"Hell or High Water" initially had the working title "Comancheria". This word denotes a region spanning New Mexico and western Texas that was populated by the Comanche Indian tribe before 1860. The new, definitive original title "Hell or High Water", on the other hand, refers to the English idiom "come hell or high water" (literally: "may hell or high water come"), which in figurative terms means something like "come what there wool". Written by Taylor Sheridan (Sicario), the script, then known as Comancheria, topped the 2012 Blacklist of Hollywood's Favorite Unfilmed Screenplays. The director of "Hell or High Water" was taken over by the Briton David Mackenzie, who had previously dealt with the inner workings of a prison in "Walls of Violence" (2011) and through films such as "Perfect Sense" (2013) and "Young Adam" (2003) had gained prominence.
In the crime drama, a divorced father and his freshly released brother forge a desperate plan to save their family farm in western Texas: Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster) want to rob several banks at the same time and with them in this way Prevent the money won from their heavily indebted home and lands from falling back to the state. But of course the criminal acts of the two do not go unnoticed. The two brothers are quickly targeted by Texas Ranger Marcus (Jeff Bridges) and his partner. But is it really an option for Tanner and Toby to get caught by the law enforcement officers?