Tex Montana Will Survive!

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jeremy Gardner directs. Christian Stella behind the camera. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 182 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Shot for just $0.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 3Grossed $0M — a 35.9× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
• 4Released 11 years ago.
• 5Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 6Directed by Jeremy Gardner, shot by Christian Stella. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 7Jeremy Gardner and Adam Cronheim and Kelly McQuade carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "Survival of the... fakest.".
• 9IMDB entry: tt4527664 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Only 12 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography

Christian Stella

Runtime

82 min · 1h 22m

Status

Released

Budget

$1,500

Box office

$53,889

Return

3593% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

NR

IMDB

Tex Montana Will Survive! (2015) ↗

Also by

Jeremy Gardner

• 
  The Battery

  2012 · ★ 6.1
• 
  After Midnight

  2019 · ★ 5.7

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Tex Montana Will Survive! - Official Trailer

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Nate Richardson2020-05-26
  ★ 7/10

  I remember what a drunk 17 year old Cherokee boy named Mitchel told me how to make a drop trap… -Incoherently blabbers an adventure show host sometime after finding a "Yoo-Hoo shrub". Things we all silently know to be true, but just can’t be proven: Politicians are lizard people, your cousin-in-law's a racist, and of course… the survivalist TV host is a charlatan. We’ve all thought these things, if not knowingly then for sure unconsciously. Tex Montana embodies this sprit with a paradox of juvenile humor and masterful cinematography that should have you laughing along no matter your sense of humor. Of course, not every movie is for everyone – the overly pretentious among us need not apply here. With only a $1,500 and nothing but a mere outline of a script, the folks who gave us The Battery have a little fun out in the woods. You can’t take this film so seriously as it was clearly just something to do in between other projects – and it made a pretty penny on Kickstarter too. Since first watching it back in 2016, I've probably re-watched this more than any other film (which is kind of sad, I know). The one liners and odd-ball quotes alone have become a staple in my daily life. It's because of that I have to give this film a 5, I enjoy it each time I see it and enjoy quoting it to people who have no idea what i'm referencing. So if you ever wanted to know what would happen if your ’kinda off’, redneck-want-to-be, crazy cousin-in-law decided he could stay out in the wild for 30 days alone; then I’d recommend putting on this film (Its free after all), gabbing a few friends, a bunch of beers, and cram them all into your makeshift lean-to because it’s going to be a fun night. Survive!

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• O.

  O. Hannah Films

Key crew

• Executive ProducerNathan Richardson

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• found footage

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2015-04-04· Chattanooga Film Festival
• Digital2016-03-12NR