Who is Luigi Mangione?: “Who is Luigi Mangione highlights important yet unsettling details of the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting

Delay, deny, depose.

These chilling words lined Luigi Mangione’s — the suspected shooter of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — alleged bullet shell casing in magic marker. 

While I’d seen news coverage on the overview of Mangione’s arrest and edits on TikTok praising his attractive features, this was the first tiny detail I’d learned about the case that sent shivers down my spine.

I didn’t learn these three uncanny words from any of the posts I saw on my feed — I learned it from watching the new documentary “Who is Luigi Mangione.” 

Max dropped the documentary “Who is Luigi Mangione” on Feb. 17, which walks through Mangione’s life before the shooting of Brian Thompson. Although the investigation is still ongoing, the documentary highlights important yet unsettling details of the case and Mangione’s background.

If you have extremely limited knowledge about the case, don’t worry. The first 10 minutes will recap the story for you. One of the narrators may annoyingly repeat the phrase “Who is this guy?!” about a hundred times during this recap, but it provides the audience with essential background knowledge of the case you can’t get from TikTok.

As the documentary outlines Mangione’s high school valedictorian status and wealthy upbringing, I couldn’t help but admire the credible sources interviewed for the film. Two family friends of the Mangiones discussed the family’s respected status and his Reddit history detailed the “brain fog” or lapse in brain cognition he faced while at the University of Pennsylvania over five years ago. 

He used to play chess every day with his roommate, but eventually couldn’t even remember a strategy to use against his partner, something that stumped doctors for years.

His friend he lived with in Hawaii in 2022 further explained Mangione struggled from chronic back pain after a severe surfing accident. 

These real anecdotes add more detail and humanity to the documentary. It wasn’t just criminologists or law enforcement that were interviewed; it was people who actually know Mangione. It added a sense of authenticity to the documentary.

Authenticity and impartiality seemed to both be a rightfully large focus of the film.

The documentary’s goal wasn’t to bring sympathy to Mangione nor exhibit him as some sort of monster, it was to simply provide context to the shooting that broke the internet.

And although there’s evidence that Mangione committed the crime, including his personal Manifesto and “letter to the feds,” the trial hasn’t started yet. There’s been one hearing, however there isn’t even a date set for the traditional trial, according to ABC News.

Intentionally creating bias towards a man not convicted of any crime yet would be highly inappropriate. In fact, the very first thing shown in this documentary is the statement “all persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”

The fact-driven plot goes on to talk about how Mangione goes MIA for the six months leading up to the shooting. Not even his parents knew where he was. Then all of a sudden, they saw their son in the headlines for allegedly killing a CEO.

Imagine not hearing from your family member for six months and then seeing them in the news for murder — that’s completely insane, to say the least.

Chilling Reddit threads and posts from Mangione flash onto the screen to show his transgression from innocent, concerned medical questions to terrifying posts mentioning a “capitalistic society.”

The documentary did have a slight elementary school iMovie project feel with the dramatic sound effects and cheesy flashbacks, but this didn’t take away from the overall information of the film. I can live through a couple obnoxious car honks and typewriter sounds if it means I can get accurate information on an ongoing investigation.

If you don’t usually enjoy true crime documentaries or podcasts due to gory details, I have good news for you: this documentary doesn’t include any unnecessary violence or violent descriptions. Also, the run-time is approximately 42 minutes, making it a short, yet informative watch, even for a school night.

With the, hopefully, upcoming UnitedHealthcare trial with Mangione, this documentary is an adequate watch to bring you up to date with both facts from the case and Mangione’s background. And while Mangione’s story may make your stomach twist into knots, you won’t have to mute the TV for any unnecessary gory details.