Warning! Spoilers ahead for Rebel Ridge.

Rebel Ridge ending sees Terry's confrontation with the cops come to a head in a chaotic shootout, with Pierre's character ultimately saving the life of David Denman's honest officer, Evan Marston, while taking down his corrupt colleagues.

In a recent interview with Netflix, Saulnier explains how that ending sequence in Rebel Ridge was pulled off. The director stresses that he wanted all the action to feel "grounded" and real, and Pierre himself played a large role in this. According to Saulnier, the scene in which Pierre quickly drags Denman to safety behind a cop car was pulled off without any wire assistance. Regarding what he wants audiences to take away from Rebel Ridge, Saulnier remains vague. Check out his comments below:

“I wanted to see a more realistic depiction of hand-to-hand combat on screen. My strength and strategy in this movie was to stay grounded and not reach for that level of over-choreographed spectacle we’ve grown accustomed to.

"[Denman] had stunt pads, he was safe, but we had a wire on him just so Aaron wouldn’t burn himself out after four or five takes because David is a big guy, 6-foot-4. After we got a few in the can, Aaron asked us if he could drag David on his own for real, without any wires, and everyone agreed to give it a shot. That showcases Aaron’s dedication. And that, of course, is the take that made it into the movie.

“If there’s any one thing I’m going for, it’s simply to activate an involuntary response in the audience. As far as what an audience might take away from it all, that’s thankfully out of my hands now. But I’m fully at peace knowing I gave it everything I got.”

What Rebel Ridge's Ending Means For The Film

How The Movie's Final Moments Add Nuance

The odds are stacked against Terry throughout most of the film, and this is especially true in the ending when he takes on a station full of police officers. Though he loses the evidence he broke into the police station for, Terry turns on the lights and siren of a cruiser at the scene, activating the vehicle's dash cam. Terry and Marston ultimately make it to the hospital with the footage of Chief Sandy Burnne's (Don Johnson) corruption seemingly about to make it into the hands of the approaching state police force.

Interestingly, though, during that final car chase on the highway, Rebel Ridge opts to make clear that not all the cops in Shelby Springs are corrupt. Officer Sims (Zsané Jhé), for example, uses the PIT maneuver on Burnne's vehicle instead of Terry's, and the other police vehicles escort Pierre's character the rest of the way to the hospital. Adding in these crucial moments helps to complicate the narrative in the film's final moments, speaking to just how complex and layered the issue of police corruption in the real-world is.

PIT stands for precision immobilization technique. The maneuver involves making with the rear side of a fleeing vehicle to force it into an abrupt turn.

Our Take On Rebel Ridge's Ending

Why A Grounded Approach Was The Right Choice

Over-the-top action movies like those in the vein of John Wick can be a lot of fun, but Saulnier's decision to keep the action in his 2024 Netflix film grounded was probably the right choice. Rebel Ridge reviews have generally been glowing from critics, and part of this is due to just how real the film feels. While there are shootouts and moments of intense action, things always feels relatively plausible and realistic.

Rebel Ridge currently sports an impressive 95% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, and the audience score is a respectable 74%.

Rebel Ridge's final confrontation speaks to one of Saulnier's major strengths as a filmmaker, which is that he can do a lot with a relatively straightforward setup. In Green Room, for example, a significant stretch of the film features a punk band confined to a single room as they fend off neo-Nazi attackers. Rebel Ridge may not end with explosions and a high body count, but a smoky showdown in a police station parking lot is arguably the perfect climax to this particular story.

Key Background

• John Boyega was originally set to star. However, he left the project midway through filming in 2021, forcing producers to halt production, find a new lead actor, and re-shoot all his scenes.
• The lightning bolt tattoo on Terry Richmond's forearm is from the cover of the Washington DC punk band Bad Brain's 1982 debut album.

Source: Netflix