WARNING! This article contains major SPOILERS for Wolfs (2024)!Reuniting Brad Pitt and George Clooney after 2008’s Burn After Reading, Steven Soderbergh's Ocean’s Trilogy to craft a hilarious buddy comedy, paying homage to plenty of crime films, buddy movies, and action thrillers that came before. Perhaps unexpectedly, the dynamic and journey of Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s fixers in Wolfs are most reminiscent of a 1969 Western classic that starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

Though Wolfs operates on the surface as a dark buddy action comedy, many of its story beats and tropes also reflect those of classic movies in the Western genre. From the aging “lone wolf” outlaw protagonists to the shootouts, warring gangs, and road trip premise, Wolfs could very well be considered a neo-Western. What seals Wolfs’ Western categorization is its many similarities to the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with the 2024 crime comedy borrowing the Western’s famous ending scene, casting star power with the lead duo, dynamic between protagonists, and conflicts with other gangs and criminals.

Wolfs Is Very Similar To Robert Redford & Paul Newman's Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

Clooney & Pitt's Fixers Are Comparable To Butch & Sundance

The final moments of Wolfs recreate the famous shootout ending of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which has since been immortalized through numerous remakes, spoofs, and homages in other forms of media. As Clooney and Pitt’s nameless fixers exit the diner with guns blazing against gangs sent after them, Wolfs ends on a freeze frame of the two shooting their guns, leaving it ambiguous as to whether they die or survive in the conflict. While Wolfs’ recreation of this scene carries plenty of meaning for the fixers’ journeys, it isn’t the only similarity to the 1969 movie.

Clooney and Pitt’s fixers are also Wolfs’ respective versions of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. While they begin the movie as strangers who bicker over their strategies and skills as fixers, Wolfs gradually sees the two become Western-style outlaw “partners,” which is reinforced by the Kid (Austin Abrams) frequently referring to them as such. Like Butch and Sundance, George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s movie characters have to go on the road as they avoid being caught for their crime, with Wolfs’ fixers being ed by the “Kid” while the 1969 movie’s characters are ed by Sundance’s lover Etta Place.

Brad Pitt & George Clooney
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Furthermore, while Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s iconic outlaws battle opposing Old West gangs and Bolivian bandits in South America, Wolfs’ fixers find themselves up against both Croatian and Albanian gangs after a setup lands them with five bricks of drugs. Before their shootout in the 2024 action movie, Clooney and Pitt safely drop off the Kid back home, similar to Place returning to the US shortly before Butch and Sundance’s standoff gunfight finale. Ultimately, Wolfs gives a modern city look at Butch and Sundance if they had first met in their 60s rather than 40s and 30s.

Wolfs marks Brad Pitt and George Clooney's seventh movie together after Ocean's Eleven (2001), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Ocean's Twelve (2004), Ocean's Thirteen (2007), Burn After Reading (2008), and IF (2024).

The Real Meaning Of Wolfs Repeating Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid's Iconic Shootout Ending

Wolfs Uses Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid To Emphasize Its Themes

To seal Wolfs’ comparisons between George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s duo and Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s Western duo, the 2024 movie mimics their shootout ending scene. Knowing they’re likely stepping out into their deaths, Clooney and Pitt’s fixers look at one another, tell them they’ll reveal their names if they survive, ready their weapons, and burst out of the diner firing at the criminals shooting back at them. Remaking this scene is Watts’ way of telling viewers that the fixers have now achieved Butch and Sundance status, abandoning their “lone wolf” ways to go out guns-a-blazing with their partner.

Wolfs repeats this sentiment with Clooney and Pitt’s characters, as the wolves accept their fates and roles in this criminal world, but, at least this time, they’re not doing it alone.

Paul Newman and Robert Redford's characters emerge into the shootout acknowledging that after years of going against the law and rebelling against society, they can’t abandon this part of themselves and “go straight.” So, in what’s likely their final moments, Butch and Sundance go out in true bandit fashion with their closest confidante and the only person who can truly understand them. Wolfs repeats this sentiment with Clooney and Pitt’s characters, as the wolves accept their fates and roles in this criminal world, but, at least this time, they’re not doing it alone.

Wolfs Proves George Clooney & Brad Pitt Need To Make A Real Western Movie Together

Clooney & Pitt Could Translate Their Action Chops Into An Old West Story

George Clooney as Danny and Brad Pitt as Rusty walking together in Ocean's Eleven.

After Wolfs, it’s the perfect time for George Clooney and Brad Pitt to reunite on a more traditional Western genre movie. The duo has now collaborated on various crime and action comedies, and these skills would be easily translated into a Western. Clooney has previously starred in Western genre-blended movies like O Brother Where Art Thou? and From Dusk Till Dawn, with Pitt having led Legends of the Fall and The Assassination of Jesse James. With Wolfs depicting them as a modern Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid-style duo, Clooney and Pitt prove themselves fit for an Old West collaboration.

  • Wolfs official poster

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    Wolfs
    R
    Thriller
    Comedy
    Crime
    8/10
    13
    7.0/10
    Release Date
    September 20, 2024
    Runtime
    108 Minutes
    Director
    Jon Watts

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    Wolfs is an action-thriller film written and directed by Jon Watts, and sees the on-screen reunion of Brad Pitt and George Clooney after nearly fifteen years. The film centers on two fixers who are brought together when they're both hired for the same job.

  • buth cassidy

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    Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
    PG
    Western
    Adventure
    10
    9.7/10
    Release Date
    September 24, 1969
    Runtime
    111 Minutes
    Director
    George Roy Hill

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    Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid follows the exploits of two notorious outlaws as they navigate the challenges of a changing American West. Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, the film combines elements of adventure and buddy comedy, capturing their attempts to evade capture while maintaining camaraderie. Directed by George Roy Hill, it explores themes of friendship and survival against the backdrop of early 20th-century societal shifts.