Before Taylor Sheridan created the massively popular Yellowstone universe, he made the early Western thriller Wind River starring Marvel’s Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner.
The award-winning drama came out in 2017, but it’s blowing up all of a sudden after it was added to Netflix on Monday. By Friday, it hit No. 3 on the streamer’s top 10 list, showing how the good old Netflix bump is still very real and very successful.
The tense thriller, set on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, follows U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent Cory Lambert (Renner), who teams up with FBI special agent Jane Banner (Olsen) to investigate the murder of a young Indigenous woman named Natalie (played by future Yellowstone star Kelsey Asbille).
Fred Hayes/The Weinstein Company
Jeremy Renner in ‘Wind River’
Sheridan, who won Best Director at Cannes in 2017 for Wind River, was inspired to write the movie after learning about the shocking number of Indigenous women who have gone missing or been victims of violent crimes — which is why the movie ends with the sobering message: “While missing person statistics are compiled for every other demographic, none exist for Native American women. No one knows how many are missing.”
“It’s based on thousands of actual stories just like it,” Sheridan said. “This issue with sexual assault against women on the reservation — I mean, it’s existed since the inception of a reservation system. But, really, in the past 15, 20 years, it’s exploded. And it gets no attention, which is the motivation for writing the film.”
In the movie, despite clear evidence of foul play, Natalie’s death is not ruled a homicide, leading Lambert and Banner to work outside the law to solve the case. (Major spoilers ahead!)
While investigating her boyfriend, Matt Rayburn (Jon Bernthal), a security guard at a nearby oil drilling site, they find his naked, mutilated body. His death leads Lambert and Banner to figure out that the killer(s) are Matt’s coworkers, including the head of security, Curtis (Hugh Dillon), and several guards.
Flashbacks then reveal that Matt’s coworkers were under the influence when they caught Matt and Natalie together, leading to their brutal attack. Natalie was sexually assaulted by one of the guards, Pete (James Jordan), while the rest beat Matt to death. Natalie tried to escape into the cold, but ultimately died from inhaling the freezing air.
Lambert, Banner, and their team attempt to arrest Pete, but he wounds Banner with a shotgun, triggering a shootout that kills some of the officers. Lambert saves Banner by killing several of the guards with his rifle. While Pete escapes into the woods, Lambert catches him. After Pete confesses to his role in Natalie and Matt’s deaths, Lambert enforces his own justice by letting Pete go to run for his life through the snow, just as Natalie did. Pete quickly dies in the same way she did.
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As for what happens next, a sequel has been filmed but a release date has not yet been announced. Directed by Kari Skogland (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Wind River: The Next Chapter, will tell the story of Natalie’s brother, Chip Hanson (Martin Sensmeier), with her father Martin (Gil Birmingham) also returning. Joining the cast is Jason Clarke, Scott Eastwood, and Kali Reis.
According to the synopsis, “Terror escalates on the Wind River reservation as a series of ritualistic murders remain unsolved. The FBI enlists Hanson, a newly minted tracker for the U.S. Fish & Game, who becomes embroiled in a desperate and dangerous fight between the authorities, a vigilante, and the Reservation he calls home.”
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