Actor Alec Baldwin, 68, speaks about the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western “Rust” and the criminal case that followed in the first trailer for the documentary “The Trial of Alec Baldwin,” which People published as an exclusive on September 10, 2026.
Baldwin says in the trailer: “When they told me she died, I – I was in shock. I was in disbelief.”
Elsewhere in the trailer, he says of Hutchins: “If you said to me, ‘Hike up Mount Everest and she’ll come back,’ I’d be packed and ready to go.”
What the Trailer Shows
The trailer opens with the 911 call reporting the shooting. It also shows the media pursuit of Baldwin. In one clip, a photographer shouts, “Alec, you killed someone by accident. How do you feel?” Baldwin, visibly uncomfortable, asks the photographers to back up.
“People who watch this will see so much of me at my worst,” Baldwin says in the trailer.
The documentary is directed by Rory Kennedy and produced by Moxie Films. It had its festival premiere at DOC NYC in 2025.
The Shooting on the ‘Rust’ Set
The shooting happened at about 1:46 p.m. on October 21, 2021, at Bonanza Creek Ranch, in Bonanza City near Santa Fe, New Mexico, while the production was filming. A live round was discharged from a revolver Baldwin was using as a prop during a rehearsal. Hutchins, a 42-year-old mother whose son was nine at the time, was killed. Director Joel Souza was wounded. Two years before her death, Hutchins had been named one of the industry’s rising stars by American Cinematographer magazine.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said three guns and about 500 rounds of ammunition — a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and live rounds — were seized from the scene. An affidavit from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said that Baldwin and first assistant director David Halls were both unaware the weapon was loaded. Four bodies looked into what happened: the sheriff’s office, the New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney, the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau and the FBI.
A Case That Ended Without a Verdict
Baldwin and “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were each charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter on January 31, 2023. Gutierrez-Reed’s trial ran from February 21 to March 6, 2024. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on March 6, 2024, and found not guilty of tampering with evidence. On April 15, 2024, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Halls pleaded no contest and was convicted of negligent use of a deadly weapon, receiving six months’ probation.
Baldwin’s trial ran July 9-12, 2024. On July 12, 2024, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the charge against him with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled, after finding that authorities had withheld evidence about ammunition from his defense team. The case ended before jurors reached a verdict.
How the Film Was Finished
Filming on “Rust” was halted after the shooting and later resumed in Montana, with Souza returning to direct. Cinematographer Bianca Cline took over the camera department and donated her pay to charity. Under a wrongful death settlement, Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins, became an executive producer on the film. Baldwin, a co-producer, shares a story-by credit with writer-director Souza. A church scene the crew was working on when Hutchins was shot was written out of the movie.
“Rust” had its world premiere at the Camerimage film festival in Torun, Poland, in November 2024. Baldwin did not attend. The film arrived on digital platforms and in select U.S. theaters on May 2, 2025.
Speaking at Comic-Con in July 2025, Baldwin said the 2021 shooting death of Hutchins and the court case that followed had changed him immeasurably, and that he was looking to the future.
The documentary examines how Baldwin’s public reputation shaped media coverage of him, and the filmmakers’ own description calls the actor “talented and adored, yet also flawed, politically outspoken and prone to explosions of anger.” The central question the film raises remains unresolved: how a live round came to be in the gun on set. “The Trial of Alec Baldwin” opens in theaters nationwide on October 16.
