Trailer
Plot summary
Woody Grant lives in Billings, Montana, with his wife Kate. He drinks heavily and shows signs of dementia, and he believes a sweepstakes letter has made him the winner of one million dollars. Kate and their sons Ross and David tell him it is a marketing scam, but Woody will not trust the postal service with his claim and sets out on foot for Lincoln, Nebraska, the company's headquarters. David, who sells electronics and has recently ended a relationship, takes the week off to drive him, and convinces him to stop in Hawthorne, Nebraska, his parents' hometown, where relatives are gathering. Woody wants the money for a new pickup truck and an air compressor.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Nebraska (2013)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Nebraska was the last film Paramount Vantage ever released: having made $27.7 million on a budget of $13.5 million, it turned out to be the label's parting shot, because Paramount Pictures folded the specialty arm once the film was out.
- Alexander Payne wanted Bruce Dern as Woody Grant from his first read, but Paramount insisted on a big name and shortlisted Gene Hackman, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Jack Nicholson and Robert Forster. Hackman and Nicholson had retired, Duvall and De Niro said no, and after meeting more than fifty actors Payne came back to Dern.
- Scoring the film brought the band Tin Hat back together: Mark Orton wrote the music and his bandmates played on it, the first time the group's three original members had worked together since 2005.
