Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Informant: Fear and Faith in the Heartland’ on Hulu, the Story of an Average Guy Who Helped Thwart Domestic Terrorism

Hulu’s The Informant: Fear and Faith in the Heartland chronicles the story of an unlikely hero, an “average” American guy whose work as an FBI informant helped thwart a serious act of domestic terrorism. The documentary is an ABC News special hosted by George Stephanopoulos, who conducted interviews with several of the story’s principal figures, including some of the potential victims.

THE INFORMANT: FEAR AND FAITH IN THE HEARTLAND: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Garden City, Kansas is described by residents as a typical “all-American city” where nobody worries about locking their doors. It’s also where a number of Somali immigrants settled to work in the local meatpacking plant; the vast majority of them are Muslim, and stick to their own insular community, with a mosque and Somali shopping mall. Dan Day was born in Garden City, and never considered leaving. He’s a working-class, god-fearing family man with a wife and two kids, a guns-don’t-kill-people-people-kill-people second-amendment supporter who we see target shooting an AR-15 assault rifle with his son. He didn’t know much about the Somalis nearby, but would learn more about them soon enough.

In 2015, Day connected with a group of local militia members when he was invited to a barbeque and was surprised to learn it was a recruitment gathering. You might recognize the name of the group, the Three Percenters, members of which were involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection and the plan to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer (a plan that, coincidentally, was also thwarted by an FBI informant). Day learned that the Three Percenters were encouraged and riled up by the anti-Muslim rhetoric of Alex Jones and Donald Trump, and often passed around right-wing conspiracy theories and misinformation on Facebook. A Facebook post connected to Day raised a flag with the FBI, so they knocked on Day’s door. He wasn’t in trouble, they said. Rather, they wanted to know if he had any inside information on the militia that he’d be willing to share. He cooperated.

Soon enough, Day agreed to attend the Three Percenter meetings and report back to the local FBI office — to officially become a confidential source, and occasionally wearing a wire. He doesn’t fit the usual profile of an informant; he wasn’t a member of an organization who wanted to get out or acquire immunity. His official motivation was “patriotism,” and he says in his low-key, matter-of-fact tone that he’s not against “a little adventure” in his life. He soon was riding along with a militia agitator named Patrick Stein as he surveilled the Somali apartment complex, frequently referring to its residents in gross, derogatory terms. Day tells a story about how he talked Stein out of shooting and killing a Somali woman and her child as they sat on a curb. After a while, Stein, Day and two others split from the Three Percenters and dubbed themselves Crusaders. They concocted a plan to set off bombs at the Somali apartment complex, going so far as learning how to build blasting caps, testing explosives and setting a date — the day after the 2016 election, because they feared swinging the Presidential race for Hillary Clinton if they did it before. All the while, Day was feeding intel to the FBI.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: This could be a sort of spiritual prequel to HBO Max’s Jan. 6 insurrection doc Four Hours at the Capitol.

Performance Worth Watching: The movie frequently cuts to commentary by Ifrah Ahmed, a Somali immigrant who spent 17 years in a refugee camp before coming to America and becoming the leader of Garden City’s Somali community. Her poignant perspective gives The Informant crucial contextual breadth.

Memorable Dialogue: “It was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do.” — Day, addressing his choice to become an FBI informant

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Day’s role in circumventing a terrorist act on par with the Oklahoma City bombing is a fascinating story, and The Informant tells it in a dull, workmanlike manner. Don’t expect the visual style and breadth of a feature documentary — this is essentially a 77-minute TV news segment limited to talking heads telling us what happened, with the occasional cut to Stephanopoulos posing a medium-softball question to Day, Ahmed or FBI officials. Its most compelling storytelling element is FBI surveillance audio, where we hear Day interacting with Stein, whose rhetoric is, unsurprisingly, ugly and disturbing in its racism and xenophobia.

So the movie gives us the narrative basics, but mostly breezes by the complexities of Day as a character and Garden City’s social dynamic. Day looks the part of a Middle-American pro-gun guy who might get swept up in the deranged jingoism of a militia, the type who’d call himself a “patriot” for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 — but that’s obviously not his idea of patriotism. Admirably, he sees his role in stymieing domestic terrorism as a civic duty, and poses the question to viewers if they’d be willing to risk their safety, and possibly their lives, to do the same. But Stephanopoulos doesn’t really ask him any hard questions: Why does he own so many guns? How does he feel about Trump’s rhetoric? What has he learned about the American political environment in the wake of his actions? Does he fear the potential repercussions of being on national TV, outed as a former FBI informant? In a postscript, the film tells us that 2,000 active militia-type groups currently are on the FBI’s watchlist in the wake of Jan. 6 — is Day concerned about death threats and harassment now?

Garden City itself is a compelling setting for this story. It’s referred to as a “diverse” community, but it’s clearly segregated. Day admits to barely knowing they existed prior to all this, and the Somalis stay in their own neighborhood. Why? The Informant lets the question hang pregnant in the air. What’s the demographic makeup of Garden City? Is it mostly white? Do the Somalis stick to their own out of fear of the greater population? The movie’s interested in telling the inspiring story of a man who helped save countless lives, and concludes with a scene in which Day visits the Somali mall, chatting with Ahmed and dangling his keys playfully in front of a Somali child. Day clearly values all American lives, and yes, this is a depiction of how people from different slices of the demographic pie can get along on an individual basis. But both larger questions and crucial details remain unaddressed as the film only scrapes the surface of a significant American problem.

Our Call: SKIP IT. The Informant: Fear and Faith in the Heartland shares a captivating and relevant story, but it’s ultimately an incomplete portrait. ABC News posted a text story that you can read in a fraction of the film’s 77 minutes, and get the same result.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream The Informant: Fear and Faith in the Heartland on Hulu