D.B. Cooper fever still running hot: Latest movie about famous skyjacker premieres at Seattle film fest

The unlimited quest to locate D.B. Cooper continues — on the massive display screen.

America’s current obsession with accurate-crime stories indicates the unsolved 1971 skyjacking of Northwest Orient Flight 305 out of Portland is even bigger than ever.

The most modern cinematic telling of the tale — right after new versions ended up supplied up on HBO and Heritage Channel, respectively, just over a calendar year ago — is “I Am D.B. Cooper.”

D.B. Cooper is, of system, the identify popularly connected with the serious-lifetime skyjacker who disappeared 50 yrs in the past immediately after leaping out of a Boeing 727 above the Pacific Northwest. His serious identify is mysterious.

The FBI finally deserted the situation in 2016 right after digging into hundreds of suspects.

“I Am D.B. Cooper” premieres April 16 at the Seattle Intercontinental Movie Festival. Tickets are on sale now.

Here’s the movie’s summary description:

The id of hijacker D.B. Cooper stays one particular of the fantastic PNW mysteries. In 1971, a male hijacked a aircraft and parachuted from it over southern Washington with his ransom income, by no means to be noticed once more. There have been many suspects around the past 50 a long time, none of whom have been conclusively confirmed… until finally now?

Two bounty-searching brothers bail an ailing aged male named Rodney Bonnefield out of jail in 2016 and are amazed when he announces that he is the true D.B. Cooper. Intrigued by Bonnefield’s admission, they carry a grain of salt to their interrogation of his past, only to find that a good deal of details line up in approaches that only the correct Cooper would know. Questioned to accompany Bonnefield to get better the undiscovered portion of the ransom income, they determine to stick to the breadcrumbs to their unsure conclusion.

Director T.J. Regan, like the bounty hunters, is fascinated by Bonnefield but also keeps his probable grift at arm’s size, far more articles to current our fascination with the unsolved inquiries than bestow a conclusive fact that might hardly ever be confirmed.

This is T.J. Regan’s second film, immediately after 2020′s “Gap 12 months,” a documentary that zero’s in on basketball player Darius Bazley and the NBA’s a person-and-performed rule.

The “I Am D.B. Cooper” trailer (look at over) is entertaining, but as the film’s summary signifies, don’t be expecting to wander out of the theater with a superior grasp of who hijacked Flight 305. About the many years, quite a few, many, lots of individuals have confessed to be getting — or figuring out — the skyjacker.

As John Dower, director of the 2020 documentary “The Thriller of D.B. Cooper,” set it:

“These people today all have a D.B. Cooper-shaped hole in their life.”

— Douglas Perry