Jeff Bridges is on a mission. While the actor may be known for his laid-back persona and his unforgettable role in The Big Lebowski as an aimless stoner called The Dude, he can also flip his blue eyes into razor-sharp blades on a dime. One of the most versatile actors of our time, Bridges is wading into the choppy waters of television as a man on a mission in The Old Man, the new FX thriller series.
Based on the 2017 Thomas Perry novel of the same name, Bridges stars as former CIA operative Dan Chase as he’s dragged back into a world of killing when his past comes knocking. This is notably Bridges' first series regular role in television after decades of starring on the silver screen, and you’d have to travel all the way back to 1958 to see him act in the Sea Hunt television show alongside his brother Beau Bridges and father Lloyd Bridges. During the 60s and early 70s, he appeared in several guest roles on series like Lassie and The Most Deadly Game, and then made the big jump to film. Bridges became something of a teenage heartthrob back in the day and broke through that mold with the critically acclaimed 1971 Peter Bogdanovich-directed drama, The Last Picture Show. Playing a brutish, popular jock in a dying Texas town during the 50s, Bridges was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and transformed into a movie star.
Since The Last Picture Show, Bridge has gone on to star in a vast array of critically acclaimed films and has been nominated for a total of seven Oscars, winning in 2009 for his portrayal of a past prime country singer in Crazy Heart. His other nominations include playing Deputy U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn in The Coen brothers' 2010 remake of True Grit, and most recently for playing a Texas Ranger in the Taylor Sheridan penned 2016 neo-western, Hell or High Water. But Bridges' best-known and most beloved role is perhaps playing the swaggering, pot-smoking, rug-loving Jeffrey Lebowski, or simply the Dude, in The Coen brothers' 1998 cult classic film, The Big Lebowski. Tumbling around town and colliding with various criminals, Bridges carries the swagger of The Dude to whatever part he plays, and he’s in fantastic company alongside his fellow cast mates in The Old Man.
In the upcoming series, Bridges shares the screen with John Lithgow, Amy Brenneman, Alia Shawkat, and Gbenga Akinnagbe. A six-time Emmy-Award winner, Lithgow stars opposite Bridges as his former colleague, Harold Harper. As men from their past begin to hunt Chase down, Harper leads the hunt as the now assistant FBI Director of Counterintelligence, and Lithgow exhibits his trademark wickedness and wit as the friends turn to enemies. Brenneman plays Zoe McDonald, a divorced woman who allows Chase to live as a guest tenant in her home while he hides out, and Shawkat portrays Angela Adams, an ambitious FBI Agent working alongside Harper who wants to prove her worth. Akinnagbe rounds out the cast as Julian Carson, the man who’s hunting down Chase, and with the thriller fast approaching, let’s cut to the chase and go over all the crucial information you’ll need to watch The Old Man.
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Check Out the Action-Packed Trailer for The Old Man
The trailer for The Old Man is sleek with rogue spies, government assassins, and an old man who’s sick and tired of running. We’re first introduced to Dan Chase as he drives down an ominous road in his van with his two sweet but tough rottweilers, and pulls out a gun. He’s been forced to go back on the run when people from his past attempt to kill him for something he did thirty years ago when he still worked for the CIA, and the trailer sees him grapple with his past actions while fighting for his life. Chase's trusty rottweilers accompany him everywhere, and they often prove to be excellent sidekicks as the trio speeds down highways followed in hot pursuit. Assistant FBI Director Harper is never too far away and warns Chase of the ensuing danger he’s trying to outrun, and too often he meets the danger and beats it with his own dose of violence. As Chase continues to flee the government and everyone looking for him, he begins to wonder who the villain really is, and what he's fighting for.
Where Can I Watch The Old Man?
The Old Man is available to watch on both the FX network and on Hulu. It’s up to you to choose where to watch, as it will simultaneously premiere on FX on June 16 and be made available to stream on Hulu at the same time. If you like following a rigid schedule in a classic TV format, you can stick with FX, but if you need more flexibility, the episodes will be patiently waiting to be consumed at any given time on Hulu. To watch the series, you will need to have a cable subscription that includes the FX Network, or a Hulu account subscription with FX on Hulu.
When Is The Old Man Coming Out?
The Old Man will premiere its first two episodes on FX Thursday, June 16, 2022, beginning at 10 PM ET/PT on the network. Its first two episodes will then also be made available to stream on Hulu. Following its premiere, the episodes will be released one at a time in a weekly fashion up through its finale on July 22 on both FX and Hulu. The series will have a total of seven episodes in Season 1.
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What Is the Plot of The Old Man?
Bridges stars as retired CIA operative, Dan Chase. He’s something of a legend, a Jason Bourne-type figure in his prime. Now a widower, he lives a quiet lonely life in the suburbs with the company of his two Rottweilers, and he’d prefer to keep it that way. But his plans of living the rest of his life out peacefully are violently crushed when after years of hiding, the U.S. government discovers his whereabouts and arrives at his house with the intention to capture him. Chase is forced to wear the cold-blooded assassin hat that he donned all those years ago when he served as an agent during the Cold War, and he and his two dogs quickly become a force to be reckoned with. Wanted for something in relation to what he did several years ago in the war, both Chase and Harper wish that what occurred could remain a secret, but have no choice but to play their respective roles as a game of cat and mouse unfolds across the world.
The Old Man is an age-old tale of a man reckoning with his past as Chase ponders if the bad things he did to bad people can justify him as a good man, or if he was ever good, to begin with. Equipped with his gruff voice, weathered eyes, and white mane of hair, Bridges is made for a role like this. You can have your Captains America and Iron Men, we’ve got an angry old man with two loyal dogs in a van exacting justice how he sees fit.
More Shows and Movies Like The Old Man That You Can Watch Now
The Old Man falls under a sweet spot within the thriller genre as stories of past prime spies getting pulled back into the game are seeing a sort of renaissance at the moment thanks to the John Wick series. On the television side of things as well, there seems to be a never-ending supply of espionage and fast-talking spies jumping from cliffhanger to cliffhanger. There's also an endless stream of tough-talking, action-packed Jeff Bridges titles to explore, so if you want to sample more of The Old Man, read on.
If you simply just want more Jeff Bridges, and particularly an angry, assassin-like one, watch him in his 2010 Oscar-nominated role as U.S. Deputy Marshall Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. The Coen brothers film is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name, and Bridges has some big cowboy boots to fill as John Wayne originated the role. In the film, Rooster is recruited by a tough, 12-year-old girl named Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfield) who's looking for someone with true grit to help her track down the man who killed her father and exact revenge. She finds what she’s looking for in Rooster, and together they set out across the west for vengeance, and Bridges is pitch-perfect as an embittered, horseback riding, gun-wielding antihero.
For another complex and thrilling look at the Cold War, there’s nothing better than The Americans. Running on FX for seven airtight seasons, the series follows two KGB spies posing as an American family while stealing intelligence and thwarting the FBI and anybody else who dares come in their way. Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russel star as Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings, and as the KGB two agents lie and scheme their way around Washington D.C., they also raise their two adolescent children who have no idea that their parents are Russian or spies. The series begins in 1981 and ends towards the conclusion of the Cold War in 1987, and along the way Phillip and Elizabeth find themselves in some nasty battles while they struggle to keep their family together and their loyalty pointed toward Russia.
All this talk of avenge-seeking spies and cold-blooded assassins can get pretty heavy, and Killing Eve has the perfect antidote. Thanks to its stars, Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, alongside its quick-witted dialogue written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Killing Eve broke the bleak, dark mold of spy thrillers by bringing some much-needed laughter into the carnage. Oh plays Eve Polastri, an aimless analyst for MI5 who gets pulled into a wild net of killing when she’s recruited by MI6 to hunt down the psychopathic assassin Villanelle, played by Comer. What follows is both a suspenseful and funny cat and mouse game as the pair become dangerously obsessed with each other. Bouncing all over the world, both women find themselves conflicted as they become more involved with one another and leave their respective roles at the door.
