The Revenant (2015 film)

The Revenant is a 2015 American epic western action drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. The screenplay by Mark L. Smith and Iñárritu is based in part on Michael Punke's 2002 novel The Revenant, which describes frontiersman Hugh Glass's experiences in 1823. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Glass, alongside Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter.

In August 2001, Akiva Goldsman purchased Punke's manuscript. Iñárritu signed on to direct The Revenant in August 2011. In April 2014, after several delays due to other projects, Iñárritu confirmed that he was beginning work on it and that DiCaprio had been cast in the lead role. Principal photography began in October 2014. Location and crew concerns delayed production from May to August 2015.

The Revenant premiered at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on December 16, 2015. It had a limited release on December 25 and a wide release on January 8, 2016 by 20th Century Fox. It was a commercial success, grossing $533 million. It received critical acclaim, with praise for DiCaprio's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography.

It won three Golden Globe Awards and five BAFTA Awards, including Best Film at both ceremonies. At the 88th Academy Awards, the film received 12 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Hardy). It won the Academy Awards for Best Director (Iñárritu, his second consecutive in that category), Best Actor (DiCaprio, his first after 5 previous nominations), and Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki, his third consecutive in that category). DiCaprio also won the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the BAFTA Award, and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Actor.

Plot

Fur trapper Hugh Glass watches as American soldiers burn down a Native American village on the Great Plains.

Years later, in late 1823, during the Arikara War, Glass guides Captain Andrew Henry's trappers through the unorganized territory of the present-day Dakotas. While he and his half-Pawnee son, Hawk, are hunting, the company's camp is attacked by an Arikara war party which is seeking to recover its chief's abducted daughter, Powaqa. Many of the trappers are killed during the fight, and the rest of them escape onto a flatboat. Guided by Glass, the survivors begin a trek to Fort Kiowa on foot because Glass believes traveling down the Missouri River will make them vulnerable. After docking, the crew stash their pelts near the shore. Some of the men continue the journey by boat but are later intercepted and killed by the Arikara.

While scouting game, Glass is mauled and left nearly dead by a grizzly bear. Fearing another Arikara attack, trapper John Fitzgerald argues that the group must mercy-kill Glass and keep moving. Henry agrees, but he is unable to pull the trigger. Instead, he offers to pay anyone who will stay with Glass and bury him after he dies. When the only volunteers are Hawk and the young Jim Bridger, Fitzgerald, wanting the money to recoup his losses from the abandoned pelts, also agrees to stay.

After the others leave, Fitzgerald attempts to smother Glass but is stopped when Hawk intervenes. Fitzgerald stabs Hawk to death as Glass watches helplessly. The next morning, Fitzgerald convinces Bridger, who is unaware of Hawk's murder, that the Arikara are approaching and they must abandon Glass. At first Bridger protests, but he ultimately follows Fitzgerald after the latter leaves Glass half-buried alive in a makeshift grave. Bridger leaves behind a canteen on which he had engraved a spiral symbol. The next morning, Bridger forces Fitzgerald to admit that there are no pursuing Arikara. They reach the fort, and Fitzgerald falsely reports to Henry that Hawk vanished and Glass died. Bridger is complicit in the lie about Glass's death, but remains unaware of Hawk's murder.

Glass starts an arduous journey crawling through the wilderness, taking Bridger's canteen with him. He performs a crude cauterization of his wounds and eludes the pursuing Arikara by jumping into river rapids. He encounters Pawnee refugee Hikuc, who tells Glass that "revenge is in the Creator's hands." The men share bison meat and travel together. As a storm approaches, Hikuc constructs a sweat lodge for the feverish Glass to shelter in. After a hallucinogenic experience in the lodge, Glass emerges to discover that French Canadian hunters have lynched Hikuc. Glass infiltrates the hunters' camp and sees their leader, Toussaint, raping Powaqa. Glass frees her; with a knife provided by Glass, she threatens Toussaint with castration to silence him from alerting the other Frenchmen and then flees while Glass kills several hunters and recovers Hikuc's horse, leaving Bridger's canteen behind. The following day, Glass is ambushed by the Arikara and drives over a cliff on his horse as he escapes their pursuit, landing on a pine tree that cushions his fall. He survives the night by disemboweling the dead horse and sheltering nude inside its carcass.

A French survivor staggers into Fort Kiowa, and Bridger recognizes the man's spiral-engraved canteen. Believing that it was stolen from Hawk, Henry organizes a search party. Fitzgerald, realizing that Glass is alive, empties the outpost's safe and flees, intending to reach Texas. The search party finds the exhausted Glass. Furious, Henry orders the arrest of Bridger upon returning to the fort, but Glass vouches for him, saying Bridger was deceived by Fitzgerald, who had murdered Hawk. Glass and Henry set out in pursuit of Fitzgerald.

After the two men split up, Fitzgerald ambushes, kills, and scalps Henry. Glass props up Henry's corpse on his horse to act as a decoy, taking its place himself to ambush Fitzgerald and shooting him in the shoulder. He pursues Fitzgerald to a riverbank, where they engage in a brutal fight. Glass is about to kill Fitzgerald, but he spots a band of Arikara downstream. He remembers Hikuc's words and pushes Fitzgerald downstream into the hands of the Arikara. Their chief, Elk Dog, kills Fitzgerald by stabbing him in the head and then scalps him, and the Arikara (who have found Powaqa) spare Glass. Glass retreats into the mountains, where he is visited by his wife's spirit.

Cast

Production

Development

Development of The Revenant began in August 2001, with producer Akiva Goldsman acquiring the rights to Michael Punke's then-unpublished manuscript. David Rabe had written the film's script. The production was picked up by Park Chan-wook, with Samuel L. Jackson in mind to star. Park later left the project. The development stalled until 2010 when Mark L. Smith wrote a new adaptation of the novel for Steve Golin's Anonymous Content. In May 2010, Smith revealed that John Hillcoat was attached to direct the film and that Christian Bale was in negotiation to star. Hillcoat left the project in October 2010. Jean-François Richet was considered to replace him, but Alejandro G. Iñárritu signed on to direct in August 2011. Goldsman was also confirmed to be producing with Weed Road Pictures. In November, New Regency Productions joined to produce with Anonymous Content, and 20th Century Fox was confirmed to be distributing the film. Days later, Iñárritu stated that he was seeking Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn for the two lead roles.

Once Iñárritu agreed to direct, he began working with Smith on script rewrites. In an interview with Creative Screenwriting, Smith admitted that during this process, he was unsure if Iñárritu would even be able to film some of the sequences they wrote. He recalled, "He would have some ideas and I would say, 'Alejandro, we can't pull this off. It's not going to work', and he would say, 'Mark, trust me, we can do this.' In the end, he was right."

The project was put on hold in March 2012, as New Regency hired Iñárritu to direct an adaptation of Flim-Flam Man, Jennifer Vogel's non-fiction book about her criminal father. Penn was also under consideration for the lead role in that film. In December 2012, Iñárritu announced that his next film would be Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), a comedy-drama about an actor who once played a famous superhero. He ended up winning the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, with the film winning Best Picture. Filming took place in March 2013. The Revenant was scheduled to begin production right after Birdman wrapped.

A production budget of $60 million was granted, with $30 million funded by New Regency. Brett Ratner's RatPac-Dune Entertainment, a joint venture between Ratner's RatPac Entertainment and Fox's former financing partner, Dune Entertainment, also funded the film. Worldview Entertainment, which also co-financed Birdman, was originally set to fund the film but backed out in July 2014 due to the departure of CEO Christopher Woodrow. New Regency approached Fox for additional funding, but Fox declined, citing the pay-or-play contracts made for both DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, which would require that the actors be paid regardless of whether the film is completed. Annapurna Pictures' Megan Ellison entered negotiations to finance the film shortly after. The Chinese company Guangdong Alpha Animation and Culture Company partially financed the film.