A new “Rust” documentary revealed the camera crew of the haunted Western walked out on a crucial day of filming, which included the “biggest shootout” of the movie.
“Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died Oct. 21, 2021 after a gun actor Alec Baldwin was holding fired on the Bonanza Creek Ranch film set in New Mexico.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charge with prejudice following two days of trial testimony from experts called by the prosecution. Baldwin’s attorneys, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, argued the state had withheld evidence from the defense after a box of ammo, possibly relating to the “Rust” case, was brought into the Santa Fe County Sheriffs’ Department during Gutierrez Reed’s trial, two years after the fatal on-set shooting. The ammo was inventoried by a crime scene technician and then entered into general evidence.
Hulu’s “Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna,” which premiered on March 11, explored the cast and crew’s perception of safety on set that culminated in the death of Hutchins.
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Due to the camera crew walking out on Oct. 21, 2021, Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Souza were working with only one camera.
“They chose to walk out on the day we were having the biggest shootout of the whole show,” special effects coordinator Thomas Gandy revealed in the documentary.
Working with one camera isn’t the norm — especially when weapons are involved in filming.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, you got a tent that’s got a number of video monitors. They are showing the camera’s view,” Gandy explained. “The director and the DP, typically, they stand in video village where they’re looking at the exact shot that’s going to be on film. They’re 20 to 30 feet away. So, that day, there was a walkout. We didn’t have video village that day. And so, because of that, it put Halyna and Joel in front of the camera.”
The documentary director asked the special effects coordinator, “So the only thing between her and the gun was her own hands?”
Gandy responded, “Yes, yes.”
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First camera assistant Lane Luper and a dozen other camera workers walked off set the day Halyna Hutchins died. The workers chose to resign over “lax COVID policies” along with “gun safety” and “lack of rehearsals.”
“It felt like they really didn’t care about the crew being safe,” Luper said. “We wanted them to solve these problems. It very quickly felt like somebody was going to get hurt if something didn’t change.”
“Seeing how firearms were handled on set began to really bother me,” he stated.
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Luper was specifically concerned over “how people would hold guns and firearms getting pointed at people.” There were also multiple negligent discharges during filming before the gun discharged on Oct. 21, 2021.
While Luper did bring his concerns to production, he never took his worries to Hutchins directly.
“I was worried about her safety, but I didn’t get a chance,” Luper said. “I didn’t tell her… I should have.”
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“Titanic” star Frances Fisher felt unsafe on the “Rust” set on the very first day of filming.
“My first day coming out of hair and makeup in my full costume, and Alec is at base camp, and he’s in his costume, this girl comes over and interrupts our conversation,” Fisher said. “She’s got an armful of guns, just barreled her way in, and I thought it’s very unsafe to be walking around base camp with a whole bunch of guns in your hand.”
“Like, have they been cleared? Why are you doing this? And Alec, he seemed a little, ‘What’s she doing?’ Then I found out she was the armorer. I thought, wow.”
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“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s behavior on set was “unprofessional,” according to Frances Fisher.
“Sloppiness,” she noted. “It’s just pure sloppiness. Unprofessional.”
“The sloppiness that Hannah displayed that first day of mine, I wish I had said something to her and I wish I had said something to Alec,” Fisher admitted. “But I didn’t want to make waves. And would my alerting somebody, would that have changed anything? That’s what gnaws at me.”
“I knew that [Gutierrez Reed] had little experience,” assistant director Dave Halls admitted in the documentary. “But concern over lack of experience was tempered by knowing that her father was Thell Reed.”
Halls entered a plea of no contest to the misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon in March 2023. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer accepted the plea. The prosecution requested a suspended sentence, which is a conviction.
Gutierrez Reed was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months behind bars. The “Rust” armorer was responsible for the firearms on the Western film set where Hutchins was shot and killed on Oct. 21, 2021.
While cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was transported to the University of New Mexico Hospital by helicopter on Oct. 21, 2021, the cast and crew of the film gathered together to wait for updates. “A medic came down and said she was going to be alright,” actor Josh Hopkins recalled, and they “clung onto that” information.
However, Hutchins was pronounced dead at the hospital.
“What’s so f—-d is before — we had cops at set, and we had people from production at the hospital — before we heard anything officially that she had passed, it came out online,” actor Devon Werkheiser said during the documentary.
“All of a sudden, I just started seeing pockets of people as they read the news, just started seeing pockets of people just like break down,” he added. “You’re trying to hold onto hope, and it was the worst possible outcome for the day.”
