The Last Hunt

The film is set in 1883 on the Great Plains, where the buffalo population has plummeted from 60 million to about 3,000 due to hunting. Sandy McKenzie, a famed buffalo hunter for the Army Engineers, watches his small cattle herd be wiped out by a stampede of bison. The bleak landscape underscores the harsh, changing frontier.

McKenzie teams up with the obsessive Charles Gilson, who believes that killing is natural and seeks a relentless 'stand' of a single herd. They recruit Woodfoot, a legendary skinner with a peg leg, and young Jimmy O'Brien to join the team. The group prepares for a brutal hunt across the plains.

Gilson pursues and defeats an Indian raiding party, taking a native woman and a toddler captive. The act intensifies tension with McKenzie, who is uneasy about the fate of the captives and Gilson's methods. The incident sows seeds of discord that will drive their partnership toward a breaking point.

The presence of the captive woman strains McKenzie and Gilson's already fraught partnership. Gilson's paranoia grows, becoming more deranged as he blames McKenzie for some unspecified betrayal. The uneasy alliance hinges on trust that is quickly eroding.

An accusation about a stolen white buffalo hide drives a wedge between the men. In truth, Jimmy took the hide and hid it in a tree along with the body of one of Gilson's victims, according to the Dakota people's religious practices. The rumor fuels Gilson's obsession and exacts a personal vendetta against McKenzie.

With Woodfoot and Jimmy O'Brien added to the squad, the team continues the hunt. Jimmy's presence and his hidden burden become a silent counterpoint to Gilson's moral unraveling. They move forward with the cattle toward the Indian agency.

The group heads to the Indian agency to deliver cattle and aid the starving Dakota people. The journey across bone-strewn plains stretches their endurance as winter tightens its grip. Tension between McKenzie and Gilson remains a constant undercurrent.

As night falls on a harsh, snowy bluff, McKenzie persuades Gilson to allow Jimmy to continue with the herd while they shelter in a cave. Gilson declares distrust and orders them to descend in the morning, setting up a lethal standoff.

Come morning, the trio emerges to find Gilson gone, frozen to death and waiting to ambush McKenzie and the woman. He has turned his gun toward the cave, and the friction between their plans erupts into a deadly confrontation. The frozen buffalo hide becomes a grim symbol of his final obsession.

The moisture on the raw buffalo skin has turned it into an icy coffin, while snow rests on its fur and creates the illusion of a white buffalo hanging in the tree. McKenzie and the woman escape with the cattle away from the peril. The harsh landscape seals Gilson's ruin.

McKenzie and the captive woman ride away to safety, leaving behind the frozen threat. The camera pans to the white buffalo skin stretched in the tree, a haunting emblem of the frontier's brutal calculus and the cost of obsession.

The final image presents the stark, bone-swept plains as a testament to the last of the buffalo hunts. The story mourns a vanishing way of life and the men who pursued it, setting the stage for a lingering moral reckoning.