Richard “Beebo” Russell—the ground crew worker who successfully stole, took off, and, eventually, intentionally crashed a commercial jet in 2018—is an internet legend. To some, he’s a working class folk hero. To others, he’s a symbol of white, male rage. Director Patricia E. Gillespie hopes that her documentary, #SKYKING—now streaming on Hulu in the U.S.—can transform him into a nuanced, but ultimately, good person. Just a guy whose long hours, less-than-minimum-wage pay, isolation, and untreated mental health issues drove him to desperate measures.
“This was a story where a man’s suicide unfortunately had been glamorized, politicized, sensationalized,” Gillespie told Decider in a recent interview. The director—known for The Secrets We Bury and The Fire That Took Her—had no desire to contribute to that narrative. The best way, she decided, to tell Beeob’s story, while hammering home an anti-suicide theme, would be to film Russell’s loved ones listening to the 70-minute
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