The Hunter

Martin David is hired by Red Leaf to travel to Tasmania and collect samples from the thylacine, with orders to kill all remaining tigers to prevent rivals from obtaining their DNA. He travels under the guise of a university biologist as the mission begins. The assignment foreshadows a morally suspect path driven by corporate stakes.

Martin lodges with Lucy Armstrong and her children, Jamie and Katie, posing as a university biologist. He learns of Lucy’s dependence on prescribed medication and the mysterious disappearance of her environmentalist husband, Jarrah. The local conflict between loggers and environmentalists adds a tense undercurrent to his stay.

Martin heads into the Tasmanian bush for twelve-day stints, setting up steel traps and improvised snares to monitor for a tiger. He waits patiently for a surface sign, using long absences to earn the family’s trust with periodic check-ins. He leaves clear maps of his coordinates with the Armstrongs in case he fails to return on schedule.

During his brief resupply visits, Martin grows protective of the Armstrong children and begins to form a bond with Jamie. He shares his stubborn resolve while keeping Jarrah's fate and the tiger mission hidden from the family. His growing rapport deepens the tension between his professional secrecy and his personal concern.

Martin confronts Lucy’s addiction by confiscating her medication and bathing her while she is unconscious to address the harm caused by her dependence. He recognizes the danger her dependency poses to the family and himself. This act marks a moral turning point for him as the mission continues.

On a later return, Lucy’s symptoms ease, and Jamie provides a key clue—a drawing of a tiger near trees and water—that helps Martin deduce the tiger’s likely location on his map. This clue sharpens his hunt and links the family’s world to the wilderness hunt. The scene deepens the impending reckoning with Red Leaf’s plan.

On a subsequent expedition, Martin discovers the skeletal remains of Jarrah, evidence that he had been shot through the head. He buries Jarrah respectfully but does not reveal his findings to the Armstrong family. The revelation layer adds a covert truth about Red Leaf’s involvement.

Back at the Armstrong residence, Lucy explains that Red Leaf had initially contracted Jarrah to locate the tiger but that Jarrah switched to environmental advocacy. The company’s motive is hinted at—finding a venomous bite to leverage control over the tiger’s DNA. The moral tension escalates as Martin absorbs this corporate plot.

While checking his traps, Martin is ambushed by a rival Red Leaf operative who intends to replace him and retrieve the tiger data. He is bound and forced to guide the man to the tiger’s cave, but he leads him past a trap; the operative steps on it and is incapacitated as Martin frees himself and shoots him. Martin discovers the operative has already visited the Armstrong house, and he retrieves the pocket map from the dead man’s coat.

Returning to the Armstrong residence, Martin discovers it burnt to the ground. Mindy reveals that Lucy and Katie perished in the fire, while Jamie survived and was taken by authorities. The evidence seals the collapse of the family’s domestic life under Red Leaf’s shadow.

With Lucy and Katie gone, Martin sets out into the bush again to locate the Tasmanian tiger and put an end to Red Leaf’s pursuit. The mission re-commences under personal resolve to finish what the corporate scheme started. The hunt becomes a solitary, unforgiving march through the wilderness.

Martin finally discovers the Tasmanian tiger and shoots it, choosing mercy by killing it rather than letting it survive Red Leaf’s pursuit of DNA. He cremates the corpse to erase all traces of the species’ existence. He then returns to town, calls Red Leaf to say the tiger is gone forever, and finds Jamie waiting at a school bench, where they embrace.