Guest post by Joel Gilbert
Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson may have been emulating a violent shooter video game mission when he shot the conservative icon.
The Utah police have publicly relayed messages engraved by assassin Tyler Robinson on unfired shell casings. One was “Oh, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Ciao, Ciao!,” an Italian anti-fascist song, indicating Robinson is likely aligned ideologically with the violent leftist Antifa movement.
Another casing inscription they described as saying “Hey fascist! Catch!” with arrow symbols: up arrow, right arrow, then three down arrows (“↑ → ↓↓↓”). Those arrows are not random.
They correspond to a command code from the popular shooter video game Helldivers II. Specifically, they are the input for deploying the “Eagle 500kg Bomb,” one of the game’s most devastating airstrikes.
Helldivers II was released in February 2024 for PlayStation 5 and Windows. It’s a third-person shooter video game developed by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Helldivers II is a cooperative multiplayer game that allows up to four players. It does not include a dedicated single-player campaign, meaning Robinson would have played it with others.
Helldivers II is a satirical game portraying a political future where “Super Earth” spreads “Managed Democracy” through endless war. Set in the 22nd century, the story follows the Helldivers, a force of shock troops dispatched to combat various threats to humanity.
Players complete Operations consisting of 1-3 procedurally generated levels called “Missions”, conducting tasks within the missions called “Objectives”.
By completing Operations, players also contribute to the collective progress of humanity.
In Helldivers II, the Eagle 500kg Bomb is the largest single bomb players can call in from their spaceship.
The Eagle 500kg Bomb can be used by players by keying arrow codes; ↑ → ↓ ↓ ↓ which triggers the big air-dropped bomb. The move literally drops a massive bomb from the sky, obliterating enemies in a wide radius.
The bomb is designed to deliver enormous damage to targets in its immediate vicinity. The bomb is highly effective against large, single targets like Titans, capable of one-shotting them if the blast lands directly on the target.
The bomb code (“↑ → ↓↓↓”) has been used as a shorthand online for “massive destruction / punishment”, often with a sarcastic or darkly humorous edge.
By pairing the “Hey fascist” insult with the bomb code, Robinson collapsed the distance between digital parody and real violence.
In many cases, mass shooters adopt game-like terminology and outlooks, framing their attacks as “missions” or “quests.”
For Robinson, the Eagle 500kg Bomb code became both a taunt and a symbolic flourish, underscoring how deeply internet culture can seep into the mindset of a killer.
The Columbine High School massacre in 1999 set the stage for a national conversation about violent video games and real-world violence. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators, were immersed in violent video games such as Doom and Wolfenstein 3D.
Harris even designed custom levels of Doom, envisioning his real-life massacre as an extension of the virtual battles he had simulated.
The media spotlight on Columbine cast violent video games as potential training grounds for killers, prompting congressional hearings and widespread parental concern.
Though research has since shown no simple cause-and-effect relationship, the symbolic influence of violent gaming environments became impossible to ignore.
Columbine was not an isolated example. In 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, who murdered 32 people at Virginia Tech, was said to be fixated on violent gaming media.
Four years later, Norwegian extremist Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people, openly admitted to using Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as part of his preparation.
For these perpetrators, video games offered not only a form of entertainment but also an aesthetic and symbolic framework for their violence.
From Doom at Columbine to Helldivers II, in Tyler Robinson’s case, a troubling throughline emerges: violent video games provide symbolic resources for those already inclined to violence.
This does not mean games “cause” shootings – millions of players never harm anyone – but the consistent borrowing of game codes, imagery, and language by mass shooters shows their symbolic potency.
Because of Tyler Robinson, now the Charlie Kirk assassination will remain linked to the unsettling shadows of violent video games bleeding into real bloodshed.
Joel Gilbert is a Los Angeles-based film producer and president of Highway 61 Entertainment. He is the producer of the new film Roseanne Barr Is America. He is also the producer of: Dreams from My Real Father, The Trayvon Hoax, Trump: The Art of the Insult, and many other films on American politics and music icons. Gilbert is on Twitter: @JoelSGilbert.