(Credit: Netflix)

One week into the Netflix-distributed action thriller Rebel Ridge’s run at the top of the platform’s global movies chart, it appears that at least some of the hype was real. Aaron Pierre delivers a breakout performance as ex-US marine Terry Richmond, who finds himself wrapped up in a sinister police cover-up wreaking havoc in the unassuming town of Shelby Springs.

At first, the film may appear to be doing little more than following an uninspired formula, becoming the umpteenth crime flick on Netflix to feature an ex-US serviceman-turned-vigilante as its protagonist. Yet unlike most of its contemporaries, this movie is well-executed and carefully paced for the most part, with Pierre making the central character authentic and earnest enough to be believable. 

Although it’s nowhere near the standard of a New Hollywood classic like Serpico or a blockbuster like Rambo, Rebel Ridge does fit neatly into the well-worn tradition of big-budget thrillers exposing the corruption buried deep in American police departments. And it does so by using the latest law enforcement technology in its plotlines.

When Terry Richmond is knocked off his bike and arrested by the police for no good reason on his way to post bail for his cousin, it begins a chain of events that leads him to discover just how far the Shelby Springs police force will go to cover their backs. Including the theft of his bail money, the murder of his cousin and the attempted murder of local court employee Summer McBride. Oh, as well as multiple attempts to dispose of Terry himself.

But why are they after him?

With Summer’s help, Terry gains access to the court judge and clerk of Shelby Springs, and forces them to reveal what’s been going on. Summer prompts court clerk Elliot to reveal everything he knows about a civil case called “Bishop vs The town of Shelby Springs”, which was brought against the local police force two years prior to the events of the movie.

The judge then explains to them that the case came about because an “illegal search” of the plaintiff by police officers “snowballed into a wrongful death”. As a result, a legal settlement “damn near bankrupted the town”. Local law enforcement lost its insurance policy, and was “given a year” to straighten up or it would lose its funding altogether.

Rather than straighten up, though, the chief of police found a workaround. Turn “anything that might put the department in legal jeopardy” into a cause for arresting someone, before they “kick the charges down to misdemeanours”.

“So it stays in town court,” Summer adds, putting two and two together. “Where there’s no public defender to contest the bail or adjournments.” At the end of this decidedly incongruous and on-the-nose exposition scene lasting close to ten minutes, we find out that the reason every arrestee is detained without bail for at least 90 days is that after this period the police can simply destroy any dashcam arrest footage. Just as they did with Terry’s cousin, Mike, so no one can see the horrors officers may have committed during the process of arrest or find any definitive proof that the arrest was wrongful in the first place.

While this scam provides Shelby Springs police department with full legal cover for almost any actions they take, they haven’t come up against the likes of Terry Richmond before. He fights his way through most of the town’s police force to get his hands on the dashcam footage that incriminates them, in the movie’s spectacular climax.

This almost makes the judge’s overlong explanations about the police’s implausibly labour-intensive cover-up scheme worth sitting through. This exposition aside, in Rebel Ridge, Netflix finally serves up an original action flick in 2024 that merits the views it’s getting.