Hunter S. Thompson: The Final 24 (Full Documentary) The Story of His Final 24 Hours

♪ [1970s rock guitar and organ] ♪

[tires squeal]

[NARRATOR] Gonzo journalist...
[WOMAN] He was a genius.

[NARRATOR] ...larger than life character.

[MAN 1] Hunter, to his dying day,
wanted to be thought of as an outlaw.

[NARRATOR] One of the most
famous writers in the world.

[MAN 2] Hunter was one of the funniest
American writers in all history.

[NARRATOR] Hunter S. Thompson
was a man whose life was fueled

by drugs, alcohol, and the desire
to expose the truth about America.

[THOMPSON] Nixon represents everything
that's wrong with this country, down the line.

[NARRATOR] He was worshiped
by fans, loved by celebrities.

But in the end, it wasn't enough.

♪ ♪

After bringing his closest family
members to his home in Colorado…

[MAN 4] He went as long as he could.

[NARRATOR] …he wrote the
final chapter to his amazing life.

[single gunshot]

♪ [intense program intro] ♪

♪ ♪

[a clock beeps each second
as it ticks down from 24 hours]

>February 19, 2005.

Hunter S. Thompson is at Owl Farm,

his ranch and refuge
just outside of Aspen, Colorado.

He's 67 years old.

In just 24 hours, he’ll be dead.

At the beginning of his last day,

Thompson’s 40-year-old son, Juan,
and grandson, Will,

are at the farm for a visit.

Also present in that day is Ben Fee.

[BEN FEE] Hunter's family came up to visit
and they were to stay for the weekend.

And it had snowed and Juan and Jennifer
and Will were playing in the snow

and it was family time;
it didn't happen very often.

[NARRATOR] But underneath
the seemingly innocent scene,

Hunter is hiding a dark secret.

This is the last time
he’ll be seeing his family.

[S. WRIGHT] I think he must have known

when he asked them down that
that's when he was going to do it.

[NARRATOR] But before he goes,

he has a few loose ends
he wants to take care of.

[THOMPSON] Hey, Juan. Juan!
Get your ass in here, would ya?

[JUAN] What is it, Dad?

[THOMPSON] A little something
for you there.

[NARRATOR] Thompson presents Juan
with a few of his most precious keepsakes:

two silver cups that are
Thompson family heirlooms.

The box contains rare limited
editions of an unpublished novel,

and an Aztec medallion, a reminder
of Thompson's wild days.

[THOMPSON] Yes, you can.
It’s yours, okay?

Here we go. Here, here.

[WRIGHT] Yeah, he trusted
Juan more than anyone,

and he knew that
Juan loved him a lot.

And he loved Juan a lot.

[JUAN] I can't take that, Dad.
[THOMPSON] Dammit all! I said take it!

Don’t you understand
what a present is?

[NARRATOR] The preparations for his
death in less than 22 hours have begun.

♪ [drum and electric guitar] ♪

[NARRATOR] More than
three decades before,

Hunter S. Thompson exploded onto the scene
when he wrote “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,”

a series of articles describing
a drug-fueled trip across the desert.

[ALAN RINZLER] You can read it out loud.

You could—
It’s just like poetry.

It's the choice of words
and the images

and, you know, the narrative
and the voice — It's just brilliant!

[TIMOTHY FERRIS] He understood
the way that writing works.

There's a voice and the way it's like
breathing, the importance of its sound.

Writing is a very intimate
form of communication.

You can't shout it to people
because there's no sound involved

When you read something, that sound
is occurring inside your own head

as a result of the rhythms
that are created on the page.

Hunter was a great student
of these rhythms

and he understood writing physically.

[NARRATOR] It was fast,
it was rebellious,

and it was deeply shocking
to mainstream America.

Hunter Thompson became one of the
leading figures of the '70s counterculture.

His wild, drug-crazed antics, his politics,
and his constant questioning of authority

made him a hero for generations
of young rebels across the globe.

[WRIGHT] I think probably Hunter mostly
will be remembered as the wild man,

the drug addict, the alcoholic.
[NARRATOR] He crossed divides,

spending time with both the
Hell's Angels and President Nixon.

He was immortalized As Uncle Duke
in the “Doonesbury” cartoon strips.

[shots from a rifle]

And twice, Hollywood came calling,

turning his real life
adventures into movies.

[MICHAEL CLEVERLY] There were people
who were big Hunter Thompson fans

who had never read his work.

They liked the persona.

[five gunshots]

[NARRATOR] But his lasting
legacy will be his writing.

He broke the mold, creating
a new kind of journalism

where he and drug-crazed antics
became the center of the story.

It was called "Gonzo."

By the end of his life, Thompson could
look back on an incredible journey.

He'd invented a whole new genre
of writing, become a cultural icon,

but his wild lifestyle came at a price.

His body was now falling apart.

A broken leg, two hip operations,
and constant pain meant

he could no longer live up
to the legend he'd created.

In less than 20 hours,
Hunter S. Thompson will be dead.

His final evening is spent in the cozy
confines of his house in Colorado.

[FEE] I met Hunter Thompson in the
winter of 2004 at a party at his house,

and Hunter asked me if I'd stay up there

to write and doing some
filming behind the scenes,

so I began going up at night.

Once you stepped into the kitchen
at Owl Farm, you are in his world.

You could see a Tiffany's clock
from a close friend

right next to a petrified beaver,

Muhammad Ali's golden boxing gloves…

things that you'll never see anywhere else.

It's really quite a museum.

[NARRATOR] Ben Fee has been
living at Owl Farm for several weeks,

helping Thompson write
a weekly online column

and recording his time spent
with Thompson on videotape.

Thompson’s second wife, Anita, is also there.

[FEE] In hindsight, it was
the perfect setting for Hunter.

He had his son and his grandson and
his daughter-in-law, and he had Anita,

and those are the people who he loved
more than anything at that point.

And he wanted them to be around
for the release of his soul.

[NARRATOR] In the week before his death,
Thompson wrote that for him,

there were no more games, no more
bombs, no more guns, no more wild fun.

[WRIGHT] He'd been talking about
dying for, ever since I knew him,

but talking about actually
shooting himself for...

...something like a year-and-a-half,

telling people close to him
that this is what he was gonna do.

[NARRATOR] He's now 67. He feels
that going on as simply being greedy.

All he's got to do is relax.
What he's planning won't hurt a bit.

[PETER WHITMER] It was very
succinct, very brief, and it was—

I mean, the whole “no more fun” part
is where the real meat of it is,

in that Hunter realized that
he just could not enjoy himself

because he was physically as well
as psychologically worn down

like the eraser of a #2 pencil.

[NARRATOR] Unknown to his family,

this is the last evening they will
ever spend with Hunter Thompson.

♪ [lazy tempo jazz piano] ♪

67 years earlier, on July 18, 1937,

Hunter Stockton Thompson
came into the world.

He grew up in the conservative
southern town of Louisville, Kentucky.

♪ [peppy piano, drum, and electric guitar] ♪

[WHITMER] Hunter’s early childhood
was picture perfect.

One could not imagine a more
American family existence.

[NARRATOR] By the time
he was a teenager,

Thompson was already an important
figure in his neighborhood.

Lou Ann Murphy was his girlfriend.

[LOU ANN MURPHY ILER] We went to movies,
we went to parties in people's homes.

Sometimes we just hung out
on my front porch.

He was very confident,
he had a great air of assurance,

and his body language just said,
“I know where I'm going.”

[GERALD TYRRELL] I haven't run across anybody
who had the natural charisma that he had.

You could walk into a room full of people
and the people would be gravitating to Hunter

because he had a magnetism
that none of the rest of us had.

[NARRATOR] His family wasn't rich, but Thompson
wanted to be part of the Louisville elite.

He used his charisma
and early writing talent

to gain access to the exclusive
Athenaeum Literary Association.

[MURPHY ILER] The Literary Association
gave him entree into that elite part

of Louisville Society, and I think
he wanted desperately to be that.

[TYRRELL] A lot of them
would be considered

top young men in high school years in
Louisville, Kentucky, and he liked that.

[NARRATOR] But the picture book life
changed forever when Thompson was 14.

[frenzied school bells]

>[WHITMER] His father, who had been

this serious, quiet, but interesting,
methodical individual,

slowly but surely became
fatigued, became ill.

[NARRATOR] A debilitating neurological
disease was attacking Thompson's father.

Eventually, he was admitted
to the local Veterans Hospital.

[WHITMER] And Hunter was completely
powerless to do anything about it.

It was a form of torture, you might say,

and there he was daily watching
his father wilt, wither, die.

[NARRATOR] On July 3, 1952,
Thompson's father died.

It hit the 14-year-old hard.

[MURPHY ILER] And I remember Hunter
coming to my house at twilight,

and we sat on our front porch
for a long, long time

and then he would get up and pace.

And I think he was just stunned.

[1950s rock-and-roll electric guitar]

[NARRATOR] An angry young
Hunter Thompson started to lash out,

vandalizing property and
causing havoc around town.

[TYRELL] He drank more than some of us did,
and he had such a wonderful imagination.

Instead of just drinking,
he would want to go and do things,

and some of those things
were not, we're not great.

[RINZLER] He pushed over
mailboxes, smashed light bulbs,

and got drunk, you know,
and chased after women.

He, he...and, and...

...didn't go to school.

It was fairly innocent,
prankish, boyish behavior,

which he sustained
to the end of his life.

♪ [somber music] ♪

[NARRATOR] But now
Thompson, 52 years later,

can feel his own body falling apart.

He's in constant pain and
he's made up his mind.

His death will not
be slow and lingering.

It's the middle of the night at
Hunter S. Thompson’s farm in Colorado.

He has less than 16 hours to live.

His family has come for the weekend.

They’re now gathered in the living room,
along with his second wife, Anita.

They've been married for several years.

At times, it's a volatile relationship.

[THOMPSON] …Tricky Dicky
to kick around anymore.

[FEE] Hunter and Anita,
they had their battles.

They had their spats and
their wars and yelling matches.

They were like the
gonzo Sid and Nancy.

They could really have a go,

but then, you know, they'd just
love each other right afterwards.

[NARRATOR] But tonight, Hunter is
far from being the peacemaker.

[ANITA] What are you doing?

[NARRATOR] He and his
wife are on a collision course.

[ANITA] Don’t point that at me!
[THOMPSON] It isn’t loaded.

[ANITA] I don’t care if it’s not loaded!
Just don’t point it at me!

[NARRATOR] Dr. Gary Kennedy is a psychiatrist
who specializes in the effects of old age.

[THOMPSON] I’m sober as a judge.

[DR. GARY KENNEDY] With increasing age and
especially with people that become physically frail,

heavy alcohol intake has
a direct effect on the brain.

And what's important here is,

those effects can make one
less conscious, less aware

of the effect that your behavior
is having on other people.

[WRIGHT] He was a very big
human being, full spectrum.

And that-- all the wonderful,
exciting, good, kind, generous --

all of that -- was absolutely true.

[THOMPSON] It’s not loaded.

[ANITA] I don't care!
What do you mean, “It’s not loaded”?

You’re drunk [unclear]! God damn it, Hunter!

[WRIGHT] The dark side of Hunter
was really bad. He was vicious.

[FEE] The fear of having a gun
pointed at you, it's pretty terrifying.

So that that shook Anita.

[WRIGHT] This was not fun.
This was not a fun person.

This was-- This was a really
pained, angry, tortured man.

[NARRATOR] Hunter’s antics
have started a row with his wife

that will simmer for the
remaining hours of his life.

[ANITA] You know what?
I just can't take you anymore. I hate you!

[THOMPSON grunts]

♪ [late 1960s rock organ] ♪

♪ [mellow harmonized vocals] ♪

[NARRATOR] 41 years before,

Hunter S. Thompson had left the stuffiness
of Louisville, Kentucky, far behind

and was living in San Francisco with his
first wife, Sondi, and their infant son.

[WRIGHT] I was very happy to be a mother.

I had these two men in my life
that I was madly in love with both.

And so I-- It was a very happy time for me.

♪ [mellow harmonized vocals] ♪

[NARRATOR] Thompson decided
to dedicate his life to writing.

He began traveling,

writing freelance articles for a variety
of small magazines and newspapers.

[WRIGHT] He wanted to be
a really GOOD writer, you know?

And he was so disciplined.
I mean, he was VERY disciplined.

He wrote every day.

He rewrote everything.

When I typed something for him, I mean,
it had to be straight edges, you know?

I mean—And there couldn't be any mistakes.

It was well done. It was re-edited,
re-edited. Exactly the right word.

That was his idea of writing.

[NARRATOR] Thompson
struggled to make a living,

but he was determined
to make it as a writer.

In the spring of 1965,
he started an ambitious project:

an inside account of what was then a little-
known motorcycle gang, the Hell's Angels.

[WRIGHT] We had the Angels over
to the house, and I'm thinking,

“You know, these are,
these are nice people.”

You know: “These are-- They're not boring
and they're not insurance agents.”

You know: “They're really not--
They're kind of okay people."

But I didn't realize that they were—

you know, they were also dealing
drugs, they were killing people,

all kinds of stuff.

But I didn't know that.

[NARRATOR] After a year of research,
Thompson wrote, “Hell's Angels:

A Strange and Terrible Saga of
the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.”

[WRIGHT] And he had to be careful
with these guys, and he was.

[NARRATOR] When the book was published,
the Hell's Angels wanted a cut of the money.

When Thompson refused, they beat
him to within an inch of his life.

[WRIGHT] He was stomped,
and really fortunately,

one of the guys (a great, big, huge guy)
got him out just in the nick of time,

you know, because Hunter
could easily have been killed.

[NARRATOR] But the literary critics
were kinder. They loved the book.

Finally, after years of rejection,
Thompson had his first success.

[RINZLER] Hunter just—
I never heard him—

You know, he had been a kind of an
unsuccessful journalist for many years,

sportswriter, pretty much a scuffling,

and getting a lot of rejections and failure.

For 10 years, he was not a success.

and he came out with this book called
“Hell's Angels,” and it was stunning.

You know, it was just a magnificent book
and I'd never read anything like it before.

[NARRATOR] But at the same time
Thompson was beginning his literary career,

he was also beginning a longstanding
relationship with drugs.

[WRIGHT] I remember very, very well
the first time Hunter took acid.

I didn't have a clue about
what this would mean,

but I have a little boy in
a crib and I was terrified.

I was just terrified that
Hunter was going to be violent.

And then he asked me
for the gun, and I said “no.”

And he said, “I want the gun.
If you DON’T give me the gun,

I'm throwing this boot
through that window.

[glass shatters]

And he did. [glass shatters]

And I was just REALLY scared.

Mostly, I was scared for Juan.
I didn't know what might happen.

And I reached up—You know,
Hunter’s 6’ 3” and I’m 5’ 4 1/2”--

I reached up and just clawed.

I mean, here the guy is on acid,

and I took my fingers
and I just clawed his face.

I actually drew blood.

[baby crying]

[NARRATOR] Thompson's
next big literary assignment

was an article on the 1968
Democratic Convention in Chicago…

[crowd chanting]

…but demonstrations outside the
convention center soon turned ugly.

The police used tear gas, dogs,
and brute force to break up the crowd.

Thompson, the young journalist,
was caught in the middle.

[WRIGHT] He was in the crowds,

and he saw many people beaten,
some people that he knew.

And he just-- He saw the policemen

beating, beating, beating
these mostly young people.

When he came back—

I only saw Hunter cry twice
in 19 years — he cried.

He was telling me the story of
how everyone was getting beaten,

and it made a huge difference to him.

[NARRATOR] Thompson himself said
the battles with police were a turning point.

Years later, he proclaimed
in “Rolling Stone”

that that week in Chicago was worse
than the most grotesque acid trip…

[sirens]

…that it permanently
changed his whole chemistry.

Suddenly it became essential
to confront those

who had slithered their way into power
and were causing these things to happen.

[RINZLER] He was deeply offended
about what was happening in America.

as most thinking people are.

It's a great dream, America, but the reality
is really upsetting frequently to people

who can see the options and possibilities.

[OFFICER, through megaphone]
You are on [unclear] property,

which you are defacing.

If you do not leave,
you will be subject to arrest.

[CROWD yelling and booing]

[RINZLER] He was— He cared a lot about America.
He's a real— You know, he was a southern boy.

He was an American.

[NARRATOR] Thompson was determined
to somehow get into politics.

When he moved his family north to
Aspen, Colorado, he got his opportunity.

He was asked to run for sheriff.

He jumped at the chance to showcase
his very own brand of politics.

[CLEVERLY] It was different from
a campaign would be now

because there's an already-established
liberalist view of law enforcement.

Back then, the Sheriff before
Hunter (Carroll Whitmire]

was, you know, a classic
cowboy, redneck sheriff.

[THOMPSON] Marijuana laws are one
of the reasons that has engendered

this lack of respect that cops
complain about all the country.

[CITIZEN 1] I think it's a good thing
that Hunter Thompson is running

because I think it makes us all aware
of the power that's involved in the job.

[CITIZEN 2] At least they have some new ideas,
which is more than the old people.

[NARRATOR] Thompson advocated
planting grass in the town streets

and punishing people
who sold bad drugs.

Michael Solheim was
his campaign manager.

[MICHAEL SOLHEIM] We would
start with stuff like that,

but then we would build into the ideas
about the control of growth in this town.

We were out doing
meetings around town,

mostly in the evenings at
the various lodges and stuff

and inviting all the Aspenites
to come in and meet Hunter

and listen to what his ideas are.

[NARRATOR] Remarkably, Thompson's
campaign seemed to be gaining ground.

[SOLHEIM] I remember one night,
we were sitting upstairs up there,

and that was the day that it first occurred
to us that we might win the damn thing.

I said, “What are we gonna
do if we win? [chuckles]

[CAMPAIGNER] Okay, here’s the totals:

Whitmire: 204; Hunter: 173.

[crowd groans in disappointment.]

[NARRATOR] In the end,
Thompson lost by less than 500 votes.

[THOMPSON] It's very hard to
have a bald-headed lunatic--

I'll do that for the cameras [unclear].
[CAMPAIGNER] All right!

[THOMPSON] I've already made up
my mind, as a matter of fact.

This is my last trip in politics--
or THIS kind of politics.

I assure you I’ll be in
other kind of politics.

I'm not sure which way I'll go,
but It'll be one of the other--

It won't be down this middle anymore.

[CLEVERLY] Once the running
for office thing was behind,

he preferred to be
plotting up on Owl Farm

and, you know, moving the pieces
from behind the scenes.

But when lending his celebrity to
a cause would actually do some good,

he wouldn't hesitate to do so.

[NARRATOR] Thompson would never run
for office again, but for the rest of his life,

he used his writing as a platform
to rail against the establishment.

It's the early hours of the morning.

Hunter Thompson is alone.
He's in constant pain.

He has 14 hours before he will
choose to end his life.

[CLEVERLY] Physically,
he was in crummy shape.

You know, he’d had a surgery or two
and the bad broken leg and all that stuff

takes a toll on anyone that age,

so yeah, he was in crummy shape.

[NARRATOR] At 3:00 AM,
Thompson calls Ben Fee and Juan.

[THOMPSON] Hey, Benny.
[NARRATOR] He wants company.

[THOMPSON] What are you guys doing?
The night is young.

[FERRIS] And on occasion,
he's taking painkillers

which were not any better for
him than they are for anybody else.

You know, lots of painkillers
make you depressed

and they kinda make your situation
seem more and more trapped.

[THOMPSON] Thank you. Cheers.
[BEN AND JUAN] Cheers.

[FEE] When I went over and sat with Hunter
for a long time, for several more hours,

he had a moment where he was scared that
he was going to have his freedom stripped,

his ability to live the way he enjoyed to live,
you know, with guns open on the counter.

So we read his old works and
tried to keep it light and upbeat,

get his mind off of it.

[reading "The High Watermark"]
"You can strike sparks anywhere."

[FEE] It was about 7:00 in the
morning when Hunter went to bed.

♪ [mysterious guitar] ♪

[FEE] And I asked Juan if he
ever feared for his father's life.

He didn't seem to believe that
it was right around the corner.

Juan knew his father and
knew how it would end,

but I don't think Juan saw it
coming up like it did.

♪ [rock guitar with harmonica] ♪

[NARRATOR] 35 years earlier, Hunter S. Thompson changed the face of journalism.

He returned to the city
of his birth, Louisville,

to cover the Kentucky Derby
for Scanlon's magazine.

♪ [bugler plays "First Call"
to signal start of race] ♪

As the deadline for the article approached,
the magazine became anxious to get their copy.

[WRIGHT] And they said,
“You have to send us something.”

He said, “I don't have anything;
all I have is garbage.”

And they said, “Well you have to send it.”

“I can't. It's just it's not lucid.”

They said, “Send it to us.”

He sent it to them and
they said, “This is great!”

[NARRATOR] Even though Thompson
wasn't convinced by his new style,

others saw it as a breakthrough.

[RINZLER] My view is that it
actually was a quite polished piece.

It was just a rather radical style.

And it was consistent
with a kind of journalism

that was getting more and more radical,

starting with Norman Mailer
“On the Steps of the Pentagon”

and “Armies of the Night";

and Tom Wolfe, you know,
“[The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test],”

this kind of personal journalism
where you put yourself in the story

and you write in the voice,
the narrative voice that you recognize.

“Sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll”
narrative voice.

It was like the way people talk.

[NARRATOR] Thompson's new style
was a break from his previous work.

It was considered so unique,
it was given a name: "gonzo journalism."

Whether accidental or planned,

Thompson's gonzo style
became more concrete in 1971,

when he took a long,
drug-frenzied journey

from California to Las Vegas
with attorney Oscar Acosta.

They're somewhere in the desert
outside Barstow, California,

when the cocktail of drugs
explodes in his brain.

Suddenly, even the simple act of driving
becomes fraught with frightening visions.

He audio-hallucinates a terrible roar

while all around, what looks like huge
bats are swooping and screeching.

Thompson screams, “Holy Jesus!
What are these goddamn animals?”

What Thompson had put
to paper was wild, manic,

and like nothing
anyone else was writing.

He's still ogling and groping
the American dream,

that pale, exhausted vision
of the big winner

stumbling like a drunk out of an
impassive and stale Vegas casino.

The articles he wrote were
turned into a novel:

“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”

Hunter Thompson was just 34 years old,
and already, he had created a classic.

[RINZLER] He could cut to
the sort of essence of the truth

of what was going on
by fictional techniques,

such as metaphor or
imagination or fantasy.

He was brilliant, absolutely.

[NARRATOR] But more than that, he'd
created a fictional Hunter S. Thompson,

the wild, drug-taking, bourbon-swilling
gonzo journalist at the center of the book.

As Thompson grew older, he would find it
increasingly difficult to play that character.

After a short sleep, Hunter S.
Thompson rolls out of bed.

In 4 hours, he'll take his own life.

[THOMPSON] Hey, Baby.

[NARRATOR] His wife Anita is doing
her best to forget the fight of the night before.

She gets ready to drive
into town for a yoga class.

[ANITA] Good morning.

[Hunter uses silly voice, unclear]

[THOMPSON] Okay, well
you have a nice day too.

[NARRATOR] The day begins like Thompson's
days have for much of the last 50 years,

with liberal amounts of alcohol.

[THOMPSON] Hot diggity dog.
Some protein. We're good.

[WHITMER] It's very, very difficult to separate
the writer from the bourbon drinker,

and it never, ever stopped,
and it went on to his dying day.

It was-- it was an essential part of him.

[FERRIS] He was what I would call
a professional drinker, and of course,

a famous drug user in what
I would call an intelligent way,

that he wasn't a
crash-and-burn sort of a guy.

[THOMPSON] [unclear] last night?
Is that it? I'm sorry.

[NARRATOR] At breakfast, Thompson
tries to apologize to his wife, Anita,

for pointing the gun
at her the night before.

[ANITA] You're out of control!
[THOMPSON] Out of control, what?

[WRIGHT] It was very difficult
to live with Hunter.

It was exciting. It was, at times,
really loving and romantic,

but I would say, most of the time,
it was very hard because--

Mostly because Hunter was so angry.

[Dr. KENNEDY] This was
an impulsive person.

Attract and command attention,
was a subject of adulation.

He was novel. He was original.

But with age, that impulsiveness
ceases to be so much of an advantage.

And when you no longer have
the emotional high that comes

from that kind of attention,
how do you replace that?

[THOMPSON] I've been out of control
for 50 years. I mean, what's new?

[ANITA] I gotta get out of here.
I'm going to the gym.

[NARRATOR] As his wife leaves,

she has no idea that this will be
the last time she will see him alive.

♪ [slow, downhearted electric guitar] ♪

Thirty-three years earlier,

after the great success of
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,"

Rolling Stone magazine sent
their new star on the road again.

♪ [rock electric guitar] ♪

[applause]

The assignment was to cover
the 1972 U.S. presidential campaign.

[TED KENNEDY]...and elect George
McGovern and defeat Richard Nixon.

I'm concerned that Richard Nixon will be...

[RICHARD NIXON] That's what
this is all about. Thank you.

[applause]

[RINZLER] There was a feeling that this
was an election that could defeat Nixon,

that something exciting might happen.

There wasn't such a clear distinction
between the music and the politics.

The music was gonna set us free.
That was our motto.

[NIXON] This time, we're gonna win!

[NARRATOR] Thompson was supposed to bring
the rock-and-roll mentality to the campaign.

[crowds cheering]

[THOMPSON] Richard Nixon represents
the dark side of the American dream.

Richard Nixon stands, to me, for everything
that I not only have contempt for

but dislike and think should be stomped out:
greed, treachery, stupidity, cupidity.

Nixon represents everything that's
wrong with this country, down the line.

He can't even walk, you know?

He walks around with this kind of,
"How are you? I'm Richard Nixon."

[NARRATOR] Tim Ferris was
an editor with "Rolling Stone."

[FERRIS] A button he had printed up once
said, "You know, I'm not like the others."

He wasn't like the
rest of the press corps.

Even conservative American political
figures like Pat Buchanan would say

that Hunter was writing the funniest
stuff about politics they'd ever read.

It was really astonishing material.

♪ [electric guitar and organ] ♪

[NARRATOR] "Fear and Loathing
on the Campaign Trail '72"

was a collection of stories
Thompson wrote about the race.

It was supposed to be released
immediately after the election,

but Alan Rinzler (Thompson's editor) was
getting increasingly worried about the deadline.

[RINZLER] He and I had exchanged really
hostile letters prior to this meeting

because I'm an intrusive kind of

"do what's needed to be done"
kind of hands-on editor.

I didn't want to
just wait for him.

I knew he was notoriously
late with everything,

and what I realized ultimately was
that he was not going to write this book.

He was not going to finish it on time.

I would have to actually sit
with him the entire time.

Food was brought in constantly,
though he didn't eat much because

he was taking so much
speed and cocaine.

It was a non-stop, you know,
"72 hours at a stretch; collapse;

72 more at a stretch; collapse"
kind of experience.

and we had tape machines
in those days.

People would come pick up the tapes,
rush away to the office and work all night

transcribing the tapes (or all day)
and bring back the pages

and that was the kind of way you had
to work to get it done with Hunter.

[NARRATOR] Not only was Rinzler dealing
with a writer who found it hard to write,

he was also dealing with an author

who was finding it increasingly
difficult to find his groove.

[RINZLER] He tried to tune up his
mind through drugs and alcohol

to the point where he was
having, like, grandiose visions

and flights of tremendous,
creative imagination.

I mean, it's true.
And he'd try to capture that.

But then there'd be too much of it,

[chuckling] and then his brain
started to turn to jelly

and he couldn't think straight at all.

[NARRATOR] Finally, after a
huge consumption of narcotics

and a great deal of help from
his editor, the book was written.

Once again, it was a success,
but from here on, the writing got harder.

[RINZLER] I've been with a lot of
writers and it's hard for everybody,

but for Hunter, it got harder and harder.

It was a hard act—
He was, himself, a hard act to follow.

[NARRATOR] The drink and drugs
that had once inspired Thompson

became a permanent fixture,
and bit by bit, began to rot his brain.

♪ [psychedelic music] ♪

[RINZLER] Absolutely,
you can't do that forever.

He was a big, strong guy.
He had a high tolerance.

But after 40 years, 40-50 years of
steady, daily never being sober,

I think it gets to you.

A lot of people I know from that era either
died or disintegrated or straightened out.

[gunshot]

[NARRATOR] After more than 30 years

of fighting against the political
tide of the United States,

Thompson is preparing to
withdraw from the race,

once and for all.
[gunshot, glass shatters]

It's February 20th, 2005.

Hunter S. Thompson
has gathered his family

for one last weekend at
his ranch in Aspen, Colorado.

On the last morning of his life,

his knee hurts, his hips hurt,
his back is sore.

In two hours, he will shoot himself.

[FERRIS] Well, Hunter
was extremely free.

He insisted on his freedom and he
exercised his freedom to a degree

that's unknown to most mortals
on a day-by-day basis.

And I'm not just talking about freedom
of speech but freedom of action,

and when that freedom began to be limited
by the fact that he couldn't walk right

and that he was in physical pain
from a bad back and back surgery,

bad knee, and [unclear] broken leg,

I think the thing that
most troubled him about it

was the prospect that he was looking
at a permanent narrowing of his freedom.

[CLEVERLY] He'd been, you know,
blessed with an athlete's body all his life,

and all of a sudden, it all kind of starts to
fold up at once over a short period of time.

It was, you know, gonna be
a horrible blow to anyone,

so his physical problems were
a big part of his life at that point.

♪ [slow-paced reverberating guitar] ♪

[NARRATOR] He types a cryptic
word on his typewriter: [counselor].

[typewriter keys clack]

It's the last thing he will ever write.
It's meaning remains a riddle.

It's 3:30, February 20th, 2005.
Thompson calls his neighbor, Ed Bastian.

[THOMPSON] Hey, Eddy, get over here.
4:00, alright? There's gonna be some shooting.

[cackles]

[FERRIS] Hunter was someone who
never expected to be 30 years old,

much less 40 or 50.

He lived his life knowing that
he was living dangerously

and enjoying himself
on a day-by-day basis.

He always emphasized that it was fine with him
if he didn't live a long life, and as he got older,

he often said that he wasn't
afraid to commit suicide,

that this was a kind of an exit door that
he regarded as being perfectly defensible.

[NARRATOR] Hunter S. Thompson
has just two hours left to live.

[Thompson coughs]

♪ [rock electric and bass guitar] ♪

Twenty-six years earlier, Thompson
published "The Great Shark Hunt."

The book is a collection of his best writing,
stretching back to the early '60s.

Thompson was only 41 years old,

but already, he was
writing a retrospective.

He compares it to etching words
onto his own tombstone.

[typewriter keys clack]

There seems nothing left.
He has said all there is to say.

Beyond, he can foresee nothing
but a quick exit straight down,

right off his 28th-floor hotel terrace.

No one could follow up his act,
let alone Hunter S. Thompson.

[KENNEDY] Well, as you read his
chronology throughout his career,

one of the things that made
him great was, he took risks.

He went into areas that were not
necessarily safe for journalists,

from his first work in Hell's Angels
to the Chicago convention,

and that riskiness paid off
with his creativity.

But also with that risk
went a self-destructive strain.

[NARRATOR] Thompson continued
to write articles for "Rolling Stone,"

but nothing he did could win the same
critical acclaim of his earlier works.

[RINZLER] Once you've written
"Hell's Angels..." and "Fear and Loathing..."

you gotta keep raising the bar.

but Hunter's particular psyche and
personality— he was, you know, insecure,

and he was very anxious all the time.

[WRIGHT] So the money,
the fame, the hallucinogenics,

those are all different ingredients,

and so Hunter began to morph.

[chuckles]

He had to change a bit.

I had lived to help him
be this great writer.

Well, this "great writer" wasn't writing
and he wasn't writing great things.

And I thought, "What am I doing?"

[NARRATOR] Sondi, Thompson's
wife for over 15 years,

had had enough of the Hunter
Thompson circus and left.

[WRIGHT] I had no sense of myself.
I, I, I... I didn't think I could do anything.

I wasn't smart enough, I wasn't this enough,
I wasn't good enough, so when I left,

I still loved Hunter but I just—

There was no way that
I could live this life anymore.

♪ [ominous thumping beat] ♪

[NARRATOR] Thompson
had become known

as much for his excessive
behavior as for his writing.

♪ [ominous thumping beat] ♪

Hunter S. Thompson, the writer, became more
and more Hunter S. Thompson, the character.

[gunshot]

[CLEVERLY] You know, when there'd be
an event with a lot of people at Owl Farm,

Hunter would put on his sunglasses
and the cigarette holder and the visor

and he'd become that
public persona, you know.

And those of us who were closest to him would
kind of back off and let the fans move in.

[ANNOUNCER] Ladies and gentlemen,
Hunter S. Thompson! [applause]

[NARRATOR] Thompson began
to cash in on his notoreity,

charging large fees to appear in
front of crowds of adoring students.

[applause]

[RINZLER] I saw him speak at Cal once
and he was— He got up on the stage.

He was so drunk, he just
fell over and passed out.

And people had paid a lot of money,

and he was paid something
like $25 grand to do that.

He was on the stage for, like, 6 minutes,

and that was his public persona for
many of his public appearances.

[FERRIS] I remember once,
Hunter was...

...cited and, I think, had to pay a fine for

setting off a fire extinguisher onstage
at some talk he was giving somewhere.

And he told me rather sheepishly that—
I said, "Well, why did you do that?

Didn't you know that it was, you know,
there are statutes against it now?"

And he said, "Well, I thought
it was expected of me." [laughs]

[NARRATOR] But Thompson's wild antics
weren't just for his public appearances.

[THOMPSON] I'm gonna
blow the hell out of something.

[MAN] That wouldn't be good.

[THOMPSON] Okay, Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

[CLEVERLY] One of his favorite things was
to get a gallon jar and fill it with gasoline.

[THOMPSON] Remove your gloves, man.

They're gonna goddamn get wet,
you know that. [laughs]

[CLEVERLY] And there were these little exploding
targets that he'd attach to a gallon of gasoline.

The first time, he says, "Michael, go into the
living room and get a fire extinguisher."

I go and get the fire extinguisher
and I'm standing about 20 feet away.

He says, "No! Stand right here behind me."

I said, "Hunter, if I stand here and
you catch fire, I'm gonna catch fire."

[chuckles] "So I'll just stand over there."
He gave me a really disgusted look. [laughs]

[explosion]

[THOMPSON] [unclear]
Did you like that?

[WRIGHT] Fire, fire was big.
Breaking glass.

[gunshots, shattering glass]

Yeah, blowing things up.

[explosion]

Yeah, that's violence. That's chaos.

[RINZLER] The first time I met him,
he actually handed me —

I'll never forget this — a fistful of
lit Roman candles. They were lit!

He said, "Here, Rinzler. Pull this."

And it was like, "If you're gonna play
with me, you've gotta be fearless."

And so I took them and then they
went off and just shot into the air.

[fireworks explode and whistle]

[FERRIS] Yeah, Hunter loved loud noises
and explosions and unexpected things.

[RINZLER] There's a theory about
drug abuse and alcohol abuse

that in a sense, when you start using,

you stop growing internally
and you don't mature.

You don't develop as an adult.
You're stuck in 16, 17, 18.

And in many ways, I believe that's
the key to Hunter's personality.

He was a big kid.

[NARRATOR] His public appearances
and outrageous behavior

did nothing to tarnish his reputation.

In the late '90s, his most famous book,
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,'

became a Hollywood movie
starring Johnny Depp.

And when Jon Kerry ran for president in 2004,
he could still invoke Thompson's name.

[JOHN KERRY] I've got four words to put you
at ease: Vice President Hunter Thompson.

[laughter and applause]

[NARRATOR] But even though Kerry could
use Thompson's name to get a laugh,

Thompson hadn't been taken seriously

as either a political commentator
or a writer in years.

[FERRIS] Later on, as politics moved in
its course and the country changed,

to keep on with that kind of
political commentary

would have required learning quite a lot
about how the landscape was changing,

and Hunter wasn't really
interested in doing that.

[RINZLER] I don't think the books were
very good, the last bunch of books.

He got into kind of an
ESPN sportswriting thing

that was kind of hack work.

He just couldn't keep it up,

and I think that
starting in 1982 or 1983,

for the last 20 years of his life,
his work was just to make a living

and to provide a new product for publishers
who were willing to pay him large advances

because anything with
his name on it would sell.

But the quality of his work,
I think, really after 1982

just became repetitious and flat.

[NARRATOR] As the years dragged on,

Thompson's writing was becoming
increasingly irrelevant.

As old age set in, he would rely on his
favorite gun, the 0.45 Smith & Wesson,

to make his final statement to the world.

It's late afternoon.

Hunter S. Thompson has less
than half an hour left to live.

[telephone ringing]

[THOMPSON] Hello?
[ANITA] Hi, it's me.

[NARRATOR] His wife, Anita,
calls from a local fitness club.

Once again, Thompson apologizes
for his behavior the night before.

This is the last conversation
Hunter Thompson will ever have.

[FEE] Hunter was speaking with Anita
on the phone and they were reconciling

and he was speaking with her and telling
her that everything was gonna be okay.

[NARRATOR] Elsewhere in the house,

Thompson's son Juan watches
over his own son, 6-year-old Will.

[Will giggles]
[JUAN, playfully] Stop it.

[THOMPSON] What are you doin'?

[ANITA] Yeah, I'm at the gym,
but I'm finishing up.

[THOMPSON] This is a sea
of gonzo thongs, I hope?

[ANITA] Yes.

[THOMPSON] Well, listen, Babe.
I'm sorry about last night, okay?

I'm sorry, but I really love you.
Come on home, will ya?

[ANITA] Okay. I love you too.

Hunter? Hunter?

Hunter? Hunter? Hunter?

♪ [mellow harmonized vocals] ♪

[explosive sound]

[FEE, reinactment] Juan, Juan!
What's wrong? What's wrong?

[FEE] Juan blew past me as I was on
my way over, white as a ghost.

I had no idea, but I could tell
that something wasn't right.

[SOLHEIM] I was with Bob Braudis, our sheriff,
and Bob got a call from one of his deputies,

saying that there had been
a gunshot out at Hunter's,

and we all looked at each other and
just knew that was it. That was it.

♪ [ distorted electronic music] ♪

[FEE] Jennifer and Will
were horribly shaken.

It was so surreal and shocking.

I stepped closer, and Juan interrupted me

and he grabbed me and said,
"Don't. Don't come closer, please."

[JUAN] Go.

[WRIGHT] My son, to this day,
and my daughter-in-law both feel

that they are glad that they were
there to take care of things

and also to see him and feel his body
so that it was very, very real.

[NARRATOR] Hunter S. Thompson died
at 5:45 PM, February 20th, 2005.

[explosion]
He was 67 years old.

[explosion]

[WRIGHT] He was born a genius
and he was born with that charisma.

And he was also born
with that tortured soul.

And where that comes from,
I don't know?

♪ [mournful steel guitar] ♪

♪ [end credits] ♪