The Big Picture

• Wind River is a murder mystery set on a Native American reservation, shedding light on the crisis of missing Indigenous women.
• The main characters, Lambert and Jane, work together to uncover the truth behind the murder and confront the complex issues plaguing the reservation.
• While the film offers justice for Natalie's death, it highlights the bleak reality of a crisis that has been largely ignored and calls attention to the lack of protection for Native American women.

Taylor Sheridan might be best known now for Yellowstone, but he made a name for himself with his brilliant screenplays for Sicario and Hell or High Water, and proved himself as a filmmaker with his 2017 directorial debut Wind River. Like many Sheridan projects, Wind River mixed current political discourse with a neo-noir mystery element in order to be both highly entertaining and surprisingly thought-provoking. Although the mystery Sheridan presents in Wind River is a doozy, his more serious motivations for the film are evident by the real crime statistics that he incorporates at the very end.

What Is Taylor Sheridan's ‘Wind River’ About?

Wind River is a murder mystery set on Wyoming's Wind River Indian Reservation. After the body of the Indigenous teenage girl Natalie Hanson (Kelsey Asbille) is discovered frozen up in the middle of the wilderness, the FBI dispatches Agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) to uncover the culprit behind her death. The only issue is that the Reservation area is massive, with only a few law enforcement officers able to patrol it. It would be nearly impossible for an outsider like Jane to do a proper search on her own, so she decides to work alongside the local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agent Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner). Lambert is an expert tracker and has lived on the reservation for his entire life; however, his motivations for pursuing the case are more personal than Jane initially realizes.

Lambert is a close friend of Natalie’s father, Martin (Gil Birmingham), and promises to the grieving man that he will find justice for his daughter’s murder. Although Lambert’s empathy for Martin is somewhat inherent, he’s also reminded of a similar tragedy within his own life. Lambert’s daughter was also killed only a few years prior; perhaps, helping Jane solve Natalie’s murder will allow him to move past the grief that he feels about failing his child. Lambert and Jane are vigilant in their pursuit, but the young FBI agent begins to realize that the issues on the Reservation are more complex than just a few unsolved murders; it’s a crisis that threatens the lives of countless Indigenous women whose deaths have never been properly investigated by the legal authorities.

Amidst their search for clues about Natalie, Lambert and Jane discover the rotting corpse of Natalie’s older boyfriend, Matt (Jon Bernthal). Matt worked as a security guard near a local drilling site, and while he may have been much older than Natalie, it doesn’t appear like he was responsible for her murder. However, this doesn’t stop Lambert and Jane from going to Matt’s former employer to seek out additional clues. This leads them to a confrontation with Matt’s friends, including his creepy co-worker Pete Mickens (James Jordan). When Matt’s coworkers make it clear that they’re not going to go down without a fight, Jane and Lambert must defend themselves using lethal force.

Does Natalie Receive Justice in 'Wind River'?

While the standoff between Lambert, Jane, and Matt’s coworkers is the action climax of Wind River, Sheridan utilizes a flashback sequence to reveal the details surrounding Natalie’s death. Following an argument with Matt, Natalie had returned to his trailer. This unfortunately attracted the attention of the rest of Matt’s colleagues, including Pete. Drunken and primed for violence, Pete and the other drillers raped Natalie before beating Matt to death. Natalie had managed to escape, but she wasn’t able to run for very long. Natalie attempted to trek through the chilly wilderness on her own, eventually freezing to death before the authorities could find her.

Lambert, Jane, and the local tribal Chief Ben Shoyo (Graham Greene) lead their forces into a firefight with Matt’s co-workers, including his boss Curtis (Hugh Dillon). The engagement is not without its consequences; Shoyo and several of his men are killed. However, Lambert is able to save Jane at the last minute by ruthlessly taking out Curtis’ remaining goons. Pete is left as the group’s only survivor, and, like the coward that he is, attempts to flee the situation into the wilderness. Sensing an opportunity, Lambert follows him in order to provide a little frontier justice.

Lambert follows Pete into the wilderness, and forces him to survive the same way Natalie did: in the middle of the cold with only lightweight clothing to protect himself. Lambert notes that this is the way that both Natalie and his daughter were killed and that Pete does not possess the same strength of spirit that they did. Pete makes an attempt to bargain for his own life, but it’s not one that Lambert is interested in. Although Lambert is satisfied that Natalie’s death has been solved, it does not make the situation any less bleak. The film is bookended by a haunting final scene of Lambert and Martin grieving together. Both men may have found justice in the end, but they’ll live the rest of their lives without the children that they cared about most.

Is 'Wind River' Based on a True Story?

Sheridan uses this moment to hint at some of the film’s larger themes. Although the story of Wind River is an original one, it’s inspired by a real crisis that hasn’t received the attention that it needs. It’s revealed in a title card that missing Native American women are the only demographic that is not kept in official records. The number of missing Native American women is unknown, but the crisis has become particularly dangerous on reservation sites like the one in Wyoming that are offered little protection by police and federal defense officers.

Wind River is one of Sheridan’s darker films, but also one of his most important. The film showed that in addition to creating a compelling mystery, Sheridan could use his power as a storyteller to raise awareness about an ongoing crisis that disproportionately affected a selected population. It may not be an easy watch at times, but Wind River is absolutely essential viewing for both Sheridan fans and detractors.

Wind River is available to watch on Prime Video in the U.S.

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