WARNING! This article contains major SPOILERS for Wolfs (2024!)Brad Pitt and George Clooney are back together on-screen for the first time since 2008’sBurn After Reading, withWolfsmaintaining the acting duo’s great chemistry and genre success. With the duo now having made seven films together,George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s movie collaborationsbegan withOcean’s Elevenin 2001, a hit heist comedy that spawned a trilogy directed by Steven Soderbergh and a 2018 spinoff. The actors have since continued to find great niche success with crime comedies, andWolfs’ warm response from critics and audiences adds another hit to their list.
Clooney and Pitt lead the cast ofWolfsas two unnamed “fixers” separately called in to clean up the same crime, taking the two professional criminals on plenty of twists and turns as the truth behind their job and clients are uncovered. While they beginWolfsas adversaries bickering about their strategies and skills as fixers, Clooney and Pitt end the movie as partners and “buddies,” providing a different dynamic from their past collaborations. Though the genre and many tropes remain similar, it’sthese differences that help makeWolfssuch a compelling follow-up to their last movie,Burn After Reading.
Wolfs Brings Clooney & Pitt Together As A Duo Again Following Burn After Reading
Similar toSteven Soderbergh’sOcean’s Trilogyand the Coen Brothers’ 2008 movieBurn After Reading,Wolfspairs up Clooney and Pitt to lead another hilarious crime comedy. TheOcean’smovies saw the duo embark on dangerous heists together,Burn After Readingsaw them in different groups affected by misunderstandings with a CIA analyst’s memoirs, andWolfssituates them as competing fixers whose latest job is revealed as an elaborate ruse to “clean” them.Ocean’s Eleven,Burn After Reading, andWolfsall provide critically successful crime comedy hits for Clooney and Pitt, proving how compelling their chemistry remains after 23 years.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s first reunion followingBurn After Readingwas technically the 2024 movieIF, in which they both made hidden cameos.
When Clooney and Pitt reunited for theCoen Brothers’ moviein 2008, the duo were able to continue their genre collaboration streak, but sadly, had few opportunities to showcase their on-screen chemistry. With an ensemble cast that weaves together several storylines, George Clooney’s U.S. Marshal Harry Pfarrer and Brad Pitt’s personal trainer Chad Feldheimer are part of two separate yet interlinked subplots.Clooney and Pitt ultimately only share one scene inBurn After Reading– and it ends just as quickly as it begins. Clooney’s character finds Pitt hiding in a closet, and by reflex, fatally shoots the personal trainer.
I’m Not Sure Ocean’s 14 Is A Good Idea Anymore After George Clooney Update
Despite my earlier enthusiasm, I am less excited about Ocean’s 14 after George Clooney teases a major storyline in the script of the awaited sequel.
The wait forClooney and Pitt to reunite afterOcean’s Thirteenwas quickly answered withBurn After Reading, but itdidn’t fulfill the wish for another duo dynamic similar to Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan. WhileBurn After Readingwas critically praised, earned nearly $164 million at the box office, and utilized Pitt and Clooney in compelling and fitting ways, it still left the desire for anotherOcean’s Eleven-style collaboration between the two. Thankfully,Wolfsfinally gives the actors another crime comedy duo showcase 16 years afterBurn After Readingsimply had Clooney kill Pitt in a brief yet memorable scene.
Wolfs Also Reunites Clooney & Pitt With Another Burn After Reading Cast Member
Clooney & Pitt Reunite With Frances McDormand
In addition to marking the long-awaited reunion between George Clooney and Brad Pitt,Wolfsalso brings the stars back together withBurn After Reading’s Frances McDormand. Though she never shows her face in the2024 action movie,Frances McDormand appears inWolfs’ cast as the voice of Pamela Dowd-Henry, the owner and founder of the hotel where the crime was committed. Pamela is revealed as the client who hired Brad Pitt’s fixer, with the character watching the others’ actions through security cameras hidden in the hotel rooms.
Linda Litzke
Pam
Though McDormand doesn’t show her face on-screen,she’s still included in scenes with Clooney and Pitt as she calls the two fixers to explain how they’ll cover up the crime. Still, those moments recall the chemistry the three actors shared inBurn After Reading, as Pitt and McDormand were paired up for the majority of the 2008 film while Clooney and McDormand’s characters had been having an affair before the misunderstanding with the “government documents.” McDormand was an important factor inBurn After Reading’s success, so it’s even more special to have her there for Clooney and Pitt’s follow-up reunion.
Wolfs Reverses The Shocking Fate Of Clooney & Pitt’s Burn After Reading Characters
Pitt & Clooney Aren’t Responsible For The Other’s Demise In Wolfs
The fixers being adversaries at the start ofWolfscould have ended very badly for their characters, potentially repeating the context ofPitt and Clooney’s scene inBurn After Reading. However, rather than Pitt’s fixer killing Clooney’s character or vice versa inWolfs’ ending, the duo becomes partners and decide to team up in a shootout against the criminals sent to kill them at the diner. In fact, they end up saving each other’s lives a few times throughout the movie,redeeming their last on-screen scene together in which Clooney killed Pitt inBurt After Reading.
Wolfs
Cast
Wolfs is an action-thriller film written and directed by Jon Watts, and sees the on-screen reunion of Brad Pitt and George Clooney after nearly fifteen years. The film centers on two fixers who are brought together when they’re both hired for the same job.
Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading is a dark comedy thriller directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, and John Malkovich, revolving around a disc containing the memoirs of a CIA agent that inadvertently gets into the hands of two gym employees. Their misguided attempts to profit from their find lead to unforeseen consequences and entanglements with CIA operatives.
