Matt Damon as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf looking to the distance in the film True GritImage via Paramount Pictures
In just a few weeks, Matt Damon will probably be the face of the biggest movie on the planet, The Odyssey. It won’t be surprising if the epic turns out to be Damon’s highest-grossing film in a leading role, overtaking his 2015 sci-fi film The Martian. While Damon has starred in bigger blockbusters — two of them, Interstellar and Oppenheimer, were directed by The Odyssey‘s Christopher Nolan — he didn’t play the lead in them. Damon has always moved seamlessly between exuding main character energy and slipping into an ensemble. And while he played an indispensable part in both Interstellar and Oppenheimer, he was just as outstanding as a supporting player in a Western blockbuster from 2010.
The movie in question is currently streaming on Peacock in the United States, but it won’t be around for much longer. The film was headlined by Jeff Bridges and served as a grand launchpad for a young Hailee Steinfeld. The movie also featured Josh Brolin in a menacing villainous performance. That’s the thing with the Coen Brothers; actors show up regardless of the length of their roles. And their faith in the acclaimed filmmakers really paid off with this movie, which ended up grossing more than $250 million worldwide and receiving 10 Oscar nominations.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
Yellowstone
Landman
Tulsa King
Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
Yellowstone
Landman
Tulsa King
Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Here’s How Long You Have Left to Watch the Coen Brothers’ Western Masterpiece
We’re talking, of course, about True Grit. The Coens insisted that the movie was a new adaptation of Charles Portis‘ novel and not a remake of the 1969 Western starring John Wayne. True Grit was critically acclaimed, and it is now sitting at a “Certified Fresh” 95% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The aggregator’s consensus reads, “Girded by strong performances from Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, and lifted by some of the Coens’ most finely tuned, unaffected work, True Grit is a worthy companion to the Charles Portis book.” The Coens made one more Western, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, before splitting up. They now work separately: Joel Coen made The Tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington, and Ethan Coen directed two installments of a spiritually connected trilogy of dark comedies. You can watch True Grit on Peacock until July 1. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
