Film

Tracker

Name: Tracker
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller, Adventure
Released: 2010
Cast: Ray Winstone, Temuera Morrison, Andy Anderson, Gareth Reeves, Mark Mitchinson

Other titles called Tracker: the 2024 series (CBS).

A Boer War veteran and a Maori fugitive hunt each other across New Zealand's wilderness in this 2010 thriller. Deliberately paced and gorgeously shot, it's a two-hander about respect forged in extremity—less interested in action beats than in the psychological cat-and-mouse of men who understand one another better than anyone else alive. For viewers who prize landscape, moral complexity, and understated tension.

TMDb rating

3.2

If you liked this

The Proposition2005

A similar slow-burn pursuit through harsh terrain with moral ambiguity at its core. Ray Winstone appears here too, and the film shares that sense of two men locked in a dance that's as much about understanding as about violence.

But Relentlessly bleak and violent. The Australian outback setting means relentless heat and desolation, which some find punishing rather than meditative.

Slow West2015

A drifter and a bounty hunter journey together through the American frontier, their relationship shifting constantly. Beautiful cinematography, excellent performances, and genuine tension about whether these men will survive or betray each other.

But Indie western with art-film sensibilities. The pacing is deliberate and the ending subverts genre expectations in ways some find unsatisfying.

Hell or High Water2016

Modern-day Texas: brothers robbing banks with surgical precision, a ranger pursuing them with equal skill. Incredibly taut, beautifully constructed, and deeply concerned with the respect between adversaries and the cost of survival.

But Violent and cynical about American institutions. The brothers aren't sympathetic figures, and the film offers no redemption for anyone.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Tracker

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Slow Horses2022

Both centre on men whose real skills are invisible until the pressure reveals them—competence born from necessity, not heroism.

A miniseries about washed-up British intelligence officers trapped in a holding pen, slowly discovering they're far more capable than anyone credited them with being. That same celebration of quiet competence and men who understand terrain—literal and political—better than their hunters.

But Spy-craft television with densely layered plotting. If you want a straightforward story, the narrative games will feel obfuscating. You need to pay attention.

Wind River2017

A tracker and an FBI agent investigate a murder on a reservation. Quiet, intelligent, and genuinely respectful to its setting and characters. That same sense of two capable people forced into partnership and mutual understanding.

But Grim subject matter—violence against Indigenous women. Heavy and deliberately unsentimental about systemic failure.

First Reformed2018

Paul Schrader's chamber piece about a pastor and an activist working through moral questions without easy answers. Spare, focused, and absolutely committed to the interior lives of its characters. That same attention to what's happening beneath the surface.

But Extremely static. Schrader builds tension through stillness and repetition, which reads as slow-motion to some viewers. Thematically bleak.

A Prophet2009

French prison drama where a young man must survive by understanding the systems around him and forming calculated bonds. That same intelligence about power, respect, and the unexpected alliances forged in extremity. Brilliantly made.

But Prison brutality and institutionalized racism are central. Subtitled, and the pacing is European—it earns its two-hour runtime by moving deliberately.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri2017

A mother and a police chief locked in apparent opposition eventually find unexpected common ground. Martin McDonagh finds humour and grace in characters who need to see each other clearly before anything can heal or change.

But The tone lurches between comedy and tragedy. Some find the balance off, and the film's treatment of a central character's arc draws genuine objections.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri poster

The Bounty1984

Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins as Fletcher Christian and Captain Bligh, locked in a conflict that's ultimately about two men's competing visions of order and freedom. Beautifully shot in Polynesia, intelligent about the costs of authority and rebellion.

But A remake that doesn't quite justify itself over earlier versions. The pacing is old-fashioned, and some find Gibson's performance affected or unconvincing.

The Revenant2015

Both films measure men by their ability to read landscape and survive it, and both treat that skill as a form of grace.

A frontiersman hunted across wilderness after being left for dead. Epic in scale but obsessed with small, brutal details—breath, hunger, pain. That same commitment to portraying men as animals surviving in a landscape that doesn't care about them, bound by codes of respect and vengeance.

But Extraordinarily violent and punishing to watch. The technical achievement can overshadow the story, and Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography demands patience that some viewers don't have.

Kes1970

Both films are about mastery and respect across an apparent power imbalance—hunter and hunted, trainer and animal, oppressor and fugitive—and both locate real grace in that mutual recognition.

A northern English boy and a hawk form a bond that transcends class and cruelty. Ken Loach's masterpiece—austere, unsentimental, deeply humanist. That same attention to teaching and learning between two beings who don't speak the same language, but come to understand each other absolutely.

But A film from 1969 shot in kitchen-sink realism. Black and white, northern accent, no plot in any conventional sense. Demands patience and offers no easy catharsis.