Mercenary Martin David is hired by the military biotech company, Red Leaf, to travel to Tasmania and collect samples of a creature the locals believe is extinct—the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger. His mission comes with a ruthless edge: kill all remaining tigers to prevent any rival organization from obtaining their DNA. To keep a low profile, he assumes the guise of a university biologist and lodges with the Armstrong family—Lucy and her two young children, Katie and Jamie. Lucy’s life is tangled in pain management, her dependence on prescribed medication shadowed by the troubling disappearance of her environmentalist husband, Jarrah Armstrong. The town is torn between loggers desperate for work and green groups who block roads to spare the forest, and these tensions quietly color every interaction Martin has with the family.
On twelve-day stints into the bush, Martin sets up steel traps and improvised snares, patiently waiting for a glimpse of the elusive predator. Between expeditions, he leaves behind maps with his coordinates, a practical plan in case he fails to return on schedule. During these resupply stops, he grows wary of Lucy’s addiction and notices a caretaker, Jack Mindy, who seems to oversee the household’s fragile routine. In a decisive moment, Martin confiscates Lucy’s medication and awakens to the harm its use is causing her, even going so far as to bathe her while she’s unconscious to ensure she’s not deteriorating.
A breakthrough comes when Lucy suddenly appears steadier and clearer of mind after Martin’s intervention. Jamie, observant and sharp, points him toward the tiger’s probable haunt with a drawing of the animal near trees and small water bodies. The drawing becomes a pivotal clue that helps Martin map the tiger’s location on his own charts. On a later return from the bush, he stumbles upon Jarrah’s skeletal remains and learns he had been shot through the head; Martin buries him with quiet respect but withholds the discovery from the Armstrong family. Back at the house, Lucy reveals Red Leaf had initially contracted Jarrah to track the tiger, but his shift to environmental causes had drawn him away, and Red Leaf’s motive was tied to a belief that the tiger carried a venom that could paralyze.
Tension escalates when a rival Red Leaf operative ambushes Martin during one of his treks. The operative binds Martin’s hands and forces him to shepherd him toward the cave where the tiger hides, but Martin cunningly leads him past one of his own steel traps. The operative steps on the trap, losing his leg as the teeth bite down, and both rifles fall to the ground. Martin frees himself, retrieves a rifle, and shoots the intruder just as the man breaks free enough to lunge again. A careful search of the operative’s pockets reveals the intruder has been to the Armstrong home, confirming the family’s vulnerability.
Returning home, Martin confronts Mindy and learns that Lucy and Katie have perished in a fire that Mindy claims started by accident, while Jamie survived and was taken into custody by the authorities. The devastating news pushes Martin to press on into the forest once more, determined to finish what Red Leaf started. He finally locates the Tasmanian tiger and, with a heavy, reluctant resolve, shoots it and then cremates the body to erase any trace of its existence. The aftermath finds him back in town, calling Red Leaf to declare that what they were chasing is “gone forever.”
The final scene centers on a quiet reconciliation of sorts. Martin visits a school where Jamie sits on a lone bench, and when the boy sees him, he runs toward him with open arms. The embrace signals a fragile hope amid a harrowing ordeal, a reminder of the personal toll of the mission and the chance for a future beyond the hunt.
