Everyone knows Sue, the majestic Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that is the pride of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. Less known is the bizarre seven-year tale of intrigue, perfidy, double-dealing, and government intervention that resulted in the dinosaur-hunting discoverers, members of South Dakota’s Black Hills Institute, being divested of their find, cheated of recognition, and even sent to prison. Assembly of the gigantic fossil is something of a metaphor for filmmaker Miller’s meticulous reconstruction of a story that includes home movie footage of Sue’s discovery and recovery, her 1992 kidnapping by heavily armed FBI agents, a rip-roaring courtroom drama as her ownership falls into dispute, and her eventual sale at auction for a heart-stopping sum.

2019 film directed by Todd Douglas Miller