Dead Man's Wire

Synopsis

Inspired by a startling true story from 1977, Dead Man's Wire is a tense and darkly humorous crime thriller that follows Tony Kiritsis, a man pushed to his breaking point by Indianapolis mortgage brokers. Convinced he has been cheated out of a land deal, Kiritsis takes Richard Hall hostage in his own office using a sawed-off shotgun wired to the man's neck—a deadly dead man's switch designed to fire if Kiritsis is incapacitated. As the standoff escalates into a multi-day media spectacle, Kiritsis uses the platform to air his grievances against corporate greed, becoming an unlikely folk hero to a frustrated public. Directed by Gus Van Sant, the film captures the volatile energy of the era and the psychological strain of a hostage crisis where the line between villain and victim begins to blur under the intense gaze of the national news cameras.