History Film / HellOrHighWater

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: The tone of Toby's conversation with one of his sons as the endgame is in sight. He tells them that there will be stories about what his uncle and father have done. When his son says that he won't believe these lies, Toby is quick to correct him. He's not here to deny he's done wrong, he's here to let him know he has.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Toby masterminded a plan that involved a number of armed robberies, and resulted in several deaths. At the end, he successfully finishes what he set out to do.]]

* LastStand: [[spoiler: Tanner mounts one on a hilltop after separating from Toby and leading the cops and Rangers on a wild goose chase. He dies, but Toby escapes with the money.]]
* MorallyBankruptBanker: While not extremely so, the fellow responsible for handling the loan payoff tries his best to weasel out of accepting the money in time. The employees in the banks getting held up, meanwhile, are never portrayed with any particular negativity. Toby actually benefits from this in the long run as [[spoiler: the bank has no desire to kick up a fuss about a loss of $40,000, not to mention his sudden mortgage payment, when the trust he sets up with them is bringing more than that in just a month. This help Toby escape arrest.]]

* DidntThinkThisThrough: The brothers attempt at their biggest score: [[spoiler:they hit a branch larger than what they usually hit, and it's payday, so the bank is bustling with customers. And it's Texas, so there's a lot of people armed and ready to make sure they don't escape clean.]]

* HoneyTrap: Tanner feels the woman at the bar hitting on Toby is doing this, sidling up to him with his stack of thousands in chips in plain view.

* KarmicThief: The brothers, who plan to steal from Texas Midlands bank (the bank which gave their mother a meager loan, and is about to foreclose on their ranch) and [[RefugeInAudacity use the money to]] ''[[RefugeInAudacity pay back the loan]]''. It goes a step further when Toby [[spoiler:sets up a trust fund at the Texas Midlands bank. Each month, roughly $50,000 from the oil right goes into the trust fund, so the bank has a very good reason to ignore the loss of $40,000 and stop cooperating with the investigators.]]
* LastStand: [[spoiler:Tanner mounts one on a hilltop after separating from Toby and leading the cops and Rangers on a wild goose chase. He dies, but Toby escapes with the money.]]
* MorallyBankruptBanker: While not extremely so, the fellow responsible for handling the loan payoff tries his best to weasel out of accepting the money in time. The employees in the banks getting held up, meanwhile, are never portrayed with any particular negativity.

* ShoutOut: Tanner's line "I never met nobody got away with anything" may be one to Film/NoCountryForOldMen, which not only also was set in West Texas, but who's tag line was [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477348/taglines "There are no clean getaways"]].

* ShoutOut: Tanner's line "I never met nobody got away with anything" may be one to Film/NoCountryForOldMen, which not only also was set in West Texas, but who's tag line was [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477348/taglines "There are no clean getaways"]]).

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hell_or_high_water_film_poster_5.jpg]]

''Hell or High Water'' is a 2016 drama directed by David Mackenzie, starring Creator/JeffBridges, Creator/ChrisPine and Creator/BenFoster. Pine and Foster play Toby and Tanner Howard, two brothers who turn to robbing banks to pay off the note on their family's land after their mother's death. When the FBI declines to lead the investigation, it falls to Texas Rangers Marcus Hamilton (Bridges) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham) to track them down.

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler:[[BillingDisplacement Despite Jeff Bridges receiving top billing]], the film focuses on the bank-robbing Howard brothers.]]

* HeroAntagonist: [[spoiler:Marcus Hamilton is in charge of investigating the robberies committed by the Howard brothers.]]

* BankRobbery: The crux of the brothers' plan - robbing branches of the bank that holds the note on the family ranch, then using a nearby Indian casino to "clean" the money and paying the bank back with its own money.

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:The bank customer who shoots back, Alberto and Tanner]] are all killed this way.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: The brothers attempt at their biggest score: [[spoiler: they hit a branch larger than what they usually hit, and it's payday, so the bank is bustling with customers. And it's Texas, so there's a lot of people armed and ready to make sure they don't escape clean.]]

* HeroAntagonist: [[spoiler: Marcus Hamilton is in charge of investigating the robberies committed by the Howard brothers.]]

* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler: Hamilton and Toby have good reason to want the other dead. Toby's plan resulted in the death of Hamilton's partner, and Hamilton killed Tanner.]]
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Toby masterminded a plan that involved a number of armed robberies, and resulted in several deaths. At the end, he successfully finishes what he set out to do.]]
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler: Also Toby. It is implied that Hamilton will meet him again to "finish their conversation". So Toby will either die, be forced to kill the ex-Ranger, or have to look over his shoulder for a while. Not that he minds it, see ItsPersonal above.]]
* KarmicThief: The brothers, who plan to steal from Texas Midlands bank (the bank which gave their mother a meager loan, and is about to foreclose on their ranch) and use the money to *pay back the loan*. It goes a step further when Toby [[spoiler:sets up a trust fund at the Texas Midlands bank. Each month, roughly $50,000 from the oil right goes into the trust fund, so the bank has a very good reason to ignore the loss of $40,000 and stop cooperating with the investigators.]]
* LastStand: [[spoiler: Tanner mounts one on a hilltop after separating from Toby and leading the cops and Rangers on a wild goose chase. He dies, but Toby escapes with the money.]]

* PragmaticVillainy: The robberies are quite well-planned. The brothers only take loose bills from the drawers, nothing over $20 bills, to avoid dye packs and traced bills. Also, Texas Midland is a local bank with no branches outside of Texas, so the FBI won't get involved. They steal several cars before the robberies, use and bury them after getting away. They clean the money by trading it in for chips at an out-of-state-casino then cashing them back out with a check in the bank's name. It's only when Tanner [[spoiler: sloppily robs a bank on his own with witnesses around that the Rangers finally have something to go on.]]

* RealityEnsues: Turns out sticking up banks in rural Texas evokes a rather ... ''adamant'' reaction from the locals. Twice the brothers cross paths with armed customers, [[spoiler:the second time with lethal results]], and a number of locals join in the chase during the climax. [[spoiler: One of them even helps Marcus kill Tanner.]]

* [[SavingTheOrphanage Saving the Family Ranch]]: The reason Toby comes up with the plan; he wants to buy out the reverse mortgage the bank holds [[spoiler:and sign a lease with an oil company and leave the land in trust for his sons.]]

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler: [[BillingDisplacement Despite Jeff Bridges receiving top billing]], the film focuses on the bank-robbing Howard brothers.]]

[[quoteright:259:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hell_or_high_water_film_poster.jpg]]

* AbusiveParents: The Howards' father is said to have been physically abusive, and it's implied through the brothers' dialogue that Tanner shot and killed him. [[spoiler: A report near the end confirmed it, saying that he "accidentally" killed his father in a "hunting accident". In their *barn*.]]

* EvilOverlooker: Or in this case, the setup on the poster should be called "antagonist overlooker."

* CaliforniaDoubling: New Mexico stands in for western Texas.

* CaliforniaDoubling: New Mexico stands in for western Texas.

* AbusiveParents: [[spoiler: The Howards' father is said to have been physically abusive, and it's implied Tanner murdered him in a "hunting accident".]]

* AntiVillain: The brothers, who are doing it to save their ranch, although Toby moreso than Tanner. The tagline itself invokes the trope: "Justice is not a crime."

* KarmaHoudini: Despite hatching a plan that involved a number of armed robberies, one of which [[RealityEnsues inevitably goes south]] [[spoiler:resulting in the deaths of a security guard, a customer, Alberto Parker and his own brother]], Toby succeeds in setting up his sons with a trust fund that will keep them set for years to come [[spoiler:and walks away scot-free]]. Marcus calls him out on this in the end and hints that, although the Rangers aren't pursuing matters any further officially, a personal reckoning may be in the offing.

* PragmaticVillainy: The brothers only take loose bills from the drawers, nothing over $20 bills, to avoid dye packs and traced bills. Also, Texas Midland is a local bank with no branches outside of Texas, so the feds won't get involved. They bury the getaway cars for new ones, and clean the money via trading it in for chips at an out-of-state-casino then cashing them back out with a check in the bank's name. It's only when Tanner [[spoiler: impulsively and sloppily robs a bank on his own with witnesses around that the Rangers finally have something to go on.]]

* RealityEnsues: Turns out sticking up banks in rural Texas evokes a rather...''adamant'' reaction from the locals. Twice the brothers cross paths with armed customers, [[spoiler:the second time with lethal results]], and a number of locals join in the chase during the climax. [[spoiler: One of them even helps Marcus kill Tanner.]]

* [[SavingTheOrphanage Saving the Family Ranch]]: The reason Toby comes up with the plan; he wants to buy out the reverse mortgage the bank holds so he can sign a lease with an oil company and leave the land in trust for his sons.

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler: [[BillingDisplacement Despite Jeff Bridges receiving top billing]], the film focuses more on the bank-robbing Howard brothers as the leads, though Toby is more of an AntiVillain.]]

* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: Toby and Tanner's mother dies shortly before the story begins; it's never mentioned how, but it apparently left her bedridden for years.

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler: [[BillingDisplacement Despite Jeff Bridges receiving top billing]], the film focuses more on the bank-robbing Howard brothers as the leads, though Toby is more of an AntiVillain.]]

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler: [[BillingDisplacement Despite Jeff Bridges receiving top billing]], the film focuses more on the bank-robbing Howard brothers as the leads, though Toby is more of an AntiVillain.]]
* TitleDrop: The attorney helping the brothers run their scheme tells them to be at the bank with money in hand on the day the note is due, "come hell or high water."

AbusiveParents: [[spoiler: The Howards' father is said to have been physically abusive, and it's implied Tanner murdered him in a "hunting accident".]]

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler: [[BillingDisplacement Despite Jeff Bridges receiving top billing]], the film focuses more on the bank-robbing Howard brothers as the leads, though Toby is more of an Anti-Villain.]]

* RealityEnsues: Turns out sticking up banks in rural Texas evokes a rather...''adamant'' reaction from the locals. Twice the brothers cross paths with armed customers, [[spoiler:the second time with lethal results]], and a number of locals join in the chase during the climax.

* KarmaHoudini: Despite hatching a plan that involved a number of armed robberies, one of which [[RealityEnsues inevitably goes south]] [[spoiler:resulting in the deaths of a security guard, a customer, Alberto Parker and his own brother]], Toby succeeds in setting up his sons with a trust fund that will keep them set for years to come [[spoiler:and walks away scot-free]]. Marcus calls him out on this in the end and hints that, although the Rangers aren't pursuing Toby officially, a personal reckoning may be in the offing.

* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: Toby and Tanner's mother dies shortly before the story begins; it's never mentioned how, but it apparently left her bedridden for years.

* Retirony: [[spoiler:Subverted; Marcus is on the verge of retirement, but it's Alberto who dies during the standoff with Tanner.]]