The first footage of Alec Baldwin’s movie Rust debuted over three years after the on-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
“Somethings in this life you can’t get back, I reckon,” Baldwin’s character, Harland Rust, tells Patrick Scott McDermott’s Lucas in the movie’s debut trailer, released on Wednesday, March 25. The film follows Lucas, an orphan who is sentenced to hang after accidentally killing a rancher. He is saved from his fate by his grandfather (Baldwin), and the two set out on the run from the dangerous bounty hunter Fenton “Preacher” Lang (Travis Fimmel).
The trailer features glimpses at many action-packed scenes between the gun-slinging characters, including what looks like a dangerous shoot-out at the end of the teaser. “Heaven ain’t waiting on either one of us,” Baldwin’s character tells an unseen foe.
The trailer’s release comes three years after a prop gun went off during filming in October 2021, resulting in the injury of director Joel Souza and death of Hutchins at age 42. “There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours,” Baldwin, 66, wrote via X at the time. “I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”
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The family of Hutchins filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the 30 Rock alum in February 2022, claiming he and others on set engaged in “reckless conduct and cost-cutting measures” that led to her death. Baldwin, for his part, denied pulling the trigger on the prop gun, which he believed to be unloaded.
Baldwin reached an undisclosed settlement with Hutchins’ family that October but was later charged with involuntary manslaughter, along with Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, in January 2023.
“The evidence clearly shows a pattern of criminal disregard for safety on the Rust film set,” special prosecutor Andrea Reeb said in a statement at the time. “In New Mexico, there is no room for film sets that don’t take our state’s commitment to gun safety and public safety seriously.”
Baldwin’s criminal charges, to which he pleaded not guilty, were dropped in April 2023, but he was later indicted a second time for involuntary manslaughter in January 2024. He was once again cleared of criminal charges following his July 2024 trial’s conclusion, with one juror telling The New York Times that she believes the on-set shooting was “clearly an accident.”
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Earlier this year, Baldwin filed a lawsuit against the Rust shooting prosecutors for malicious prosecution and civil rights violations. In his lawsuit, filed on January 9, Baldwin claims that the prosecution withheld evidence that would vindicate him of his charges.
Gutierrez-Reed, meanwhile, filed a motion in July 2024 to seek a new trial after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter that March. She was reportedly denied a release from her 18-month prison sentence in September 2024.
Rust premieres in theaters and on digital Friday, May 2,
