History Film / WindRiver

* StealthHiBye: When [[spoiler:Pete]] is fleeing through the snow, he stops to look him, turning a full circle. As he gets back to where he started, he finds Cory standing there.

* NewOldWest: The Wind River Indian reservation hasn't changed much in the last century, save for swapping out horses with snowmobiles and pickup trucks. Cowboy hats, [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolvers]], [[spoiler:and a MexicanStandoff]] only emphasize how little has changed in rural Wyoming.

* RevolversAreJustBetter: In keeping with the NewOldWest theme, hunter Cory carries a revolver as his sidearm. Subverted by Jane and the other police officers, who carry standard-issue semiautomatic handguns.

* RedHerring: [[spoiler:As information about Natalie's unmet boyfriend is revealed--namely, that he is a white security officer from off the rez at least a decade her senior--the characters and audience are increasingly led to believe he was murderer... until his body is also discovered in the snow. A flashback reveals Matt to be a genuinely good guy who gave his life trying to protect Natalie.]]

* RedHerring: [[spoiler:As information about Natalie's unmet boyfriend is revealed- namely, that he is a white security officer from off the rez at least a decade her senior- the characters and audience are increasingly led to believe he was murderer... until his body is also discovered in the snow. A flashback reveals Matt to be a genuinely good guy who gave his life trying to protect Natalie.]]

* RedHerring: [[spoiler:As information about Natalie's unmet boyfriend is revealed- namely, that he is a white security officer from off the rez at least a decade her senior- the characters and audience are increasingly led to believe he was murderer. In the flashback, Matt turns out to be a genuinely good guy who gave his life protecting her.]]

* RedHerring: [[spoiler: Natalie's boyfriend Matt is set up to be her murderer. In the flashback, he turns out to be a genuinely good guy who gave his life protecting her.]]

''Wind River'' is a 2017 thriller written and directed by ''Film/{{Sicario}}'' and ''Film/HellOrHighWater'' screenwriter Taylor Sheridan.

* TheSheriff: Ben is the Tribal Police Chief, but he more or less fills this position due to how short-staffed his department is.

* ManChild: [[spoiler:In his drunken stupor, Pete acts like an innocent yet obnoxious little kid at first when teasing Matt and Natalie before it escalates. After he's captured by Cory, he cries like a baby and blames his vile actions on boredom and the cold.]]

* MayDecemberRomance: Natalie's white boyfriend is said to be around Cory's age, which only adds to the investigator's suspicions of him. [[spoiler:When we actually see them together, they seem to be perfectly happy, and Matt sacrifices his life trying to give her a chance to escape.]]

* ManChild: [[spoiler:In his drunken stupor, Pete acts like an innocent yet obnoxious little kid at first when teasing Matt and Natalie before it escalates. After he's captured by Cory, he cries like a baby and blames his vile actions on boredom and the cold.]]
* MayDecemberRomance: Natalie's white boyfriend is said to be around Cory's age, which only adds to the investigator's suspicions of him. [[spoiler:When we actually see them together, they seem to be perfectly happy, and Matt sacrifices his life trying to give her a chance to escape.]]

* MightyWhitey / WhiteMaleLead: Cory Lambert is the best tracker in Wind River, has lived around the rez for at least two decades, married and had two children with a Arapaho woman, is close friends with many of the local families, and even refers to the Arapaho as "my people" when [[spoiler:torturing the man who raped Natalie and pointing out that the "snow and silence" he so hates is all that the United States has given Native Americans]].

* AgonyOfTheFeet: PlayedForDrama; Natalie is found barefoot in the snow, her feet thoroughly frostbitten, miles from the nearest place she could have run from. [[spoiler:It's ultimately revealed that she in fact ran from an even more distant location, nearly six miles. When Cory captures Pete, he takes his boots as well. He is barely able to run a few yards in the snow on his frozen feet.]]

* MexicanStandoff: [[spoiler:A deputy notices the drill security flanking them after revealing they knew Natalie was dead, leading to him and quickly everyone else drawing their weapons. Jane ends tensions by emphasizing her federal authority and holstering her gun first, which unfortunately leads to Ben and the other deputies all being gunned down a few moments later.]]

* ColdSniper: In both a literal and figurative sense, Cory. [[spoiler:Put on chilling display in the final shootout, where he kills all of the drill security who killed Natalie, Matt, Ben, and the deputies without missing a shot in the span of a few seconds without ever being spotted in his snow camo.]]

* OldCopYoungCop: Cory and Jane have this dynamic, even though Cory is not a law enforcement officer.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: PlayedForDrama; Natalie is found barefoot in the snow, her feet thoroughly frostbitten, miles from the nearest place she could have run from. [[spoiler:It's ultimately revealed that she in fact ran from an even more distant location, nearly six miles. When Cory captures Pete, he takes his boots as well. He is barely able to run a few feet, emphasizing Natalie's HeroicResolve.]]

* RevolversAreJustBetter: In keeping with the NewOldWest theme, hunter Cory carries a revolver as his sidearm. Subverted by Jane and the other police officers, who carry standard-issue semiautomatic handguns.

* KarmicDeath / ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine: [[spoiler:Cory doesn't kill Pete and claims to have given him a better chance than Natalie to survive, taking him "only" six miles from civilization during the daytime and leaving him with his winter gear save for his boots. It's subverted, however, due to the facts that Pete had sustained at least one gunshot wound in the leg from Jane, had been exposed for longer than Natalie, and that Cory took him to the top of Wyoming's highest peak, but the incredibly short distance Pete is able to cover before succumbing makes clear that he dies knowing exactly what he inflicted on Natalie.]]

* AgonyOfTheFeet: PlayedForDrama; Natalie is found barefoot in the snow, her feet thoroughly frostbitten, miles from the nearest place she could have run from. [[spoiler:It's ultimately revealed that she in fact ran from an even more distant location, nearly six miles. When Cory captures her rapist, he takes his boots as well. He is barely able to run a few feet, emphasizing Natalie's HeroicResolve.]]

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The investigators are especially motivated by this, particularly since all of characters living in the rez knew Natalie personally. [[spoiler:The assault is later shown in detail through flashback.]]

The film stars Creator/JeremyRenner and Creator/ElizabethOlsen as a US Fish and Wildlife hunter Cory Taylor and FBI agent Jane Banner who team up with local police to solve a murder of a young woman on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Like many of Sheridan's films, ''Wind River'' draws off of Western iconography in a modern setting to cast light on contemporary issues: in this case, the ongoing neglect of Native Americans by the U.S. federal government and the resulting problems of poverty, drug abuse, and violence that ensue.