A legendary Native American-hating Army captain nearing retirement in 1892 is given one last assignment: to escort a Cheyenne chief and his family through dangerous territory back to his Montana reservation.
Acting
Bale's face carries 20 years of war crimes without speaking.
Cinematography
Masahiro Hirakubo shoots the American West like a dying dream.
Direction
Cooper refuses to let anyone be purely hero or villain.
Director
Scott Cooper
Christian Bale
Captain Joseph J. Blocker
Rosamund Pike
Rosalee Quaid
Wes Studi
Chief Yellow Hawk
Jesse Plemons
Lieutenant Rudy Kidder
Adam Beach
Black Hawk
Rory Cochrane
Master Sergeant Thomas Metz
Peter Mullan
Lieutenant Colonel Ross McCowan
Scott Wilson
Cyrus Lounde
Paul Anderson
Corporal Tommy Thomas
Timothée Chalamet
Private Philippe DeJardin
Ben Foster
Philip Wills
Jonathan Majors
Corporal Henry Woodson
John Benjamin Hickey
Captain Royce Tolan
Q'orianka Kilcher
Elk Woman
Tanaya Beatty
Living Woman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Wes Studi (Chief Yellow Hawk) is an actual Cherokee who spent years refusing stereotypical 'noble savage' roles — this was his first major studio lead in decades.
The film deliberately mirrors the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests; Cooper wanted audiences to feel the continuity of indigenous displacement. The closing text about Wounded Knee lands like a gut punch.
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