In 1860s San Francisco, Métis Franco-Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy is aggressively courted by a rich Irish art collector.

To escape his smothering attention, she falls in love with Danish immigrant carpenter Holger Olsen, and goes with him to his remote cabin in northern Nevada.

When Olsen joins the Union Army, which has begun to fight the Civil War, his absence leaves room for Weston to try to seduce Vivienne; he eventually corners and violently rapes her.

In October 2022, it was revealed that Mortensen had written and would direct and star in a film alongside Vicky Krieps, Solly McLeod, Danny Huston, Tom Bateman, Lance Henriksen, and W. Earl Brown.

[6] Principal photography began in Canada on October 12, 2022, on locations in Ontario and British Columbia, with some filming also taking place in Durango, Mexico.

The website's consensus reads: "A solid step forward for Viggo Mortensen as a director, The Dead Don't Hurt offers viewers a comfortably old-fashioned Western with a satisfying, character-driven story.

Films rarely frame that experience from the woman's perspective, which makes Mortensen's enlightened approach fairly refreshing, even if Vivienne's independence manifests itself in a way that anyone can sense is bad news".