Ned Kelly's last hours open the film in stark black-and-white, a quiet prelude that hints at the legend about to unfold. The sequence familiarizes us with the man behind the myth, laying the groundwork for a life marked by bold choices and brutal consequences.
As the drama shifts to his home life, Ned returns to a world that feels both intimate and dangerous. He tries to lead an honest life, but his stepfather, George King, pulls him back into crime. The tension between old loyalties and new ambitions threads through every scene, and Ned’s path repeatedly collides with the law. Audiences are drawn into moments of raw grit, from rough, win-or-lose bare-knuckle bouts to tense confrontations with the authorities. A pivotal moment comes when a drunk police officer comes to arrest Ned’s brother, and Ned must physically intervene to eject him from the house, underscoring how quickly violence can erupt from domestic life.
The family’s troubles intensify as Ned’s mother Mrs. Kelly is tried and sentenced by Judge Barry. This judicial blow reverberates through the Kelly clan, shaping Ned’s sense of justice and setting the stage for the group’s dramatic turn to armed crime. Ned, his brother, and two friends escape, becoming the most wanted fugitives in Australia. Their violence escalates as they kill policemen at a creek, cementing their notoriety and drawing an ever-tightening circle of bounty around them.
From there, the gang advances into a spree of bank robberies, including a bold raid at Euroa and several other heists. Throughout these fugitive episodes, Ned takes moments to reflect and even communicate his side of the story. In one letter, he frames the gang’s actions in a way that garners sympathy from supporters who will later be courted as allies in their growing resistance against the authorities.
A stark shift in the gang’s mindset follows as they devise a plan to resist with armor. The line between revolution and reckoning blurs as Ned declares a radical approach: armor as protection and weapon alike. The moment is echoed in a tense, memorable line:
> The bible says turn your armour into plough shares but I say turn your plough shares into armour!
Their scheme grows darker as they decide to eliminate Aaron, an old friend deemed a traitor, and to lure the police into a trap at Glenrowan by damaging the rails and using the train’s passage to strike with brutal force when the survivors emerge.
The plan threads through a night of peril as they reach the Glenrowan hotel. In a crucial turn, Curnow—Curnow—convinces Ned to release him, and he then warns the approaching train. The ensuing gunfire erupts from the hotel as the police open fire, with Ned taking a wound to the hand and a hotel resident killed in the crossfire. Ned makes a last, calculated move to warn his sympathisers while the others in the group hold their ground. One gang member falls, and the rest are forced to stay on the floor as officers sweep the scene, arresting some while others are left to scatter.
Morning finds Ned recovering enough to make his way toward the tracks. The film cuts to the brutal, off-screen fate of the remaining two gang members, who shoot themselves, and then to a charged, chaotic sequence where Ned is shown firing on the police along the road toward the tracks. The sequence is noted by some as a dramatized portrayal rather than a precise reenactment of events. The inn is set ablaze, and Ned is captured and taken to trial before the very judge who earlier sentenced his mother. The verdict is death, a grim punctuation to a life defined by defiance and defiance’s consequences.
In the courtroom, Judge Barry presides once more over Ned’s fate, and the drama culminates in a stark, defiant moment as Ned delivers his final line and faces the final, unyielding judgment of the law. He closes his story with a chilling resolve, suggesting an afterlife reckoning that mirrors the legend he has become.
This cinematic portrait blends historical outline with larger-than-life invention, tracing how a young man shaped by conflict, loyalty, and a relentless sense of injustice becomes one of Australia’s most enduring troves of legend. The film foregrounds Ned’s passions and flaws in equal measure, balancing intimate family dynamics with sweeping, risky defiance against those who seek to contain him, all set against a soundtrack that amplifies the film’s larger-than-life mood.
