The Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker Video Mp4 Download Movie
The story of the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker is a story made for our times. It’s the kind of true-crime, twist-filled saga that would have piqued our interest a hundred years ago or 50 years ago — but because it took place in the 21st century, meaning there was a huge viral component to the telling of the tale, this wasn’t just a local news feature. It exploded in a big way, before quickly imploding in even more stunning fashion. In a matter of months, a beloved instant anti-hero who had Hollywood knocking on his door was behind bars, and a man was dead.
Whether you remember the details from this story or it’s all new to you, writer-director Colette Camden’s Netflix documentary “The Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker” is an early-year contender for any list of the most fascinating true-crime films of the year. Camden briskly but thoroughly walks us through the paces of the story in a mostly linear fashion, relying on a treasure trove of news footage and viral videos; a few simple, dramatic recreations lensed in golden silhouettes; some insightful recollections from the reporter who broke the story, and a handful of TV producers and bookers who had some bizarre encounters with the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker, aka Kai Lawrence, aka Caleb Lawrence McGillvary.
On Feb. 1, 2013, Jessob Reisbeck, a sports reporter and anchor at Fresno, California, station KMPH, was doing fill-in duty on the news side when he heard a police scanner description of a car accident in which a hulking, delusional man later identified as Jeff Simmons McBride had seemingly deliberately rammed his car into a utility worker — and when a bystander approached trying to help, McBride attacked her in a bear hug, threatening to squeeze the life out of her. Reisbeck arrived on the scene, where witnesses told him that McBride’s passenger had leaped to the woman’s rescue, beating McBride on the head with a hatchet he had taken from his backpack.
Reisbeck managed to corral that passenger, one Kai Lawrence, an unhoused young man in a bandana emblazoned with peace symbols and long curly hair — and his on-camera interview was pure gold, with the laid-back Kai sounding like a direct descendant of Spicoli from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” as he described what happened: “Went straight out of Dogtown, skateboarding, surfing it up … I look over, the guy’s pinned there. Buddy gets out … grabs [the woman], a guy that big can snap a woman’s neck like a pencil stick. So I f—ing ran up behind him with a hatchet. Smash, smash, SUH-MASH!”
With that, Kai disappeared without talking to any other reporters — and Reisbeck had the foresight and the ingenuity to realize this was not only a great local news scoop, but the entire, unedited interview was gold — so he uploaded the full conversation on YouTube. “I woke up the next morning and my world was different,” says Reisbeck. Within hours, the YouTube video had a half-million views. “I knew that day that Kai the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker was born,” recalls Reisbeck.
We see a montage of news reports from across the country, and dozens upon dozens of viral videos of onlookers reacting to the interview and even creating songs from the instantly famous, “Smash, Smash, SUH-MASH!” quote. Stephen Colbert notes, “For the first time in human history, people are saying, ‘Boy, we sure are lucky that homeless hitchhiker was carrying a hatchet.’ ”
