After My Fifth Playthrough Of Red Dead Redemption 2, I’ve Figured Out The Perfect Movie Adaptation

Ask my wife, kids or anyone who’s seen my PlayStation account’s game log, I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing the critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption 2 over the years. Since its release seven years ago, I’ve logged many miles, robbed countless carriages, gotten into too many brawls, and laughed and cried with Arthur Morgan on his expansive and emotional open-world adventure. I recently finished my fifth playthrough of the game, and I’ve figured out the perfect way to adapt this beloved video game.

I’m not saying this is going to happen anytime soon (or at all), but if I had the chance (and cash) to put together a team to bring one of the best games of all time to the big screen and tell the story of the Van der Linde gang, here’s how I’d do it…

Red Dead Redemption 2 Is A Massive Game That Seems Too Daunting To Adapt

There’s a good reason we haven’t seen Red Dead Redemption 2 on the list of upcoming video game movies and shows over the years, and that’s because this game just seems so daunting to adapt. According to HowLongToBeat, a website that tracks the average time spent playing a game, the main story takes approximately 50 hours to complete. That doesn’t include any of the side missions, random encounters, hunting, fishing, robbing or full exploration of the map (a completionist run takes around 189 hours, by the way).

Plus, with the way Arthur Morgan’s story unfolds from a rough-and-tough outlaw looking out for himself and his gang to a dying man searching for redemption and a second chance for one of his closest friends, it’s something you think would be better as a TV show. However, there is a way.

But I Think Focusing On The Blackwater Massacre Would Be The Perfect Way

When Red Dead Redemption 2 starts, the Van der Linde gang isn’t in the best of shape. Retreating to the icy and desolate Grizzly Mountains and licking their chops, the band of outlaws is on the run from authorities of all shapes and sizes after the ill-fated Blackwater Massacre cost them an ungodly amount of cash and several of their closest friends. We never see the massacre itself, but instead only hear stories about it through cutscenes and conversations at camp.

I think focusing on everything that led to and went down in Blackwater would make for one hell of a movie, and would instantly give us one of the best Westerns in the process. Dutch Van der Linde going against his principles and following the bad advice from Micah Bell, Arthur Morgan and Hosea Matthews investigating their own leads, and how they eventually made it out of Blackwater barely alive would be epic.

I've Always Wanted To See The Violent Gunfight Play Out

We never got any single-player DLC for Red Dead Redemption 2, and so we never got to explore any new story ideas once the credits rolled on the game’s massive epilogue. That’s a shame, because a series of missions surrounding Blackwater would have been so much fun to play. However, making a movie about the massacre would allow us to see what really went down when the gang took on the Blackwater Police Department and the Pinkertons after stealing an estimated $150,000 ($5.9 million in 2025 money).

Going off what characters like Javier Escuella, John Marston, and Sean MacGuire said, the gunfight was bloody, costly and the stuff of legend (it has ramifications throughout the entire game). I’d love to see what it was like that fateful day.

The truth is, I don’t know if Red Dead Redemption 2 will ever get the big-screen treatment, and I’m even less sure Rockstar would take the route I proposed. Regardless, I’d be there day one to see it in theaters. Until then, I guess I’ll start another playthrough of this legendary 2018 game…