The Revenant ending explained: Hugh Glass and the price of vengeance

The Revenant isn’t just a survival movie; it’s a brutal, poetic journey of vengeance, grief, and the will to keep breathing even when the world’s trying to crush you. By the time the credits roll, you’re left shivering, not just from the cold wilderness Hugh Glass crawls through, but from the weight of what it all means. The ending isn’t just about revenge; it’s layered, ambiguous, and haunting.

Whether you saw Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar-winning performance in pitch silence or were screaming inwardly during that last glance into the camera, one thing is for certain: the ending of The Revenant is worth an in-depth examination. So let's deconstruct and decode what happened in those last, snowy minutes.

What is The Revenant about?

Still from The Revenant (Image via YouTube @/ 20th Century Studios)

Set on the 1820s American frontier, The Revenant follows the journey of Hugh Glass, an experienced frontiersman and trapper, hired by a fur-trading party led by Captain Andrew Henry. Traveling through enemy territory, Glass is attacked with extreme brutality by a grizzly bear and is left seriously maimed and on the brink of death. Afraid of further attacks from Native tribes and affected by Glass's injury, the group decides to move forward. Henry offers compensation to those who are willing to stay behind and care for Glass until his death. John Fitzgerald, Jim Bridger, and Glass's half-Pawnee son, Hawk, step up.

Fitzgerald, more paranoid and anxious by the day, becomes resentful of the duty. In a fight, he kills Hawk before a helpless Glass and scares Bridger into believing that a band of Natives is on their way. At gunpoint, Bridger runs off, and Fitzgerald buries Glass alive before making his getaway. Miraculously, Glass survives. But, overcome by sorrow, rage, and justice, he embarks on a terrifying journey through the winter wilderness, using his tracking ability and instincts along with the recollections of his family members to guide him. He is plagued by hunger, infection, and hypothermia along the way. He meets a solitary Pawnee man who bandages his wounds and assists him in his journey further, as he approaches civilization.

The path to civilization and safety is filled with the savagery of colonial violence, such as the s*xual violence of the French traders against a Native woman. Despite physical degradation, his resolve gets stronger with each step. Glass finally arrives at Fort Kiowa and meets up again with Captain Henry. Hearing that Fitzgerald has run off, he goes with Henry in pursuit of him, intent on confronting the man who took everything from him. The story then hurtles toward this ultimate confrontation, as Glass's quest for revenge propels him deeper into the woods and into the darker reaches of his own psyche.

How does The Revenant end? Does Hugh Glass find Fitzgerald at last?

After all the blood, ice, and fury, The Revenant slows down in a fashion that seems almost hauntingly quiet, like the forest holding its breath. Hugh Glass, half-dead and driven by a primal mix of bereavement, revenge, and plain survival instinct, finally tracks down Fitzgerald. Now, not the man we're introduced to at the start, Glass is emaciated, torn apart by the wild, and ghostly, a specter created by suffering. He’s crawled, limped, and fought through freezing rivers, starvation, and betrayal to reach this moment. And now, he has the man who murdered his son right in front of him.

They fight, of course. It’s brutal, muddy, and full of rage, not the cinematic, choreographed kind of battle, but one that feels animalistic. They bite, they stab, they slam each other against snow and rock. But this isn’t just a fight. It’s a release. All that emotion Glass has been carrying, the guilt, the love for his son, the sense that he should’ve died but didn’t, it all comes out in that fight. And then, just when it seems like he’s going to do it, to end it all by killing Fitzgerald, he stops.

Instead of delivering the final blow, he shoves Fitzgerald into the current of the icy river, where he floats helplessly toward a band of Arikara warriors. It’s their justice, not his. Glass says something that hangs heavy in the air:

“Revenge is in God’s hands.”

It’s not forgiveness, not exactly. It’s surrender. A tired man letting go of the fire that kept him alive because he knows it can’t warm him anymore. He’s done what he came to do, not kill, but see it through. As the film closes, Glass stumbles into the snow, alone again. He looks straight into the camera, and for a moment, it’s as if he sees us, or something beyond us. It’s not a triumphant ending. There’s no music swelling in victory. There’s just breathing. Ragged, human, real. He’s alive. Not because he beat the odds, but because he endured them. And now, what’s left is silence. The kind that comes after rage, after revenge, after everything you thought would save you turns to frost.

Does Fitzgerald meet his end?

Yes, he does. The Arikara warrior chief, Elk Dog, delivers the final blow; he stabs Fitzgerald straight through the head and then calmly scalps his body. However, the Arikara spared Glass, letting him go without a word. Bloodied and hollow, Glass retreats into the mountains, where he finds himself face to face with the spirit of his wife, silent, still, and watching

Is The Revenant based on a true story?

Yes, it is. Let’s rewind to the 1820s. Meet Hugh Glass, a fur trapper, frontiersman, and the original “I’m not dead yet” guy. While on an expedition along the Missouri River, Glass was viciously attacked by a grizzly bear near what’s now South Dakota. The bear basically ripped him to shreds: broken leg, torn scalp, deep gashes, the man was hanging on by a thread. His expedition buddies, assuming he wouldn’t make it, left him behind. Two men, John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridger, were tasked with staying until he died and giving him a proper burial.

Spoiler: he didn’t die.

After a few days, Fitzgerald and Bridger panicked and ditched him, taking his weapons and supplies. But Glass, stubborn as hell, woke up. Alone. In the middle of bear country. With a mangled leg. And what did he do? He set his own broken bone, wrapped his wounds, and started crawling toward civilization.

Over the next six weeks, Glass dragged himself over 200 miles to Fort Kiowa. He survived on wild berries, roots, and even stole meat from wolves. The man was a walking miracle, driven by pain, fury, and a need to survive. And once he got back on his feet, he did what any revenge-fueled legend would do: he went looking for the guys who left him for dead.

He found them, too. First, Bridger, young and scared, whom he forgave. Then Fitzgerald, who had joined the army, Glass couldn’t kill a U.S. soldier without getting hanged, so he let him go with a warning: stay in the army if you want to stay alive.

Now, here’s where the film takes its liberties. The Revenant adds a fictional son for Glass, whose death becomes the emotional backbone of the movie. That never happened. There’s no historical record of Glass having a son, let alone one murdered by Fitzgerald. Also, the final revenge showdown in the film? Pure Hollywood.