27-year-old Luigi Mangione committed (allegedly) the execution-style murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. He was making a bold statement by killing the head of a corporate giant — if found guilty if that — he had writings referencing the insurance industry, declaring “the target is insurance because it checks every box”.
I needed to post this addendum to my Bugonia review because much of my dissatisfaction with the movie stems from its release timing coming after the assassination of Thompson monopolizing the newsfeed almost a year ago. So much so UnitedHealth Group (UHG — which is the parent company of UnitedHealthcare) was hit with a class-action complaint filed on behalf of shareholders who bought UHG stock between Dec 3, 2024 and April 16, 2025. It alleges the company misled investors about business risks tied to Thompson’s killing and the backlash over its claims‐denial practices.
The complaint states UHG “shifted away from its previous strategy of denying health coverage” (i.e., reducing denials) in the wake of Thompson’s death and the public/regulatory scrutiny, without adequately disclosing the financial impact of that shift.“shifted away from its previous strategy of denying health coverage”
So the assassination of Brian Thompson clearly had some effect.
Anyways, this is what I was expecting from Bugonia, some tie-in with that contemporary event. There were plenty of hints that would happen, judging from snippets of commentary from reviewers given previews. But apparently those were aspirational. Jesse Plemons’ deranged character kidnaps the one of the billionaire CEO played by Emma Stone purely to save the world from aliens. Luigi Mangione’s motives appear to be anger and retribution against the parasitic healthcare insurance system. At least that’s what was released into the public sphere before the story was buried in silence.
