Summary

• Sawyer's harrowing survival in Rust Creek is aided by Lowell's unexpected loyalty, leading to a jaw-dropping finale.
• Lowell's heroic sacrifice saves Sawyer from dangerous criminals, showcasing that good can come from unexpected places.
• The Netflix thriller Rust Creek is a lesson in never judging a book by its cover, with evil and good intertwined in a gritty tale.

Released to critical acclaim in May 2018, Rust Creek is a gritty crime thriller shot on location in Kentucky's Appalachian forest. The plot concerns Sawyer Scott (Hermoine Corfield), a college senior traveling to Washington D.C. for a job interview. On the way, Sawyer takes a detour and gets lost in the woods, where she encounters a pair of siblings burying a corpse. Desperate to remain out of danger, Sawyer engages in a harrowing survival effort with plenty of twists and turns en route to the jaw-dropping finale.

The dramatic impact of Rust Creek kicks into high gear when Sawyer happens upon a man named Lowell Pritchert (Jay Paulson), the cousin of the two men chasing after Sawyer. Although Lowell is a criminal in his own right, his allegiance to Sawyer leads to an unpredictable path that bears further scrutiny. Now that Rust Creek has joined Netflix in May 2024, it's only right to reflect on the story's ending and explain what transpires between Sawyer and Lowell.

What Is Rust Creek About?

Directed by Jen McGowan from a script by Julie Lipson, Rust Creek is a gritty American crime thriller set in Appalachian Kentucky. Sawyer Scott is eager to drive from Kentucky to Washington D.C. for a job interview. However, she cannot attend Thanksgiving dinner with her family and keeps the interview a secret. En route to D.C., Sawyer gets stuck in holiday traffic and takes a dead-end detour deeper into the woods. Just as she turns around to find a better route, Sawyer spots two men burying a dead body.

The two men, Buck (Daniel R. Hill) and Hollister (Micah Hauptman), are revealed to be brothers. After spotting Sawyer and worrying she may have seen them burying a corpse, the two siblings pursue Sawyer through the woods with murderous intent. Buck and Hollister find Sawyer examining a map and kindly offer help. A scuffle ensues when Buck pulls a knife, injuring both himself and Sawyer. After escaping, Sawyer lies wounded in a ravine overnight.

When county Sheriff O'Doyle (Sean O'Bryan) finds Sawyer's abandoned vehicle, he puts out a search. O'Doyle confronts Buck and Hollister, knowing they're local criminals, but they deny knowing anything about the car. Yet, following their encounter with the law, the brothers return to Sawyer's car and ditch it to make it look like a fatal accident. As the brothers continue their dogged pursuit, everything changes for Sawyer when she meets their cousin, Lowell Pritchert.

Who is Lowell Pritchert?

Sawyer awakes in the ravine before finding her crashed vehicle. She locates her cell phone, but the battery is dead, and she cannot communicate with anyone. Exhausted and malnourished, Sawyer collapses to the ground and falls unconscious. When she comes to, her wounds are being nursed by Lowell Pritchert. Lowell is the cousin of Buck and Hollister and a rural meth chef living alone in the Appalachian forest. While it is never directly addressed, it's implied that Lowell's wife had been killed prior to this story as a result of a meth explosion. Despite sharing blood with Buck and Hollister, Lowell shows more sympathy to Sawyer and begins helping her escape.

For example, the brothers arrive at Lowell's secluded trailer inquiring about his latest meth delivery. Even after Sawyer tries to flee by tossing lye in Lowell's face, Lowell does not tell the brothers about Sawyer's presence. When the brothers leave, Lowell tells Sawyer that he plans to use their truck to bring her to safety rather than deliver the meth shipment to a local cartel. A trusting bond is slowly developed between Sawyer and Lowell as the two cook a batch of meth together. Lowell even explains how mixing acids with bases "neutralizes" the chemical process, which becomes an existential metaphor for the showdown with the brothers at the end.

The final act of the obscure crime thriller develops when it is revealed that Sheriff O'Doyle is in cahoots with the brothers. Deputy Nick Katz (Jeremy Glazer) insists on following up on the missing vehicle report, learning that it is registered to Sawyer and that she is missing. Police Commander Douglas Slattery (John Marshall Jones) arrives and orders O'Doyle to find the car and solve the case. O'Doyle angrily returns to the brothers, demanding they find Sawyer, which proves his involvement with the brother's meth operation.

What Happens to Lowell at the end of Rust Creek?

The Rust Creek finale begins after Deputy Katz overhears Sheriff O'Doyle confirming his involvement with the brothers over the phone. Katz confronts O'Doyle and tries to arrest him, but O'Doyle kills him and forces the brothers to get rid of his corpse. O'Doyle frames Katz for Sawyer's disappearance and covers up his murder, prompting Slattery to take over the case.

The ultimate showdown occurs at Lowell's trailer in the woods, where Buck and Hollister arrive to pick up the meth shipment. The brothers discover Sawyer's footprints and realize Lowell has been hiding her all along. Lowell explains that Sawyer is "trained" and won't be a problem. Moments later, Lowell asks Sawyer to heat his coffee cup in the microwave, which happens to be a thermos full of anhydrous ammonia. The thermos detonates and the explosion kills Buck and leaves Lowell and Hollister gravely injured. Thanks to Lowell risking his life to shield Sawyer from the explosion, she manages to escape the burning building as Lowell fends off Hollister with a shard of glass stuck in his back.

As Lowell and Hollister tussle in the blaze, O'Doyle arrives and murders them both in cold blood. O'Doyle captures Sawyer and takes her to Rust Creek to drown her. However, before they arrive at the titular destination, O'Doyle utters a phrase Sawyer recognizes from Lowell that reveals the Sheriff's guilt. Just as O'Doyle tries to drown Sawyer, she stabs him to death with a gardening tool she obtained from Lowell's trailer.

What Happens to Sawyer at the end of Rust Creek?

In addition to heroically sacrificing his life to betray his kin and save Sawyer's life, Lowell contributed to Sawyer's survival two more times in the wilderness survival thriller. He provided Sawyer with the familiar axiom that alerted her to O'Doyle's complicity and granted her the murder weapon to protect herself with. Although Lowell was a meth cook with criminal ties, in the end, his big heart and moral compass helped guide Sawyer to safety and survival.

If nothing else, Rust Creek is a reminder to never judge a book by its cover, and that evil comes from good, and good comes from evil in equal measure. Lowell had planned to leave the drug business after delivering Sawyer to safety, which makes his death even more tragically heroic.

As for Sawyer, her fate is more ambiguous. The movie's final shot depicts Sawyer rapidly limping down a road toward a cordon of police, finally free of the assailants. While she has Lowell to thank posthumously, there is no telling how or when Sawyer will overcome her traumatic experience in Rust Creek.