Wind River (film)

Wind River
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Taylor Sheridan
Written by	Taylor Sheridan
Produced by	Matthew George Basil Iwanyk Peter Berg Wayne L. Rogers
Starring	Jeremy Renner Elizabeth Olsen Gil Birmingham Jon Bernthal Graham Greene
Cinematography	Ben Richardson
Edited by	Gary D. Roach
Music by	Nick Cave Warren Ellis
Production companies	Acacia Entertainment Savvy Media Holdings Thunder Road Pictures Film 44
Distributed by	The Weinstein Company
Release dates	January 21, 2017 (2017-01-21) (Sundance) August 4, 2017 (2017-08-04) (United States)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$11 million
Box office	$29.8 million

Wind River is a 2017 American murder mystery thriller film written and directed by Taylor Sheridan. The film stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker and an FBI agent, respectively, who try to solve a murder on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Numerous Native American actors fill integral supporting roles: Gil Birmingham, Graham Greene and others.

It premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released on August 4, 2017, by The Weinstein Company.

Plot

It is winter on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent Cory Lambert discovers the body of Natalie Hanson, an 18-year old resident of the reservation. Her corpse is frozen solid, she is without shoes and proper winter attire, and there is a blood stain on her pants at her groin. Rookie FBI special agent Jane Banner arrives to determine whether a murder has been committed, as the federal government has jurisdiction over capital crimes on reservations. Banner is unprepared for conditions, as she needs to borrow clothing from a local resident. Banner is taken by Lambert and Tribal Police Chief Ben to the body and, after surveying the scene, she orders an autopsy.

The next day, the investigative team learns from Natalie's father that the young woman was dating a new boyfriend, but he doesn't know the man's name or whereabouts. They also learn that Natalie's brother Chip is a drug addict and currently residing with the reservation's local dealers, the Littlefeather brothers, in their double-wide trailer.

Natalie's autopsy returns findings of blunt trauma and sexual violence, and confirms Lambert's assumption that the girl had died from exposure. , specifically pulmonary hemorrhage caused by rapid inhalation of sub-zero air during her barefooted flight through the snow. However, the medical examiner is unable to definitively conclude in his report that the victim was murdered, therefore preventing Banner from calling in an additional FBI investigative unit. Banner tells Ben that she will remain to assist and she will not provide an update to her supervisor, as she figures she would be directed to cease being involved.

Banner, Lambert, and Ben visit the Littlefeather property in order to question Chip. They have an armed confrontation with Sam Littlefeather that ends with him dead at Banner's hands, and Chip and another dealer taken into custody. Lambert notices a snowmobile track leading away from the property toward the area where Natalie's body was found. He convinces Banner to hold off interrogating the two young men in order to follow the trail before it snows over. Some distance up the mountain, Lambert discovers a second body, this one male, nude, and heavily ravaged by scavenging wildlife. Chip reveals that Natalie's boyfriend is named Matt and that he works on the security staff at a nearby oil drilling site, where he also lives.

Banner visits Lambert's home and tells him that she has learned that the male body is of Matt Rayburn, who worked as security at the nearby oil drilling site. Lambert tells her about the death of his daughter three years before, whose body was discovered in the snow three years ago, following a party at his house. He and his wife had been out of town.

Accompanied by Sheriff Ben and tribal police officers, as well as local county deputies, Banner approaches the drill site. She meets several of Matt's fellow armed security guards, who claim not to have seen Matt since he stormed off a few days ago following an argument with his girlfriend. As her party is led toward the drill crew's sleeping quarters, which she asked to examine, Lambert has retraced the track up to the second corpse. He follows it over a mountain range, where he finds that it leads directly into the drilling camp, where Banner and the deputies have already arrived. Lambert tries to warn Ben by radio.

At the oil rig site, Banner, Ben, and the deputies meet with the oil rig security. Banner says that Natalie filed a complaint that Matt was missing and she is investigating his disappearance. The oil rig security reveal their knowledge of discovery of Natalie's body and say they had learned this by monitoring law enforcement radio channels. But Natalie's identity was never discussed over the radio. Noticing that the oil rig security are starting to surround Banner, Ben, and the deputies, one of the deputies pulls his weapon. The others immediately follow and all parties are locked in an armed standoff. Banner defuses the situation by claiming federal authority over the others. Everyone walks toward the trailer where Matt had been living.

A flashback shows Natalie going to Matt's trailer, and the two cuddling and discussing plans after making love. His security colleagues interrupt, entering the trailer after a night of hard drinking. Pete, a particularly vulgar crew member, taunts them and provokes Matt to violence, and the team members retaliate by beating him and knocking out Natalie. Pete rapes her. Matt recovers consciousness, attacking Pete and the others. They overwhelm him and beat him to death, but the barefoot Natalie escapes the trailer and runs away.

In present time, Banner tries the door to Matt's trailer, finding it locked. Warned by Lambert, Ben shouts at her to get away, but she is hit by a shotgun blast fired by Pete from inside. A firefight breaks out. Banner is shot in the neck, and Ben and the other officers are killed. As Banner is about to be killed by the remaining security team members, Lambert opens fire from a distance, fatally shooting all except Pete, who flees.

Lambert catches Pete on the mountain and knocks him unconscious. When he recovers, Lambert forces him to confess his actions against Natalie and Matt. He offers him the same chance given Natalie, a barefoot escape toward a distant road. Lambert says that Natalie "was a warrior" and made it six miles before she collapsed and died, but predicts that Pete will not last long enough to reach the highway. The camera shows Pete stumbling through the snow only a few yards before collapsing dead into the snow.

Lambert visits Banner, who is recovering in the hospital, and praises her toughness. He visits Martin Hanson, Natalie's father, finding him sitting in his yard with a gun, having painted his face blue for death and contemplated suicide. Martin tells Lambert that Chip had called from the station, the first time they had spoken in a year. He has decided to go on. Lambert tells Martin that the missing oil crew member had died "with a whimper". He and Martin sit together in the frozen yard, sharing in the grief of their daughters' deaths.

A title card states that the FBI does not keep statistics on missing Native American women, whose numbers remain unknown.

Cast

• Jeremy Renner as Cory Lambert
• Elizabeth Olsen as Jane Banner
• Gil Birmingham as Martin Hanson
• Jon Bernthal as Matt Rayburn
• Julia Jones as Wilma
• Kelsey Chow as Natalie Hanson
• Graham Greene as Ben
• Martin Sensmeier as Chip Hanson
• Tyler Laracca as Frank Walker
• Gerald Tokala Clifford as Sam Littlefeather
• James Jordan as Pete Mickens
• Eric Lange as Dr. Whitehurst
• Ian Bohen as Evan
• Hugh Dillon as Curtis
• Matthew Del Negro as Dillon
• Teo Briones as Casey Lambert
• Tantoo Cardinal as Alice Crowheart
• Apesanahkwat as Dan Crowheart
• Althea Sam as Annie Hanson

Release

The Weinstein Company acquired the distribution rights on May 13, 2016, during the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. In January 2017, it was announced the company would no longer distribute the film. However, the distribution deal was later finalized. It had a limited release on August 4, 2017, before going wide on August 18.

Box office

As of September 10, 2017, Wind River has grossed $25 million in the United States and Canada and $4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $29.8 million, against a production budget of $11 million.

In the film's limited opening weekend, it made $161,558 from four theaters (a per-location average of $40,390, one of the best of 2017), finishing 29th at the box office. In its second week the film expanded to 45 theaters and grossed $622,567. The film expanded to 694 theaters on August 18 and grossed $3 million, finishing 10th at the box office. The following week the film was added to an additional 1,401 theaters (for a total of 2,095) and made $4.6 million (an increase of 54.6%), managing to finish 4th at the box office in what was the lowest combined grossing weekend since September 2001. The film was added to yet another 507 theaters and made $5.7 million the following weekend, and an estimated $7.2 million over the four-day Labor Day weekend, finishing in 3rd. This was a historically low weekend, the worst combined holiday weekend in the film industry since 1998.

Critical response

Wind River was described as a "humanistic crime drama, though this one has more skill than excitement," "a thrilling, violent finale to the Hell or High Water and Sicario trilogy" and "Coen brothers noir meets the case of the week." The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 86% based on 174 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Wind River lures viewers into a character-driven mystery with smart writing, a strong cast, and a skillfully rendered setting that delivers the bitter chill promised by its title." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 73 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers praised Sheridan's direction and the cast, giving the film 3/4 stars and saying, "[It's] the set-up for what could have been a conventional whodunit – thankfully, Sheridan is allergic to all things conventional. To him, action is character, and he's lucked out by finding actors who not only understand his approach but thrive on it." David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a B, saying: "[If] Wind River shares Sheridan’s self-evident weaknesses, it also makes the most of his signature strengths. [...] Wind River may not blow you away, but this bitter, visceral, and almost parodoxically intense thriller knows what it takes to survive."

Accolades

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s) and nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
Cannes Film Festival	May 28, 2017	Prix Un Certain Regard	Taylor Sheridan	Nominated
		Un Certain Regard for Best Director	Taylor Sheridan	Won
		Caméra d'Or	Taylor Sheridan	Nominated

External links

• Wind River at IMDb
• Wind River at Rotten Tomatoes
• Wind River at Metacritic