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Leave it to gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson to publish an obscure theory about the alleged psychedelic properties of oxidized adrenaline, which 52 years later is linked by QAnon conspiracy theorists to a blockbuster film about child sex trafficking. Deep breath.
Thompson, who died in 2005 and ensured his ashes were shot into the sky from a tower at his Colorado home, would no doubt be delighted by developments that even his fertile, drug-enhanced imagination could not have foreseen. However, based on my decades-long reading of his 1971 masterpiece, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, nothing surprised him, particularly the human capacity for self-deception and mass confusion.
The groundbreaking indie film Sound of Freedom is an oddity itself. The low-budget film was shot five years ago and sat on the shelf until recently picked up by Angel Studios. Since its release on July 4th, this child trafficking story starring Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ,” has grossed $100 million. Its crowdfunded popularity is based in part on a unique marketing campaign and on its endorsement by QAnon and high-profile conspiracy theorists, including Stephen K. Bannon and former President Donald Trump.
QAnon, a virtual “organization” with an extremist ideology led by the anonymous “Q” (allegedly a government agent who passes “bullets” to gullible supporters), has promoted the idea that Hollywood and political elites are trafficking children so they can consume children’s blood along with adrenochrome (oxidized adrenaline) for its “anti-aging properties.” Check over.
Follow This author’s opinion: Kathleen Parker
Myths about adrenochrome’s life-prolonging properties took shape long ago when some scientists tested the hormone for its possible hallucinatory properties and a theoretical link to schizophrenia. The scientific community has debunked their research, but reality and facts never deter conspiracy theorists. As a reminder, adrenochrome can be synthesized in a laboratory. There is no need for living bodies.
Still, even Caviezel, who has spoken to QAnon audiences several times, supports the idea that adrenochrome is a driving force behind the demand for children. In an interview with Bannon he said: “The whole adrenochrome empire. That’s a big deal.”
It’s a shame that QAnon and others on the restless right have joined a film that deals with a deeply troubling subject and is, albeit loosely, based on a true story – and otherwise worth watching. In the real story, Tim Ballard, a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security, decided in 2013 that he would rather rescue children from sex slavery than solely pursue human traffickers. He quit his job and traveled to South America, where he assembled a team of other former government employees, one of whom, “Batman,” had previously laundered money for drug cartels but eventually felt called by God to fight the child sex trade after spending the night with a prostitute he later learned was 14 years old.
“God’s children are not for sale” is the film’s theme – and in both art and life, Ballard and Batman gave their lives to make that a reality. Together they hunt down the crooks and invent elaborate scams to catch the bad guys and free the children, mostly girls. The expression “Sound of Freedom” comes from the improvised music that the children create after their liberation. I’m leaving the story here so you can see for yourself what all the fuss is about. I should warn you that as a critic, I never watch a film. I enter the theater and let the director (in this case Alejandro Monteverde) have his way with me. (“Barbie” could easily be the exception, but I have no intention of finding out.)
The “Sound of Freedom” captivated me from the first camera shot, as it hurtled toward a window and a little girl sat on her bed, pounding a mesmerizing rhythm on the top of a cardboard box and singing in the voice of an angel. The deeper I delved into the story, the more I couldn’t ignore the extreme typing of the villains, to the point of caricature. But the audience didn’t mind. Trump would have pictured the creeps and criminals exactly as he likely sees migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.
The film is difficult to watch and not for children. At the North Carolina movie theater where I saw it — midday and weekdays — the audience was decidedly gray-haired. That might be true of the time slot in general, but most also seemed to be people who could own a MAGA hat, if I may indulge myself in a little typography. I decided against interviewing one of my cinema colleagues as I had intended. As they slowly left the theater, their haggard faces and empty eyes told me this wasn’t the right time. I felt the same way.
Those who stayed through the credits received a short message from Caviezel, basically a request to buy tickets for others. He reviewed statistics on child sex trafficking — a $150 billion streak that has surpassed illegal drug and gun trades — and suggested that the film could do about child sex trafficking what Harriet Beecher Stowes’ “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” did about slavery.
Mobilizing the forces of good to fight evil isn’t the worst incentive for a movie. But that message should stand without the dopey Q-Man (who, I suspect, could be a mad scientist studying the anatomy of conspiracies and the jerks who take him seriously). Thompson famously said, “When things get weird, the weird goes pro” and “It never got weird enough for me.” He should have stayed here.
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