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When you type the keyword "The Hunt 2020" into a search bar, you are immediately greeted with a chaotic mix of controversy, political firestorms, and surprisingly sharp social commentary. Released in the fiery political climate of March 2020 (just as the world was shutting down for the pandemic), The Hunt arrived carrying more baggage than almost any film in recent memory. Originally scheduled for a September 2019 release, Universal Pictures pulled the film indefinitely after mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, and a furious condemnation from then-President Donald Trump.
But the film did eventually surface. And for those who finally watched The Hunt 2020, the experience was a shocking revelation: It wasn’t the right-wing-bloodbath critics feared, nor the left-wing-fantasy others suspected. Instead, it was a gleefully violent, universally cynical satire aimed squarely at everyone.
This article explores the plot, the controversy, the political allegory, and why The Hunt 2020 has since become a cult classic.
A group of kidnapped strangers wake up in a clearing, gagged, with a wooden crate of weapons at their feet. As they soon discover, they’re being hunted for sport by a group of wealthy liberal elites led by the icy Athena (Hilary Swank). But the joke — or the twist — is that the victims aren’t random. They’ve been selected because of offensive, often right-leaning online activity. One victim texted “Execute them all” under a meme; another shared a Pizzagate-style conspiracy. In other words, these are “deplorables” to the hunters, whom the hunted call “the elites.”
But before you assume this is a Red State vs. Blue State lecture, the film’s secret weapon arrives: Crystal (Betty Gilpin), a soft-spoken, pragmatic woman from Mississippi who doesn’t fit the victim mold. She’s not a conservative ideologue — she’s just someone who survived a workplace nightmare and accidentally got swept up in the wrong internet argument. Once the hunt begins, Crystal turns the tables with brutal efficiency, exposing the hunters’ incompetence and hypocrisy.
The Hunt arrived in 2020 burdened by political controversy, release delays, and a tidal wave of online outrage from both the left and the right — all before most people had seen a single frame. When it finally hit screens (and quickly VOD), expectations were split: some predicted a mindless “snobs vs. slobs” gore-fest, others a trenchant takedown of modern American tribalism. What we actually got is somewhere in between — an imperfect, often hilarious, and surprisingly smart action-horror hybrid that works best when it stops pretending to be balanced and leans into its chaotic, bloody heart. The Hunt 2020
Here is where The Hunt gets tricky. The film claims to mock everyone. It does.
However, the film is not balanced. By placing the audience squarely behind Crystal (a working-class, blue-state moderate who despises both sides), the script spends 80% of its runtime disemboweling the left. The liberal villains are on screen longer, get the best pretentious dialogue, and suffer the most creative deaths. The conservative characters are mostly cannon fodder who die in the first act.
This makes the film’s central "gotcha" moment—a speech where Crystal exposes the hypocrisy of the rich elite—feel hollow. It’s a liberal filmmaker wagging a finger at other liberals, which is safe. The film never shows the power of actual working-class conservatism; it only mocks the stupid version of it. Consequently, The Hunt isn't a satire of the culture war; it’s a satire of Twitter—where nuance goes to die.
For all its edgy posturing, The Hunt tries to have it both ways. The hunters are clueless, wine-sipping hypocrites; the hunted are racist, gun-loving conspiracists. The film wants to mock everyone equally, but in doing so, it drains its satire of any real target. By making Crystal a centrist working-class hero who just wants to go home, the movie sidesteps the very culture war it claims to dissect. It’s safe edginess — the kind that lets liberals laugh at “deplorables” and conservatives laugh at “coastal elites” without anyone having to change their mind.
The middle third drags as the film introduces then discards supporting characters (Emma Roberts, Justin Hartley, Ike Barinholtz) in service of plot mechanics. Some of the social commentary feels dated already — the “Manorgate” scandal at the center is a thin stand-in for a certain real-world conspiracy, but the film never commits to what it actually wants to say about disinformation or class resentment. When you type the keyword "The Hunt 2020"
Also, Hilary Swank is wasted. As Athena, she’s supposed to be the Queen Bee villain, but she doesn’t appear until the final act, and her performance is all sneer and no menace. The climactic monologue about her boredom with hunting “regular people” is meant to be chilling, but it lands like a first-draft Twitter thread.
Here is the secret that the controversy missed: The Hunt 2020 is not a liberal film bashing conservatives. It is a nihilistic satire that eviscerates everyone equally.
The "Elites" (Athena and Co.): The rich hunters speak in performative woke jargon. They argue about which classic novel is the most problematic. They kill "deplorables" but get very upset if you use a plastic straw. The film paints the elite left as out-of-touch, murderous hypocrites who use social justice as a costume for brutality.
The "Deplorables" (The Victims): The film’s victims are not angels. They are shown screaming racist slurs, falling for obvious conspiracy theories, and generally behaving like carnival caricatures of red-state America. One of the first victims is a "Fox News type" who tries to negotiate with the hunters using conservative talking points, which fails hilariously.
The Hero (Crystal): Crystal is a true centrist. When asked about her politics, she replies that she doesn’t vote because "everyone is lying to you." She is the living embodiment of the exhausted American middle. She survives not because she is the smartest or the kindest, but because she is purely practical. The Hunt arrived in 2020 burdened by political
By the time Crystal confronts Athena in the film’s finale—inside a lavish mansion decorated with fine art—Athena admits the entire hunt started because of a viral misunderstanding. A private group chat joke was misconstrued, and people died. The cause of all the bloodshed? A texting error.
Spoiler warning: The ending of The Hunt 2020 is intentionally unsatisfying if you want a political victory. Crystal does not blow up the system. She does not expose the rich to the public. Instead, she kills the last hunter, walks out of the manor, and disappears.
The final shot is Crystal in a taxi, staring blankly out the window as the news plays on a radio about the ongoing "culture war." She is free, but she has not changed anything. The cycle of hatred continues without her.
This is the film’s darkest message: You can win the battle, but the war between ideologies will never end. The only way out is to refuse to fight for a tribe.