No Man of God is a 2021 film directed by Amber Sealey.
It is the story of FBI agent Bill Hagmaier, who spent a great deal of time interviewing Ted Bundy. Hagmaier (Elijah Wood) becomes part of a newly created FBI profiling unit in the 1980s. The agents of the profiling unit are tasked with interviewing serial killers and other major offenders. Hagmaier volunteers to interview Bundy (Luke Kirby) after no one else will, as they all believe that Bundy hates feds and won't talk to the FBI.
So everyone is surprised when Ted Bundy, sitting on Florida's Death Row, agrees to talk to Agent Hagmaier. Two years go by as Bundy, in his occasional interviews with Hagmaier, gives Hagmaier insight into how a serial killer thinks without ever admitting to his crimes. They become comfortable with each other and even form a sort of quasi-friendship.
Finally the story comes to January 1989. With Bundy's appeals having been exhausted, the governor of Florida has signed a death warrant. Bundy's execution is only seven days away, so if he's going to confess to anything he has to do it immediately. He calls his "best friend" Bill Hagmaier down to Florida to help manage his interviews. But will Bundy really confess, or will he continue to play games?
Tropes:
- Awkward Stoplight Moment: Bill is driving while listening to an audio recording of Ted talking about how he'd lure women to his Volkswagen and then bash them in the back of the head with a tire iron he had hidden in a wheel well. Bill has carelessly left his window down, which causes the woman who pulls up next to him to give him a shocked stare. Bill rolls his window up as he drives on.
- Based on a True Story: A largely factual account of FBI agent Bill Hagmaier and his death row interviews with Ted Bundy.
- Central Theme: Was Ted Bundy insane, and why did he kill? Ted insists that he is not insane and Hagmaier agrees, eventually telling the Florida authorities so, which allows the execution to proceed. In their last conversation before Ted is led away to the electric chair, Ted challenges Bill to answer the question of why Ted killed, which Bill does succinctly.Bill: Because you wanted to.
- Conversation Cut: Several different scenes with investigators from different states, as they interview Bundy before the execution, are cut together as if they are one conversation.
- How We Got Here: The first scene is a Stock Footage clip from January 24, 1989, of Bryant Gumbel on The Today Show delivering the news that Ted Bundy has been executed. The movie then skips back to the mid-1980s to pick up Bill Hagmaier volunteering to interview Ted Bundy.
- Impersonating an Officer: In Real Life this was one of Bundy's two go-to tactics, the other being the Wounded Gazelle Gambit. It's a Discussed Trope in the movie, as on the day before his execution, Bundy finally recounts a murder to Hagmaier, describing how he impersonated a policeman to lure an unnamed victimnote to his car.
- It's All About Me: Bundy displays the narcissism of The Sociopath when, with his execution hours away, he says "Why did this happen to me?". This is a bridge too far for Agent Hagmaier, who angrily responds that Bundy's victims didn't have time to prepare for death like Bundy does.
- Laughing Mad: Luke Kirby manages to get this effect with a low chuckle, as Bundy gives Hagmaier a Kubrick Stare and creepy smile as he says, of the psychiatrists, that "They all think I'm looney tunes."
- Prison: Where most of the film is set, as Bill Hagmaier interviews Ted Bundy at the Florida State Prison.
- The Profiler: Bill Hagmaier, one of the first FBI profilers, is granted a series of interviews with Ted Bundy.
- Serial Killer: One of the most notorious ever. A theme of the film is the deranged fascination some people have with serial killers, be it the Monster Fangirl women who keep sending Ted Bundy nude photos, or the freaks hooting and hollering outside the prison and holding signs with slogans like "Tuesday is Fry-day" and "Burn Bundy Burn."
- Speech-Centric Work: The bulk of the film is Bill Hagmaier talking to Ted Bundy in prison.
- Take That!: Bundy is dismissive of the books written about him, claiming they're filled with nonsense. He says that Ann Rule (author of bestselling The Stranger Beside Me) didn't know him at all, and "those two guys" (Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, authors of The Only Living Witness) just wanted him to confess to stuff and so he intentionally misled them.
- Time Skip: Two years are skipped between Hagmaier's last interviews with Bundy in 1987, to January 1989 and Bundy calling Hagmaier back to Florida now that his execution is imminent.
- Traumatic Haircut: Ted gets his head shaved, to facilitate the application of electrodes for his execution by electric chair.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: A series of titles as Elijah Wood leaves Florida State Prison for good relate how Bill Hagmaier, now retired from the FBI, consulted in many other serial cases after Bundy and became known as one of the FBI's best profilers.
