Wind River (2017)
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A tracker and an FBI agent must navigate a tense investigation into a murder on a remote reservation during a harsh winter.
The story
During the winter on the Wind River Indian Reservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agent Cory Lambert discovers the frozen body of 18-year-old Natalie Hanson of the Northern Arapaho tribe. FBI special agent Jane Banner arrives to investigate the possible homicide. Banner learns from Natalie's father, Martin, that his daughter was dating a new boyfriend whose name he does not know. The investigation leads the pair to a nearby oil-drilling site where they encounter a group of security guards. The tension escalates as they attempt to uncover the truth behind the girl's death in the desolate, freezing landscape.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
During the winter on the Wind River Indian Reservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agent Cory Lambert finds the frozen body of 18-year-old Natalie Hanson. FBI agent Jane Banner joins the investigation. They discover the body of Natalie's boyfriend, Matt Rayburn, at a nearby oil-drilling site. Lambert reveals his own daughter died in a similar manner years prior. At the drilling site, a tense standoff occurs with security guards. A flashback reveals that Matt was beaten to death and Natalie was raped by the guards. In the present, a confrontation at the site leads to a shootout where several officers are killed and Lambert kills four guards. He captures the remaining guard, Pete, and forces him to flee into the cold. Pete dies from the elements. Lambert then visits Banner in the hospital and meets with Natalie's father, where they share their mutual grief.
- First release year
- 2017
- Runtime (minutes)
- 107
- Production countries
- France; United Kingdom; United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Taylor Sheridan
- Writers
- Taylor Sheridan · writer
- Cast and characters
- Jeremy Renner · U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker; Elizabeth Olsen · FBI agent; Gil Birmingham; Jon Bernthal; Graham Greene
- Genres
- neo-Western; crime; mystery; thriller
- Themes
- Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women; Survival; Grief
- Tone and mood
- bitter; visceral; tense
- Premise and plot tags
- Western; Crime; Mystery; Thriller
- Content notes
- Violence
- Reception
- The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office success.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 87% · review count: 254; Metacritic · score: 73 · scale: 100 · review count: 44; PostTrak · score: 90%
- Production trivia
- The film is the third in a trilogy of modern American Westerns by Taylor Sheridan.; A sequel, Wind River: The Next Chapter, was confirmed in 2023.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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