The Revenant

Hugh Glass, a trapper for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, lies severely wounded after a grizzly bear attack. Unable to speak due to a throat injury, he watches as his two companions, John Fitzgerald and a boy named Jim Bridger, prepare to abandon him. Fearing an approaching Arikara war party, Fitzgerald takes Glass’s rifle, powder horn, and other essential gear, leaving the helpless man to die. Consumed by a desire for revenge, Glass begins to crawl.

The narrative shifts back several days to August 1823. William H. Ashley, a leader of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, is at Fort Brazeau, frustrated after a battle with the Arikara tribe closed the Missouri River to trade. In a letter, Ashley details a new plan to bypass the hostile territory by sending two parties overland. Captain Andrew Henry will lead one group, including Glass, Fitzgerald, and Bridger, up the Grand River. Henry’s party is tense. Fitzgerald provokes a fight with William Anderson, whose brother was recently killed. Later, Henry confides in Glass about his anxieties over past failures. That night, Bridger accidentally fires his faulty musket while on watch, causing a panic that Glass defuses by blaming the poor equipment.

While scouting ahead of the party, Glass is brutally mauled by a grizzly sow. He kills the bear, but it collapses on top of him, leaving him near death. His fellow scout, Black Harris, finds him, and Captain Henry and Bridger crudely stitch his wounds. The party carries Glass on a litter for three days, but their slow progress puts them in constant danger. Henry decides they must leave Glass behind and offers a seventy-dollar bonus for two men to stay with him until he dies and give him a proper burial. Fitzgerald volunteers for the money, and after a long silence, Bridger also agrees.

Left alone with the mostly unconscious Glass, Fitzgerald, whose violent past includes murder and debt, covets Glass’s prized Anstadt rifle and contemplates killing him. Bridger, an idealistic youth, tends to Glass’s wounds with pine gum and a pine bark poultice. When Glass develops a high fever, Fitzgerald spots a nearby Arikara hunting party and insists they flee immediately. They abandon Glass, with Fitzgerald stealing all his equipment and Bridger taking his knife. Glass awakens alone, his fever broken. A lengthy flashback reveals his past: his time as a sea captain, his capture by the pirate Jean Lafitte, his escape and journey across Texas, and his time living with the Pawnee tribe. Driven by revenge, he resolves to crawl 350 miles to Fort Brazeau.

Glass’s journey is an arduous struggle for survival. He kills and eats a rattlesnake and begins subsisting on roots. After becoming violently ill from eating rancid buffalo marrow, he builds deadfall traps, which only yield a skunk that sprays him. Near despair, he uses a Pawnee trapping technique to catch several small rodents, which he cooks over a fire started with a bow and spindle. His fortune turns when he witnesses a wolf pack kill a buffalo calf. Using a sagebrush torch, he confronts the wolves and drives them off, claiming the carcass. He spends three days recovering his strength, drying meat, and fashioning a crutch. Now able to walk, he continues his journey.

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald coerces Bridger into fabricating a story about Glass’s death and burial. They reach Fort Union, where Captain Henry’s party has found the post depleted. Fitzgerald and Bridger’s story earns Bridger praise that fills him with guilt. The narrative returns to Glass, who reaches the abandoned Arikara village. There, he cares for a blind, elderly squaw who was left behind; after she dies, he prepares a funeral pyre for her. He is discovered by four Sioux warriors led by Yellow Horse. Fascinated by his scars and discovering his back wounds are infested with maggots, they take him to their village. A medicine man performs a painful but effective cleansing of his wounds. After recovering, Glass is escorted to Fort Brazeau, where he gives his bear-claw necklace to Yellow Horse as a gift of gratitude.

At Fort Brazeau, Glass learns from the proprietor, Kiowa Brazeau, that he will not be returning to St. Louis but will instead travel to Fort Union to find his betrayers. Kiowa outfits Glass with new supplies and a rifle, and Glass joins a small diplomatic party heading upriver to negotiate with the Mandan and Arikara. The party, led by Antoine Langevin, includes the famed translator Toussaint Charbonneau. During the journey, Charbonneau falls asleep on watch, and the camp is ambushed by an Arikara war party. Several men are killed, and Charbonneau escapes alone in their canoe. Glass is forced to dive into the icy Missouri River to survive.

Glass continues on foot toward Fort Talbot, a small trading post. He is pursued by Arikara warriors but is saved by a Mandan brave who helps him reach the fort. The inhabitants are paranoid and hostile, but Glass acquires a blanket and mittens before continuing alone. At Fort Union, Fitzgerald deserts, stealing a canoe and furs. He stops at Fort Talbot and learns that Glass is alive and heading upriver. Terrified, he flees down the Missouri. In the darkness, the two men pass each other on the river, each seeing only a silhouette. Glass eventually reaches the abandoned Fort Union and follows Henry’s trail up the Yellowstone River.

On New Year’s Eve, Henry’s company celebrates at their new fort on the Big Horn River. During a drunken revelry, they accidentally blow up their cannon. Glass, caught in a blizzard nearby, hears the explosion and follows the sound to the fort. He enters the bunkhouse and confronts Bridger, who is wearing his knife. Glass brutally beats the unresisting boy and draws the knife to kill him. However, seeing Bridger’s youth and resignation, he relents, taking back his knife.

With Henry’s venture failing, Glass volunteers to carry a message to Ashley in St. Louis, still intending to find Fitzgerald. He is accompanied by three men. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald arrives at Fort Atkinson, where he attacks an army lieutenant after a card game and is forced to enlist to avoid prison. Glass’s party loses their horses to Shoshone boys, and one of the men is killed in the attack. The three survivors build two bullboats and float down the Platte River until they are ambushed by Arikara. His two companions are killed, and Glass escapes into the river, continuing alone.

An army patrol finds Glass and takes him to Fort Atkinson. He learns Fitzgerald is a soldier there, and the fort’s commander, Major Constable, convenes a formal hearing. Fitzgerald tells a convincing, fabricated story that sways the court, taking credit for Bridger's attempts to save Glass. Enraged by the injustice, Glass pulls a hidden pistol and shoots Fitzgerald in the shoulder. Glass is imprisoned but is released two weeks later through the intervention of Kiowa Brazeau. He gets his Anstadt rifle back, while Fitzgerald receives only a minor punishment. Kiowa urges Glass to abandon his quest. That night, standing on the fort’s rampart, Glass looks at the stars and appears to find a new perspective. The novel ends at the Big Horn fort, where a defeated Captain Henry allows an optimistic Jim Bridger to lead an exploratory party over the mountains into the unknown West.