One of the most talked-about action flicks of this year, Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, deserves all the hype it’s getting. Loosely based on a 2001 article by Skip Hollandsworth, the film is about Gary Johnson, a Texas man who was famous for his undercover persona as a fake hitman. Linklater’s latest movie proves that he’s much more than the Before trilogy, and this movie is also a wake-up call for Hollywood in many ways. It’s not necessary to play it safe when you’ve got a solid script on your hands, and that’s what makes a movie click with the audience. In this article, we’re talking about the ensemble cast and the characters they play in this Netflix movie.
Spoilers Ahead
Glen Powell as Gary
After starring in Top Gun: Maverick and recently in a rom-com with Sydney Sweeney, Powell continues his glorious run to become the next big thing in Hollywood. Powell plays Gary Johnson, a philosophy and psychology professor who volunteered for the cops as an audio expert for the surveillance team. Gary is asked to go undercover when the usual hitman, Jasper, is unavailable. Usually a docile and timid man, Gary finds his true calling when he starts playing a hitman. He puts his own twist on it and molds different personas for different clients. Gary’s perfect record takes a hit when he meets Madison, a woman who’s sick of an abusive and controlling husband and wants to have him killed. Gary talks Madison out of it and eventually falls in love with her. Living a double life as a professor and hitman/lover boy, Gary truly shines when he’s not being himself. He wasn’t usually a great lover because of his overthinking, and his other side helped him get over it. He and Madison have a dreamy relationship, and it’s corny, cheesy, and mushy. Things take a turn when Madison kills her husband. Jasper starts to bug him about his affair with Madison, and Gary struggles to keep his life together. Gary’s life comes full circle when he and Madison plan a way out of the murder accusations, and the Honda Civic- driving Gary finally finds a relationship that is perfect for him.
Adria Arjona as Madison
Arjona, widely known for her role in Andor series, portrays Madison in the Netflix movie. After years of staying in a claustrophobic marriage, Madison meets Ron (Gary) to have her husband killed. When Gary tells her to get out of the marriage instead, Madison seems happy in her new life. She starts having an affair with Gary, still unaware of his real identity, and her ex-husband sees them outside a bar. When Madison sees Gary standing up for her, she falls even more in love with him and eventually goes on to kill her husband. Her lack of thought lands both Gary and her in trouble, but she drugs Jasper to eliminate the only threat to their happily ever after scenario.
Austin Amelio as Jasper
Dwight from The Walking Dead, Amelio, is now a pretend hitman for the New Orleans police department who gets suspended for beating up a few teenagers. Jasper is not a good guy, and his behavior towards people around him makes everyone roll their eyes. But despite his awful personality, he is a good investigator and pretty good at his job. He figures out that Gary and Madison are together and eventually makes his way to Madison’s house to blackmail her.
Evan Holtzman as Ray
Madison’s infamous beau, Ray, is an abusive and nutty husband played to perfection by Evan Holtzman. Seeing his ex-wife with another man is too much of an attack on his ego, and he’d rather humiliate his wife than be a mature person. Ray then takes the alias of Mike, who goes to put a hit on his wife’s head. Little did he know that the hitman is the boyfriend himself, while he keeps running his mouth about how he should kill the boyfriend too if he’s present. Ray gets what he deserves, and his miserable existence is put to an end by Madison halfway through the movie.
Other Characters
- Sanjay Rao plays Phil, a surveillance crew member who works with the fake hitmen. Phil is funny, and the way he motivates Gary for his first outing as an undercover hitman is a thing of comedic genius.
- Retta plays Claudette, another officer who works on the surveillance crew. She has her fair share of screen time in the movie, although it’s impossible to set her and Phil’s characters apart except for their gender.
- Molly Bernard is Alisha, Gary’s ex-wife, who has left him and is now pregnant with her new lover. Gary calls Alisha his best friend, and based on the few pieces of advice she gives him, Gary’s statement seems like it’s mostly true.
In honorable mention for my love of cats, Gary has two cats named Id and Ego, named after Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. The two fur babies appear in only one scene, while they eat from their designated bowls. The film certainly would have pulled a few more people in to watch it if they were featured in more than one scene.
