About a month ago, I stumbled upon The Alabama Solution and immediately thought it was something everyone needs to see, as well as the most devastating HBO documentary on the 2025 movie schedule. While the former comment still stands all these weeks later, another doc has come out and wrecked me even more. I’m talking about Thoughts & Prayers, Zackary Canepari and Jessica Dimmock’s exploration of the multi-billion-dollar active shooter training industry in America.
This new documentary, which is available with an HBO Max subscription, isn’t about school shootings, but instead the massive industry that has grown larger and larger in the wake of the countless school shootings that have become all too prevalent in the United States. As a parent whose three kids are way too familiar with many of the products and tactics on display in Thoughts & Prayers, this hit so damn hard.
Thoughts & Prayers Shook Me Like Nothing Else I’ve Watched This Year
Before I even pressed play on Thoughts & Prayers, I had a feeling what I was getting myself into. The phrase “Thoughts and Prayers” gets thrown around all the time, and I was morbidly curious to see what this was going to be about. But, it wasn’t a history of school shootings in America (there’s no way that could fit into a 90-minute documentary). Instead, it was about the “solutions” that have been created to lessen the blow during the next eventual mass shooting.
When I was watching spokespersons for companies specializing in bulletproof windows and window coverings, desks that double as shields, and the various drills students and teachers have grown accustomed to in recent years, I was shaking. I remembered back-to-school night at my kids’ schools, where I saw similar products and practices in place. I remembered conversations I’ve had with my kids. I remembered watching the news alerts about yet another school shooting.
Multiple Scenes Broke My Heart
I was an emotional wreck throughout Thoughts & Prayers. It wasn’t on the level of 2008’s Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, a documentary that’s impossible to watch without crying or being filled with rage, but it was close. While the entire 90-minute film was difficult to watch, there were a few moments that broke my heart into a million tiny pieces and scattered them around the room like bullets in a mass shooting.
About 30 minutes or so into the documentary, two students are being interviewed before taking part in a school shooting readiness exercise. During their chat, one reveals that she brings a small bag in her backpack every day that contains different things she thinks would help her, her classmates, or her teacher in the event her class is targeted. The other student, knowing nothing about this, grows visibly upset and emotional, and I am right there with him.
At the end of the documentary, once the big exercise is completed, one of the organizers says something that has stuck with me for days. Though the man was pleased with the way the event turned out and the lessons learned that could save lives, he did “not want to lose the fact that it is still a sad thing that we have to do this.” Few truer words have ever been spoken.
Thoughts & Prayers is a hard documentary to watch (check out the trailer before deciding if you can handle it), but it has instantly become one of the best documentaries on HBO Max.