The Call Him Mostly Harmless

• Directed by Patricia E. Gillespie
• February 8, 2024 (US)
• HBO Max

An unidentified hiker found dead in the Florida wilderness triggers a search for who he is by a growing community of internet sleuths.

As a documentary They Called Him Mostly Harmless is a bit more about those searching for the man’s identity than it is about the man himself or even the mystery. It is a true crime documentary delves into the uglier side of internet sleuthing by portraying the rivalries and obsessions that develop amongst those that throw themselves into such things.

The mystery begins with the finding of an emaciated body discovered in tent in Florida. The hook appears to have been (and certainly was for me) the body being surrounded by food, yet the man appeared to have starved to death. Questions of how he died mix with the obvious question of who he really was with that journey made more difficult by conspiracy theories and squabbles among those claiming to be interested in learning his identity.

The title They Called Him Mostly Harmless is a reference to his trail nickname of ‘Mostly Harmless’ (which he gave to himself) though others are noted in the film. ‘Mostly Harmless’ and ‘Ben Billemy’ may have been inside jokes for him though those answers died when he did.

This is the story of the story around the mystery. It is of the toxic personalities and those that made this much of if not their entire identity. These people injected much of their biases and themselves onto an unidentified man which says so much on who they truly are.

‘Vance Rodriguez’ is the mystery man’s real name with the documentarians saving that bit for near the end. While some help is given by curious parties the police do much more than the featured interviewees do. Sometimes these people harm lives because they are so certain they have the truth.

Despite most of the interview subjects, you think there will be some positives about the man once his name is learned. Interactions with him were not negative and the people he met discuss Vance like he was an old friend. Many nice things about Vance are assumed and stated as fact.

What they missed is that the man was alone for some reason. He had cut himself off or been cut off. Turns out he was a piece of crap with issues. He was violent and abusive. Vance also had a habit of voluntarily cutting himself off and not eating like it was a personal reset. In other words, his death was accidental because he did not start eating again.

For me it sounded like the lives of those he should have meant something to were better off without him. They felt that way because in the two years this covers, they never looked for him because of the violence and abuse. It is all a bit tragic. It is also tragic when we see the effects the vaporizing of the romantic notions have on those that held them. They wanted him to be an ideal when he turned out to be far from it.

What They Call Him Mostly Harmless does is give you a deeper look at a world most know nothing about. Internet sleuthing can bring out the worst just as it can bring out the best. A few have found something in this but most of it is negative. There is a focus on a pair of Facebookers trying to one up each other at the cost of the investigation.

Christie was perhaps the worst of the group. She made it all about her. You get a hint she has a drive to control entirely whatever, but you can see there is not an ability to manage anything in her life effectively. Wired journalist Nicholas Thompson, who became involved based on the assumption of Mostly Harmless working in IT, wrote two articles that spurred interest in the case. He offers a voice sanity and reason amongst others here.

They Call him Mostly Harmless is a tragic and interesting documentary about those involved in the online true crime community. Tragic but not because of the dead man.