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WHAT WENT WRONG

Jodie Foster & John Hinckley Jr. (with RedHanded)

WHAT WENT WRONG

Sad Boom Media

Flop, Film, Film History, Blockbuster, Acting, Disaster, History, Tv & Film, Movie, Directing, Hollywood

4.84.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2026

⏱️ 72 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

'Taxi Driver' isn't just one of the greatest movies ever made... it's also deeply entangled with one of the most shocking true crimes in American history. 


In this Out of Frame episode, Chris and Lizzie welcome special guests Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire from RedHanded to examine the disturbing case of John Hinkley Jr, whose obsession with Jodie Foster spiraled into an attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan. Discover how the case reshaped Foster's life and career, and dive into the lasting impacts of the trial on the American criminal justice system. Find out how 'Taxi Driver', arguably an examination of toxic masculinity, became an extremely dangerous call to arms in the wrong hands. 


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello? Hello, and welcome back to What Went Wrong, your favorite podcast, Full Stop, that just so happens to be about movies and how it's nearly impossible to make them, let alone a good one, let alone a movie that maybe kind of inspired someone to try to kill the president. I am one of

0:41.8

your host, Lizzie Bassett, here as always with Chris Winterbauer, but because we are talking

0:47.8

true crime today as it relates to taxi driver, spoiler alert, that's the movie. We have enlisted some experts to join us.

0:56.7

I am extremely excited. I'm an enormous fan of their show. I've listened for years. We have

1:03.3

Sarutibala and Hannah McGuire here with us from Red Handed. Thank you both so, so much for being

1:10.0

here. Thank you for having us. We're

1:12.1

really excited. And I think taxi driver is quite a good, I was going to say microcosm, that's not

1:18.4

quite the right word. It's a good parallel to what it's like being a true crime podcaster,

1:22.8

just slowly watching the world decay around you and getting more and more angry every time

1:26.9

someone else turns out to be a paedophile. I have to admit, I re-watched the first half an hour just now,

1:33.6

and I was like, am I? Am I, Travis? Has it got like that now? I don't know. I'll just stay

1:41.8

inside for a bit. No taxis for me. Oh, no. I reckon you've got two good years. Two good years in you before we get there. I was also meant to watch it and I failed in the mission. I was told about it with ample notice, but I have been very bad because I have been either writing the Corey Rich in script because obviously she's been found guilty day before yesterday and also watching Married at First Side Australia. I'm not going to lie because I'm a trash person. Chris is mad at me because I've been watching Love is Blind instead of Seven Samurai. So we're in the same boat here. I've also watched all of that. So, you know, if any of those references come up, I'm all in. Have you seen Taxi Driver before ever?

2:19.5

Years and years and years ago, as Hannah will tell you, I am really notoriously bad at not having watched a lot of, like, the classic movies that everyone should have watched.

2:30.1

Like, I'm quite bad at that.

2:31.1

Like, I have really terrible taste in films because I almost exclusively watch horror films.

2:36.4

That's great taste.

2:37.0

And, like, the worst horror films out of that. I don't think anyone can have bad taste.

2:40.1

You just have your taste in movies.

2:41.9

That's what we want to celebrate on this show.

2:43.7

And also, a bunch of our audience probably will not have watched Taxi Driver.

2:45.3

You can be a surrogate for those people as we make fun of them relentlessly.

2:48.2

All right, Lizzie, please continue.

...

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