The Revenant is a 2015 American frontier revenge film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Written by Iñárritu and Mark L. Smith, based in part on Michael Punke's The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge, the film is inspired by the experiences of frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass. Set in 1823 Montana and South Dakota, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Glass, and co-stars Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, and Will Poulter.
Development of the film began in August 2001, when Akiva Goldsman purchased Punke's manuscript, intending to produce the film. Iñárritu signed on to direct
in August 2011, and in April 2014, after several delays in production
due to other projects, Iñárritu confirmed that he was beginning work on The Revenant and that DiCaprio would play the lead role. It is the second on-screen collaboration of DiCaprio and Hardy, following Inception. Principal photography
began in October 2014; delays associated with location and crew
challenges resulted in its end date moving from May to August 2015.
The Revenant premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on December 16, 2015, and had a limited release on December 25, 2015, followed by a wide release
on January 8, 2016. The film was well received by critics who praised
DiCaprio and Hardy's performances, Iñárritu's direction, and Lubezki's cinematography. The Revenant won three Golden Globe Awards, and has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards, the most for the 2016 ceremony, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (Hardy).
The film begins with an 1823 quasi-military hunting party of trappers and hunters hunting for pelts in the unsettled wilderness of the Louisiana Purchase under the command of their Captain, Andrew Henry. Hostility from the Native American Arikara Indians
leads to an ambush of the hunting party. Only about one fourth of the
hunters manage to escape on one of their rafts, salvaging as much as
they can while still under fire from the attacking Arikara.
Henry leads the escaping party, knowing that they are still being pursued by the Arikara. The party is further slowed down when Hugh Glass, one of the experienced hunters, stumbles on a mother grizzly bear
and her cubs while he is separated from the rest of the party. The
enraged grizzly attacks and seriously wounds him. Although Glass
eventually fires a gunshot and kills the bear with his knife, he is by
then nearly dead himself, and the hunting party can only provide
rudimentary medical care. The party takes the wounded Glass with them,
but because he is on a makeshift stretcher he slows their march. Finally
one of the party, John Fitzgerald, suggests to kill Glass so they can
move faster. Henry initially tries to kill Glass himself but is unable
to do so. Instead, he offers payment for several men to stay behind with
Glass. When two boys (Hawk, Glass' son, and a young Jim Bridger)
volunteer, Fitzgerald points out the likelihood that those boys and
Glass will be killed — leading the boys to give up their payment and
Henry to up the reward, so much so that Fitzgerald himself volunteers.
Henry makes Fitzgerald promise that he stays with Glass until he dies
and gives him a proper burial. Once separated from the main hunting
party and alone with Glass, Fitzgerald tries to kill Glass (who is so
wounded that he cannot even speak) by smothering him, only to have Hawk
stumble upon this murder attempt. A struggle ensues, and Fitzgerald
kills Hawk while Glass helplessly watches. When Bridger returns,
Fitzgerald claims he does not know where Hawk is. He later makes up a
story that he saw Indians down by the river and tells Bridger they must
abandon Glass for dead. Bridger hesitates but eventually flees with
Fitzgerald, leaving Glass with a canteen he has carved a spiral on.
Glass eventually crawls away and struggles to recover, walking
through the woods for days and keeping alive by feeding on roots. He is
tracked by the same Arikara who attacked earlier, and whose chief is
looking for his kidnapped daughter Powaqa. Glass escapes a close
encounter with them by floating down rapids. Meanwhile, Henry and the
surviving hunting party return to their nearly dilapidated barracks
outpost. While Fitzgerald and Bridger make their way to the outpost,
Bridger realizes that Fitzgerald lied about the Indians by the river so
they could leave Glass behind, but is intimidated by Fitzgerald into
keeping silent. When the two arrive at the outpost, Fitzgerald convinces
Henry that Glass succumbed to his wounds and that they lost Hawk, who
was most likely attacked by the Arikara. Henry pays Fitzgerald his
reward, but Bridger refuses his payment.
Glass encounters Hikuc, a friendly Pawnee, who feeds him raw bison
and says that his family was slaughtered and he wants revenge, "Revenge
is in the hands of the creator." The two travel together on horseback,
and the Pawnee builds Glass a shelter one night during a blizzard. Glass
awakes to find his friend hanged by a group of French pelt hunters
camped nearby. Glass rescues an Indian girl who is being raped, who
turns out to be Powaqa, the kidnapped daughter of the chief following
Glass' trail. He retakes the horse which the French hunters stole from
his murdered Pawnee companion, accidentally leaving behind Bridger's
canteen. He rides away only to encounter the hostile Arikara. During his
escape Glass falls off a cliff, killing the horse and wounding himself
even further. Glass keeps warm for a night inside the carcass of the
dead horse. Back at the outpost, a lone hunter is found carrying
Bridger's canteen. Most believe the hunter stole it from Hawk not far
from camp, so they organize a search party to look for him. Fitzgerald
does not join them and stays behind in the outpost. Instead of finding
Hawk, Henry's group eventually comes across Glass and brings him back to
the outpost.
Henry furiously searches for Fitzgerald only to find out that
Fitzgerald has stolen all the money in payroll safe and escaped. He has
Bridger imprisoned for treason, but Glass assures him that Fitzgerald
lied to Bridger in order to convince him to leave Glass for dead and
that Bridger wasn't present when Fitzgerald killed Hawk. Henry tells
Glass that he intends to bring Fitzgerald back dead or alive, and Glass
insists on coming with him. Henry and Glass split up to approach
Fitzgerald from separate angles, only for Fitzgerald to ambush Henry and
kill him. Hearing the gunshot, Glass returns to find a deceased Henry.
He sets up a trap, placing Henry upright on his own horse while
simultaneously hiding himself with a loaded gun under the pack blankets
on Henry's horse. Fitzgerald shoots the dummy, only for Glass to reveal
himself and shoot Fitzgerald in the shoulder.
Fitzgerald flees with Glass in close pursuit, and they face off on a
river bank. Glass fights and nearly kills Fitzgerald but, remembering
what his Pawnee friend had told him, he instead pushes the heavily
wounded Fitzgerald downstream — into the hands of the approaching
Arikara. The chief, now accompanied by Powaqa, scalps and kills
Fitzgerald but spares Glass in return for helping his daughter. As the
film ends and with his revenge on Fitzgerald complete, Glass walks away
from the river bank before collapsing and suffers from a final
hallucination of his deceased wife, who similes at him before
disappearing into the woods.
Here
- Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, the man left for dead by his fellow hunters.
- Tom Hardy as John Fitzgerald, a selfish member of the party who advocates abandoning Glass.
- Domhnall Gleeson as Captain Andrew Henry, the hunting party leader.
- Will Poulter as Jim Bridger
- Forrest Goodluck as Hawk, Glass' son
- Isaiah Tootoosis as young Hawk
- Arthur RedCloud as Hikuc
- Grace Dove as Hugh Glass' wife
- Paul Anderson as Anderson
- Brendan Fletcher as Fryman
- Kristoffer Joner as Murphy
- Melaw Nakehk'o as Powaqa
- Duane Howard as Elk Dog, father of Powaqa
- Brad Carter as Johnnie
- Lukas Haas as Jones
- Tyson Wood as Weston
