Patrick Scott McDermott is Lucas Hollister, a 13-year-old boy orphaned by his mother’s illness and his father’s suicide. So he’s left to care for a younger brother and a dirt-poor homestead.
He’s barely surviving when a wolf shows up to threaten his stock. He chases it, rifle in hand, fires a shot and accidentally kills a neighboring rancher.
In spite of his young age, he’s convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. After all, he’d had a disagreement with the rancher. The court has decided the killing was premeditated.
That’s when Harland Rust (Alec Baldwin) shows up. An outlaw in hiding for the last eight years, he’s the grandfather Lucas Hollister has never met.
Rust breaks Lucas out of jail, but has to kill two deputies in the process.
They flee Wyoming bound for Mexico, Lucas a reluctant companion at first, but slowly growing to trust his rescuer.
They’ll need to work together because they’re being hunted.
There’s a $1,000 bounty on their heads, and word of the the bounty is spreading fast.
That attracts all sort of bounty hunters, like Fenton “Preacher” Lang (Travis Fimmel), who spouts Bible verses when he isn’t being vicious.
Sheriff Wood Helm (Josh Hopkins) and his posse are after Harland too. Federal Marshal Laurence Stillwell wants Harland Rust caught, for the recent killings and past misdeeds.
Alec Baldwin as Harland Rust, an outlaw trying to save the life of a grandson he never met in Rust (2024)
Patrick Scott McDermott as Lucas Hollister, realizing he’s just made a terrible mistake in Rust (2024)
Review:
Here it is in May 2025. Depending on your point of view, the long-awaited or ill-advised finished version of “Rust,” completed at the urging of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ family.
On Oct. 21, 2021, just 12 days into shooting the film, Hutchins was killed during the rehearsal of a gunfight scene.
Alec Baldwin, the film’s star, was handling a prop pistol that discharged with a live round inside. Director Joel Souza was wounded by the same bullet.
Filming stopped for a year and a half. Souza recently told The Guardian “I wish I’d never written that damn movie.” But he also said he couldn’t live with the idea of someone else finishing the film.
The finished film? This is a bleak, bleak West, though the bleakness and the hardships Lucas endures help establish him as a sympathetic character.
It’s also a bloated film — clocking in at well over two hours — though the $8 million budget resulted in a movie that looks like a masterpiece compared to most low-budget Westerns being released these days.
Among the ill-advised tangents: two quarreling brothers who are part of Wood Helm’s posse, and Harland Rust’s head-scratching decision to adopt a puppy for Lucas while they’re on the run.
The acting? Baldwin’s incapable of carrying the film, but he doesn’t ruin it either. Let’s just say it’s a good thing Josh Hopkins had a major supporting role as a sheriff haunted by his son’s death, but determined to carry out his duty.
It’s worth a watch for fans of Westerns. Just don’t expect to walk away feeling uplifted. And don’t expect to watch without being reminded of the film’s backstory.
After all, this film marred by tragedy features a plot based on a tragic, accidental shooting.
Josh Hopkins as Sheriff Wood Helm, the man sent to bring in Harland Rust and his grandson in Rust (2024)
Travis Fimmel as Fenton ‘Preacher’ Lang, determined to get the $1,000 bounty on Harland Rust’s head in Rust (2024)
Directed by:
Joel Souza
Cast:
Alec Baldwin … Harland Rust
Josh Hopkins … Sheriff Wood Helm
Patrick Scott McDermott … Lucas Hollister
Travis Fimmel … Fenton “Preacher” Lang
Frances Fisher … Evelyn Bassett
Rhys Corio … Clete LaFontaine
Devon Werkheiser … Boone LaFontaine
Jake Busey … Drum Parker
Abraham Benrubi … Big Bill Cochrane
Travis Hammer … Dick Miller
Nick Farnell … Laurence Stillwell
Sam Carson … Willard Leroy
Richard Gunn … Sheriff Tom Long
Easton Malcolm … Jacob Hollister
Asha Bee … Abigail
Aria Alpert Adjani … Kate Bowdry
Mary Kay Riley … Emma Helm
Gabriel Clark … Charles Gantry
Vic Browder … Ike Clayton
Rio Allexander … Anselmo
Everett Blunck … Clayton Gantry
Golden Garnick … Emmett
James Cody … Hayesville judge
Ewan Simpson … Samuel Bowdry
Steve Bralver … Charlie Blake
Beau Linnett … Deputy Charlie Culliver
Mack Momberg … Kiowa warrior
Tyler Gaisford … Dutch Henry Tibbs
George DeVries … Frank Bascom
Sean Dillingham … Deputy Tolliver
David Flannigan … Harley
Runtime: 138 min.
Frances Fisher as Evelyn Bassett, one of Lucas Hollister’s few surviving relatives in Rust (2024)
Easton Malcolm as Jacob Hollister, left alone after his older brother is convicted of murder in Rust (2004)
Memorable lines:
Charles Edward Gantry to Lucas Hollister: “This is a hard land, son. You might be between the hay and the grass, but that don’t make it no less the case.”
Jacob: “Lucas, what did mamma look like?”
Lucas: “I can’t remember.”
Harland Rust, to a lawman at the scene of the jailbreak: “You tell any son of a bitch that comes after me that he will shake hands with the devil himself.”
Lucas: “Who are you?”
Harland Rust: “This ain’t no game boy. I say ride, we ride. I say eat, we eat. I say sleep, we sleep. That’s who I am.”
Wood Helm to his deputy: “The shit I’ve seen. The shit I’ve done. I knew a long time ago there ain’t no God.” He starts to walk away, then turns. “Would have been nice to been wrong though.”
Jake Busey as Drum Parker, Wood Helm’s longtime deputy in Rust (2024)
Nick Farnell as Laurence Stillwell, the federal marshal who sends Wood Helm after Harland Rust in Rust (2024)
Lucas: “You’re a murderer.”
Harland Rust: “Well, that’s something we have in common.”
Lucas: “I won’t want to go to Mexico.”
Harland Rust: “Want don’t enter into it. There’s alive and there ain’t. Try to focus on the former.”
Fenton “Preacher” Lang, a bounty hunter: “God bless the wicked. For they continue to pay my bills.”
Lucas, holding the rifle passed down by his father: “This Henry, it’s ruined the life of almost anyone it’s every come across.”
Man in a cantina, to Harland Rust: “Hey, old friend, you look like a corpse that forgot to fall over.”
Josh Hopkins as Sheriff Wood Helm, a man haunted by the death of his own young son in Rust (2024)
Patrick Scott McDermott as Lucas Hollister, trying to dodge trouble and relocate his grandfather during a shootout in Rust (2024)
Alec Baldwin as Harland Rust, looking for cover during a shootout in Rust (2024)
Asha Bee as Abigail, a whore humoring ‘Preacher’ Lang before learning he hails from a long line of slave hunters in Rust (2024)
Aria Alpert Adjani as Kate Bowdry, a lonesome widow who provided Preacher with information on Harland Rust’s whereabouts in Rust (2024)
Alec Baldwin as Harland Rust and Patrick Scott McDermott as Lucas Hollister, facing trouble together in Rust (2024)
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