
The Mystery of D.B. Cooper
The director of Louis Theroux's My Scientology Movie documents the 1970s case of Dan "DB" Cooper, long regarded as the greatest unsolved heist in American history.
The film brings to life the stories of four individuals fervently believed by their family and friends to be the mystery man who hijacked a 727 flying out of Portland, OR, traded the passengers’ lives for $200,000 and four parachutes, lept from 10,000 feet over some of Washington State’s roughest terrain, and was never heard from again. Almost 50 years later, the case continues to confound the FBI and inspire wild speculation as it remains the only unsolved airplane hijacking in United States history.
- Director:
- John Dower
- Writer:
- John Dower


Reviews & comments

IndieWire
pressSomewhere, deep under the surface, is an illuminating meditation on the relationship between the banality of modern living and the fantasies that people sell to the masses to help them cope with it.

Financial Times
pressSifting the implausible from the probable makes for a fascinating show.

The Guardian
pressThese brilliant characters, some deeply entangled in the story, some distant from it but connected, are believers. This film asks what keeps them believing, and it is a far bigger question than the mystery itself.

RogerEbert.com
pressBy turning this narrative into a search for an identification that seems increasingly unlikely to ever happen, Dower loses focus, and we become just as lost as the hundreds of people convinced they know what happened to D.B. Cooper.

Decider
pressAn engrossing tale of nefarious derring-do and the power of belief, with the hook of lost cash.

IndieWire
pressSomewhere, deep under the surface, is an illuminating meditation on the relationship between the banality of modern living and the fantasies that people sell to the masses to help them cope with it.

Financial Times
pressSifting the implausible from the probable makes for a fascinating show.

The Guardian
pressThese brilliant characters, some deeply entangled in the story, some distant from it but connected, are believers. This film asks what keeps them believing, and it is a far bigger question than the mystery itself.

RogerEbert.com
pressBy turning this narrative into a search for an identification that seems increasingly unlikely to ever happen, Dower loses focus, and we become just as lost as the hundreds of people convinced they know what happened to D.B. Cooper.

Decider
pressAn engrossing tale of nefarious derring-do and the power of belief, with the hook of lost cash.
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