Alec Baldwin Documentary Shows Indictment Call and Collapse of ‘Rust’ Manslaughter Case
A new documentary about Alec Baldwin offers a behind-the-scenes look at the actor’s prosecution over the fatal “Rust” shooting, including the moment he learned he had been indicted and the turmoil surrounding a manslaughter case that was ultimately dismissed during trial.
The trailer for “The Trial of Alec Baldwin,” directed by Rory Kennedy, follows Baldwin through the legal fallout from the Oct. 21, 2021 shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza on the New Mexico set of the Western.
“When they told me she died, I was in shock,” Baldwin says in the trailer.
Hutchins was killed when a revolver Baldwin was holding discharged a live round during a rehearsal. Baldwin has maintained that he did not pull the trigger and did not know the gun contained live ammunition.
The shooting led to a lengthy criminal investigation and eventually an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin. The documentary appears to capture several private moments from that period, including what the trailer presents as Baldwin receiving the call informing him that he had been indicted.
“They’d definitely put me in jail if they could,” Baldwin says in another scene.
Baldwin went to trial in July 2024, but the case never reached a jury verdict. New Mexico First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the charge with prejudice after finding that prosecutors failed to disclose evidence to the defense.
The disputed material involved ammunition turned over to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office before trial and logged separately from the main “Rust” investigation. Baldwin’s attorneys argued that the rounds could have been relevant to the unresolved question of how live ammunition reached the set.
Because Sommer dismissed the case with prejudice, prosecutors could not simply bring the same involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin again.
The documentary appears to devote significant attention to the breakdown of the prosecution. Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey took the witness stand during the hearing over the undisclosed evidence, while another prosecutor resigned from the case the same day.
The trailer also raises Baldwin’s view that his celebrity, political profile and long-running conflicts with the press may have influenced how aggressively the case was pursued.
The ruling that ended the prosecution did not go that far. Sommer dismissed the case over the state’s failure to disclose evidence, not because the court found that prosecutors had targeted Baldwin for political reasons or because of his fame.
That distinction gives the documentary one of its central legal tensions. Baldwin’s account may focus on why he believes he became a target, while the court record centers on whether prosecutors complied with their obligations to disclose evidence that could matter to the defense.
“I want to be acquitted so I can just walk out the door and everyone just leave me alone,” Baldwin says in the trailer.
The documentary also revisits the separate case against “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2024 and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Her prosecution focused on the handling of guns and ammunition on the production and became another part of the broader effort to determine how live rounds entered the set before Hutchins was killed.
Kennedy’s film also follows Baldwin away from the courtroom, including his reaction to Hutchins’ death, the intense media attention surrounding the case, and his concerns about the possibility of incarceration.
“If you said to me, ‘Hike up Mt. Everest, and she’ll come back,’ I’d be packed and ready to go,” Baldwin says in the trailer. “Whatever I could do … but there’s nothing I could do.”
Kennedy, who received an Academy Award nomination for “Last Days in Vietnam,” began filming Baldwin while the criminal case was still developing, giving the documentary access to events whose legal outcome was not yet known.
“The Trial of Alec Baldwin” premiered at DOC NYC in 2025 and is scheduled for a theatrical rollout in October, beginning in New York before expanding to Los Angeles and then nationally on Oct. 16.
