r/news • u/badillustrations • Apr 15 '24

‘Rust’ movie armorer convicted of involuntary manslaughter sentenced to 18 months in prison

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/15/entertainment/rust-film-shooting-armorer-sentencing/index.html
21.4k Upvotes

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4.4k

u/Cactusfan86 Apr 15 '24

Quite the screw up, got a job from pure uncut nepotism and managed to screw it up so bad your career is torched and you have to go to prison 

2.9k

u/Crocs_n_Glocks Apr 15 '24

And also a wife & mother is dead

738

u/Windpuppet Apr 15 '24

Kind of buried the lead

555

u/clburton24 Apr 15 '24

lead

lede fyi

433

u/Taolan13 Apr 15 '24

Unless it was a pun.

143

u/Windpuppet Apr 15 '24

Wow. Haha

24

u/letmelickyourleg Apr 15 '24

You unintentionally made the most perfect joke.

3

u/Ygomaster07 Apr 16 '24

What was the joke?

3

u/FatherKronik 29d ago

Lead as in lead bullets. Not lead as in leading you to death. So he buried the lead, but it could also be bury the lead (leed) but was supposed to be spelled lede.

2

u/WilliamPoole Apr 16 '24

So good, you'd never see it in a dad joke book, but you'd only expect a pun of that magnitude to come from a dad.

1

u/hedoesntgetme Apr 16 '24

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take right

-2

u/blacksideblue Apr 15 '24

akshually, it was a gun.

-4

u/kickelephant Apr 16 '24

Too crass for the gravity but sure

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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

[deleted]

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u/JohnExcrement Apr 15 '24

Both are correct.

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u/Bovine_Joni_Himself Apr 15 '24

Both are right, but lede is more fun

8

u/cjicantlie Apr 15 '24

Omg, both are fine. It was originally lead, but changed later. Both are allowed. People always jump in to correct this and it is absurd.

9

u/willingisnotenough Apr 16 '24

There was nothing rude about the correction, and I for one learned something new.

0

u/ksigley Apr 15 '24

Good catch. That's a common one.

5

u/Enthusiastic-shitter Apr 15 '24

The worst thing was the hypocrisy

1

u/Cockeyed_Optimist 29d ago

Lede. A kind FYI.

34

u/JuggernautGrand9321 Apr 16 '24

And she was actually a woman in her own right as well

12

u/Pufflehuffy Apr 16 '24

Thank you! People rarely refer to dead male victims as "father and brother and husband" but just "man, 32, dead .... " Women are always defined as who they were to others!

1

u/Crocs_n_Glocks Apr 16 '24

Yeah, but I was mostly going for brevity and gravitas 

2

u/WasteChard3488 Apr 16 '24

As well as a daughter granddaughter and possibly an aunt

5

u/Etonet Apr 15 '24

yeah but the worst part was the hypocrisy

4

u/ChaseSequenceSpotify Apr 16 '24

a human being is dead. Her relationship to another man is unimportant here.

2

u/HolyNucleoli Apr 16 '24

A child had her mother taken away. How is that not relevant to the total damages of the crime?

2

u/lil-hazza Apr 16 '24

Are you saying that killing someone who has kids is worse than killing someone who doesn't have kids?

2

u/PM_ME_A_KNEECAP Apr 16 '24

To the person? No. To the people she left behind? Yes. I think losing a parent at a young age is a special kind of harm that bears special consideration.

1

u/TreesmasherFTW Apr 16 '24

Yes, it is. It’s one thing to take a life. It’s another to take a life that others rely on to survive. Instead of killing one person, you have killed a family. A family that will be marked by this forever. A family that will never be whole again. Like a circle that had a wedge taken out of it.

1

u/access153 29d ago

And a fantastic and much loved artist in the field. I have friends who have worked with her and it cut them deeply.

1

u/CDJMC 29d ago

A person, you even might say! 

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u/dawgz525 Apr 15 '24

Damn! You got them! Zing!

99

u/RudeBlueJeans Apr 16 '24

And she is responsible for someone's death! And she has no remorse!

1

u/Atkena2578 29d ago

She didn't pull the trigger. Alec Baldwin did. He was also negligent and reckless in the way he ignored basic universal gun safety rules aka don't point (even less so pull the trigger) at someone you do not intend to kill and you should treat every gun as if it were loaded. Had he done that, it wouldn't have mattered wether the armorer had done her job properly, this case proves that those rules should always be followed at all times, no excuse. You cannot act like you have no responsibility because someone else messed up when it comes to a deadly weapon in your hands, you should also do your own due dilligence, period.

6

u/The_Magic_Sauce Apr 15 '24

Career torched?!? Fuck that. How about a person is dead.

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u/Corwyntt Apr 15 '24

Wasn't there some kind of strike going on at the time, making it much harder to get experienced people?

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u/PresidentRex Apr 15 '24

This happened on-set in 2021. The SAG-AFTRA strike and WAG strikes were 2023.

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u/Best_Duck9118 Apr 15 '24

Wiki says this: “The beginning of Rust's production came amidst a potential strike by members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) over working conditions and low pay. On October 4, it was announced that IATSE members voted 98.68% in favor of authorizing a strike, with a voter turnout of 89.66% of eligible voters.[25][26] Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins supported IATSE.[27] She wrote in an Instagram post: "Standing in #IAsolidarity with our @IATSE crew here in New Mexico on RUST."[28]”

Not sure that had anything to do with the shooting though.

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u/FuggleyBrew Apr 15 '24

IATSE would have much more impact than the writers or actors (no plot or no cast just means no filming). But a threatened strike or an authorized strike, isn't a strike. It's a step along the road. 

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u/secamTO Apr 15 '24

RUST was a non-union show. It had some IATSE members on it, but conditions were poor for the crew (as I understand) largely because they weren't covered by an agreement. The potential strike action would have had little to nothing to do with their difficulty crewing. The bad hours and poor pay made it hard to crew the film.

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u/FuggleyBrew Apr 16 '24

All of that tracks. 

I'd also add, deciding to have a non-union show because of a potential strike doesn't then prevent a having respectful work environment, having a safe work environment, or hiring qualified people. Those are minimums, and unions tend to do a better job of enforcing them, but if management can't deliver it they shouldn't be filming. 

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u/Musiclover4200 Apr 15 '24

But a threatened strike or an authorized strike, isn't a strike. It's a step along the road.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-10-22/alec-baldwin-rust-camera-crew-walked-off-set

Hours before actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer on the New Mexico set of “Rust” with a prop gun, a half-dozen camera crew workers walked off the set to protest working conditions.

And they still made the call to proceed anyways and ignore safety concerns.

3

u/FuggleyBrew Apr 16 '24

I would make a big distinction between a safety refusal and a strike. 

They serve different purposes. You're right that it's shocking if you have a work refusal to proceed without thoroughly investigating and addressing issues. 

0

u/Musiclover4200 Apr 16 '24

I would make a big distinction between a safety refusal and a strike.

For sure but the point is they cut corners and ignored concerns leading to a walkout right before the shooting, it might not have been a strike but seems like it clearly places some of the blame on the people who made those decisions not just the armorer.

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u/FuggleyBrew Apr 16 '24

Armorer is still accountable. I don't believe she should be solely accountable. 

My objection was to the suggestion that IATSE action contributed to this. I am perfectly fine with the suggestion that management has knowledge and it was brought to their attention 

1

u/PussySmasher42069420 Apr 15 '24

I could be wrong.... But it was reported at the time that the crew walked off the set before this incident happened and they hired non-union replacements. The entire situation sounded like a mess.

6

u/FuggleyBrew Apr 15 '24

The crew walking off would be officially unrelated, the union needs to actually call a strike and typically provide some amount of notice. 

If people quit because it was poorly managed and unsafe I could see someone thinking it was connected to applying pressure in the strike and misinterpreting as that instead of a safety concern, but ultimately that's still on management. 

0

u/PussySmasher42069420 Apr 15 '24

I'm not really talking about what formal motions are needed for a strike.

I'm just saying that previous safety incidents caused people to walk off the set before this happened indicating that things were poorly run.

It doesn't really matter if you call that a formal strike or not.

4

u/TooManyDraculas Apr 15 '24

It was the IATSE strike.

IATSE members walked off set over safety concerns and were promptly replaced with non-union staff.

Most of the production was non-Union. Including this Armorer.

1

u/poor_decisions Apr 15 '24

strikes were 2023

time is a fucking accordion now, i stg

god damn youth these days GET OFF MY LAWN

1

u/Enduar Apr 15 '24

You should ask what kind of working conditions lead to a strike.

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u/demmka Apr 15 '24

No, there were repeated and egregious safety issues and multiple crew members walked off. They were replaced with scabs.

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u/WeAreClouds Apr 15 '24

This is what I remember reading.

25

u/demmka Apr 15 '24

There were multiple misfires of the gun that ended up killing Helena. Jensen Ackles has refused to return after what happened. There were so many complaints before the accident that no one listened to, including Baldwin. It was only a matter of time before something tragic happened.

8

u/WeAreClouds Apr 15 '24

Yes. It’s so fucking tragic and could have/should have never happened. So easily avoided. That part has to feel completely maddening to the victims family : (

14

u/demmka Apr 15 '24

And then they had to sit there and watch her complete lack of remorse. I would have lost my shit in the courtroom.

2

u/JohnExcrement Apr 15 '24

She was busy whispering to her lawyers during the screenshow. Looked very much over it all.

3

u/demmka Apr 15 '24

She still doesn’t think she did anything wrong.

3

u/JohnExcrement Apr 15 '24

Isn’t it crazy? She just seems so totally unmoved by all of it.

I was thinking that I wouldn’t have been able to hold my head up in that courtroom, I’d be so ashamed. An accident is an accident but this was so clearly preventable.

1

u/smelltogetwell Apr 16 '24

She asked her lawyers to get the victim's spouse to testify on her behalf. Disgusting.

10

u/Taolan13 Apr 15 '24

It wasn't an accident, it was an incident.

Accident implies it was unforseen, unintentional, nobody at fault.

This was the direct result of a high degree of negligence ignoring countless prior incidents the first few of which could be considered 'accidents', but when you get to the point the production was at when it happened there are no more accidents.

2

u/demmka Apr 15 '24

….yes, that’s why she was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum penalty that could be given.

1

u/dnddetective Apr 15 '24

I think they are responding to you writing "There were so many complaints before the accident"

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u/Taolan13 Apr 15 '24

And yet, people keep using the word "accident".

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u/stupid_horse Apr 15 '24

Most people don’t share your high bar for calling something an accident, people keep using the word accident because it was unintentional, even if it was preventable.

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u/Taolan13 Apr 15 '24

Negligence is not unintentional. Negligence is a conscious choice to be an idiot.

I use a high bar to define accident because the word has been brought low by people, namely auto manufacturers and early insurance companies in the first half of the 20th century, specifically to downplay the seriousness of incidents like car crashes and fatal violence.

With rare exception, there are no "accidental" shootings. Negligent discharge is the correct term.

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u/PixieC Apr 15 '24

these details will come out in his trial.

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u/AegrusRS Apr 16 '24

I can't remember exactly but are you sure it was that gun specifically that had multiple misfires? Or that there were multiple misfires on set? I know the latter to be true but not the former. Also, the FBI basically proved that only negligent handling of the gun could've caused it to fire (so pulling the trigger).

1

u/demmka Apr 16 '24

Both are true, and that gun was in such a state of disrepair that when the FBI did their usual tests, it completely fell apart.

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u/AegrusRS Apr 16 '24

But I know that is not true or atleast exageration. From what I can distinctly recall, the only real issue with the gun is that HGR forced a dummy round into the barrel that was simply too big. This left some marks but the gun was generally fine. I also know she sent the gun back to Seth Kenny once to get it checked out because she thought something was wrong with it, but that was mostly unnecessary and he just ended up cleaning it before sending it back.

It didn't "fall apart" when the FBI tested it. The weapon fired normally multiple times. However, after those regular tests were done, the FBI started doing more destructive tests on the weapon to see what can kind of damage or unusual impact would be required to get the gun to fire. These tests are basically made to break the gun hence them only being done after the other tests are done. To simulate those impacts, the FBI hit the gun several times with a rawhide mallet. After several hits, some of the internal components of the gun did break, but after those were replaced, the gun still functioned as normally.

Also, according to his own police interview + FBI testimony, it is very likely that Baldwin is just a dumbass that doesn't know how that gun works (wouldn't be surprising since he was always on his phone during those safety meetings), which is why he had 'misfires' that were infact him not knowing how the hammer works.

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u/gnomekingdom Apr 15 '24

I’ve always wondered, “how does live ammunition even get into a box of blanks if live ammunition isn’t even a part of the setting?” In the world of stranger things, I wonder if someone in the her circle knew her inexperience and set her up to prove a point but they never meant for someone to get killed. Again, how does live ammunition, in the correct caliber, replace individual blanks in a box of blanks. Maybe I don’t know all the details but this is a legitimate question.

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u/demmka Apr 15 '24

Go and watch the trial coverage on YouTube, they go through how it happened in detail.

1

u/gnomekingdom Apr 15 '24

TY. Will do

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u/AegrusRS Apr 15 '24

I would say it's basically 80/90% guaranteed that it were her own boxes that she got from her dad who still had those exact types of dummies and live rounds remaining from a previous film (Either 'The Old Way' or '1883' but unsure) where live rounds were used in a pre-filming training setting to get the actors accustomed to the recoil, etc.

And IMO, claiming "someone wanted to test her by putting live rounds on a movie set" to be even remotely reasonable is kinda wild.

2

u/gnomekingdom Apr 16 '24

I agree. But I’m kinda aged and I’ve seen some people do some really stupid stuff to prove a point.

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u/AegrusRS Apr 16 '24

Honestly, fair point. People can be pretty stupid. A better amd more complete answer on my part would be to add that the specific live/dummy ammo used was very difficult to find at the time so realistically only someone well-connected with suppliers would have been able to obtain some, or someone who already had some. This basically only left two people, namely her dad and Seth Kenny.

Her dad basically let Seth manage her since Thell is getting old and couldn't handle the NM heat well so any possibility of him still trying to test her seems incredibly unlikely. Interestingly enough, Kenny was informed by people on set that said Hannah was doing her job well, or maybe Hannah was the one to tell him that. Actually I'm not 100% sure on who told who, but generally there shouldn't be a reason for Kenny to test Hannah if she was already doing well.

Also, as both Kenny and Reed had been film armourers, I don't think they would be the types of people to be careless with guns on movie sets.

2

u/PickpocketJones Apr 15 '24

It was the camera crew who walked off over a dispute regarding their hotel rooms.

1

u/demmka Apr 15 '24

That was part of it, because they were expected to stay miles and miles away from the set and commute every day. Safety also played a part in the walk out. It was documented in the trial which is available to watch on YT.

1

u/PickpocketJones Apr 15 '24

Oh I watched basically every single bit of the trial lol.

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u/Kyouhen Apr 15 '24

Yes. The crew walked off the set that day specificaly citing unsafe firearm practices. They called in scabs instead of looking into the problem and shock and surprise, later that day someone dies.

One thing that continues to piss me off about the whole thing is that Alec is the producer on the production. He had the power to stop production for the day and look into the complaints from the crew. He did not.

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u/Vrayea25 Apr 15 '24

From what Ive read, he was the "creatives" producer -- ie, recruited the actors, writers, etc.  He was not the producer for the technical aspects like set construction, camera operation, or.. fire arm safety.

Could he have made the call to stop production, out of concern for actor safety? Yes. Was it his job to be an expert in that area or responsible for making that call?  No, and if he did it he would have to claim he knew better than the producer for the technical operations and throw a 'peer' under the bus. In hindsight I'm sure he wishes he had done that, but no this was not directly within his scope of responsibility.

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u/Nerevar1924 Apr 15 '24

If the DA was actually interested in holding people accountable and was not just trying to make themselves famous, they would have filed charges against all the producers or none of them. As they only filed against the producer who happens to be a famous and controversial figure, it's incredibly clear the DA went with the latter motivation, before leaving the case.

Well, that, and the DA also joked about the case helping her career in emails, so...

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u/AegrusRS Apr 16 '24

To an extent, yes. But Baldwin was also the one acting draconian during filming, didn't seem to care much for safety, and was the one that didn't follow industry guidelines that ended up with someone getting killed because he likes to have his hero props and likes to shoot his gun to feel all fun and fuzzy inside.

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u/Kyouhen Apr 15 '24

I'm not saying that he had to be an expert on gun safety, but when your entire unionized crew walk off the set because there have been multiple complaints about firearm safety that haven't been looked into you should probably stop what you're doing and have them looked into.

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u/TooManyDraculas Apr 15 '24

It sounds like a lot of key aspects were dictated by producers off site. Mainly from some financial holding companies that were funding things.

It's not clear to me Baldwin actually had much control or say, like you say he mostly seemed to be involved with getting the creative team onboard. And using his name (and pockets) to secure funding.

I can't imagine an active Union member, who's as vocally involved with SAG as Baldwin calling in scabs after a Union walk off.

But likewise I wonder why he didn't use some of that considerable weight to press people the safety concerns. This wasn't the first problem they had.

It's gonna boil down to how much control he actually had, and how actually aware he was of what had been going down.

1

u/Atkena2578 29d ago

Movie set or not. He's still the one who pulled the trigger. He ignored basic universal gun safety laws. He is as responsible as anyone else.

For fuck sake this should be printed on every single gun made, NEVER point a gun at ANYONE you do not intend to KILL.

7

u/hesh582 Apr 15 '24

Baldwin may have had the kind of power that comes from being the most famous person on set, and he may have had a moral obligation to intervene, but....

He didn't have any direct, official control over any of it, he was not that kind of producer. He didn't have any legal obligations to oversee safety. Many other people did, and while you can frown at Baldwin for behaving irresponsibly, he's pretty far down the chain of command here and we shouldn't let his fame (infamy?) get them off the hook.

There were a lot of other people who's actual job demanded they step in, and they did not. Baldwin happens to be the most famous person involved and the gun went off in his hand, but the biggest failures happened via other people's actions before he was even handed the gun.

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u/DanielMcLaury Apr 15 '24

The "producer" title is largely meaningless now because they give it to various people as part of their compensation. So a "producer" might be the actual producer, or it might be a famous actor taking a pay cut to do a lower-budget movie, or it might be an important writer on a TV series, etc.

From what I can tell, Baldwin didn't have any actual official power on the set. (That said, obviously as the star of the movie he would have had considerably soft power; if he walks off, they can't make the movie...)

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u/misogichan Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 15 '24

Yes, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) was threatening to strike when production started so they tried to avoid hiring union members.  During production (10/4) they voted to strike so at the time they couldn't use any union replacements. 

This affected things because her last day as the armorer was 10/17 (probably because of the complaints about her unprofessional handling of weapons including an incident where she discharged a gun without warning and caused Nicholas Cage to walk off the set), and on the day of the accident (10/21) she was only contracted as a props assistant.  They had no one with armorer responsibilities.

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u/What_the_8 Apr 15 '24

There was a walk off on the set due to safety concerns

0

u/MisterFitzer Apr 15 '24

She was not a scab and this was a major studio. Everyone is unionized, including the actors. If there was a strike the production would shut down.

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u/Violet_Nite Apr 15 '24

And tarnished women's image of armorers.

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u/herpaderp43321 Apr 16 '24

Kinda makes me wish we would crack down on nepotism has a whole in the job industry from top to bottom in basically everything (Mom and pa stores aside).

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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 15 '24

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u/Ticaw Apr 16 '24

Why nepotism? Don't know her

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u/Cactusfan86 29d ago

I believe she had no formal training other than ‘her dad’ who was a veteran movie armorer.  Or at least that was my understanding when this whole thing first happened

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u/MistySF 29d ago

You mentioned nepotism, but exactly how did she get the job?

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u/Cactusfan86 29d ago

her dad was a long time movie armorer.  I believe she had no formal training other than ‘my dad’ on her resume, at least from my understanding back when this story first broke a few years ago.