国家地理频道首个原创记录电影《杀死林肯》（Killing Lincoln）描述了1865年4月14日美国第16任总统亚伯拉罕·林肯遇刺前后所发生的故事，特别是他生前最后几天的经历及凶手策划刺杀行动的全过程。Billy Campbell在本片中扮演林肯，Jesse Johnson扮演John Wilkes Booth，Geraldine Hughes扮演Mary Todd Lincoln，Graham Beckel扮演Edwin Stanton、Shawn Pyfrom扮演列兵John W. Nichols。本片由汤姆·汉克斯解说，所有故事素材均来自同名畅销小说。

美国内战结束四年后，北方完全取得了全国的统治权。鉴定的南方军支持者John Wilkes Booth计划复仇。他一开始打算绑架「暴君」林肯——因为他灭灭亡的不只是南方的奴隶制，还有南方人的生活方式。他精心设计了一个绑架总统的计划，并打算将总统带到南方，但他的计划最终流产了。Booth转而想出一个更大胆的计划：刺杀林肯。这一次他成功了，林肯的死不仅改变了美国的历史，而且引发了美国诞生以来规模最大的全国性搜捕行动。

本片将把Booth描绘成一个多层次的、复杂的角色——就像他自己在舞台上扮演的莎士比亚戏剧中的角色——而不是一个单纯的「坏蛋」。

剧情简介

The film opens in August 1864 – a year before his murder – as Abraham Lincoln is riding his horse alone. A gunshot is fired and goes through his $8 top hat. He has been in office four years and 41 days and the intensity of the hatred level toward him, even by members of his own party, is extreme. Juxtaposed with this is the following scene of John Wilkes Booth on stage performing, as swords clash and the audience cheers wildly.

Viewers are then introduced to Booth’s zealousness in a letter he writes and asks his sister to lock in the safe: “right or wrong, god judge me, not man…. My love as things stand today is for the South alone. Nor do I deem it a dishonor in attempting to make for her a prisoner of this man [Lincoln] to whom she owes so much misery.”

On Tuesday, April 11, 1865, speaking to roaring crowds at the White House after Robert E. Lee surrenders, Lincoln is within range of a pistol. Booth is in attendance and promises that it will be Lincoln’s final speech. The stage is set: Abraham Lincoln has less than four days to live.

The “attack” time is set for 10:15 p.m. on April 15, 1865. Booth’s co-conspirators have their plan: Lewis Powell is to kill Secretary of State Seward in his home on Lafayette Square; David Herold will then guide Powell out of the city via the Navy Yard Bridge; George Atzerodt is to kill Vice President Johnson at the Kirkwood House Hotel; and Booth will kill Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre.

After having a drink at the Star Saloon, Booth is admitted into the theater, crosses underneath the stage and works his way up into the presidential box, where he aims the pistol and fires the fatal shot at the President. Lunging off the balcony, he runs to center stage and shouts, “Sic semper tyrannis!”

John Wilkes Booth has less than 12 days to live.