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Film set in USA where everyone wears a headset which controls thoughts by suppressing IQ. Everything is a copy of 1950s, even cars & clothes. Hero discovers the truth and is told by interrogator that the 1950s was used to pattern the country because that was when it was happiest.

At ending he has become a TV presenter; on live TV he tells everyone to remove their headsets, then shoots himself, to shock people from their stupor enough to take off the headsets.

Think the film starred a quite young Terence Knox. In UK, the film title was the protagonist's name.

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You're describing Harrison Bergeron (1995). Everyone wears an IQ suppressing headband and everything's very '1950s'.

Harrison: Last night, seeing those programs I realized that...Everything looks like in the 1950's. Is it intentional?

John Klaxon: Rule number 1: Everything is intentional. The U.S. was happier in that decade, at least people who lived at that time remember well, and... after the revolution, the administration redesigned the country as well.

You can see him shoot himself a few minutes before the end of the film

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  • No Terence Knox though.
    – Valorum
    May 24, 2020 at 17:05
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    Terence Knox would have been 48 in 1995, not particularly young. I may change my mind about that in a while.
    – Spencer
    May 24, 2020 at 17:37
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    Yep Harrison Bergeron is it! I just learned the protagonist was played by Sean Astin. But he does look like Mr Knox. But in any case thanks for settling it.
    – user89108
    May 31, 2020 at 3:36
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Is it possibly 2081?

It's a short film adaptation of Harrison Bergeron. I also don't see Terrence Knox listed among the cast, but perhaps the poster was mistaking the identity?

Here's a trailer:

Also, it may not be a match to what was described because

the main character does not kill himself in this adaptation, but is instead shot by the "security forces" who burst into the theater

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    Note that the ending you describe in the spoiler tag is the same ending as in the original short story by Kurt Vonnegut.
    – Michael Seifert
    May 25, 2020 at 14:32
  • Haven't read the story, but I will.
    – user89108
    May 31, 2020 at 3:37

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