Rebel Ridge Director Jeremy Saulnier Reveals Which Movies Most Inspired the Netflix Film

Thanks to films like Blue Ruin, Green Room, and Hold the Dark, filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier has made a name for himself not necessarily for attempting to reinvent iconic movie genres, but for putting his unique spin on such concepts while also honoring films that came before him. With his latest film Rebel Ridge, Saulnier similarly looked to the past to tell a compelling contemporary tale, with one of his major influences being a Sylvester Stallone classic that would ultimately create a franchise that wildly deviated from the debut entry. Rebel Ridge is set to be landing on Netflix on September 6th.

“As far as the origins, certainly First Blood. Not Rambo: First Blood, as it was retroactively named, just First Blood,” Saulnier confirmed to ComicBook of his influences. “But anything with that ’80s and ’90s texture, for me, films like Thunderheart, actually, the finale of that was … Plymouth K-cars rolling down the tundra, kicking up dust, was a big deal. Films like Mississippi Burning, Michael Clayton was a reference, lots of things. A little hodgepodge. We certainly tried to carve our own path, though.”

Netflix describes the new movie, “Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) enters the town of Shelby Springs on a simple but urgent mission — post bail for his cousin and save him from imminent danger. But when Terry’s life’s savings is unjustly seized by law enforcement, he’s forced to go head to head with local police chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson) and his combat-ready officers. Terry finds an unlikely ally in court clerk Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb) and the two become ensnared in a deep-rooted conspiracy within the remote township. As the stakes turn deadly, Terry must call upon his mysterious background to break the department’s hold on the community, bring justice to his own family — and protect Summer in the process.”

Rebel Ridge stars Aaron Pierre, Don Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, David Denman, Emory Cohen, Steve Zissis, Zsane Jhe, Dana Lee, and James Cromwell.

This movie marks the second original film Saulnier has developed for Netflix, having previously delivered Hold the Dark in 2018. The filmmaker also briefly entered the world of True Detective for Season 3 of the series, though scheduling conflicts resulted in him only helming two episodes of that season.

Rebel Ridge is set to land on Netflix on September 6th.  

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