Why didn't Hawk stab or shoot Fitzgerald? He saw him murdering his dad, and managed to get the drop on him. He was perfectly justified in using lethal force, even by today's standards.
Well, being in a perfect position to kill someone doesn't mean that the person will actually go through with it. Hawk might not have actually wanted to kill Fitzgerald.
Also, consider that a half-Native American boy killing a white man, regardless of the circumstances, could quite possibly have resulted in him either getting hung or just lynched, given the time period in which the film takes place.
Fitzgerald tries to kill Glass via smothering (right after the "blink if you want me to smother you" speech.) Then Hawk shows up and freaks out, so Fitzgerald kills Hawk. Next thing we see, Jim is back and he asks where Hawk is. Fitzgerald says that he doesn't know. Apparently Fitzgerald hid Hawk's body somewhere, right? Yet later on, when Glass crawls out of his own grave, he finds Hawk's body about 20 yards away. It's not even covered with snow or anything. It seems like Jim could have easily stumbled over the body and learned everything. Why didn't Fitzgerald try any harder to hide Hawk?
Why didn't Fitzgerald smother Glass right after he was done killing Hawk? Then he'd have been able to tell Jim that Glass died of natural causes, and he wouldn't have had to take the risk that Jim might be unwilling to leave Glass behind.
He may have figured (probably rightly) that Jim would have went looking for Hawk to inform him that his father was dead, or have been more stubborn about leaving Glass behind. If the former, Jim would either grow suspicious that he couldn't find Hawk, or actually stumble across his dead body. Presumably he either thinks he needs Jim (since it's a safer journey back with two men, plus everyone might get suspicious if Fitzgerald- who everyone knows is a bastard who doesn't like Glass or Hawk, shows up all by himself); or, he just enjoys bossing the younger and more naive and innocent man around and corrupting him, and he may think that his story will be more effective if Jim is "involved", so to speak, and thus less inclined to challenge Fitz or his story since he's controlled by guilt, both of which are pretty standard motivations for a psychopath like Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald wakes up Jim and tells him that a bunch of Rhee are nearby. He's lying, because all he wants is to get out of there. The story is supposed to motivate Jim to come with him. But Jim is reluctant to go, because Glass is still alive. Fitzgerald should have know that Jim would be upset about this. He should have known that Jim might feel guilty for abandoning Glass (or for shooting Glass himself, which was the other suggestion), and that his guilt would jeopardize the whole plan. (If Jim had broken down and confessed to the captain at the fort, Fitzgerald never would've received his reward.) So why didn't he just smother Glass while Jim was still asleep? Then he could've just told Jim that Glass died naturally, and he wouldn't have had to take any risks or make up any story about the Rhee.
Most likely, he couldn't risk Jim waking up while in the middle of the deed.
When Glass reaches a French encampment, he spots a captive Rhee woman being raped. He rescues her from her rapist and gives her a knife. Then he steals his horse back and makes a break for it, which sends the camp into an uproar. But wait, what happened to the Rhee woman? We see her at the end so apparently she's ok, but how did that happen? Wasn't she overpowered by the remaining Frenchmen? I guess maybe she killed her rapist and ran away, while the Frenchmen were busy chasing Glass? Why didn't Glass and the woman both get on the horse? Wouldn't that have been a more reliable way to save her?
It was likely he didn't have time to go after her, as the French trappers had spotted him by the time he got on horse back. So the best he could do, was hope she managed to escape in the ensuing chaos.
Glass was calling out to Powaqa, but she was too fixated on her rapist to notice. Anyway, when the French's attention was turned to the Glass and the spooked horses, she can be clearly seen running away in the opposite direction.
She met up with her tribe at the end and can be seen behind her father after he kills Fitzgerald. That, presumably, is why the Rhee did not also kill Glass.
She is also seen a couple of scenes later, drinking from a stream and warily glancing around her. Presumably she made her way back towards home and encountered her father's party on the way.
When Fitzgerald realizes that Glass is alive, he leaves the fort. Then the captain finds Glass, returns to the fort, beats up Jim, and discovers that the safe has been looted. How did Fitzgerald get into the safe? Did he just know the code somehow?
He might just have some skill in safecracking, or patience enough for the deed. It's the early 19th century and the safe has been exposed to the elements (it's a pretty shabby lodge), so it's not like it will require the skills of a master thief to get inside, especially if you know for a fact that the owner is out of town and likely won't be back for several hours.
When the captain is looking for Fitzgerald, he puts a gun to a guy's head and demands to know where Fitzgerald is. At first the guy swears that he doesn't know, but then he confesses that Fitzgerald is going to Texas. Who is this guy, and why would he know where Fitzgerald is? Why would Fitzgerald tell anyone about his plans, when he knows that the authorities will be searching for him?
The man is apparently a close friend of Fitz, and Fitz earlier told the man of his plan to live a comfortable life, as he didn't expect Glass to survive.
When the spiral canteen first shows up at the fort, Jim exclaims that maybe Hawk had it. So about 10 men go out with torches in the night, trying to find Hawk. They find Glass instead. Once they get Glass back to the fort, they discover that Fitzgerald is gone. They know now that Fitzgerald is a traitor and a murderer. But for some reason, the captain decides to look for Fitzgerald by himself. Why does he do that? Even after Glass comes along, that's still only two people. If they can get ten men together to look for Hawk, why can't they get ten men to look for Fitzgerald? There's self-interest at play here; since Fitzgerald looted the safe, nobody's gonna get paid until he's found and the money is recovered. And aside from self-interest, there's also a higher motive. Many of these men willingly gave up their share of the profits just to ensure that Glass would have a proper burial. They have respect for Glass because he saved their lives. Yet now, when his attempted murderer is on the loose, nobody wants to go get him? And regardless of personal motives, everyone still has to obey the captain. Why doesn't he just order a bunch of men to accompany him when he goes hunting for Fitzgerald?
He doesn't trust the men with the money that Fitzgerald stole. The bunch were barely holding it together because of the promise that they will get paid. When they see the money, who's to say they won't overwhelm the captain and take off with the money?
Why the hell did Glass try to shoot the grizzly after the initial mauling? She had already wandered off, the smart thing to do would be to keep still and play dead until he was certain she was gone. But no, apparently it was more important to provoke her into coming back and tearing some even bigger holes in him because of... no readily apparent reason, actually.
From his perspective at least, she had only wandered off to check on her cubs, and thought he was dead. She might well have come back with her cubs so that the three of them could feast. He might also have simply feared that she wouldn't leave anytime soon and he'd have to play dead for hours or until someone came looking for him (and be attacked also), and given he'd just been brutally attacked by a bear he probably wants to see his injuries taken care of.
We actually see the bear start to amble back towards him just before he shoots. She doesn't seem aware that he's alive until he does so and then is instantly enraged enough to attack him again. She may well have been sauntering back to check out this fresh meal having established her cubs were safe.
Why did Glass eat the bison liver raw when there were some fires only a few feet away?
Same reason why he ate that fish raw, even if he was standing almost right next to a fire: because he was really that hungry, and couldn't wait anymore.
Glass frees Pawaqa from the French late in the film, but earlier, the Natives are bargaining with the French for arms and horses to hunt down the Americans, who supposedly had Pawaqa. Did the Natives not know the French were holding their daughter?
Um... no, they didn't. In fact, at one point, the French can even be heard bragging about pulling one over on the natives.
Why did the Ree chief have Fitzgerald scalped and killed? By that point of the movie he was well aware that the american trappers had nothing to do with his daughter's kidnapping, and that he had been unjustly hunting and killing them.
By that point he also was aware that he owed Glass a debt for saving his daughter and it was clear that Glass wanted this man dead. The Rhee had been sitting on the bank and had obviously seen at least the tail end of the battle. What was one more white man to kill? Also, his daughter wasn't the only reason he had for killing white men. As he tells the French early on, the white man had taken everything from his tribe. The animals, the land...
