Those Who Wish Me Dead technically takes place in the Montana wilderness, but the entirety of production on the movie actually occurred in a different location many miles south of Montana in the United States. The 2021 action thriller film, directed by Taylor Sheridan (of Yellowstone fame) and written by Sheridan, Michael Koryta, and Charles Leavitt, is based on Koryta’s 2014 book of the same name. The movie’s premise revolves around the murder of a man and his son, who witnessed his father’s death, going on the run while the two assassins who killed his dad hunt him down. The young boy runs into a smokejumper, who helps him evade capture and certain death.
The cast of Those Who Wish Me Dead includes Angelina Jolie as Hannah Faber, Finn Little as Connor Casserly, Jon Bernthal as Ethan Sawyer, Aidan Gillen as Jack, Nicholas Hoult as Patrick, Jake Weber as Owen Casserly, Medina Senghore as Allison Sawyer, and Tyler Perry as Arthur. These stars and the crew of the 2021 movie traveled to one southern state to capture the action-filled story. Given its $20 million budget, limiting production to one state allowed producers to save money while also developing a quality film that believably took place in Montana (despite not being filmed there).
Rio Arriba County, New Mexico
Principal photography of Those Who Wish Me Dead solely transpired in New Mexico in the United States. Nex Mexico has become a hot spot for numerous movie and television show productions because of the state’s film-friendly climate, beautiful scenery, and lower costs. As a result, New Mexico was the perfect destination to capture the story of the 2021 action thriller.
According to The Cinemaholic, the Those Who Wish Me Dead production team chose four separate locations in New Mexico for filming, including Rio Arriba County. The county is at the north end of the state, sharing its border with Colorado. The cast and crew shot many of the movie’s wilderness scenes in Rio Arriba, including in the Jemez Mountains (which are also partly located in the counties of Sandoval and Los Alamos, which neighbor Rio Arriba to the south).
10 Best Movies Like Those Who Wish Me Dead
Those Who Wish Me Dead is a thrilling ride, and fans of the action flick will love similar movies like Man On Fire and No Country For Old Men.
Bernalillo, New Mexico
Production on Those Who Want Me Dead also occurred in the city of Bernalillo in New Mexico. Bernalillo is located in Sandoval County, just south of Rio Arriba, as mentioned above, and is a part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area. Aside from the 2021 action thriller, multiple movies and television shows have been filmed in Bernalillo, including The Host, Big Sky, The Flock, and From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series. Additionally, Better Call Saul fans may recognize Bernalillo because the Bernalillo Courthouse was where Jimmy “Saul Goodman” McGill and Kim Wexler married in season 5.
The Those Who Want Me Dead production team picked Bernalillo for the semi-urban scenes in the film. Not every part of the script was in the Montana wilderness, so the producers needed a place for the non-forest sequences. They eventually landed on Bernalillo, New Mexico, as the backdrop for the semi-urban scenes.
Mesa Del Sol, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Of course, it wouldn’t be right if the Those Who Want Me Dead cast and crew didn’t film in Albuquerque while in New Mexico. Albuquerque is the most populous city in the state, with a population of 572,864 as of 2023, and has been used as a filming destination for numerous movie and television series productions. As for the 2021 action thriller, the crew chose a spot in the desert in the community of Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque to artificially create a fire that could resemble one in a forest in the film. Breaking Bad also utilized Mesa del Sol for its notable desert scenes throughout all five seasons of the show.
Those Who Wish Me Dead Review: Drama Is Suspenseful, But Lacks Strong Plot
But while the film has all of the makings of a memorable neo-western and the protagonists are worth rooting for, its premise is lacking and vague.
Manzano Mountains State Park, Torrance County, New Mexico
The final filming location for the 2021 action thriller movie was the Manzano Mountains State Park in Torrance County, New Mexico. The state park is located 16 miles north of the town of Mountainair, and given its beautiful landscapes and remoteness, it was the perfect spot to capture a handful of the forest scenes in the film. The Cinemaholic reported that additional (artificial) forest fire sequences were shot on location at the Manzano Mountains State Park for Those Who Wish Me Dead.
