In Fictional Works
Hathcock's career as a sniper has been used as a basis for a variety of fictional snipers from the "shooting through the scope incident" to the number of kills he made. There is a reference to Hathcock in the television show NCIS during the episode "One Shot One Kill", when a small white feather is found at the crime scenes of a sniper's victims. Gibbs, a former Marine, credits Hathcock with "39 confirmed kills", apparently having transposed the digits of Hathcock's actual 93 confirmed kills.
The protagonist of Stephen Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger Series consisting of the novels Point of Impact, Black Light, Time to Hunt and I, Sniper is loosely based on Carlos Hathcock (Hathcock is alluded to in the book as "Gunny Sgt Carl Hitchcock").
The 1993 movie Sniper, featuring actor Tom Berenger, is loosely based on some of Hathcock's exploits in Vietnam.
In JAG, Season 1, Episode 16 ("High Ground"), Gunnery Sergeant Ray Crockett (portrayed by Stephen McHattie) is based on Hathcock. Crockett is a sniper instructor at Quantico Virginia who believes that he is being "forced out of the service" short of his retirement. He makes the statement that he "wrote most of the book" on sniper operations. The character Rabb refers to an incident where Crockett pinned down an NVA unit by killing their officer with the first shot. In Beirut, Crockett used a Browning .50 to take down an enemy sniper at about 2,500 meters. Lastly, Gunny Crockett is a winner of The Wimbledon Cup.
In the fourth episode of the first season of the CBS show Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, the criminal being chased by the Behavioral Analysis Unit's red cell team is a long-distance sniper killer, played by Noel Fisher. Fisher sends Mick Rawson (played by Matt Ryan) of the BAU team a package containing a pager which he uses to notify Rawson of his next kills; he signs the package "Carlos Hathcock", which Rawson explains by sharing the tale of Hathcock's 93 kills and an incident during the Vietnam War in which he was put up against the best sniper of the NVA, known only as 'Cobra' (thus mimicking the incident, since Rawson is also a skilled sniper shooter).
In Barry Eisler's fictional series based on his character John Rain, the third installment (Rain Storm) contains a scene between Rain and fellow Vietnam veteran Dox. Dox was a marine sniper who had difficulties with a superior who was suspicious of his unsniper-like demeanor. He tells Rain of several kills of over a thousand yards and states: "Not bad for someone temperamentally unsuited, I'd say. Carlos Hathcock would be proud." Rain informs Dox he met Hathcock in Vietnam, to which Dox exclaims: " No! You met the man!"
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