The True Story Behind Netflix's Pain Hustlers
Hollywood has never shied away from provocative subject matter like the opioid epidemic, and that goes double for a major streamer like Netflix, which has already released "Painkiller" and "The Fall of the House of the Usher" in short order. If there's a way to tell a new story about fascinating but morally compromised characters selling everything but their souls in order to make a quick buck off of the misery of others, well, you can bet that a filmmaker will find it. Honestly, even if there wasn't a new way to do it, somebody would try anyway. "Pain Hustlers" lands somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, judging by the rather mixed reception to the movie. /Film's Rafael Motamayor reviewed the film and ended up on the more negative side of the equation, saying that, "At its best, the film is just a nice time spent watching Emily Blunt and Chris Evans being great on screen. At worst, this is a prescription for an uninspiring and even dull experience."
Still, that's not to take away from the obviously compelling and (mostly) true story at the heart of the film. Of course, director David Yates and writer Wells Tower took plenty of artistic license in their retelling of how the sales manager of a failing pharmaceutical company ended up plunging headfirst into the Fentanyl trade, dragging down countless others with him. In "Pain Hustlers," the action is mostly centered on the triumvirate of Emily Blunt's Liza Drake, Chris Evans' Pete Brenner, and Andy García's Dr. Jack Neel. In actuality, several individuals who played major roles in the illegal operation ended up providing the basis for these composite characters in the film.
This is the true story behind "Pain Hustlers."
From rags to (ill-gotten) riches
Every vast criminal conspiracy comes from small beginnings, doesn't it? "Pain Hustlers" was originally based on the New York Times Magazine article "The Pain Hustlers" by investigative journalist Evan Hughes, who subsequently turned this into a book titled "The Hard Sell" four years later. As detailed in Esquire, the story followed the rise and fall of Insys Therapeutics, an Arizona-based company that developed a drug called Subsys — essentially Fentanyl under a different name. In the film, the company and the drug have been renamed Zanna Therapeutics and Lonafen, respectively, but the essence remains exactly the same. In both cases, the pharmaceutical company knowingly expanded its painkiller drug into the cancer patient marketplace, using the auspices of a "speaker program" to blatantly bribe doctors and other medical professionals into pushing the addictive spray and prescribing it to patients who never actually needed it in the first place.
In "Pain Hustlers," we see this firsthand through the eyes of Liza Drake, a single mother with a teenage daughter who suffers from chronic health complications (all of which has been fictionalized). Desperate to make a living, a chance meeting with sales rep Pete leads her to the highly profitable position of selling the drug herself and raking in the rewards. In real life, the ploy of hiring attractive, down-on-their-luck sales representatives to bribe their way into a monopoly was a key part of the company's tactics, taking advantage of countless vulnerable patients and leaving a path of destruction in its wake. And according to Marie Claire, some of the more over-the-top scenes involving parody raps, glamorous parties, and even the subplot of an affair and a digital paper trail of emails leading to the CEO's downfall are all culled directly from the actual real-life events.
Top of the heap
Still, "Pain Hustlers" only really scratches the surface of its real-world inspirations. In truth, Elle points out that the massive operation spanned the entire country and involved Insys employees sent to all corners of the United States, as opposed to the stripped-down Florida setting of the film. Meanwhile, all of the main characters have been streamlined into amalgamations of several figures who were involved with Insys' notorious rise to power and influence. Evans' Pete Brenner, in all likelihood, is a mix of the company's actual VP of Sales Alec Burlakoff, and former CEO Michael Babich. García's Jack Neel, meanwhile, is an obvious stand-in for Insys Therapeutics founder Dr. John Kapoor. As for Blunt's character of Liza, she's more of a loose collection of inspirations and invented characteristics meant to provide audiences with a relatable perspective.
Of course, the rise of Insys (and its fictional counterpart, Zanna) is only matched by the speed of its downfall. After investigations enacted by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health & Human Services, enough evidence came to light for a federal jury to convict Kapoor of racketeering conspiracy, along with several other high-level executives. Although many of the ones chiefly responsible got away with fines and light prison sentences (and early releases), the company eventually went bankrupt and the deadly scheme was ultimately halted for good. In "Pain Hustlers," the bittersweet ending stands in stark contrast to the comedy-heavy antics of much of the rest of the runtime, emphasizing the fact that very real victims were harmed and even killed by such reckless corruption and greed.
"Pain Hustlers" follows in the footsteps of "The Big Short" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" as fictionalized narratives that nonetheless pack quite a true-crime punch. "Pain Hustlers" is currently streaming on Netflix.