NEED TO KNOW
It’s Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay against the system in their new movie.
From writer-director Christian Swegal, Sovereign tells the story of a father-son duo struggling with debt who “follow the Sovereign Citizen belief system, a deeply anti-establishment worldview rooted in distrust of government authority,” per a synopsis.
As its new trailer, shared exclusively with PEOPLE, reveals, it’s inspired by true events; Jerry and Joe Kane — depicted by Offerman, 54, and Tremblay, 18 — were involved in a routine Arkansas traffic stop in 2010 that became a deadly shooting.
“As the pair travel across the country delivering self-taught legal seminars and pushing back against systems they believe have failed them, their journey brings them into conflict with Police Chief Jim Bouchart (Dennis Quaid), setting off a tragic chain of events that forces a reckoning with power, principle and the limits of freedom,” the synopsis adds.
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Offerman tells PEOPLE that Swegal “has done a wonderful job of creating real-life and blood, empathetic human beings who have been dealt a s—ty hand. What they choose to do with that then is tragic and unfortunate, but I think the audience can understand it.”
The actor is hoping that viewers “will empathize with the Kanes,” he says.
“I hope that instead of vilifying people who get bad information, people who are the victims of our financial institutions and our other predatory corporate institutions, that we can begin to understand as a society that we need to take better care of our poor people, our working class, our mentally ill.”
“At the core of it, it is a story about the dynamic between father and son and the consequences of what can happen when there’s negligence in that situation,” Tremblay tells PEOPLE. “I learned a lot about putting myself in another person’s shoes that I would never imagine.”
In the movie’s trailer, Offerman can be seen training with firearms and ranting about systemic oppression as Jerry.
“I don’t want to have to kill anybody,” he can be heard saying. “But if they keep messing with me, then I’m afraid that’s what it comes down to. And if I have to kill one, I’m not going to be able to stop, I just know it.”
Also in the trailer, Tremblay’s character is interrogated by Quaid’s. “I’m homeschooled,” Tremblay says as Joe. “He says that he wants me to be an independent thinker.”
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Acknowledging that he usually likes “to participate in a little more lighthearted fare,” Offerman says that between takes on his “pretty intense” scenes with Tremblay, the pair would “blow off some steam, just acting like jackasses.”
“He’s just so good at knowing exactly what will make you laugh,” says Tremblay of his onscreen father. “I really love his sense of humor. It’s very deadpan. Instantly as soon as I met him, I was like, ‘Man, this is gonna be a great shoot.’ ”
Sovereign, also starring Thomas Mann, Martha Plimpton and Nancy Travis, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival. It’s in theaters and available to own or rent on July 11.
