It’s been quite some time since Gus Van Sant has been in the spotlight. To many’s surprise, the visionary director had been away from the big screen for seven years until his inspiring feature-film comeback, Dead Man’s Wire, which opened in a limited capacity in 2025, expanded into theaters early in 2026, and is now on Netflix. Best known for sensitive dramas and sympathetic portraits of societal outcasts, like My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting, and Milk, Van Sant seems like an unlikely choice for this biographical crime drama/thriller about a hostage crisis in the 1970s, but the versatile filmmaker returned to his early roots as an indie director making anarchic crime thrillers and pitch-black comedies like Drugstore Cowboy and To Die For. This overlooked film is due for a reappraisal now that it’s widely available for all audiences, and, luckily, it features a compelling performance by the star of IT: Welcome to Derry, Bill Skarsgård.
Bill Skarsgård Gives a Revelatory Dramatic Performance in ‘Dead Man’s Wire’
Dead Man’s Wire undoubtedly shares striking parallels to Dog Day Afternoon, Sidney Lumet‘s iconic heist drama, also based on a wild true story in New York City in the ’70s. Rather than a bank holdup, in the winter of 1977, Tony Kiritsis (Skarsgård) takes the president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery), hostage with a sawed-off shotgun attached with, as the title indicates, a wire that will pull the trigger on himself if he tries to escape. Tony is a developer who believes he was cheated out of profits on land he brought to the company owned by Richard’s father, M.L., played by Al Pacino, another knowing homage to Dog Day Afternoon. What follows is a harrowing stand-off between Tony, the authorities, and M.L., as well as a chaotic media whirlwind.
Already a horror icon thanks to his performances as Pennywise the Clown in Andy Muschietti‘s IT and its subsequent HBO series, Zach Cregger‘s Barbarian, and the titular character in Robert Eggers‘ Nosferatu, Skarsgård took a major leap as a dramatic actor in Dead Man’s Wire. The story allows him to flex his strengths as a live-wire performer with idiosyncratic physical and behavioral features. While Tony Kiritsis is a rare human character for Skarsgård, he plays the hostile kidnapper with a sense of otherworldly terror. It’s an inspired performance with a darkly humorous edge and aura of pathos, and he makes you feel sympathetic for this psychologically snapped individual. The key to his shattering presence is his restraint, making Tony feel like a ticking time bomb.
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Dead Man’s Wire also features a stand-out performance by Dacre Montgomery, best known as Billy Hargrove in Stranger Things. We’re meant to be skeptical of Richard Hall due to his initial stuck-up, privileged demeanor, amplified by the nepotism of his job standing. Despite his corporate ranking, Richard is a casualty in the true conflict between M.L. and Tony. The film peaks whenever the captor and the captive discuss their drastically opposing perspectives on life. Evocative of Stockholm Syndrome, Richard slowly warms up, and he finds himself relating to Tony, as he feels equally alienated due to the domineering presence of his father.
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This dynamic is quintessential Van Sant, who unlocked the unconventional humanity lying within polar opposites and nefarious figures. Thrown in the middle of this frenzy is Fred Temple, a fast-talking and suave disc jockey serving as a liaison between Tony and M.L., played by Colman Domingo, an actor born for showy parts like these. Van Sant lets Domingo run wild while providing the necessary guardrails to show that this radio host is out of his league.
Van Sant knows how to handle transgressive subjects without resorting to crass provocation (Elephant is a delicate portrait of school shootings), thus making Dead Man’s Wire a character study first and a societal decree second. The film is thrilling when in the crime genre mold, but it proves to be a much sadder treatment of people living on the edge, with Van Sant lending his usual sympathy to this curious outsider. There’s nothing exhilarating about Tony’s kidnapping scheme, because that’s the reality of crime.
