It is about the infamous August 1, 1966 University of Texas tower shooting
, in which a deranged man, Charles Whitman, climbed the observation tower at the University of Texas and opened fire with a rifle. Before two policemen and a civilian made their way to the observation platform and killed him, Whitman killed 15 people.note 31 people were injured.
Whitman is not shown onscreen and is not even named until the very end. Instead, the documentary focuses entirely on the victims of and witnesses to the shooting. Stock footage from news cameras of the actual shooting is combined with a dramatization of events on the ground. Unlike most documentaries that would present dramatizations in live-action, this film uses rotoscoped animation. Also included are rotoscoped Talking Heads animations of the actors, as well as live-action interviews with the actual witnesses themselves.
This film was partially funded by an Indiegogo campaign in which it received $70,000 in six weeks.
This film provides examples of:
- Bystander Syndrome: Both averted and played straight. The first person who sees Claire Wilson and her boyfriend Tom on the sidewalk runs for it as soon as he realizes what is happening. But later, another woman lies down with Claire for the better part of an hour, until two young men rush out, pick Claire up, and carry her away.
- The Dead Have Names: Towards the end Claire Wilson reads off the names of every person who Charles Whitman killed, ending with "my baby boy."
- Death of a Child: Claire Wilson's unborn baby boy was killed when she was shot in the abdomen by Whitman.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Most of the movie is in black and white to having to match up with the black and white archive footage.
- Deranged Animation: When Claire Wilson is beginning to lose consciousness from blood loss after being shot, her hallucinations are shown as a bizarre deranged animation sequence.
- Documentary: A documentary of the Texas tower shooting tragedy.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite essentially shooting her boyfriend and causing her baby to die, Claire Wilson still forgives Whitman to this day.
- The Faceless: Charles Whitman is never seen in person in order to mirror what the people below him where thinking of during the shooting. The only time we see him is a photo of him as a baby.
- Impairment Shot: The image blurs to demonstrate John Fox's impaired vision when his glasses slip off his sweaty face as he's helping carry Claire Wilson to safety.
- Nice Girl: Rita Starpattern is a very courageous, kind, and giving woman.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We never see Charles Whitman in person, nor do we know of his motives. This makes the situation even more haunting.
- Posthumous Character: Well, interviewee. Officer Houston McCoy was one of the interviewees for this film. He's represented by an actor throughout most of the film until the man himself appeared during the ending (as with the other interviewees). However, unlike the other interviewees, the footage of his interview comes from his screen test as he died in 2012, before principal photography began and four years before the release of this film.
- Retirony: Officer Speed, shot and killed by Whitman that day, was planning to quit the police force within a month to go back to school.
- Rotoscoping: The reenactments are portrayed with rotoscoped animation.
- Splash of Color: Not all of the film is Deliberately Monochrome but the parts that are often have splashes of color within them. In a scene where a barber steps out of his barbershop only to get shot in the arm, his barber pole shows red stripes. When Rita Starpattern comes dashing out to help Claire Wilson, and Claire mentions Rita's red hair, Rita's hair onscreen is colored red.
- Spree Killer: He's never seen, but there's one at the top of the tower, murdering strangers.
- Talking Heads:
- Simulated talking heads of witnesses and survivors, actually voiced by actors, rotoscoped into animation just like the rest of the movie.
- The second half of the film starts to mix the interviews with rotoscoped actors with actual live-action interviews of people such as Claire Wilson (the pregnant woman) and John Fox (one of the two men who rescued her).
- We Interrupt This Program:
- How Officer Martinez learns of the shooting. Being off-duty at home, he finds out when his TV show is interrupted by the first news bulletin.
- John Fox and his friend find out about the shooting when their radio program is interrupted by a bulletin.
