KILLERS OF THE
FLOWER MOON
IMDb Rating
260K+
IMDb Votes
93%
Rotten Tomatoes
$159M
Box Office
Synopsis & Review
Adapted from David Grann's nonfiction book, Killers of the Flower Moon recounts one of the earliest cases the fledgling FBI ever investigated: the systematic murders of Osage Nation members in 1920s Oklahoma after oil was discovered beneath their land, making them among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The story centers on Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a WWI veteran who marries Osage woman Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone) at the encouragement of his uncle, cattle baron and secret mastermind William Hale (Robert De Niro) — whose scheme to seize Osage headright wealth requires eliminating Mollie's family, one death at a time, while Ernest is torn between genuine love for his wife and loyalty to his uncle.
Scorsese reportedly restructured the film during pre-production, shifting the perspective from an outside FBI procedural to an intimate, devastating account of complicity from within Ernest and Mollie's own marriage — a choice that trades conventional thriller momentum for something much harder to watch: a portrait of how ordinary greed and weakness enable atrocity. At three and a half hours, the film asks for patience, but Gladstone's performance as Mollie — quiet, watchful, and increasingly poisoned by the men around her — gives the film its moral center, while De Niro's Hale is chillingly banal in his evil. It's one of Scorsese's most mature and morally serious films, less interested in criminal spectacle than in reckoning with a genuinely shameful chapter of American history that most audiences had never heard of before this film.
Why Watch This Movie?
Lily Gladstone's Historic Performance
Gladstone's performance as Mollie Burkhart earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress and an Academy Award nomination — making her the first Native American actor ever nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.
DiCaprio, De Niro, and Scorsese, All Together for the First Time
Despite Scorsese's decades-long parallel collaborations with both actors, this is the first film where DiCaprio and De Niro share the screen under his direction — and the first time DiCaprio and De Niro have acted together at all in 30 years.
A Genuinely Overlooked Piece of American History
The Osage murders were one of the FBI's first major cases, yet remain largely absent from mainstream history education. The film was made with extensive Osage Nation involvement and input, shaping both the script and the on-screen depiction of Osage language and culture.
Cast & Crew
Director
Martin Scorsese
Screenplay
Eric Roth & Martin Scorsese
Studio
Apple Studios / Paramount
Ernest Burkhart
Leonardo DiCaprio
Mollie Burkhart
Lily Gladstone
William Hale
Robert De Niro
Tom White
Jesse Plemons
Based On
David Grann's book
Editor
Thelma Schoonmaker
Official Trailer
© Apple Studios / Paramount Pictures. Trailer embedded via YouTube.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Killers of the Flower Moon based on a true story?
Yes. The film is based on David Grann's 2017 nonfiction book of the same name, which documents the real "Reign of Terror" — the systematic murder of dozens of Osage Nation members in 1920s Oklahoma for their oil headright wealth, and the FBI's early investigation into the killings.
Why is the film so long?
At 3 hours 26 minutes, it's one of Scorsese's longest films, a deliberate choice to give the slow, grinding accumulation of betrayal and murder time to build rather than compressing it into a conventional thriller structure. Critics were split on the pacing, but most agreed the runtime served the film's deliberately somber, procedural tone rather than padding it unnecessarily.
How did the film perform financially?
Despite strong reviews, the film's roughly $200 million budget meant its $159 million worldwide gross fell well short of profitability for a traditional theatrical release. It was financed by Apple Studios, which used the film as a flagship theatrical release before it moved to Apple TV+ streaming — a model less dependent on box office alone to justify the investment.
How many Academy Awards did it win?
The film received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Lily Gladstone), and Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro), but did not win in any category — an unusually large nomination haul without a single win, in a year dominated by Oppenheimer and Poor Things.
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