Rebel Ridge is a 2024 American action thriller film written, produced, directed and edited by Jeremy Saulnier. The film stars Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond, a former Marine who has the funds needed to post bail for his cousin unjustly seized via civil forfeiture by a small town's corrupt police force. Don Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, David Denman, Emory Cohen, Steve Zissis, Zsané Jhé, Dana Lee, and James Cromwell also appear in the film. Rebel Ridge was released by Netflix on September 6, 2024 to positive critical reviews. It won Best Movie Made for Television at the 30th Critics' Choice Awards.

Plot

Terry Richmond, a Marine veteran, cycles into Shelby Springs, Louisiana to post bail for his cousin Mike Simmons and buy a pickup truck to make them an honest living. He is rammed by police officers Evan Marston and Steve Lann, who seize his $36,000 in cash via civil forfeiture. When courthouse clerk Elliot refuses to help, fellow employee Summer McBride promises to prepare the paperwork in case Terry can pay Mike's $10,000 bail before his Thursday transfer to state prison, where he would be in danger for informing on a gangster. Terry calls his former business partner Liu, who agrees to provide the money. At the police station, Terry tries to report the cash as stolen to Officer Jessica Sims, and is confronted by Lann and police chief Sandy Burnne. Terry offers to drop the matter if they give him back $10,000 and Burnne agrees to resolve the issue on Monday. Meanwhile, Summer discovers dozens of cases with misdemeanor defendants like Mike being held in jail for exactly 90 days. On Monday, Terry arrives at the station but Burnne has arranged for the prison bus to leave early. He catches up on his bike and tells Mike to stay safe until he posts bail. Liu can no longer send money after police raided his restaurant at Burnne's request, and Terry returns to the station and is taunted by Burnne. A close quarters combat expert, he subdues Lann and Burnne, and forces Sims to hand over the bail money and help him escape. Posting bail with Summer's help, Terry is captured at the courthouse. Terry is taken to a hospital by Marston and Burnne, who explains that Mike was stabbed after arriving at prison, and offers the remaining $26,000, the truck he was going to buy, and to not pursue charges if he leaves town. Terry accepts, but Mike has died. Summer drives Terry to pick up the truck, and he declines to help her investigate the suspicious cases. That night, Summer is injected with drugs by police and calls Terry, who returns to help. At work, she is forced to take a urine test, jeopardizing her child custody. As Terry leaves town, Lann flags him down, throws a gun into his truck as a pretense to open fire, and wounds him in the shoulder. Terry escapes and regroups with Summer at Liu's restaurant, where Liu, a Chinese medic during the Korean War, patches him up. Summer and Terry interrogate Elliot and the town's judge, who reveal a coverup to avoid transparency measures imposed after a legal settlement nearly bankrupted the town. People are held on misdemeanors without access to public defenders to seek production of their police dashcam arrest footage, which expires after 90 days. Terry and Summer break into the courthouse basement and retrieve the dashcam SD cards as police arrive and start a fire. He escapes, but she is captured trying to destroy her urine sample. Terry and Lann arrange a swap: Summer for the cards at sunrise. While Lann and a police contingent wait at Rebel Ridge, Terry breaks into the police station using the truck and subdues Burnne. Terry recruits Sims, who he believes is Summer's informant in the police department codenamed Serpico, to assist him but she instead detains him as the cops return. Lann destroys the cards and reveals that he has injected Summer with drugs and she is at risk of overdosing. Marston protests, revealing himself to be 'Serpico' instead, and is shot in the femoral by Burnne, but Terry defeats the officers who approach him, including Lann. Marston tells Terry to activate a police cruiser siren, saving the previous three minutes of dashcam footage, and walks Terry through administering Narcan on Summer. The three flee in the cruiser with police in pursuit. Ordered to perform a PIT maneuver, Sims takes out Burnne's vehicle instead and detains him. The remaining cops escort them to the hospital and report that state police are incoming. Marston and Summer are admitted, while Terry sits and waits with the incriminating dashcam footage.

Cast

Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond Don Johnson as Chief Sandy Burnne AnnaSophia Robb as Summer McBride David Denman as Officer Evan Marston Emory Cohen as Officer Steve Lann Steve Zissis as Elliot Zsané Jhé as Officer Jessica Sims Dana Lee as Mr. Liu James Cromwell as Judge CJ LeBlanc as Mike Simmons

Production

In November 2019, John Boyega came on board to star in the film, written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier. In February 2020, Don Johnson, Erin Doherty, James Badge Dale, Zsané Jhé, and James Cromwell were added to the cast. In April 2021, AnnaSophia Robb and Emory Cohen joined, with Robb replacing Doherty. Filming was slated to begin in April 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Principal photography eventually began in Louisiana on May 3, 2021. In June 2021, Boyega left the project during filming due to "family reasons". Filming paused as a result in order to find a replacement for Boyega. It was later reported that Boyega had allegedly abandoned the project due to a variety of reasons, including his dissatisfaction with the script and his accommodations, although Boyega denied such allegations. In October, Aaron Pierre replaced Boyega. In April 2022, David Denman was added to the cast to replace Badge Dale, before production restarted on April 25. Production wrapped on July 24. In March 2024, Saulnier said the film was in the final stages of post-production.

Release

Rebel Ridge was released on Netflix on September 6, 2024. The film amassed 31.2 million views in its first three days (September 6–9) and 38.6 million more the next week (September 9–15).

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 120 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "An intelligent and gripping vehicle for Aaron Pierre's star-making performance, Rebel Ridge lays down the law on its action-thriller contemporaries." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

= Accolades

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References

External links

Rebel Ridge on Netflix Rebel Ridge at IMDb