There’s plenty of heart-stopping moments in Yellowstone, but the scariest moment in the show was actually inspired by real-life incidents.
Whether it’s assassination attempts or child kidnappings, there’s always danger to be found in Yellowstone. The Dutton ranch is a magnet for trouble, after all.
But so far, each wild moment has been the creation of Taylor Sheridan — the cowboy with the most operatic mind in television. Since the show premiered back in 2018, fans have flocked in huge numbers to keep up-to-date with each and every shocking episode that comes their way.
However, one very frightening moment in the show is based on reality. In fact, the events that inspired the scene happen more than you’d think.
Yellowstone’s bear attack scene is based on real-life accounts
In Season 1 Episode 7, ‘A Monster Is Among Us’, Rip Wheeler and two tourists are attacked by a bear, an event inspired by Taylor Sheridan witnessing multiple instances of visitors approaching dangerous animals.
In the episode, Rip goes looking for the bear that John Dutton spotted earlier on. However, he stumbles across two tourists hanging from a cliff-side.
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He throws them a rope, but the woman falls and dies. The traumatized man refuses Rip’s help and also ends up falling to his death. As if things weren’t bad enough, the bear then appears and charges at Rip, who quickly grabs his gun and shoots it down. A move that saves his life, but later sees him entangled with law enforcement.
The scene wasn’t just terrifying to watch — it was actually inspired by several incidents in which unwitting tourists endangered themselves with the park’s wildlife.
“It’s great for people to come see [the park],” Sheridan told Men’s Journal. “But once a year, somebody’s going to put their kid on a buffalo and try to take a picture of it, and that guy’s going to get gored.”
He even recounted a specific encounter that baffled him, when he saw a crowd of visitors get close to a grizzly bear. “This is an animal that contests its place on the food chain with us, openly,” he said. “And someone’s like, ‘Oh, it looks friendly!’ It’s interesting how disconnected we’ve become from the natural world.”
As of 2023, eight people have been killed by bears in Yellowstone since the park was established, and 44 people have been injured in bear-related attacks.
