An exclusive interview with co-writers/co-directors ELI KOORIS and JOSHUA SHAFFER discussing how they gave the unbelievable story of skyjacker Martin McNally cinematic life in AMERICAN SKYJACKER.
AMERICAN SKYJACKER is a feature documentary co-written and co-directed by ELI KOORIS and JOSHUA SHAFFER, that dives headfirst into the unbelievable true story of Martin McNally — a convicted skyjacker whose exploits mirrored the legend of D.B. Cooper even as his fate took a spectacularly different turn.
In the volatile early 1970s, when skyjacking briefly became America’s strangest trend, McNally—an unabashed Cooper fanboy—decided to follow in his idol’s slipstream. Hijacking an American Airlines flight out of St. Louis barely six months after Cooper’s notorious heist, McNally demanded $500,000, parachutes, and a list of concessions… then leapt out of the plane into the night with the ransom strapped to him. But unlike the ghostly Cooper, McNally’s saga doesn’t dissolve into myth. His cash is flung into the darkness, later discovered by a farmer in a soybean field. McNally himself is tracked down, arrested, convicted—and that’s where most stories would end.
But this one is just getting warmed up.
Behind bars, McNally meets the charismatic con man Garrett Trapnell, and together they hatch escape plans so audacious they sound like pulp fiction: attempted breakouts, helicopter rescues, and the involvement of Barbara Oswald—a woman whose loyalty leads her into one of the most daring escape schemes ever attempted at a super-max prison. Their intertwined tales form a true-crime labyrinth: wild characters, escalating stakes, and psychological twists that documentarians ELI KOORIS and JOSHUA SHAFFER couldn’t resist exploring.
The project began as a long-form article, which the duo expanded into a sprawling 10-episode, six-hour podcast. But compressing this chaos into a kinetic 97-minute feature became their next high-wire act.
As Eli and Joshua describe their process from “skyjacking to screen” in this exclusive interview, the first step was building a “radio edit”—a purely audio backbone drawn from interviews and podcast material. From there, they pared the narrative down to what the film had to include, deciding which recreations and pickups would bring the story to life. Editing chronologically in 10-minute chapters, they solved visual and archival challenges piece by piece. They had an extraordinarily cinematic story… but not a particularly cinematic budget.
Planes, helicopters, skydiving sequences, prisons—this documentary demanded the kind of set pieces usually reserved for action movies. They needed three major things:
-A plane with a rear staircase that could pass for a 727
– A safe way to film someone jumping out of it
– Aerial skydiving shots that didn’t look like B-roll
The answer was Skydive Perris in Perris, California—a treasure trove with the aircraft, the skydiving professionals, and even a pilot who had worked on Point Break. Their very first day of filming was the most difficult: real skydiving. Once they survived that, the rest of the production felt “downhill.”
One of the wildest beats in McNally’s story involves businessman David Hanley, who crashed his Cadillac directly into the airplane during the hijacking. Naturally, the filmmakers expected to find archival footage… but the event fell into the twilight zone between film and video news eras. Many reels had degraded or been lost entirely. With no broadcast material to rely on, they embraced the scrappy magic of indie filmmaking and built the sequence themselves—recreations, tension-filled editing, and all.
Prisons also posed a challenge. When security restrictions barred them from shooting in an active Southern California facility, they located a decommissioned prison in Lancaster that could stand in for both Leavenworth and a super-max in Marion, Illinois.
Because McNally’s adventures sound almost too outrageous to believe, grounding the story in authentic archival material became essential. The archival team unearthed news broadcasts—including segments anchored by the unimpeachable Walter Cronkite—photos, clippings, and other visual evidence. Eli and Joshua adopted a simple rule: Whenever McNally’s story sounds too insane to be real, cut to the archives and prove it.
When it came to recreations, they faced the physical limitations of shooting inside a cramped, narrow aircraft fuselage: one tight aisle, rows of seats, nowhere to hide a crew. Running two cameras simultaneously only made the puzzle harder. Their solution? Shoot the space from every conceivable angle—ECUs of hands gripping armrests, the attache case stuffed with cash, profiles, faces, shifting focal lengths—all to avoid the flatness that plagues many reenactments.
Surprisingly, their visual style gave the actors remarkable freedom. With dialogue replaced by McNally’s narration, performers relied on expression and presence, and the camera crew was free to roam and discover moments organically.
Production design and costuming also shine here. Recreating the early ’70s on an indie budget is no small feat, but their crew poured heart and craft into the period look—a labor of love fueled by belief in the story.
Casting the recreations meant finding actors who not only resembled their real-life counterparts but could project internal emotion without speaking. Martin McNally’s stand-in, especially, needed that elusive mix of charisma, mystery, and internal conflict.
As you’ll hear, stylistically, Eli and Joshua weren’t afraid to bend documentary rules. McNally looks directly into the lens during his interviews—a bold, intimate choice. And in reenactments, instead of obscuring faces in moody, sidelong frames like many true-crime docs, they chose to show their actors clearly, inviting viewers closer rather than pushing them away. In a way, their approach echoes McNally himself: a man who broke rules and defied expectations.
Above all, they sought balance. McNally needed to be compelling and truthful—neither glamorized outlaw nor monstrous villain. Just a deeply flawed man with an unforgettable, almost unbelievable story.
AMERICAN SKYJACKER makes sure every twist of that story hits like a jolt of cold, high-altitude air.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
TAKE A LISTEN. . .
By debbie elias, exclusive interview 11/12/2025
AMERICAN SKYJACKER is available on digital platforms, including AppleTV, Vimeo, Google Play, and YouTube TV.
