Tom Chaney shoots Frank Ross dead in Fort Smith after Frank tries to prevent him from starting a violent brawl.

Mattie travels by train to Fort Smith to claim her father's body and pursue justice for his murder.

Mattie witnesses the public hanging of three condemned men at the Fort Smith gallows.

The sheriff tells Mattie that Chaney fled into Indian Territory and likely joined Lucky Ned Pepper's outlaw gang.

Mattie attends Rooster Cogburn's controversial court testimony in the trial of accused killer Odus Wharton.

Mattie approaches Rooster after the trial and offers to hire him to capture Chaney for one hundred dollars.

Mattie forces Colonel Stonehill to buy back her father's ponies through fierce and relentless negotiation.

Mattie crosses the river on horseback through a strong current after Rooster and LaBoeuf try to leave her behind.

Rooster interrogates Moon in a dugout shelter and learns that Ned Pepper's gang plans to return for the horses.

Ned's gang arrives at the shelter but LaBoeuf fires too early, breaking cover and allowing the entire gang to escape.

Mattie encounters Chaney at the stream while fetching water and shoots him in the side with her father's pistol.

Ned captures Mattie and forces Rooster and LaBoeuf to retreat across the river in exchange for her safety.

Rooster charges alone at Ned's remaining gang with the horse reins in his teeth and a pistol in each hand.

LaBoeuf shoots Ned Pepper dead from long range with his Sharps rifle, saving Rooster's life at the last moment.

Rooster rescues Mattie from the snake pit and rides desperately through the night to get her to a doctor.

Frank Ross is murdered by Tom Chaney, setting Mattie on a relentless quest for justice. She travels to Fort Smith, arranges her father's affairs, and recruits the brutal marshal Rooster Cogburn to track Chaney into the lawless Indian Territory. The pursuit leads Rooster, Mattie, and Texas Ranger LaBoeuf deep into dangerous outlaw country, where they clash with the infamous Lucky Ned Pepper and his gang. A dramatic showdown sees Rooster charge Ned's gang alone while LaBoeuf makes a long-range shot that saves Rooster's life. Mattie confronts and wounds Chaney herself but falls into a snake pit and nearly dies from the encounter. Rooster rides desperately through the night to save her, and though she loses her arm, his act of heroism saves her life.

The headline events of Mattie's quest to avenge her father's murder.

Frank Ross brings Tom Chaney along on a Fort Smith business trip to purchase ponies, a decision that proves fatal.

Chaney gambles away his wages in Fort Smith and drunkenly plans to confront the men who beat him at cards.

The Fort Smith sheriff hands Mattie her father's old dragoon pistol at the end of their meeting.

Mattie refuses Yarnell's pleas to return home and insists on staying in Fort Smith alone to handle matters.

Mattie shares a cold, sleepless night crammed into a narrow bed with the blanket-stealing Grandma Turner.

Mattie meets LaBoeuf at the boarding house dinner and learns Chaney is wanted in Texas for killing a senator.

Rooster shoots a rat in Lee's store while drunk and rails against the legal system, prompting Mattie to leave alone.

Mattie pays Rooster his first installment of twenty-five dollars and insists that accompanying him is non-negotiable.

Mattie buys a pony from Colonel Stonehill and names it Little Blackie in preparation for the group's departure.

Quincy slashes off Moon's fingers with a knife to silence him, and LaBoeuf shoots Quincy dead.

Rooster tells Mattie the full story of his turbulent past — his marriages, crimes, and time with Quantrill — while waiting on the ridge.

The trio deposits dead men and captured horses at McAlester's store and meets the lawman Captain Boots Finch.

News arrives that Odus Wharton has broken out of jail, and Rooster is delighted by the lawyer's humiliation.

Rooster and LaBoeuf spend hours competing to shoot corn dodgers out of the air in an embarrassing contest.

Mattie recovers in Fort Smith after losing her arm while Rooster visits twice and LaBoeuf takes Chaney's body to Texas.

Before the central violence begins, Frank Ross makes the fateful decision to bring Chaney to Fort Smith, while Chaney's gambling and drinking set the tragic events in motion. In Fort Smith, Mattie navigates a world that underestimates her, refusing to be sent home and managing every detail of the pursuit with formidable determination. She gathers allies and information — including the Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who reveals Chaney's criminal history — and sets out into Indian Territory with Rooster Cogburn. The journey is filled with tension, dark humor, and violence, as Rooster and LaBoeuf's rivalry plays out through interrogations, shootouts, and petty competitions. Rooster's troubled past comes to light when he confides in Mattie during quiet moments on the trail. The story concludes in the aftermath of the final confrontation, as Mattie recovers from her injuries and Rooster fades back into his turbulent, solitary life.

The secondary moments that shape the journey and its aftermath.

Mattie views her father's corpse at the Fort Smith undertaker and firmly declares that Tom Chaney will pay.

Rooster's cross-examination during the Wharton trial reveals he has shot an estimated twenty-three people, shocking the courtroom.

Mattie collects Lawyer Daggett's letter from the post office; it finalizes the Stonehill deal but urges her to go home.

Rooster agrees behind Mattie's back to join LaBoeuf and take Chaney to Texas, and Mattie storms out in a fury.

Colonel Stonehill warns Mattie that Rooster once rode with Quantrill's brutal Raiders and urges her not to trust him.

LaBoeuf whips Mattie with a switch after she catches up to the group, and Rooster draws his pistol to stop him.

Rooster forces Quincy and Moon out of the smoke-filled dugout shelter at gunpoint after LaBoeuf blocks the chimney.

Rooster finds a California gold piece in dead Quincy's pocket, recognizing it as one stolen from Frank Ross.

Rooster admits to LaBoeuf on the trail that he fought alongside the notorious Captain Quantrill during the Civil War.

Ned takes Mattie to his hilltop camp and forces her to read and forge signatures on checks from the stolen mail bag.

Ned leaves Chaney behind to guard Mattie and warns him not to harm her or lose his share of the loot.

Chaney prepares to throw Mattie into a nearby rattlesnake pit, but LaBoeuf arrives just in time to stop him.

Mattie shoots Chaney again but falls backward into the snake pit, where a baby rattlesnake bites her hand.

Rooster kicks Chaney into the snake pit and rappels down into the darkness to carry Mattie out.

Mattie arrives in Memphis to see Rooster perform at the circus but learns he died two days before her arrival.

The story's pivotal moments begin when Mattie confronts her father's death and pledges revenge, while the courtroom reveals that the man she wants to hire is himself a figure of serious controversy. Warnings about Rooster's dark past create tension around Mattie's plan, and his secret alliance with LaBoeuf nearly tears the group apart before it even begins. As the trio pushes deeper into outlaw territory, critical revelations emerge — a stolen gold piece linking Quincy to the Ross murder and Rooster's own admission of riding with Quantrill — that complicate the moral landscape of the pursuit. Captured by Ned's gang, Mattie faces her most dangerous moments in the hilltop camp, where Chaney's murderous intent is barely held in check by Ned's orders. The climax brings everything together in an explosive sequence of shootings, rescues, and a fall into a literal underworld, from which Rooster extracts Mattie at great personal cost. The story ends with Mattie's failed journey to reunite with Rooster, a final loss that shapes the rest of her life.