The Revenant
Director: Alejandro González Iñàrritu
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy
Run Time: 156 minutes
Rating: R for combat and violence including gory images, sexual assault, language and brief nudity
Synopsis in 140 characters or less: An 1820s frontiersman on a fur trading expedition fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by his crew.True story.
"As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe. Keep breathing. When there is a storm and you stand in front of a tree, if you look at its branches, you swear it will fall. But if you watch the trunk, you will see its stability." - Hugh Glass' wife
Thanks to a few historical alterations, The Revenant is the ultimate revenge saga of 2015. (The real Hugh Glass had neither a wife nor a son; those characters weigh heavily in the plot of the film).
As John Fitzgerald, Tom Hardy plays an unsavory trapper who leaves Leonardo DiCaprio's Hugh Glass for dead. The film follows Glass as he journeys solo through the mostly uninhabited Western winter tundra to make it back to camp, with just ideas of revenge against Fitzgerald propelling him past all obstacles in his way.
Now, imagine these two as conference rivals and Fitzgerald is that kid who sat on you for the first mile and a half of the 3200m before blowing your wheels off at the bell lap. What a jerk. That's a face you're gonna tape to the mirror for motivation.
Glass' solo peril is also akin to The Martian in its dramatization of self-reliance and overcoming challenge in complete isolation, but on a much more visceral, physical level.
Everyone knows about the bear scene, but that's just the beginning of Glass' challenges in this rugged Western. I won't spoil the movie, but let's just say that things get very, very grisly, very, very quickly.
One thing's for sure, you'll feel like the weakest human being alive after watching this one. Give me mile repeats any day of the week.