By Robert Scucci
| Published
There’s nothing more satisfying than watching a person channel their inner Rambo when the odds are stacked against them, and Rebel Ridge, a Netflix Original, is one of the best modern examples of this tried-and-true premise being executed to perfection. Relentlessly paced, and with enough action to satiate even the most seasoned of action thriller fans, Rebel Ridge is the story of a man who takes matters into his own hands for the better good of the community when things get personal, and stops at nothing to bring his tormentors to justice.
I know the previous two sentences I just wrote make this movie sound like an exhausting rundown of the tired action thriller clichés we’re all familiar with, but Rebel Ridge earned its right to use its tropes because its lead actor Aaron Pierre is anything but your run-of-the-mill action hero in this flick.
Terry Richmond Was Done Dirty
Rebel Ridge wastes no time introducing its conflict when Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) is run off the road by officers Evan Marston (David Denman) and Steve Lann (Emory Cohen). Traveling by bicycle, Terry takes a nasty spill, and is briefly detained by the officers, who steal the $36,000 he has on his person that he needs to post bail for his cousin, Mike (CJ LeBlanc), who’s serving time for a misdemeanor possession charge.
Getting no help from the courthouse in his efforts to retrieve his stolen money from the Shelby Springs, Louisiana police department, Terry pays a visit to the police station to report the two officers for theft before being confronted and threatened by Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson), the chief of police. Agreeing to walk away if he could retrieve the bail money he needs for Mike, Terry keeps his cool, but not for long, as Burnne backs down on his deal, and Mike gets shipped off to prison where he’s immediately stabbed to death.
Confiding in Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb), a court clerk who has reason to believe that Terry and Mike aren’t the only people in the community who have experienced this level of police corruption, Terry, a marine veteran, vows to do everything within his power to take down the police department for seizing money from petty criminals in order to pad their budget. Learning that retrieving the officer’s dash cam footage – which conveniently erases itself during the 90-day period the police hold their subjects in jail – is his key to exposing the precinct’s malfeasance in Rebel Ridge, Terry gets to work so he can avenge his cousin’s death, and prevent other people who deserve a second chance from meeting a similar fate.
Non-Lethal Until All Other Options Are Exhausted
One aspect that I enjoyed about Rebel Ridge is how Terry, an expert in de-escalation and hand-to-hand combat, gives everybody a fair chance to walk away from the mess they created so long as they cooperate with his very reasonable requests. When things start heating up, and Terry has no other choice than to exhibit force, he does so non-lethally in the form of disarming the officers who are so clearly hellbent on keeping their little scheme going. There were countless times when Terry could have just raided the evidence locker for its firearms and gone hog-wild, leaving no survivors, but he knows that doing so will only incriminate him further, as every officer seems to be conspiring against him, and will throw him under the bus in order to save face.
I’m not saying that Terry doesn’t eventually rack up a body count in his efforts to expose the police corruption that he’s caught in the middle of in Rebel Ridge, but he only does so when there are no other options because matters keep escalating despite his expertise, and there’s only so much one man can do before taking extreme measures.
Streaming Rebel Ridge On Netflix
On paper, Rebel Ridge sounds like every other by-the-numbers action thriller that you’ve seen countless times before– making you wonder if you should even bother streaming the title. Thanks to its tight script, powerhouse performances from its cast, and breakneck pacing, I have 100 percent confidence in saying that you should not only acknowledge its tropes, but fully embrace them because Rebel Ridge is so much more than your average shoot-em-up flick. Aaron Pierre’s Terry Richmond is a bona fide action hero, and I hope to see him in future roles where he’s allowed to kick ass and take names without ever losing his cool.
Rebel Ridge is a Netflix Original, and available for streaming with an active subscription.
