality that makes people think he is a vicious killer."

Powell and Linklater said they deliberately added this fictional element to make "Hit Man" interesting.

Linklater and several other screenwriters have tried to make Johnson's story into a movie since 2001.

"I just got kind of obsessed with it and over the years thought about it, but it never quite came together in my head as a movie because the story doesn't seem to go anywhere," Linklater said, referring to how the Texas Monthly article doesn't have an interesting conclusion.

Powell told Netflix that when he called Linklater about making the film in 2020, he wanted to focus on the woman Johnson helped.

"I told Rick, 'I think that's the story. That's the thread we need to pull,'" Powell said. "We still had the real Gary Johnson baked into our character, but the love story is where we started taking our creative license."

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Fact: Johnson owned two cats called Id and Ego

Both movie Gary and TV Gary own two cats named Id and Ego.

Texas Monthly reported in 2001 that Johnson also had a goldfish and spent his free time feeding his pets, tending to his garden, meditating, reading, or watching documentaries about animals.

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Fact: Johnson was a master of disguise

In the movie, Gary's costumes become more elaborate and his accents more eccentric as he gains confidence as a phony hitman.

The real Johnson was also a master of disguise, according to the 2001 Texas Monthly report. Hollandsworth described the undercover cop as "the Laurence Olivier of the field," referring to the famous 20th-century actor.

Hollandsworth added that Johnson was able to transform from a "sleek, skilled assassin" for some clients to a "wily country boy" for others.

But Linklater told Netflix's Tudum last month that Powell's costumes were more elaborate than Johnson's.

"It was Glen who really ran with those false identities that Gary creates for each of his cases," he said. "The real Gary did slight disguises, but not to the extent that we see in the film."

But Esmeralda Noyola, a secretary who worked with Johnson, told Texas Monthly in 2001 that the undercover cop was great at creating different voices and accents.

"It got to a point where I would be transcribing a tape of one of his murder-for-hire conversations, and I could not tell it was Gary on the tape," Noyola said. "Gary was that good at changing accents and disguising his voice."

Michael Hinton, a former supervisor of Johnson, told Texas Monthly in 2001 that Gary was "the perfect chameleon."

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Fact: Johnson used "All pie is good pie" as a codeword

Halfway through the movie, Gary develops a codeword with one of his clients.

They approach him in the diner and ask him about the pie he is eating.

He replies: "All pie is good pie."

The quote becomes Gary's catchphrase in the movie, and is a code word Johnson used in his undercover work.

According to the 2001 Texas Monthly report, a chemical plant worker once tried to hire Johnson to kill his ex-wife's new boyfriend. Johnson suggested they meet at a Denny's to discuss the plan, but the worker wanted a secret code to ensure they recognized each other.

When he arrived, the worker would say, "That looks like good pie."

"All pie is good pie," Johnson replied.

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Fact: Johnson died in 2022

During the credits, there is a tribute to the real Johnson that reveals he died in 2022.

Johnson died before "Hit Man" started filming.

Linklater told Texas Monthly in May that he never met Johnson but spoke to him several times over the course of a few years.

"I thought, okay, the film is actually happening now, and I wanted him to come visit the movie set," Linklater said. "But he wasn't returning my calls or emails."

Linklater reached out to Hollandsworth, who told him that Johnson had died.

Powell told Netflix he never spoke to Johnson but listened to the former cop's old recordings and read his police debriefs.

"I really wish I would have gotten a chance to meet him because Rick had a lot of reverence for Gary and who he was," Powell said. "I think Gary died the week before we started shooting, so he never got to see a cut of the film."

Powell added: "I'm really glad we have that tribute to him at the end of the movie, because I think he would have really appreciated the story."