The movie is set in the time period of 1823, a hunting party of trappers and hunters are hunting for pelts (that is, the skins of animals) in the wilderness under the command of their captain, Andrew Henry (Domnhall Gleeson). Hostility from the Native American tribe, Arikara Indians, leads to an ambush of the hunting party, and only a few hunters manage to escape, with as much as they can manage to get away with.
Encounter with the Mama Bear
The escaping hunting party is further slowed down when Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), one of the experienced hunters stumbles on a mother grizzly bear and her cubs while he is separated from the rest of the party. He is attacked and seriously wounded by the angry bear, wildly protecting her cubs. Although Glass eventually kills the bear with his knife, he is nearly dead himself, and the hunting party can only provide basic medical care.
Fitzgerald’s Treachery
The party takes the wounded Glass with them, but because he is on a makeshift stretcher, he slows their march even as the Arikara are still in pursuit. Finally one of the party, John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), suggests they kill him so they can move faster.
Captain Henry initially tries to kill Glass himself, but is unable to shoot him even though Glass is so wounded that he cannot even speak or move. Instead, he offers payment for two men to stay behind with Glass. Jim Bridger and Hawk – who is Hugh Glass’ son – volunteer to stay behind, but Fitzgerald points out that those boys and Glass will be killed all by themselves, leading the captain to increase the reward for a third man to stay.
Fitzgerald volunteers himself, and promised Captain Henry that he would stay with Glass until he dies and give him a proper burial. Once separated from the main hunting party and alone with Glass, Fitzgerald tries to kill Glass by smothering him, only to have Hawk stumble upon this murder attempt. A struggle ensues, and Fitzgerald kills Hawk. When Bridger returns, Fitzgerald claims he doesn’t know where Hawk is, and then concocts a story that he saw the Arikara down by the river, and that they needed to abandon Glass.
Glass’ Health Improves
Upon return to the barracks, Fitzgerald tells Henry that despite their efforts, they could not save Glass or his son from the elements. Fitzgerald receives a cash reward for his fabricated tale from the unsuspecting Henry. Meanwhile, Glass crawls and struggles to walk through the woods for days. He builds fires and eats roots, and is also tracked by hostile Indians, whose chief is looking for his kidnapped daughter Powaqa.
He then encounters a friendly Indian and the two travel for a bit. The Indian builds Glass a shelter one night during a blizzard, only for him to wake to find him hanged by a group of French frontiersmen camped nearby. Glass rescues the Arikara chief’s daughter, Powaqa from her captors and manages to escape alone by stealing a horse. As the weeks go by, he traverses the snowy landscape, fueled by revenge against Fitzgerald.
Glass and Captain Henry Re-united
Back at the barracks, a Frenchman is found carrying Glass’s canteen (a small water bottle). Most believe the hunter stole it from Hawk not far from camp, so they organize a search party and instead find Glass alive. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald decides to flee, after first emptying their money safe to which he has access, and before Glass could expose the lies that he told Captain Henry.
Glass’ Clever Trick
Glass requests that Henry assign him, and only him to bring back Fitzgerald dead or alive, to which Henry agrees on the condition that he goes with Glass. Fitzgerald ambushes Henry and kills him before Glass could arrive upon hearing gunshots. He knows Fitzgerald is close, so he sets a really clever trap for him by placing Henry upright as a heavily-clad rider on a travelling horse – but dressing the dead captain in his own coat, while he hid himself with a loaded gun under the pack blankets on another horse trailing directly behind and acting as the dead Henry!
In the wilderness now, Fitzgerald takes the bait and shoots Captain Henry (whom he thinks is Glass!) off the horse from a distance. Fitzgerald goes nearer, bends to check the body, only to discover it is Henry, not Glass. As Glass suddenly drops out of the horse blankets to shoot Fitzgerald, he shoots him in the shoulder but Fitzgerald manages to flee as Glass follows him in close pursuit.
The Fight
Glass fights with and nearly kills Fitzgerald, but ultimately recollects the message from his old Indian companion to leave revenge to God’s hands‘, so he pushes the heavily wounded Fitzgerald down-stream (because they fought at the river bank), and into the hands of the approaching Arikara who kill Fitzgerald.
But what happened to Glass afterwards? He makes his way up the mountain to a vision of his dead wife who smiles at him before walking away. A teary-eyed Glass watches in silence, before turning his gaze directly to the camera as the film ends to the sounds of his breath.
It is a captivating story about the strength of the human spirit, and how life is worth living when one feels a certain purpose behind existence – in the case of Glass, it is vengeance. Also, how the beauty of the human spirit is best exhibited in the conquering not of external foes, but of one’s own inner demons.
The movie will be well worth your money, and your time.
