Taylor Sheridan may be best known today as the architect behind the Yellowstone empire, along with Landman and Tulsa King, but long

before he redefined the small-screen Western, he was shaking up Hollywood with a modern frontier classic. Hell or High Water, the 2016

neo-Western that helped launch Sheridan’s reputation as one of the finest screenwriters of his generation, is climbing again on Paramount+ — and for good reason.

 

 

The David Mackenzie–directed film stars Chris Pine as Toby, a desperate single father trying to keep his family’s ranch from foreclosure, who teams up with his volatile ex-con brother Tanner (Ben Foster) to pull off a series of small-town bank heists. Hot on their trail is

 

 

Marcus, a grizzled Texas Ranger played by Jeff Bridges in one of his most acclaimed late-career performances. With retirement on the horizon, Marcus isn’t about to let one last chase slip away, setting the stage for a cat-and-mouse game across the dusty Texas landscape.

 

 

For fans of Yellowstone and Sheridan’s other series, Hell or High Water is essential viewing — a lean, tightly wound story that feels like a prototype for the themes he’s still exploring on television. The film is part of what’s been dubbed Sheridan’s “American Frontier Trilogy,” sandwiched between Sicario (2015) and Wind River (2017). Like those companion films, it’s less about shootouts than it is about survival, family, and the heavy toll of justice in America’s rugged borderlands.

 

 

When it first hit theaters, Hell or High Water became both a critical darling and a modest box office success, grossing over $37 million worldwide. It earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Bridges, Best Original Screenplay for Sheridan, and Best Editing. On Rotten Tomatoes, it remains Certified Fresh with near-unanimous praise (97%) from critics and audiences alike. Collider’s review of the movie hailed the leads in Pine and Foster: