Josh Brolin stars in Prime Video’s “Outer Range,” which is set in the fictional Wyoming hamlet of Wabang. However, the series was filmed in Las Vegas, New Mexico, which has a far smaller population than Nevada. Las Vegas, New Mexico, may easily be mistaken for a little town, as it was in the excellent Brolin film “No Country for Old Men,” which was released fifteen years ago.
I compared Brolin’s Royal Abbott, the main character of “Outer Range” season 1, in my spoiler review to an older version of his Llewelyn Moss character from “No Country for Old Men,” who had survived the events of that film and had relocated from Texas to Wyoming to have a family. The Hollywood Reporter quoted Brolin as saying that playing Royal had “a little bit of a vibe like it was Llewelyn 20 years later.” It would seem that Brolin had a similar interpretation of Royal. The fact that “Outer Range” was filmed in the same location where a large portion of “No Country for Old Men” was only served to accentuate that sentiment.
Even a crucial sequence from “No Country for Old Men” was recorded within a hundred feet of a scene from the eight-episode first season finale of “Outer Range,” which included a street brawl strikingly reminiscent of “High Noon” or “High Midnight.” Brolin stated to THR:
“In the finale, when Royal drives up to Autumn who’s standing in the middle of the street, that’s the same street literally within [a] hundred feet where [Anton] Chigurh [Javier Bardem] was shooting at Llewelyn. So that was weird for me. (Laughs.) With Royal, there was a little bit of a feeling like it was Llewelyn 20 years later. I couldn’t knock it.”
Welcome to Las Vegas
A transponder left in the bag of drug money that Llewelyn has taken allows Javier Bardem’s persistent hitman and grim reaper, Chigurgh, to track down Llewelyn at a hotel in the scene from “No Country for Old Men,” according to Movie-Locations.com. As a result of the shooting, Llewelyn is able to hurt Chigurh in the street.
In the “No Country” episode of the Team Deakins podcast, Brolin and his “Dune” cinematographer, Greig Fraser, speak with “No Country for Old Men” cinematographer Roger Deakins and his collaborator James Deakins about the shooting of that moment and others. Las Vegas, New Mexico has also been used as a filming site for a number of other movies, including the 1969 classic “Easy Rider” and the 1994 Kevin Costner Western “Wyatt Earp,” to mention just a couple.
Den of Geek claims that while “Outer Range” was in post-production, mountains were added to downtown Las Vegas, giving the impression that it was a Wyoming town. Location manager and scout for the show, Cyndy McCrossen, said:
“The [city] is about 13,000 people. It’s not enormous. A few of the wonderful hotels and the merchants at the time were really hurting because of COVID. So their hospitality was key.”
‘Outer Range’ Season 1 is currently available to watch on Prime Video.
