The first trailer for the film Rust is out, teasing footage from the indie Western film starring and co-produced by Alec Baldwin. During the movie's production in New Mexico in 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed by a loaded gun Baldwin was holding.
"Some things in this life you can't get back, I reckon," Baldwin says in the footage, wearing a cowboy hat and playing a gun-toting outlaw named Harland Rust. According to a synopsis below the trailer, the story is set in Kansas in the 1880s, when a 13-year-old boy named Lucas (played by Patrick Scott McDermott) accidentally kills a rancher. He's sentenced to be hanged, but goes on the run with Rust, his long-estranged grandfather.
The trailer features elements typical of Old West dramas: cowboys riding horses along atmospheric landscapes, pioneering townspeople, Native Americans, and lots of gunfights.
The film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is serving an 18-month prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter after she was convicted last April. A few months later, the same New Mexico judge dismissed Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter case after ruling prosecutors failed to disclose evidence.
Director Joel Souza, who was shot in the shoulder during the 2021 incident, returned to finish the film when production resumed in Montana. Halyna Hutchins is listed in the credits of the trailer, alongside cinematographer Bianca Cline, who completed Hutchins' work. Last November, the final version of Rust premiered in Poland at the Cameraimage Film Festival, which celebrates cinematography. Falling Forward Films lists Rust's release date on their website as May 2 of this year.
Before taking the stand in New Mexico last summer, Baldwin invited cameras to follow him, his wife Hilaria and their children for a reality show. The Baldwins is now running on TLC. Earlier this month, Hulu premiered a different documentary, directed by Hutchins' friend Rachel Mason, titled Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna.
Copyright 2025 NPR
