Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna’ on Hulu, an Informative and Emotional Documentary About the ‘Rust’ Movie Tragedy

Don’t expect Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna (now streaming on Hulu) to give us what isn’t already known about the tragic death of Halyna Hutchins. It was a high-profile story in 2021: Hutchins, cinematographer for a low-budget indie Western titled Rust, died after actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun containing a live round while rehearsing a scene. Director Joel Souza was wounded after the bullet passed through Hutchins. Involuntary manslaughter charges were dropped against Baldwin thanks to a legal technicality (the debate as to whether he bears some of the blame will likely never be resolved). The same charge stuck to movie-set armorer Hannah Guitierrez-Reed, who’s currently serving an 18-month prison sentence. Assistant director David Halls pled guilty to negligence and got probation. And Hutchins tragically left behind a husband and son, and the feeling that her best work as a visual artist was still ahead of her. Last Take director Rachel Mason was close with Hutchins, and tries to do justice to her by balancing the facts surrounding her death while also paying tribute to her friend.

LAST TAKE: RUST AND THE STORY OF HALYNA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The unanswered texts will rip your heart out. When news that someone was shot on the Santa Fe, New Mexico set of Rust on Oct. 21, 2021 began to spread, Hutchins’ phone dinged with multiple messages from friends checking in with her. But the cinematographer died before the MedEvac landed at the hospital. What happened? Here’s a simplified version of events: Live rounds were mixed in with fake bullets on the movie set. How they got there, nobody seems to know. Set armorer and props handler Guitierrez-Reed – the stepdaughter of movie-industry stuntman, fast-draw artist and armorer Thell Reed – loaded the Colt .45. Halls didn’t check the weapon as he should’ve. Baldwin pulled out the pistol and it went off, and he has since claimed he didn’t pull the trigger. Last Take shows us footage from that day, from police body cameras and interrogation rooms where Baldwin, Gutierrez-Reed and Halls were questioned. We watch as police inform Baldwin that Hutchins didn’t make it. He’s stunned, frozen in place for several seconds before he at last draws a hand to his face in grief.

The ensuing uproar was mostly justified: People wanted answers (although, as ever, tabloids and social media commenters exploited the tragedy). Mason puts it all into context by showing personal footage of her and Hutchins smiling and enjoying a sunny-day hike with their children – “I couldn’t make a film about her life without understanding how she died,” the director narrates, justifying the true-crime elements of her documentary. So as Mason gets into the nitty-gritty of the deadly incident, she shares highlights of Hutchins’ biography: She’s an immigrant whose mother still lives in Kyiv, Ukraine; her cinematography career was mostly limited to short films prior to Rust, which would’ve been her most high-profile credit (alongside 2024 Netflix film Time Cut), so it’s easy to say her career was about to bloom. She had a son with husband Matt Hutchins, and was 44 when she died.

The documentary encapsulates some of the hows of the shooting via interviews with key Rust figures: actress Frances Fisher, assistant director Halls, director Souza and members of the camera crew, who famously walked off the set the day before the accident, citing safety concerns. Mason pieces together a contextual summary of what happened: How a tight production budget contributed to corners being cut and Gutierrez-Reed being hired despite her lack of experience; how concerns were raised about safety and burdensome workloads, but were ignored by producers and management; how OSHA representatives investigated a highly unusual workplace incident; how the court cases proceeded; how filming on Rust was completed in tribute to Hutchins. She also interviews prosecutors and police for a fuller picture of events, and mourns Hutchins’ loss with friends and coworkers. They still can’t believe this happened.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Rest in peace, Brandon Lee, who was killed during a similar incident while starring in The Crow in 1993.

Performance Worth Watching: It’s hard not to be moved by Mason’s portrait of Hutchins as an enthusiastic, upbeat woman who loved her work, her family and friends, and a gorgeous sunrise.

Memorable Dialogue: A friend of Hutchins shakes her head when she comments on legal proceedings, “I don’t know how you get justice from an accident.” But the chaser comes from the OSHA rep: “Every accident is preceded by a series of failures.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Mason’s bookending Last Take with images of Hutchins solidifies the documentary as a response to media coverage of the incident, which tends to emphasize the sensationalism of a high-profile celebrity like Baldwin facing serious legal scrutiny, while the lesser-known victim doesn’t get the respect they deserve. So the director intertwines hard-doc factual analysis with a eulogy for her friend. That can be a tricky maneuver, and Mason doesn’t go too heavy with first-person commentary, sharing some insights into Hutchins’ character while easing in and out of the true-crime pieces of the story. The doc flows smoothly through cool and warm tones, informative for third-party observers looking for a succinct version of this movie-biz tragedy, and a warm hug for those who knew Hutchins and/or her work.

While no major revelatory rocks are overturned in the film, it does include some compelling drama: Fisher admitting that she’s haunted by her decision not to openly express her concerns about the sloppy manner with which Gutierrez-Reed was handling firearms on set. Halls’ brave and tearful admission that he’s partially responsible for what happened. Documentation citing Gutierrez-Reed’s concerns with her ability to handle an unreasonable workload. Such moments give Last Take its journalistic credibility within the structural confines of Mason’s poignant, but never indulgent personal reflections. Notably, Baldwin didn’t participate in the documentary, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts (meanwhile, his reality show The Baldwins depicts his struggles during the trial, which strikes me as being in questionable taste).

The director tends to overemphasize the importance of social-media commentary on the incident, which is certainly part of the contextual representation of public perception, but does anyone credit internet randos for offering anything resembling truth, or even reasonable takes? That’s the only ding on this film, which, considering the riptides of controversy surrounding the tragedy, probably had to happen. Few documentaries of this ilk – that is, hot-topic fodder made for streaming platforms – justify their existence like this one does.

Our Call: Bottom line, Last Take does justice to its subject. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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