Bone Tomahawk (2015) Plot Summary & Ending Explained

In the 1890s, two drifters named Purvis and Buddy struggle to make ends meet through a life of killing and robbing travelers. One day, as they are spooked by the sounds of approaching horses, they take refuge in the hills, where they stumble upon a Native American burial site. Tragically, Buddy is suddenly attacked and killed by unseen assailants, leaving Purvis to flee for his life.

Fast forward eleven days, Purvis arrives in the small and unsuspecting town of Bright Hope. Upon his arrival, he hastily buries his stolen goods. The town's elderly backup deputy, Chicory, notices him and promptly informs Sheriff Franklin Hunt of his presence. At the local saloon, Sheriff Hunt confronts Purvis. When questioned about his identity, Purvis hesitates before claiming to be "Buddy," hoping to conceal his true identity. In an attempt to escape, Purvis is shot in the leg by Sheriff Hunt. Hunt then sends John Brooder, a local educated man known for his charm with women, to fetch the town's doctor.

Meanwhile, Arthur O'Dwyer, the foreman who is incapacitated at home due to a broken leg, is being looked after by his wife, Samantha. She assists Arthur with his injury, but soon the situation takes a dark turn when Brooder, needing help for Purvis, calls upon Samantha. He takes her to the jail to assist with Purvis's wound. Once they leave, Hunt and the other men return home. That very night, tragedy strikes again—a stable boy is brutally murdered by yet another group of unseen attackers.

When Sheriff Hunt investigates the murder scene, he discovers that the horses are missing and only an arrow is left behind. Seeking answers, he calls upon a local Native American man to examine the arrow. The man informs him of its connection to a feared cannibalistic clan residing in the ominous "Valley of the Starving Men." Determined to rescue the captured townspeople, Hunt gears up for a treacherous journey with Arthur, Chicory, and Brooder.

As they set out, the group encounters danger at every turn. Days into their journey, two Mexican strangers emerge at their camp. Fearing they are scouts for a potential raid, Brooder makes the troubling decision to kill them and move their camp. That night, a treacherous gang of raiders launches an ambush, injuring Brooder and forcing him to put down his own horse in a grim act of mercy. Tensions rise within the group, leading to a severe feud between Brooder and Arthur, exacerbating Arthur's condition. Chicory, seeing the situation unfold, leaves Arthur behind to recuperate while he, Hunt, and Brooder press onward.

Upon reaching the valley, the trio finds themselves under fire from arrows. Although they manage to take down two attackers, they have no choice but to retreat, leaving Brooder gravely injured. As the cannibals seize Hunt and Chicory, they discover Samantha and an injured Nick imprisoned nearby. Horror strikes as they witness Nick being dragged from his cell, stripped, scaled, and brutally consumed. Samantha counts the remaining threats and finds the number of cannibals to be around nine.

Realizing he possesses some opium tincture he confiscated from Arthur, Hunt devises a plan to poison the tribesmen. Their scheme goes awry as only one tribesman consumes a fatal dose. Meanwhile, having tracked down the men, Arthur arrives and heroically dispatches two tribesmen. As he discovers a whistle-like object embedded in their windpipes, he cleverly uses it to lure and eliminate more foes.

In the cave, with their men incapacitated, the cannibal leader becomes enraged, and tortured Hunt mercilessly. Just when things seem dire, Arthur arrives in the nick of time, managing to kill one of the tribesmen, while Hunt bravely takes down the leader. Arthur not only frees Samantha but also Chicory, while a gravely wounded Hunt prepares to sacrifice himself to ensure the remaining women’s escape. As they make their exit from the cave, they come across two pregnant women whose horrific condition reveals the depth of the evil they’ve faced.

In the distance, they hear three gunshots, signaling Hunt's desperate final stand against the cannibals, which Chicory acknowledges with a bittersweet smile. Exhausted and battered, the three survivors set off on the long journey back home, fully aware of the trials they endured but determined to make it out alive.

In the film's conclusion, Sheriff Hunt finds himself trapped in the Troglodytes' cave, where the tribe gruesomely kills one of his deputies before Hunt manages to outsmart them by tricking them into drinking opium. This act incapacitates at least one of the monsters and renders another unconscious, allowing Hunt and the others to free Samantha and Chicory. Hunt then kills the tribe's brutal leader. Instead of escaping quickly, Hunt chooses to stay inside the cave, knowing his injuries are severe and death is imminent. His goal is to hold off any surviving Troglodytes so the others can escape safely.

Meanwhile, Arthur, arriving late, helps eliminate some of the remaining Troglodytes and then secretly enters the cave, where he discovers the tribe's horrifying custom of using animal bones lodged in their windpipes to communicate—a disturbing detail that contributes to their monstrous depiction. The story ends ambiguously, implying that Hunt may have killed any Troglodytes returning to the cave and possibly taken his own life afterward. As they leave the cave, Arthur uses a bone whistle—previously used by the Troglodytes to lure their monsters—to call the beasts out, but finds no sign of the monsters remaining. The final sounds are gunshots from the cave, suggesting Hunt either killed the returning monsters or their female captives, whose fate is left deliberately uncertain. The women of the tribe are portrayed as victims of extreme brutality; they are blinded, have their limbs amputated, and are implied to be used for reproductive purposes, a stark and controversial aspect of the film that highlights the tribe's brutality.