RUST (2024) — One trigger. One tragedy. A thousand scars.

He ran from the law his whole life. Now he runs for someone worth saving.

Rust (2024) arrives burdened with real-world infamy, yet emerges as a somber, emotionally charged Western that grapples with mortality, guilt, and the inescapable consequences of violence—on and off the screen. Directed by Joel Souza, the film finally sees the light of day after being indefinitely halted by the tragic on-set shooting in 2021, which claimed the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Set in 1880s New Mexico, Rust follows Harland Rust (Alec Baldwin), a grizzled outlaw who emerges from hiding when his 13-year-old grandson Lucas is sentenced to hang for an accidental murder. Desperate to save him, Rust breaks the boy out of custody and the two set off on a perilous journey across a hostile frontier, pursued by a relentless U.S. Marshal and a bounty hunter with a score to settle.

But Rust is no typical Western. Beneath its dust, shootouts, and sweeping vistas lies a meditation on shame and redemption. As Harland confronts the blood on his own hands and the echoes of a violent past, he must teach the boy not just how to survive—but what kind of man not to become. Their bond, fragile and forged in desperation, is the quiet heart of a film haunted by more than one kind of ghost.

Balancing introspective drama with stark frontier brutality, Rust is less a swan song to the Western genre and more a reckoning—of character, legacy, and the weight of every shot fired.