Line #3 Film/TheHunter


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5e68c62d_5dde_4a31_b697_8f8afdc15b77.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''Some mysteries should never be solved.'']]
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4	''The Hunter'' is a 2011 Australian {{Drama\|tropes}} {{Thriller}} film starring Creator/WillemDafoe. Dafoe plays Martin David, a professional mercenary who is hired by a mysterious organisation known as Red Leaf. He has been sent to Tasmania to illegally hunt down the last remaining Tasmanian tiger, intending to collect DNA samples, due to the alleged properties of the tiger's venom.
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6	During his time in Tasmania, he stays with a strange family, consisting of two children, Sass and Bike, and their mother, Lucy (Creator/FrancesOConnor), who appears to be asleep most of the time. Their father, Jarrah, disappeared in the bush several months before. They are cared for by a family friend, Jack Mindy (Creator/SamNeill), who also offers to guide Martin around the forest.
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8	Martin poses as a scientist looking to research the Tasmanian devil. He spends much of the film in the [[SceneryPorn Tasmanian wilderness]] laying traps for the elusive creature. However, things get ugly when the local townsfolk begin to suspect that he's up to something...
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10	It’s also based on a novel of the same name by Julia Leigh
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12	Not related to [[Creator/SteveMcQueenActor Steve McQueen]]'s last movie ''Film/TheHunter1980''.
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14	!!This film provides examples of:
15	* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The book and the film have the hunt resolve similarly but have different conclusions for the subplot with the family Martin is staying with. [[spoiler:In the book, Sass becomes a full-time resident of a children's hospital after narrowly surviving a house fire, her mother descends fully into addiction, and Bike is taken away by social services. In the film, Lucy and Sass don't make it out of the burning house and it is implied that Martin adopts Bike.]]
16	* AdorablyPrecociousChild: Sass wears pink in most of her scenes and is an earnest and innocent CheerfulChild despite some WiseBeyondTheirYears moments.
17	* AlasPoorYorick:[[spoiler: Martin finds Jarrah's remains and holds the skull like this.]]
18	* AntiHero: Martin is a pragmatic antihero undertaking a dubious and illegal job but then develops some scruples.
19	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Tasmanian tigers likely did not have "toxins" in their saliva that would be useful to anyone. It could be HandWaved that we don't know everything about Tasmanian tigers simply because they weren't studied enough while they were alive. Whether or not certain animals are venomous (lorises, Komodo dragons, etc.) is also actually a common point of contention in the toxicology sphere.
20	* [[UsefulNotes/AustralianWildlife Australian Wildlife]]: Martin is tasked by a shady organisation to track the Tasmanian Tiger aka the Thylacine -- an extinct species of carnivores marsupial.
21	* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: While the hunting scenes are grueling the film would probably be a pretty safe PG-13 if it wasn't for a liberal sprinkling of F words.
22	* BadGuyBar: The bar that Martin finds is full of loggers who aren't big fans of "greenies" and they give Martin a hard time thinking he's a scientist. [[spoiler: Downplayed in the end as the loggers (probably) aren't really that bad. The worst thing they do is shoot into the air to intimidate people. They may be responsible for the fire at Lucy's house, but that also could have been a genuine accident or the work of the second hunter.]]
23	* BearTrap: Martin sets many of these to catch the Tasmanian tiger.
24	* BookEnds: At the start of the film, Martin is told by his employer to "See the sights", while waiting for work. [[spoiler: At the end, Martin calls Red Leaf to inform them the tiger is gone, saying "Don't bother looking for me. I'm going to see the sights."]]
25	* ChekhovsGun: Jarrah's metal water bottle, the steel traps.
26	** Martin leaving his coordinates with the family whenever he goes out.
27	* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: The second man that sits in on the meeting Martin has with the employer comes back in the third act to forcibly finish Martin's job.]]
28	* ClusterFBomb: Done casually by an ''eight year old girl'':
29	-->'''Sass''': Dad says the fucking fucker's fucked!
30	* ColdSniper: Martin takes a sniper rifle with him on his hunts for the tiger, and is a reserved man taking a morally ambiguous job. [[spoiler:The hunter who is sent to replace him plays the trope even straighter, as he’s willing to threaten humans and lacks the qualms Martin develops about the hunt.]]
31	* CompanyTown: The local town owes its existence to the logging company, which is why many locals harass Martin and Lucy due to their (initially feigned, in Martin’s case) environmentalism.
32	* CuteMute: Bike never speaks throughout the entire film.
33	* DeathByAdaptation: In the original novel [[spoiler:Lucy and Sass both survive the fire, although their lives don't go very smoothly afterward.]]
34	* DoomedPredecessor: Sass and Bike’s father Jarrah ventured into the forest in search of the last Tasmanian tiger after being hired by the same company that Martin works for. He told his children that he saw the tiger once, but eventually he abandoned his mission for the Red Leaf company to try and find the tiger strictly for environmental preservation reasons. About a year before the beginning of the movie, he went on another search expedition and never came back. Martin hears about Jarrah's work several times [[spoiler:and eventually finds his skeleton, which has a bullet hole through its skull. Unlike most doomed predecessors, it’s never revealed who killed Jarrah. It could have been the company he quit working for, hunters from a rival company after the tiger, the loggers whose jobs he was threatening, or a random hunter who shot him by accident while hunting non-endangered animals.]]
35	* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: When Martin finally comes face to face with the Thylacine, instead of trying to escape it lowers it’s head and appears to [[{{MercyKill}} allow itself to be shot]].]]
36	* GreenAesop: A part of Martin's main character arc. [[spoiler: As Martin gets closer to the family he also begins to empathize with the environment and distance himself from his mission. When he does eventually kill the tiger it is not to complete his mission but to prevent Red Leaf from getting their hands on it. ]]
37	* HeelFaceTurn: Martin, arguably, as he begins to care more for the family he is staying with than his illegal mission [[spoiler: and then betrays the organization he works for.]]
38	* IMissMom: Sass and Bike clearly care about their missing father, with Sass fondly mentioning him at every opportunity, insisting that he'll be back soon, and asking Martin to look for signs of him in the woods.
39	* IWorkAlone: Martin refuses to let another hunter accompany him as backup and sends away his local guide as soon as he has a basic understanding of the new terrain.
40	* LastOfHisKind: The Tasmanian Tiger Martin pursues is the only one left, allegedly.
41	* LeftHanging: It's never explained [[spoiler: who damaged Martin's trap or who set up the camera trap.]]
42	* ManlyFacialHair: Martin has a well-trimmed beard and is a stoic, brave, and cunning hunter of dangerous animals.
43	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The look on Martin's face [[spoiler: right after he shoots the tiger.]]
44	* NativeGuide: Jack Mindy is a local man who sets Martin up with a place to stay, and guides him into the mountains until Martin feels familiar enough with them to continue on his own. He’s also monitoring Martin for Red Leaf, and Martin is a bit unhappy about this due to having secrets to keep.
45	* NeverFoundTheBody: Jarrah. [[spoiler: Subverted when Martin does eventually find his remains.]]
46	* OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious: Despite the Thylacine being a real animal, in the film it is treated as a very mysterious and almost mythical creature.
47	* RuleOfSymbolism: The company that hires Martin is called Red Leaf. Red as in blood. Leaf being a symbol for nature.
48	* SceneryPorn: The Tasmanian wilderness provides plenty.
49	* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Implied. When Martin tries to rent a room in town, the publican says his rooms are all occupied and he won't evict any of his regular tenants even if Martin pays triple what they do. However, it's unclear if this is out of principle or reluctance to accommodate a supposed environmentalist in a community that depends on logging.
50	* ShootTheDog: [[spoiler:Martin shoots the endangered tiger]] ]]
51	* ShownTheirWork: At one point Jack asks Martin if the Tasmanian devils he saw were healthy. This is likely a reference to the real life devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) that is running rampant in wild devil populations.
52	* SnowMeansDeath: While it is clearly getting colder beforehand, [[spoiler: it doesn't start snowing until Martin's confrontation with (and subsequent shooting of) the Red Leaf agent. The snow continues during Martin's final hunt and killing of the tiger.]]
53	* ThoseTwoGuys: Simon and Free, the main two anti-logging protestors, have some casual banter and always appear together.
54	* WhamShot:
55	** When the loggers harass the environmentalists gathered at the Armstrong home, there's a shot of [[spoiler:Jack Mindy in the back of one of their trucks, keeping his head down.]]
56	** When [[spoiler:Martin finds Jarrah's body in the mountains, he finds one of Bike's sketches in Jarrah's jacket and then sees the logo of the Red Leaf Corporation on it, revealing they've been after the tiger longer than previously implied and that Jarrah worked for them before becoming an environmentalist.]]

Context Film / TheHunter