By Published May 9, 2026, 9:08 AM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2026. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2026. Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap
While ’s Timothy Olyphant has a staggering screen career filled with notable roles on both the big and small screen, his killer thriller from the late ‘90s remains criminally overlooked a good 27 years later. Timothy Olyphant’s illustrious screen career has seen the star play a wide variety of roles over the years. From an unlikely guest spot on The Office to years starring in the , Olyphant has repeatedly proven himself to be one of Hollywood’s most versatile and underrated leading men in both villainous and heroic roles.
Most recently, Olyphant shone in , a remake of the 2026 Norwegian comedy The Trip. A blackly comedic effort from The Lonely Island's Jorma Taccone, Over Your Dead Body sees Jason Segel and Samara Weaving’s dysfunctional, unhappy couple plan a remote weekend getaway where the pair secretly harbor plans to murder each other, only for these ambitions to be disrupted by the arrival of some armed convicts on the run. The scene-stealing Olyphant plays one of the criminal villains.
While Olyphant has played plenty of morally dubious characters over the years, his role as the cheerfully sociopathic Pete in Over Your Dead Body is a welcome reminder of one of the actor’s most underrated roles ever. Olyphant’s first big-screen role came in the 1996 comedy The First Wives Club, swiftly followed by a small part playing a hiker in 1997’s A Life Less Ordinary. However, it was 1999’s that truly put Olyphant on the map when the emerging star played the affable drug dealer Todd Gaines.
Go Proved Timothy Olyphant's Antihero Potential
A knotty, complicated crime comedy, Go is among the greatest of the many, many Tarantino imitations to emerge in the mid to late ‘90s. Among lesser movies like Thursday, 2 Days in the Valley, Flypaper, Another Day in Paradise, Spun, and Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, Go stood out thanks to its authentically funny script, its incredible soundtrack, and its stacked cast full of future stars. Although Sarah Polley’s cash-strapped checkout girl Ronna is the ostensible protagonist, Go’s clever narrative structure means all of its cast members get a chance to shine.
With a cast that includes Taye Diggs, William Fichtner, Jay Mohr, Breckin Meyer, Jane Krakowski, and Katie Holmes, it would be tough for any one star to steal the show. However, long , the actor managed just that feat by giving Todd some of the same implacable cool that defined the character of Raylan Givens in years to come. A stony-faced drug dealer who doesn’t take kindly to being ripped off by Ronna, Todd is one of Go's best characters.
An early sequence where Holmes’ sweet, soft-spoken Claire is left at Todd’s apartment as collateral while Ronna sells the drugs she bought from him bristles with unease, tension, and no small amount of unlikely chemistry between the pair. It’s an early hint at the darker screen persona that Dawson’s Creek star Holmes would develop further in the years that followed, with roles in projects like Teaching Mrs. Tingle, The Gift, and Thank You For Smoking, all of which subverted her wholesome girl-next-door image.
Go Is One Of The Most Underrated Thrillers Of The ‘90s
Olyphant, meanwhile, displays the magnetic screen presence he has become famous for in the decades that followed as Todd balances menace, charm, and the tiniest hint that he might be just as hapless as all the other characters beneath his macho persona. In a movie that bounces between the deranged debauchery of Desmond Askew’s Simon, Ronna’s high-stakes dealings, and a pair of struggling soap opera actors being blackmailed into a drug sting, it’s a testament to the pair’s chemistry that Holmes and Olyphant sitting in silence staring at each other is one of the movie’s most memorable scenes.
By the time Olyphant was cast in Go, he had already played a secondary villain in Scream 2, but it was his role as the charismatic drug dealer Todd that set up Deadwood, Justified, and the rest of the heavy-hitting roles from his screen career. Obviously, is hinted at here, but director Doug Liman’s movie also gives viewers a taste of the deadpan comedic talents Olyphant would later display in Fargo and Netflix’s underrated zombie comedy Santa Clarita Diet.
Like both of those later projects, Go constantly teeters on the edge of outright ludicrousness, playing with absurdity but still maintaining a sense of authentic menace beneath all its colorful, chaotic characters. Not only is the cast incredible, but Liman’s movie is also a fun, clever time-twisting thriller that manages to emerge from the long shadow that Tarantino cast over ‘90s independent cinema by subverting the director’s usual trademarks enough to feel fresh and unpredictable.
Like Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Go features plenty of storylines involving sudden moments of shocking violence, but the movie’s tone is ultimately warmer than Tarantino’s comparatively nihilistic sophomore effort. Like Reservoir Dogs, Go bounces around in time to keep viewers wrong-footed, but unlike Tarantino’s blistering feature debut, Go has plenty of likable characters who are easy to root for and a conclusion that doesn’t feel like a proverbial punch in the gut.
Go Makes Olyphant's Subsequent Screen Career Ironic
Ironically, as much as Go deservedly elevated Olyphant’s screen credibility and gave rise to many of his later projects, the movie also gave him an unlikely role considering the remainder of his screen career to date. Todd spends the movie evading the cops, but between Deadwood, Justified, Snowden, Gone in 60 Seconds, Havoc, The Crazies, and Fargo, Olyphant himself soon went on to become one of Hollywood’s most reliable onscreen law enforcers.
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From detectives to sheriffs to government agents, Timothy Olyphant has played a lot of lawmen, though some of these roles are better than others.
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Alongside , Olyphant is one of the foremost cop actors of his generation. While the star is great at making cop roles compelling, this still feels like an unlikely development considering Go’s impact on his career. The fact that Olyphant’s breakout role was that of a charming career criminal in Go makes it surprising that Over Your Dead Body’s future star then ended up playing so many characters on the right side of the law.
Cast
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Sarah Polley Ronna Martin -
Timothy Olyphant Todd Gaines
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