- Sir. - What is it, Patrick?
- Dispatches.
- Who else has seen this?
- Nobody.
Speak.
- Captain, a word from the North.
Go on.
- The natives ambushed William and his men
on their journey home.
- The count?
- 17 dead.
- I meant the pelt count.
Any losses?
- The men were found naked and scalped.
And there were no pelts left behind.
- 17 men dead, you say?
- Yes, sir.
When we found them, they were,
animals had already begun to pick at their flesh.
- Savages.
Very well, have the men gather their carcasses
and return back to camp
so they can give them a proper burial.
You're dismissed.
- Levi was with your son when...
- Dead?
- Missing.
- Where did this happen?
- At the foot of the Buckskin Forest.
I sent a scout team, but with the rumors...
- There is a man in camp that cooks for the others.
Wears a wolfskin cap.
Do you know him?
- Porter.
Yes, sir.
- You send word that I wish to speak to him.
- Yes, sir.
- What's the news?
- Take a small team of men up North.
Have them bring shovels.
Dig a hole about a hundred meters from town.
When they're done, have them show you where it is.
- Baiting fox for the winter?
- Digging a mass grave.
Porter.
- What's the point of being alone in a church,
you can't be alone in church?
- My apologies.
The captain would like to speak with you.
- I'll have a word with my captain,
after I'm done having a word with my God.
- I'm afraid your God can wait.
- You can leave us.
Sit?
- You sent for me?
- From what I'm told, the men enjoy your food.
- Well, I'm pleased to hear you say that, Captain.
- Tell me, how does a trapper become a cook?
- A plague that takes the lives of both his children.
And a vow to protect what little family he got left.
Then, the winters are less harsh here in the fort.
- I take it that you've heard
about the men coming home from the North?
- Yeah, I just prayed for their souls.
I heard about William.
My condolences.
It's always difficult to accept the loss of a son.
- My son ought to have been a general by now.
It's far more difficult to accept failure than death.
- Well he died with his men.
There's honor in that.
- Were you aware that my grandson, Levi, was with him?
He's gone missing.
And alive, dead, I don't know.
- I'm sorry for your pain.
Levi and my son were, they were very close.
- Josiah, You were always loyal to the company,
to the men, and to me.
The others got used to taking orders from you.
You were as strong as they come.
- Sir?
- The Ree are ruthless.
But when it comes to finding
my grandson my own resolve meets theirs.
- Yeah.
Perhaps you can send a team of men
up the north trails before any winter snow blows
in and covers up those tracks.
- We are 17 men short of what we were.
Soon to be 18.
Tell me, what men can I spare?
- What is it that you ask of me, Captain?
- Your mind wanders.
- I'm sorry. - What is it?
- I am to go up the north trails tomorrow.
- For what purpose?
The captain's grandson, Levi,
has gone missing up there.
- And he chose you?
Why?
- This is what he asks of me.
- Why not one of the other men?
Someone younger?
Someone who traps for a living?
- I'm going to need you to cook for the men until I return.
- Where?
- Where what?
- Where on the trail?
The women here talk.
I know those men were ambushed at the foot
of the Buckskin Woods.
- They were looking for a quicker way home.
- A home they never arrived at.
We both know that place is evil.
At least see her before you go.
Her fortune might persuade you
to think twice about the captain's orders.
- Strong.
Ashamed.
- That was my past.
I'm interested in my future.
- Indeed.
Many men are, but the truth...
- There's a difference?
- One cannot have a future
without first accepting the truth.
They are one and the same.
You will have a long journey to a familiar place.
A place with a past filled with agony.
The same as yours.
And there is death in the trees.
Blood in the water.
You will not survive the journey.
- You can see my death?
You will not survive the journey.
- I've survived those woods before.
- Death never makes the same mistake twice.
- First things first.
If the pelts are lost,
I won't go up the trails looking for them.
The deal is for Levi, and Levi alone.
Anything else is going to add a week or so
to the trip and that's with packmules.
- Understood.
- Second, I'm not winding up scalped
on the edge of the riverbank.
If I spot even one native tailing me,
I turn and make back for the fort.
- Agreed.
- There are no posts that far over
so I'm going to be on foot.
When I make it to the woods I'm going
to need both of my hands free anyway.
- All right.
Anything else?
- Is there some kind of reward for this?
I'd hate to leave my wife, Cora,
in a bind if I wind up lost or dead.
There's $100 bonus
from the Southwest Fur Company
for the man that brings my grandson home.
I pray that that man is you.
What news?
- $100 bonus from the Southwest Fur Company.
- Not him.
What was your fortune?
- I didn't go see her.
- Why not?
- With the amount of native blood I've spilled?
- Saving that boy will not bring ours back.
- You'll be all right.
Make sure you feed my men.
Porter.
- Henry.
- You're leaving?
- Yep.
I got to make the best of whatever decent light I have left.
What is it, Henry?
- It's just, how is it that you run
into the forest when others run away from it?
- When my son passed, Levi came by and visited,
brought piles of fresh cut dry wood.
Nobody asked him to do it.
Nobody told him, he just did it.
- Godspeed.
- All right.
Henry?
Would you look after my wife until I return?
Captain.
- Leave us, Henry.
- You sent word for me?
- Captain. - Excuse me?
- You sent word for me, Captain.
When you're in this house you will address me
by my proper name and my rank.
I am positive that I have earned it.
Sit.
Sit down!
So the cook came to see you, did he not?
You may speak freely here.
- Yes.
- Captain!
Yes, Captain.
- And you told him of his future?
- Yes,
Captain.
- And what did you tell him about his future?
- I told him the truth.
Which is?
- I told him he would not return from his journey.
- Tell me, witch, your father was Pawnee
and your mother was white.
How does one come to do what you do?
- Before my father was murdered,
he taught me the Pawnee rituals.
Many of which allow me to see into one's future.
- The future?
- Excuse me, but I do not understand
what you want from me, Captain.
- I want you to tell me what happens to my grandson.
- Why are you following me?
Hello.
- Howdy.
I didn't mean to frighten you.
- Do I look frightened?
- No.
No, you don't.
Well actually I was just hoping maybe I could come with you.
- No.
My journey is dangerous
and you being the way you are,
you're just going to slow me down.
You should make back for the fort before night falls.
- Well why is it I can't be a trapper?
- You're weak.
I've seen animals larger than you kill
and eat other animals that are also larger than you.
- I have other skills.
- Skills?
Such as?
- I can trap.
Small animals.
I can build fires.
- I don't need a cook.
- I can gather wood.
Kindling.
- I can manage myself.
The answer is no.
- I can't go back this soon.
The men at camp don't respect me.
Okay?
They just make jokes about me.
They said I wouldn't survive the night out on the trail.
- I've seen many men stronger than you go out
and brave that trail and die.
Or wind up missing.
- Not you.
And you could teach me the art of survival.
- What's your name?
- Myles.
- Well, Myles, why don't you gather some wood
and make us a fire.
We'll make camp here tonight.
But you'll head back to the fort in the morning.
All right?
Tell the men I demanded it.
Tell them, tell them that you saved me from a wild boar.
And when I return I will tell them it's the truth.
- Really?
You'd do that?
For me?
Why?
- Go on.
- Yes, sir.
So, I did good, yeah?
- Yep.
You keep the flames low or surrounded with rock.
That will keep the wolves at bay if they don't see the fire.
Here.
Step one to surviving the trail,
eat your meat without looking at it first.
So, who is she?
- Huh?
- The girl you're trying to impress.
- I wish it were that simple.
So you're going after the captain's grandson, yeah?
That's right.
I heard he might be hiding in the Buckskin.
- Do you find it hard being the way you are?
- Sometimes.
Sometimes you can't do what other young men can do,
but I
find purpose.
- Purpose?
What purpose?
- It's not something easy for a trapper to understand.
- Well I'm not a trapper anymore.
Just a cook.
- Yeah.
Our scars only remind us that the past was real.
Before I came to Kingston, my brothers and I lived upriver.
One night the Arikara came through.
Must have been 10 of them, on horseback.
I offered them my pelts, you know.
But the Ree wanted something else, I don't know.
They held each of us to the flame.
One by one.
The thing I remember most is the smell.
Burning flesh.
Sometimes when I'm asleep...
Do you ever wake up because you feel like you're falling?
Yeah.
Sometimes I wake up feeling like my skin's on fire.
So I try to concentrate on the things I can do
rather than the other way around.
- And yet here you are pretending to come along with me
and win the favor of the other trappers back at the fort.
- Well, I am human.
Yeah.
- Myles, do you drink? - Drink?
- Yeah, do you want a drink?
Here.
- We've got company.
- Gentlemen.
- I heard about your little hunt last night.
- There is a white man that hides in our trees.
- On the trail?
- We don't want his stench covering our land.
- Your land?
All right.
I guess we can call it that for now.
- What's this?
- For the scalp of the man in the woods.
- Savages.
- Business is business.
- Drop the blade!
- Drop the blade, trapper!
All of it.
Do you know where you're going?
That there is the Buckskin Woods.
A man would be crazy to go in there.
- I'm here under Captain Coleman's orders.
- Who?
- Captain Coleman.
Of the Southwest Fur Company.
That name don't mean squat to me.
- And who sent you?
Akira?
Or his dog Keokuk?
I thought I smelled cowards for hire.
- Tie him up.
Come on.
- Water.
Water.
- So how did you know Akira sent us?
- The man has been known to strike deals with men like you.
- Men like us?
- Traitors.
Woodsmen that travel from fort to fort looking
for easy coin.
Whatever they promised you, I'll double it.
I'll triple it.
Just get me inside the Buckskin Woods
and whenever I find what I'm looking for,
you follow me on back to Fort Kingston
and there you'll get paid straight from the safe
of Captain Coleman himself and the Southwest Fur Company.
- 10 coins?
- Triple makes it 30.
- What do we tell the Indians about you?
- Tell them you never found me.
- They don't pay us to come back empty handed.
- This time they did.
- All right.
But first I want to know what the hell you're doing going
into them woods.
- My business there is none of your concern.
- The hell it ain't.
You know what people say about those woods.
What happens if a fellow travels too deep into that brush.
Do we got a deal or not?
- I've got to piss.
- Well hurry up.
They're going to be here any minute.
Now what's to say we don't go back to Fort Kingston
and then you do a dirty deal on us?
- In my shooting bag hanging from your saddle,
there's a small book inside with the terms written
by Captain Coleman himself.
Go on.
Have a look.
- All right, I will.
There ain't no Goddamned book in here.
- If you're going to call out to them,
you're going to have to yell real loud.
- Ellis!
- Knife.
Knees.
- When the blood in your veins returns to the sea,
and the earth in your bones becomes one with the ground,
perhaps then you will remember
that this land does not belong to you.
It is you that belongs to this land.
- Tell me again.
- The ground on which you stand does not belong to you!
- Captain.
I think I see Porter coming.
- Where are the others?
Where are the pelts?
I asked you a question.
- The men are dead.
And the pelts are floating down the river as we speak.
The Ree will have them in a matter of hours.
- Do you care to elaborate?
- The Ree decimated the men.
The shoreline of the river's been compromised.
- You have to go back in there.
I need those pelts.
And that's an order.
- An order?
If you want those God damned pelts,
you can get them yourself.
My wife sent word for me weeks ago,
and I intend to be home
before the first snow falls, Captain.
- What about your fellow company men?
- I made sure they received a proper burial.
- The fever spread through the camp.
Your wife fell ill.
The doctors say that she'll survive though.
- Is she alive?
- Yeah.
- What about my children?
- I'm sorry, Porter.
Wesley, do you understand what I just told you?
- Captain, you tell me I no longer have children.
- It's all there.
I'm not a thief.
- Levi?
- You ate the berries.
Yes?
They're hallucinogens.
The Ree lace their arrowheads with them
so you can't fight back when they put the blade
to your scalp.
- My map.
- Some men say it can make it seem
as if entire limbs just vanish off your body.
It numbs you.
If the savages find you like that, they scalp you first.
Then they cut off your man parts
and hang them around their neck as a trophy prize.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
Who sent you?
- Your grandfather did.
We should probably start a course home.
- Home?
Yeah.
Home.
Back to Fort Kingston.
Back to your grandfather.
- I haven't seen another white man in these woods
since I arrived.
- Levi, whatever happened to you out here in these woods,
we cannot stay.
We must go home.
- Do you remember...
Home.
Remember?
- The savages have the river high ground.
The trees to the south.
- I know there's another path.
I've taken it.
- East? - That's right.
Through the flats.
- Out in the open?
You dream, mister.
- Levi, the longer we stay here, the more we get lost.
You must trust me, it's just these woods-
- Expand.
Yes, I know.
I spent a week walking in a circle.
For someone who's been here before,
you sure don't understand the rules the natives
have for this place.
- I know the rules.
- Once you're in, there's no getting out.
- No.
- This is where you fell ill.
And this is where we are now.
- That cannot be.
That's a day's walk at least.
- Like I said, the woods expand.
They pull you in deeper.
Is that why you stayed here all this time?
- My grandfather shouldn't have sent you.
Sleep.
We should move at the sun.
The trees whisper to the Rees.
They should be here soon.
- Levi, we're going the wrong way.
- Remember what I said about the high ground?
How do you expect to go east by traveling west?
- Your compass is useless here.
- The sun's light is my compass.
The woods may play tricks, but to my knowledge it
cannot change the direction of the sun's light.
- I don't think you understand.
- No, it's you're the one who doesn't understand.
Your grandfather hired me to find you and bring you home,
and that's exactly what I intend to do.
My map says east.
Not west.
- Who are you?
- I'm the man sent here to save your ass.
- They slaughtered them.
Even the men who surrendered.
They lifted their hands but they cut off their fingers.
They begged for mercy, but they cut out their tongues.
They smiled as they did it.
There was so much blood it pooled
in the dirt like rainwater.
I watched as they took my father.
- And you got away? - I ran into the woods.
The last of the men to be killed saw me run.
I hid in the brush and watched as they were disemboweled.
I saw my father's eyes.
I swear it.
He'd rather be torn to pieces than hide in these woods.
- This place is evil.
These woods don't care about pelts, furs or your heart.
It wants your soul.
- How do you know this?
- Because it tried to take mine.
Don't move!
I said don't move.
- I can see over the ledge.
I can make it.
Ree.
Maybe a dozen.
- Tell me more about this path west.
- It's quiet.
I've never seen more than two or three scouts.
But I'm poking my head over ledges.
- And this western trail, it somehow winds around
and goes east again?
- If you're trusting the sun, yes.
- Show me.
Slow down.
- What is it?
What does it mean?
- You were being hunted.
- How do you know it was for me?
- Who else would it be for?
You said there were native scouts?
- A few here and there.
- And none of them saw you?
- Not that I know of.
- That's not a no.
And you've taken this trail west before?
- Well, yeah.
What's wrong?
- You never take the same trail twice.
- You didn't ask that.
You asked if the western trail leads east.
- Yes, but I thought you knew the basic rules of trapping.
Now you're sending us all over these woods.
- Well we can't circle back, so what do we do now?
- We make camp for the night.
We're going to lose light soon and I don't want
to be walking into a Ree arrow again in the dark.
Find wood.
Go on now.
- I'm starving. - Yeah.
I've never eaten an animal this deep in the woods.
- Why not?
- It's forbidden.
- How did you know what those tree markings meant?
- When I was littler than you, my father used
to take me up river, long trips.
And I studied their language to pass the time.
- You were a trapper?
- Alongside your grandfather, if you can imagine that.
That's why he sent you to find me.
- You knew my son, Josiah.
You do remember my son, Josiah?
- Of course.
I was sad to hear of his passing.
- Yeah.
He was very fond of you.
He aspired to be like you and the older boys.
Almost too much at times.
- Earlier you said these woods tried to take your soul.
- Levi, why is it that you never escaped these woods?
- I tried to many times.
- Confusion?
Feeling lost?
Yeah, these woods intend to keep you here.
Make you feel that way.
They intend to keep your soul.
Forever.
- How do you know this?
- Me and 12 men coming up the Missouri,
with a large haul after a brutal winter.
The Ree caught wind of us somewhere between the riverbank
and the north trail.
And by the time we saw them coming,
half the men had arrows sticking out their asses,
and their eyeballs and their throats.
And I remember looking up in the trees
and wondering how the Ree acquired such perfect aim.
The few of us that dodged their bows
were chased down into the woods.
These woods.
And we didn't think much of it at the time,
but one by one these woods drove us mad.
Caused us to turn on each other.
When it was all said and done I was the last man standing.
Late one night, the Ree came
out of the treeline riding horses.
And I'd dug a foot deep trench and laid down in it.
Covered myself in dirt and stayed there for God knows
how long until the next day's sun.
I was able to follow their tracks out of the woods.
And that's how I know these woods don't want a man's pelt,
they want a man's soul.
- Did you make it home?
- No. - What did you do?
- I hid.
I watched the Ree closely.
Whenever I could, I'd set traps on the outskirts
of these woods.
It took me only three days to round up
that small group of Ree.
The poor bastards were so eager
to escape a few of them tried sawing off
their foot at the ankle with sharp rocks.
That's when I know it was time.
- To watch them die?
- I tried waiting them out.
That was taking too long.
So I took out my tomahawk and began
to hack them up just as they did my men.
Limb by limb.
I gathered the body parts
and buried them here in these woods.
This place became my own personal burial ground
for the mutilated savages that I murdered.
And when I finally made it home,
both of my children had been taken by the plague.
My wife nearly succumbed by the fever.
And I swore I'd never leave home again.
I went to go see the fortune teller,
and she told me that the woods
had sent a watcher home with me.
And that one day he would lead me back here
to face my demise.
Here we are.
The Buckskin Woods.
- Then why did you agree to come back?
- Because your grandfather asked me to do so.
- What was that?
- Relax.
- Can you see it?
An Alpha.
- An Omega.
What was that?
- That's the Alpha putting down a challenge.
- How do we know?
How can we stay here?
- And what would you have me do?
Go chasing wolves in the dark?
- The rifle.
- Nobody touches this rifle except me.
- What are you doing?
Stop that!
Are you mad?
What are you doing?
- I'm being a wolf.
Try it.
Wolves aren't afraid of other wolves.
Go on.
Let them know you're here.
Yeah.
Louder!
See?
How do you feel?
Better?
- Like a wolf.
- Yeah.
My son loved wolves.
Always wanted to be one.
Come on now.
That sounds like a chicken.
Let me hear a wolf!
What direction is this?
- West.
East.
West, I think.
- What direction does the sun set?
- The west.
- Then why are we headed north?
- North?
- Look.
That there is the same tree we passed yesterday.
- Impossible.
We've circled back around!
- Are you all right?
- We've lost two days walking.
Taking this western trail of yours.
- No.
Not that.
Your eyes, they're watering.
- Strange.
- Take it off!
Your clothes.
Remove all of it, now!
- What is it?
- Remember those berries I told you about?
Like I said, you've been poisoned.
- What?
How?
- I don't know.
You must have brushed up against a branch or something.
- What's happening?
I need to go get water.
Stay here.
Shhh.
Ree.
- How many?
- Less than six.
- We can't stay here.
- Don't move.
It's still healing.
They're gone.
- My rifle.
Where is it?
- I left it back near the trail.
- You left it?
Why?
- You were burning up.
I didn't have time to return for it.
Just where do you think you're going?
- I'm going to get my gun.
The brush is full of spies.
You'll never make it.
- Just how far do you think we're going to get without it?
- Your wound isn't fully healed.
You're risking your life.
Our lives.
- If you don't want to go, then you stay here.
Where is it?
- It was right here when we left.
- Without a rifle we can't fight anyone off
without getting close.
- Maybe the Ree took it.
They're tracking us-
What is it?
- How is it that I was stuck,
yet none of my clothing has been pierced?
I asked you a question!
How is it that I got stuck?
- I don't know.
- You don't know?
Just like you don't know where my rifle is?
Just like this path west by some magic leads east somehow?
- I saved your life twice.
- Look at you.
I've been sent out here to rescue the prodigal son.
And all he has to say is that he saved my life twice.
- Where are you going?
- Home. - Home?
Yes.
Back to Fort Kingston.
- We can still make for home together.
- You don't want to go home.
You belong to these woods now.
And ever since we've started you been
leading me around in one giant circle.
And I didn't come out here against my wife's wishes
to get lost and die at the hands
of these savages for nothing.
Well it looks like I did.
- We're lost! - You're lost.
We made it.
This is it.
What is it?
- I was the one who stuck you in the woods, while you slept.
I also buried the rifle.
- Why would you do that?
- Because they made me do it.
- Who?
The Ree?
Who talks to you, Levi?
- I cannot leave.
- Levi, your father died trying to escape these woods.
- I cannot leave.
- Levi, if you go back in those woods you are never going
to come out the same again.
- Says the man that made it out alive.
- Yeah.
But it changed me.
Changed me from the man I once was,
and you don't want that for yourself.
Think of Josiah.
I lost him because I was here in these woods
instead of at home next to him.
I never got to hold his hand as he passed.
You don't remember him, do you?
Then it's you that's lost.
- If you'd stayed, he'd still be alive today.
You traded your life for his, don't you see it?
- I see, believe me, I see!
- If you loved your son,
you should have stayed in the woods.
- Levi, step out onto the trail.
- You killed Josiah!
- Levi, please.
Just step out of those woods.
- Stay with me.
- You're not thinking straight.
Levi, come out here where I can see you
and we can make a path home together.
Levi!
- Stay with me.
- No chance.
You made your decision.
I'll tell Captain Coleman his grandson
was dead when I arrived.
- That would be a lie.
- So be it.
- You'll not survive the journey!
That's what the fortune teller
told you before you left, isn't it?
- Goodbye, Levi.
- Fucking coward!
Last time you left these woods your son and daughter died.
Who's the only one left to take?
Your wife?
Cora?
- That isn't you in there, Levi, I know it.
- There's a deal on the table.
Your life for mine.
- And you trust them?
The Ree?
The watcher?
- Makes sense it's you they want.
It's you they've always wanted.
In a way you created this place.
- I didn't come out here to fight you, Levi.
I came out here to help you.
- I don't want your help.
One way or another you're coming back with me.
They won't allow you to escape again.
- If you want me, then you come and get me.
- That's more like it.
- It doesn't have to end this way.
- End?
- What is it, Henry?
Sir, they, they found Porter's body on the trail.
I'm sorry.
- Levi?
- He said the Ree took his life.
What will you have me do, Captain?
- Nothing, Henry.
I was told of this day.