Character sheet for The Revenant.
open/close all folders
Rocky Mountain Fur Company Trappers
Hugh Glass
Hugh Glass
"As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight."
Portrayed by: Leonardo DiCaprio
A frontiersman who guides Andrew Henry’s party of trappers along with his Pawnee son.
- Action Dad: To his son, Hawk. After his murder, Glass becomes hellbent on revenge.
- Action Survivor: Big Time. He survives being mauled by a bear, freezing cold temperatures, Native American attacks, and falling off a cliff into a pine tree.
- Badass Boast:Glass: "I ain't afraid to die anymore. I've done that already."
- Bilingual Bonus: Glass can speak Pawnee, which helps him communicate with the natives he encounters on his long trek home.
- Cruel Mercy: Instead of killing Fitzgerald then and there after their brutal fight, Glass hands Fitzgerald over to the Ree tribe and watches as they mercilessly scalp what's left of his head. This could be a Fate Worse than Death for Fitzgerald, considering how traumatized he was by the Native Americans that scalped him the first, where even the prospect of encountering them causes him to be near-paralyzed with fear.
- Determinator: Oh boy… Surviving injuries caused by a bear is no small feat, but making his way back to the fort with all these obstacles is downright impressive.
- Ear Ache: During his fight with Fitzgerald, Glass gets his ear (or part of it) bitten and torn off.
- Going Native: He knows Natives well enough to respect them. He speaks Pawnee, lived within a tribe, married a Pawnee woman and had a son with her. He also saves a Ree chief’s daughter from being raped.
- It's Personal: He becomes hellbent on getting back to the fort after Fitzgerald kills his son, Hawk.
- Made of Iron: Aside from getting mauled by a bear, there's also the fact he doesn't die of sepsis or hypothermia. And the injuries he sustains during his fight with Fitzgerald are hard to swallow.
- Mountain Man: He is a frontiersman who knows the area better than everyone else and has all the experience it takes to survive in the wild.
- Outliving One's Offspring: His son is murdered in front of him as he lies helpless from his injuries, only being able to scream in rage and grief at the murderer.
- Papa Wolf: He always sticks up for Hawk in the face of bigots, and following the bear attack everything he has to go through is to avenge his son's murder.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Glass serves as the Blue Oni to Fitzgerald's Red Oni. This is due to Glass being more stoic, aloof, and caring towards others, whereas Fitzgerald is more belligerent, hot-tempered, and selfish.
- Revenge: Fitzgerald murdering his son is what causes him to go through extreme lengths in order to obtain his vengeance.
- Trauma Conga Line: It says a lot that the bear mauling him within an inch of his life is the least terrible thing to happen to Glass.
- Unstoppable Rage: During the final battle Glass enters into a homicidal fury against Fitzgerald and brutally mauling him as if he was the same bear that nearly killed him prior to this taking place.
John Fitzgerald
John Fitzgerald
"I ought to be God to you... And God giveth, God taketh away."
Portrayed by: Tom Hardy
A trapper of Andrew Henry's party and the primary antagonist of the film. He's ready to do anything to ensure himself a profit despite the odds, even if it means getting rid of some of the expedition's members.
- Adaptational Villainy: While Book!Fitzgerald simply abandoned Glass, here, he tries to perform a "Mercy Kill" on him and murders Glass's son before leaving him for dead. He also steals money from the fort and kills Captain Henry.
- Big Bad: He's quick to become Glass's Arch-Enemy.
- Commander Contrarian: Plays this role in the first act when he argues that the party's survivors should have stayed on the boat. And again when he suggests to Mercy Kill Glass.
- Establishing Character Moment: During the initial Arikara raid on the trappers, Fitzgerald's first response to seeing his comrades die in droves around him is to scream "Save the pelts!"
- Flaying Alive: He has been partially scalped in the past and confirms it in a discussion with Jim Bridger. The Ree Natives finish the job in the climax.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a pretty prominent one on his head, which he got from being partially scalped by a Native American. That's enough to show that he's bad news.
- Greed: The most noticeable trait from Fitzgerald is the fact that he is quite selfish and for most of the film he's mainly worried about the money he will earn from the pelts he collected.
- Hidden Depths: At first glance he seems like a brainless, violent thug. And while he is a violent thug he's also extremely intelligent, cunning, and even has a philosophical streak.
- Hunter Trapper: What he does for a living.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Fitzgerald really isn't a very pleasant person; he's rude, insubordinate, racist, and selfish. Nevertheless, he decides to look after an incapacitated Glass, showing that he may not be as heartless as he was previously shown to be. However, when he attempts to supposedly " Mercy Kill " Glass, it shows that he was only interested in the bonus he’d get for looking after him and was trying to speed up the process. When that fails, he kills his son right in front of him, and convinces Bridger to leave him to die.
- Made of Iron: During the final confrontation with Glass, he gets two of his fingers chopped off, stabbed in the chest, and axed in the gut before he's finally too injured to fight.
- Major Injury Underreaction: During the climax fight between him and Glass, Fitzgerald get two of his fingers chopped off with a hatchet and his only response is a disgruntled, "Goddammit..."
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims he wants to grant Glass a Mercy Kill to end his suffering after being mauled half-to-death by a bear, but really it was because he was sick of having him around and felt like Glass was slowing him down.
- Only in It for the Money: Money is all he cares about aside from saving his own hide.
- Pet the Dog: Subverted. Just about the only unambiguously good thing he does in the whole movie is saving Jim from being drowned by an Arikara attacker and getting him on the boat. He later throws this out the window when he tries to kill him by shooting him in the head.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Fitzgerald really doesn't like Native Americans, calling Glass' son a "half breed" and the tribes "tree niggers". It's not hard to imagine this prejudice came from him being partially scalped in the past.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Fitzgerald serves as the Red Oni to Glass' Blue Oni. This is due to Fitzgerald being more belligerent, hot-tempered, and selfish, whereas Glass is stoic, aloof, and caring towards others.
Cpt. Andrew Henry
Cpt. Andrew Henry
Portrayed by: Domhnall Gleeson
Leader of the fur-trapping expedition, Captain Andrew Henry is a seasoned and highly-successful fur-trapper operating in the Dakota territory. After losing many of his men to hostile Arikara, and having his chief guide mauled by a bear, Henry takes it upon himself to see the rest of his men safely back to civilization.
- A Father to His Men: Henry is a very caring individual, especially when it comes to his men and absolutely will not tolerate anyone saying otherwise. This is especially shown when he hesitated killing Glass and offering a hundred dollar bonus just so the latter could have a chance of surviving.
- Commanding Coolness: He's the leader of the fur-trappers, and is easily one of the most level-headed and grounded characters in the film.
- Death by Adaptation: The real Henry died of natural causes in Missouri in 1832, having retired from fur-trapping nearly a decade prior.
- Fatal Family Photo: Minus the photo, but he's shot dead by Fitzgerald shortly after revealing he's married and wants to see his wife again.
- Happily Married: Deeply misses his wife, and eagerly awaits seeing her again after he cashes in the furs.
- Honest Corporate Executive: It's not addressed in the film, but in real life Henry was co-owner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and he shows himself to be an honorable and open-minded (for the time) man.
- Older Than He Looks: Henry was historically 48 during his expedition with Glass from 1822-23, when he's played by the 32 year old and youthful-looking Domhnall Gleeson.
- Open Heart Dentistry: He serves as a medic for the fur-trapping band, on the basis his father is a doctor back east.
- Rage Breaking Point: He definitely loses his cool after finding out Glass is alive and figuring out that Fitzgerald lied to him. He also extends his wrath towards Jim Bridger who had little to do with the formers actions and was willing to put the young man to death.
- This Is Unforgivable!: He thrashes Bridger for leaving Glass behind, and would have killed him if Glass hadn't intervened on his behalf.
Hawk
Hawk
Portrayed by: Forrest Goodluck, Isaiah Tootoosis (child)
Glass' half-Pawnee son who accompanies him as a scout and guide for Henry's fur-trapping expedition. Utterly devoted to his father, he unintentionally becomes the center of Glass' and Fitzgerald's conflict.
- The Dutiful Son: After Glass is mauled by the grizzly, Hawk willingly stays behind with his father in spite of the immense danger, and his last actions alive are an attempt to defend his father from the more formidable and better-armed Fitzgerald.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: Hawk is half-Pawnee through his mother, whose nation Glass married into. This causes him no end of grief due to the attitudes of the early 19th century regarding indigenous people.
- Scars Are Forever: He stills bears the burns he suffered as a child when American soldiers burned down his village.
- Switch to English: He speaks Pawnee with his father, and only begrudgingly speaks in English when engaged by the other trappers.
Jim Bridger
Jim Bridger
Portrayed by: Will Poulter
A greenhorn trapper with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Bridger's youth and inexperience hide an extremely determined and courageous man and a fitting foil to Fitzgerald.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Bridger is visibly the youngest trapper of the whole crew, having historically been 17 or 18 at the time of the expedition (if the "Bridges" mentioned in Glass' account really is him).
- Heroic BSoD: When he realizes Fitzgerald tricked him into leaving Glass to die he spends the rest of the movie in a deep depression, to the point of refusing his earned bonus out of guilt. When Glass manages to return to camp alive, and Captain Henry attacks the boy over supposedly leaving Glass for dead, Bridger starts weeping and begging for Glass’ forgiveness.
- Honor Before Reason: Once he figures out Glass is still alive, he demands that he and Fitzgerald go back for him, despite it meaning them spending days longer in the hostile wilderness with very few supplies.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: During the Arikara attack in the opening, Jim is so spooked that he accidentally discharges his musket and shoots the person in front of him in the back.
- Mountain Man: Isn't one yet, but historically Bridger goes on to be the quintessential mountain man whose fame and adventures arguably eclipse Glass'.
- Not With the Safety On, You Won't: A black powder variant of this trope, where once he realizes Fitzgerald lied to him he threatens the latter with his musket, with the revelation it's not loaded coming when Fitzgerald takes it and tries to kill him with it.
- Spotting the Thread: He quickly sees through Fitzgerald's lies about a hostile Arikara attack to justify leaving Glass behind when the other trapper is unable to keep his story straight.
The Arikara (Ree)
Elk Dog
Elk Dog
Portrayed by: Duane Howard
Chieftain of a band of Arikara, Elk Dog is driven to rescue his missing daughter, and will go to any length to see her home safely.
- Anti-Villain: While he is quite vicious towards others, he only kills the innocent trappers and tries to kill Glass because he wants his daughter back, and was being manipulated into thinking the Americans had abducted her.
- He also has very valid reasons for his anger and mistrust toward the white trappers, as he lays out in his dressing down of Toussaint.
- It's Personal: Doesn't get more personal than having one's own daughter kidnapped. Too bad he blames the wrong people.
- Makes Us Even: He and his men spare Glass after killing Fitzgerald, recognizing him as the one who rescued Powaqa.
- Papa Wolf: He will see his daughter rescued, no matter how far he has to travel or how many he has to kill.
- Poor Communication Kills: His myopic aggression against Henry's band leads to the deaths of many innocent people and many of his own men, while the voyageur trappers he holds closer are the real culprits to his daughter's abduction.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers one to Toussaint, in French, when he grows tired of the former's condescension.
Powaqa
Powaqa
Portrayed by: Melaw Nakehk'o
The abducted daughter of Elk Dog, while she appears but briefly in person she is central to the conflict between Glass, the Trappers, and the Arikara.
- The Chief's Daughter: A decidedly deconstructionist take on this trope, with her relationship to her father and her status as sex object to the White trappers being played in the darkest, most tragic way.
- Groin Attack: She castrates Toussaint with his own knife in revenge for raping her.
- Makes Us Even: It's clear she's the one who ensures the Arikara don't kill Glass out of gratitude for his rescuing her, despite the latter having killed several Arikara warriors over the course of things.
- Sex Slave: She was abducted by Toussaint and his voyageur band for this purpose, with it being clear she was repeatedly sexually abused as their captive.
Other Characters
Toussaint
Toussaint
Portrayed by: Fabrice Adde
The leader of a band of French-Canadian voyageurs, Toussaint is a glib and charismatic trapper who enjoys closer relations with the indigenous nations than his American rivals. However, he and his men aren't quite what they seem.
- Asshole Victim: No tears are shed when Powaqa castrates him, leaving him to be finished by the enraged Arikara warriors or bleed out in the snow..
- Bilingual Backfire: He constantly condescends Elk Dog in French, using his interpreter to smooth things over, too bad Elk Dog actually understands French just fine.
- Faux Affably Evil: He likes to present himself as a charming and reasonable businessman but in reality he's a rapist and murderer whose charm is only a thin façade over his actual evil and brutality.
- French Jerk: He's a smug asshole at the best of times, and is also a rapist.
- Kick the Dog: He and his men lynching Hikuc purely out of bigotry and bloodthirstiness and his rape of Powaqa are standout moments of evil in an already-grim setting.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: His and his men's sexual abuse of Powaqa mark them out as utterly irredeemable scum, it's telling that them getting massacred by the Arikara isn't portrayed with the same horror of the first raid on the American camp.
- Pragmatic Villainy: He balks at Elk Dog's trying to offload the pillaged American pelts onto him as payment, not because he objects to the murder of the rival trappers, but because the pelts are already marked and he has to sell them at a reduced price.
- Smug Snake: While he puts up a veneer of friendliness and camaraderie, it's clear he looks down on the indigenous nations he works with, often belittling them in French thinking they can't understand him.
Hikuc
Hikuc
Portrayed by: Arthur Redcloud
A Pawnee hunter who Glass encounters following his abandonment. While they meet under strained circumstances, Glass and Hikuc quickly build a solid rapport and aid each other in the respective journeys.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Is lynched off-screen by Toussaint and his men while Glass lies recovering from his infected wounds.
- Foil: For Glass, both being men who have suffered terribly and lost loved ones to the violence of others, but where Glass is utterly consumed by vengeance and is willing to travel hundreds of miles to kill those who wronged him, Hikuc instead reconciles his loss and only seeks to find more of his people.
- Nice Guy: Hikuc is nothing but kind, friendly, and helpful toward Glass, whom anyone else in his circumstances would have likely left for dead.
- Sole Survivor: Of his band, with him explaining that Lakota warriors had killed the rest and that he's traveling south to unite with another band of his people.
