If you’re a movie buff and managed to maintain your sanity during the global lock-down period, you likely heard about the horrific incident that occurred on set during the filming of the Western movie, Rust. Even in isolation, there’s no chance you could’ve missed this story, cos it was a headliner on pretty much every major news network; and if for any reason, for the simple fact that in the annals of cinematic history, not many films embody irony as starkly as Rust did.
So, anyway, a few weeks back I finally got to watch Rust, a couple of months after its premiere. In as much as I’m a fan of Westerns, I think this time I watched more out of curiosity than entertainment. That they had proceeded with the shooting (pun unintended) of a movie that had a dark cloud hanging over it, is understandable—legal and financial issues. Maybe emotional attachments too. What I really wanted to know was whether the tragedy had somehow affected the original story line.
Set in the 1800’s, the film follows Lucas, a little boy who accidentally kills a man and soon faces the grave consequences of his actions. He’s been sentenced to dangle from the hangman’s noose. His grandpa, an outlaw, himself, and on the run, learns about this and swings into action to try and save his grandson from the harsh sentence. Yet, here goes the production of Rust, itself getting marred by an accidental killing that transformed its fictional exploration of guilt and accountability into a grim reality, casting a shadow over its legacy that no screenwriter could’ve possibly foreseen.
The irony began in October 2021, during a rehearsal on the New Mexico set. Alec Baldwin, who stars as Harland Rust (Lucas’ grandpa!) is a key character in this scene set inside a small church on a ranch. Typical of Westerns, there’s some sort of face-off between him and another character. For intensity and dramatic effect, the cinematographer is positioned in such a way that Alec will crossdraw his revolver from the holster and point it directly at the camera.
Alas! He unfortunately discharges his prop gun fatally shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Souza, both in direct line of fire. Harland Rust, already in trouble in the movie plot, is now in some deep shit on this other side of life as well, echoing the horror that an unintended act of violence can set off a chain of consequences.
Off-screen, Halyna’s death sparked grief, outrage, and a legal whirlpool, with Alec Baldwin, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and others entangled in lawsuits and criminal investigations. Later, in 2024, Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for loading a live round into the prop gun, a fatal error that mirrored the film’s theme of unintended mistakes. Gutierrez was granted parole in May 2025, but will have a monitoring tag strapped to her ankle for another year. Additionally, she’s required to abide by a strict curfew and find a job. A job that I bet has nothing to do with armoring!
The production’s failure to uphold basic safety protocols—such as ensuring prop guns were free of live ammunition—revealed a stark contrast between the story’s ideals and the reality of its creation. Not quite surprising that it was a low-budget film; reports from the set described a rushed, underfunded environment, with some crew members even walking out hours before the incident over safety concerns.
As the legal battles unfolded, Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charges eventually got dismissed in 2024. However, he doesn’t appear to be out of the woods yet, as there’s still a whole catalogue of ongoing civil suits against him from Halyna’s family, including Halyna’s husband, Mathew Hutchins. Having initially come to a settlement with the Rust producers back in 2022 to be made Executive Producer for the rest of the production in honor of his deceased wife’s vision, Mathew Hutchins later re-opened Pandora’s box; filing a lawsuit for breach of agreement.
The filming of the movie completed in early 2023 and premiered at the Camerimage Film Festival in Poland, in November 2024. For obvious reasons, the church scene in which the shooting incident occurred had to be left out. Overall, Rust stands as a somber reminder that cinema, meant to reflect life, can sometimes reflect it too closely, turning fiction into a haunting reality. While overshadowed by its tragic context, I think it’s a film worth watching, if you’re into Western movies.
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