There’s plenty of heart-stopping moments in Yellowstone, but the scariest moment in the show was actually inspired by real-life incidents.
Whether it’s assassination attempts or child kidnappings, there’s always danger to be found inYellowstone. The Dutton ranch is a magnet for trouble, after all.
However, one very frightening moment in the show is based on reality. In fact, the events that inspired the scene happen more than you’d think.
Yellowstone’s bear attack scene is based on real-life accounts
In Season 1 Episode 7, ‘A Monster Is Among Us’,Rip Wheelerand two tourists are attacked by a bear, an event inspired by Taylor Sheridan witnessing multiple instances of visitors approaching dangerous animals.
In the episode, Rip goes looking for the bear that John Dutton spotted earlier on. However, he stumbles across two tourists hanging from a cliff-side.
He throws them a rope, but the woman falls and dies. The traumatized man refuses Rip’s help and also ends up falling to his death. As if things weren’t bad enough, the bear then appears and charges at Rip, who quickly grabs his gun and shoots it down. A move that saves his life, but later sees him entangled with law enforcement.
The scene wasn’t just terrifying to watch — it was actually inspired by several incidents in which unwitting tourists endangered themselves with thepark’swildlife.
“It’s great for people to come see [the park],” Sheridan toldMen’s Journal. “But once a year, somebody’s going to put their kid on a buffalo and try to take a picture of it, and that guy’s going to get gored.”
He even recounted a specific encounter that baffled him, when he saw a crowd of visitors get close to a grizzly bear. “This is an animal that contests its place on the food chain with us, openly,” he said. “And someone’s like, ‘Oh, it looks friendly!’ It’s interesting how disconnected we’ve become from the natural world.”
Jessica Cullen is a TV and Movies Writer on Dexerto’s UK team. She’s previously written for The Digital Fix, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29, Slate and more. Aside from being the residential Yellowstone expert, she also loves Westerns, ’90s action movies, and true crime. You can email her here: jessica.cullen@dexerto.com.
