The Revenant Synopsis

The Revenant

Revenant Movie is a pilgrimage into human predicament. The Argentinian Alejandro Innaritu has delivered another masterpiece as a director after Birdman. The movie is set in beautiful Alaska and its biting cold storms and freezing glaciers and grizzly bears and yaks captives the audience. Amidst this natural beauty the human emotions too have been described elegantly. It shows how humans can endure heights of pain and sustain through awkward conditions to survive.

Leonardo Di Caprio’s actions speak louder than the words and his performance truly deserves the Oscar. He has very few dialogues in the movie but the action sequences performed with bear and Fitzgerlad (One of their clan member) seem very real and are one of the best I’ve ever seen with hardly any exaggeration at all.

Glass (Leonardo) is an English American and their community have fierce rivalry with native American Indians. The Americans hunt the bears and yaks to get their pelts(Fur) while Americans they are more interested in getting horses which are a good means of transportation in snow laden Alaska. In the beginning we witness that Indians have attacked on Americans’ camp and in this process Americans suffer heavy life loss and they abandon their camp and flee to their boats. The Indians have an upper hand due to home ground advantage and their arrows overpower the American guns. Only 10-12 Americans could make it to the boat and rest of them perished and Glass and his son Hawk are one the lots. But they know that Indians won’t spare them so easily and so after some time they quit the boat and went into forest. Glass(Leonardo) is the most proficient among them and he’s the one guiding them back to their community settlement.

In the forest Leonardo is attacked by a bear. He fought bravely with the bear and managed to kill it but in the process he too got very severe wounds. His team members found him under the recumbent bear and gave him some medical aid. They carry him on wooden sticks and take care of him for few days. An injured person is a liability and they cannot afford to be slowed down or else they may all get killed. So they part into two teams and one of the teams goes without Glass and other team consisting of Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), Hawk and Bridger (a teenage boy) are supposed to carry Glass with them and they’ll be awarded some $300 for doing this job. The greedy Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) wasn’t interested in keeping Glass alive and carrying back. So in the middle of their journey, he told Glass that it was next to impossible that he’ll survive and for the sake of his son he should die so that they can make it home. He asked Glass to wink his eyes and consent him to kill Glass (Glass was in no state to utter a word) Glass winked and so Fitzgerald began strangulating him but Hawk saw him doing that. He started shouting but Fitzgerald stabbed him and hid him away. Glass saw all this and he was filled with rage but he was helpless. Fitzgerald informs Bridger (teenage boy) that he’d seen Indians by the river and they should leave immediately. He told that they’ll have to leave Glass here and there’s no sign of Hawk anywhere. Bridger protests that they can’t leave Glass and also they agreed to give him proper burial lest he should die in the way. Fitzgerald just drags the Glass and puts him into pit and puts some mud on to him while he was still alive. Fitzgerald’s character embodies the selfish human nature and it stinks in him profoundly during the entire movie.

Now, begins the revival of Glass, he somehow manages to get up from the mud and crawl to the river. He’s feeling very cold and to escape from it he does an unbelievable thing. He rubs some gunpowder on to his neck and then lits a fire to it. How disgusting is that but still in such suffering he’s able to think like that, it’s just superb. He’s constantly recalls the happy times with his family and the words of her wife which motivate him to keep the hope. “As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight”, “When there is a storm and you stand in front of a tree, if you look at its branches you’ll swear it’ll fall but if you look at its trunk you’ll see the stability.” These are simple but powerful lines and I guess the writers must have struggled to use simple vocabulary in accordance of illiterate nature of the characters of the movie. It reminds me of perplexity of Javagal Srinath who had to bowl away from the stumps and avoid taking a wicket so that Anil Kumble could complete his 10 wicket haul in Delhi Test against Pakistan.

Glass is gets spotted at river by Indians and they start shooting at him. He plunges into the river and swims away from them. He does not die and manages to get on to the bank again. He stays there for a day perhaps; he catches a fish by making a fortification of stones in the shallow part of river. There he meets an Indian who’s killed a yak. He begs him to give him some food, he tells him that he’s injured and his friends had left him for dead. Indian shows mercy and gives him meat. I’d read in news that Leonardo had ate real liver in the movie to generate the genuine expression of bad taste and I think that was probably this scene only. (Hats off for his commitment) Indian decides to carry Glass with him as he too suffered from same pain as Glass did; the separation from the family. He helped to heal the Glass’s scars and left him. (Indian made a tent to provide protection from snowstorm and applied some herbs on to the scars, Glass perhaps woke up after 1 or 2 days). Glass is now capable of making journey to his home, he finds that French have camped nearby and he hides behind trees to escape their sight. He sought an opportune moment to steal a horse.

The French have obtained an Indian woman in exchange of 5 horses with native Indians. It again depicts the grave gender inequality for women are treated as means of entertainment and asset of trade. How can they leave half of our species behind in such purgatory. Leonardo sees a French fulfilling his carnal desires; he saves that woman and steals the horse from the French and flees away. After riding for maybe a few days he encounters the Indians on the way. They prove to be way powerful to him and in the desperate effort to save himself, he falls off the cliff with his horse. Hardly, he had been healed from the scars of bear, he’s met with another peril. Fortunately, he’s saved while his horse dies. There’s snowstorm and to save himself he cuts off the belly of horse and removes its innards to create a sleeping bag for him. He slept inside the horse’s belly till the storm was gone.

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and Bridger reached their settlement and they met the settlement captain Andrew Henry. Fitzgerald wanted his share of $300 and so they told him the false story of how Glass couldn’t make and they arranged a proper burial for him and they’d dig a pit, said a prayer and put a cross on his grave. Captain gave both of them their share, Fitzgerald gladly excepted it but Bridger did not. The guilt was eating Bridger and he seemed melancholy even in presence of his own people.

The other day at settlement, a man came asking for food and he showed them the can which belonged to Glass. He told them that he found it some few miles from their settlement and the Americans sent their team to rescue Hawk. (They thought it must be Hawk for he went missing and Glass was buried according to the story told by Fitzgerald)

Fitzgerald knew that it must be Glass for he himself had stabbed Hawk. He knew would be subjected to very harsh sentence if he will be caught and so after the rescue team went looking for Glass, he himself ran away whilst stealing captain’s all money and carrying necessary supplies and ammunition. The rescue team did not take long to find Glass and Captain furiously returned back to settlement to charge Fitzgerald only to find him escaped.

Bridger was put in jail but Glass during his conversation with Captain told Bridger to be innocent as Bridger himself was unaware of the fact that Hawk was stabbed and he was just following the orders. Glass asked Captain to allow him to accompany in the hunt of Fitzgerald. Glass was determined to take revenge and said, “he ain’t afraid of dying any more, he’s already done that.”

So, captain and Glass take their horses and go out in the ice laden mountains. Glass’s navigational skills hadn’t faded away and it didn’t take him long to track down Fitzgerald. Unfortunately, Captain encountered Fitzgerald first and he was shot dead. Glass had been on the other side during that time and he quickly came on the scene. Here on Glass played a classic deception. He carried the Captain and his horse along with him. He placed captain on the horse in such a posture as if he was riding the horse and Fitzgerald would think its Glass who’s riding; but Glass rode on the second horse hidden under fur. The deception worked successfully and Fitzgerald (Hidden in the bushes) took aim at riding captain and naturally the corpse fell down. He came closer to the site to verify his kill where Glass was patiently waiting for him. Glass shot him once Fitzgerald came there but he missed and Fitzgerald escaped. He gave a chase after him and they fight savagely. The most realistic fight sequence you’d have ever seen. Glass and Fitzgerald make several cuts on each other but at last Fitzgerald succumbs to defeat.

The movie has very subtle linings about human nature and instinct of survival and I’m mesmerized by such deep attention to details. The pain and hope are very palpable and I’m more inspired towards my goals of life.