10 Biggest Details Hit Man Leaves Out From The Real Gary Johnson’s Life

Some of the true story details about the real-life Gary Johnson were left out of Hit Man. The new Glen Powell film features the Top Gun: Maverick breakout star in his most versatile role yet, playing a loner college professor who moonlights as an assassin for his local police department. Hit Man also became Powell’s highest-rated movie of his acting career after earning a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, slightly getting the edge over the massively successful box office hit Top Gun: Maverick, which earned a score of 96%. Since releasing on Netflix on June 7, 2024, the film has become one of the most popular titles on the streaming platform.

Hit Man is full of interesting twists and cleverly toys with the concept of identity through Powell’s dual portrayals of Ron and Gary, but still effectively carries some familiar tropes of beloved action comedies. Hit Man’s cast is also led by Adria Arjona who plays Madison, the unexpected love interest of Powell’s Gary Johnson. Madison believes that Gary is actually Ron, a stylish, confident, and very dangerous trained assassin. Already considered one of the best movies of Richard Linklater’s extensive career as a director and screenwriter, Hit Man blends several genres to create a well-balanced mix of screwball/romantic comedy, action-inspired thriller, and classic film noir.

Linklater based Hit Man on a Texas Monthly article written in 2001 by Skip Hollandsworth that first put the real-life Gary Johnson in a bright spotlight. The actual Gary Johnson, who passed away in 2022, assumed many aliases during his time as an undercover “hitman” with the Houston police department and found himself in unbelievable circumstances with potential clients, some of which are truly stranger than fiction. While there is currently no word of a Hit Man sequel, Linklater has been known for his impressive trilogies and spiritual sequels, meaning that the dynamic duo between him and Powell could continue sometime in the future.

10 Gary Johnson Helped A Woman Who Had Been Abused By Her Boyfriend

At least part of the inspiration for Adria Arjona’s Hit Man character Madison was inspired by a real-life situation that Gary Johnson had encountered. According to the Texas Monthly article, Gary helped out a potential client who was being physically abused by her boyfriend who went to Gary looking to have him killed. Instead of going through the traditional route of staging the sting operation that would lead to the woman’s arrest, Gary took matters into his own hands and helped the woman get the therapy and support she needed from available social services in order to leave the boyfriend safely and under professional guidance. It would be one of the rare situations in which Gary would break from his strategy.

9 Gary Johnson’s Most Famous Bust Was Houston Socialite Lynn Kilroy

It’s somewhat surprising that Linklater didn’t care to highlight the most famous bust of the real-life Gary Johnson’s career as an undercover. According to Texas Monthly, Gary “fooled one of Houston’s wealthier women, a 38-year-old beautiful blonde named Lynn Kilroy, the former vice president of the Houstonaires Republican Women, who is married to Billy Kilroy, the heir to a vast oil fortune.” Reportedly, Kilroy had only been married to her then-husband for one year before she started to express her dislike of him and as a result, found herself in a conversation with Gary Johnson after a man she was having an affair with spread word. Kilroy was arrested but avoided prison and was eventually released on probation.

8 Gary Had Other Aliases Such As Mike Caine, Jody Eagle, & Chris Buck

Apparently, Gary Johnson had many more aliases than the ones depicted in Linklater and Powell’s Hit Man. It’s somewhat unsurprising considering just how long the real-life Gary Johnson had been going undercover as a hitman. Some of his other popular real-life aliases included some simple and even ridiculous names such as Jody Eagle, Mike Caine, and Chris Buck. Powell’s rendition of Gary is true to the real-life person in that way that Gary really embraced his performances while he conducted the operations. He would also be quick to resort to his tough guy “Ron” persona when he needed to get things done in a timely fashion.

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7 Gary Johnson Was Once Exposed To A Potential Client By A Police Informant

Although the character Jasper, played by Austin Amelio, was created for the movie, the real-life Gary Johnson was betrayed by a police informant who had felt guilty about setting his friend up. According to Texas Monthly, “There was one instance when a potential client realized Johnson was a decoy and backed away from a contract. “That was because the informant, feeling guilty about giving up a friend, told the man who wanted to hire me who I really was,” Johnson says.” Sticking to the bit, Gary later made a point to make an unannounced visit to the informant and the client to make sure he wouldn’t think about hiring another guy for the job.

6 Gary Became A Local Houston Celebrity During The 1990s

One of the most overlooked aspects of the true story of Gary Johnson that is left out of Hit Man is how much of a local celebrity Gary had become in and around Houston, Texas. According to Texas Monthly, “By the mid-nineties Johnson’s performances were getting buzz in the local media: The Houston Chronicle regularly ran stories about his cases that contained both his name and the occasional quote from him. One would have thought that someone looking for a hit man might have read stories about Johnson and been concerned about running across him.” Perhaps Linklater avoided the idea that Gary would be well-known as a fake hitman because it’s hard to believe people would not know who he was based on this press.

5 Gary Johnson Loved To Set Up His Client Meetings At Denny’s

Several of Gary’s fictitious meetings in Hit Man take place at a local coffee shop or restaurant. In real life, Gary’s location of choice for his client meet-ups was specifically at a local Denny’s. Hollandsworth revealed in his Texas Monthly piece, “When Johnson suggested they meet at a Denny’s to discuss the details of the murder—defense attorneys say Johnson is so fond of meeting his clients at Denny’s that the restaurant should name a plate after him—the worker wanted them to have a secret code to recognize each other.” This is the origin of the “All pie is good pie.” slogan that became Gary’s calling card and opened the door for conversation between his clients.

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4 Gary Was Hired By A Teen To Kill His Classmate, Not His Mother

The shockingly young teenage client in Hit Man who tried to pay Gary in video games is based on a real-life person, with two main differences. One, the video games were made by Atari for a computer, not an Xbox, and two, the teenage boy wanted Gary to kill a fellow classmate instead of his mother. According to Texas Monthly, “A Houston teenager named Shawn Quinn, a brilliant kid with an IQ of 131, gave Johnson seven Atari computer games, three dollar bills, and $2.30 in nickels and dimes to kill a male classmate he thought was trying to win the affection of a girl he liked.”

3 Gary Was Hired By A Houston Police Officer To Kill His Wife For $10,000

Another shocking stranger than fiction story from the real life of Gary Johnson was a client who was a Houston police officer who somehow didn’t even know who he was. According to Texas Monthly, “Houston police officer William Peoples, a highly regarded eleven-year veteran of the force, decided his ex-wife should die because she was costing him too much money in child support. He hired a convicted murderer on parole to do the killing, but then that man got cold feet, started looking for a subcontractor, and came across Johnson. He offered Johnson $10,000 to carry out the hit.” Peoples was eventually convicted.

2 Gary Staged The Fake Death Of A Target Which Resulted In Real Violence

One extreme case that Linklater’s Hit Man doesn’t cover required the real-life Gary Johnson to fake the death of a target. Gary had informed the target that her husband had taken out a hit for $20,000 against her life although the two had been married for years. The man, who was a 60-year-old car salesman, did not want her to receive a sum of money that she would be owed after their upcoming divorce. According to Texas Monthly, “persuaded the wife to be photographed while lying “dead” on a tarp. To add realism, ketchup was poured over the back of her head, ruining her pretty hairdo, and her hands and feet were bound with duct tape.” That situation also involved another hitman who got cold feet and ended up shooting the client.

1 Gary Johnson Was Married & Divorced 3 Times

Gary and Madison appear to live happily ever after at the end of Linklater’s Hit Man, living as a happily married couple with several children. The real Gary Johnson also never married one of his undercover targets, so it doesn’t appear that Madison was too heavily inspired by any real person in Gary’s life. Ultimately, Linklater’s Hit Man was definitely inspired by the real-life and true story of Gary Johnson, although outside of the premise, the location, and several key details, the actual story, particularly the romantic elements, it is mostly a work of fiction. There is certainly another type of movie to be made that more closely follows the true life and real clients of Gary Johnson but it seems like Linklater was more interested in creating this version of Hit Man than crafting a highly accurate biopic.

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Source: Texas Monthly

Hit Man

From director Richard Linklater comes Hit Man, a 2023 action comedy film based on a Texas Monthly article of the same name. Undercover and trying to catch a group of criminals, a Houston police officer poses as a hitman until he falls for a woman on assignment. Finding himself diving deeper into the world of crime, the Houston officer finds it increasingly difficult to escape his new undercover persona.

Release Date

September 5, 2023

Studio(s)

AGC Studios , Detour Filmproduction , Aggregate Films , BarnStorm Productions

Cast

Glen Powell , Adria Arjona , Austin Amelio , Retta , Molly Bernard

Runtime

113 Minutes

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