Throwback (2014) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

A yowie is a large, hairy, ape-like creature that inhabits the remote Australian bush in Throwback. Detective McNab dismisses it as an "evolutionary throwback," but the film presents it as a real, predatory beast responsible for multiple disappearances and brutal killings throughout northeastern Australia, including the 1825 massacre of Thunderclap Newman and the robber.

Foreshadowing: The 1825 opening scene establishes the creature's existence long before Jack and Kent encounter it, hinting that the legend of Newman's gold carries a lethal cost.

• yowie
• creature
• evolutionary throwback
• australian bush
• monster

Kent betrays Jack the moment they locate Thunderclap Newman's gold, revealing that his partnership was never genuine. Driven entirely by greed, Kent attempts to kill Jack to claim the fortune for himself, abandoning him unconscious on the riverbank.

Foreshadowing: Kent's sudden distraction by movement on the opposite bank suggests his greed makes him impulsive and easily manipulated by opportunity.

• kent betrayal
• treasure hunt
• greed
• jack
• gold

Jack and Rhiannon discover during their escape that the yowie will not cross running water, which becomes their primary survival tactic. This behavioral trait is never fully explained, but it functions as the creature's one exploitable weakness, repeatedly giving the heroes a momentary reprieve during pursuit.

• yowie
• water
• escape
• survival
• creature weakness

Detective McNab is killed by the yowie while attempting to photograph the creature as proof. His phone rings at the exact moment he tries to take the picture, breaking his concentration and leaving him vulnerable. The yowie then brutally dismembers him, showing that even a skeptical investigator is no match for the beast.

Foreshadowing: McNab openly dismisses Kent's warnings about the yowie, treating it as a fantasy rather than a real threat, which sets up his downfall.

• detective mcnab
• death
• yowie attack
• phone
• dismembered

After McNab handcuffs him to a tree root and is killed by the yowie, Kent is left trapped in the same spot as a fresh kill site. To resume his pursuit of Jack and the gold, Kent uses a rock to break his own hand, sliding free of the cuffs at the cost of severe injury.

• kent
• handcuffs
• broken hand
• escape
• pursuit

Jack steals a stick of dynamite from the yowie's own lair, where Rhiannon was taken after being shot. The creature had apparently collected the explosives from previous victims or camps in the area, and Jack uses it as a last-resort weapon during the final chase along the cliff.

Foreshadowing: The yowie's lair is shown containing belongings stolen from previous victims, hinting that useful survival tools might also be stockpiled there.

• dynamite
• yowie lair
• explosion
• final confrontation
• cliff

Jack comes to view the gold as a curse after watching Kent, McNab, and others die in pursuit of it. By the final confrontation, he prioritizes Rhiannon's survival over the treasure, choosing to escape with her rather than recover the nugget hidden in the river.

Foreshadowing: Every death in the film is directly tied to someone's pursuit of the gold or refusal to abandon the jungle, reinforcing the cursed-gold theme.

• gold curse
• jack
• rhiannon
• greed
• ending

Thunderclap Newman is a notorious 1800s Australian outlaw who is introduced in the 1825 prologue. He claims the gold nugget taken from the Chinese gold panner, only to be killed by the yowie moments later. His name lives on as the source of the treasure legend that draws Jack and Kent into the jungle centuries later.

• thunderclap newman
• outlaw
• 1825
• prologue
• gold legend

Kent dies during his final struggle with Jack, who refuses to let him take the gold or Rhiannon. After Jack overpowers him one last time, Kent is left behind in the bush as Jack escapes with the unconscious Rhiannon, completing the yowie's claim over the cursed treasure.

• kent death
• final fight
• jack
• rhiannon
• ending

After arming himself with McNab's gun, Kent shoots Rhiannon in the leg and takes her hostage to lure the yowie into a trap. His plan is to ambush the creature, but it backfires when Jack recovers and escapes with her, exposing how far Kent's greed has eroded his humanity.

• kent
• rhiannon
• bait
• yowie trap
• hostage

The Chinese man is robbed at gunpoint of a gold nugget he has just panned, and shortly afterward his screams are heard offscreen as the yowie attacks him. His death is never shown directly, but it is implied that the creature kills him while the two robbers argue over the stolen nugget.

Foreshadowing: The Chinese man's silent death establishes the yowie's pattern of striking when humans are distracted by gold and conflict.

• chinese man
• 1825
• prologue
• gold nugget
• yowie kill

Jack and Kent work as exterminators by profession but pursue treasure hunting on the side, with Newman's lost gold as their target. They paddle up the same river from the 1825 legend and use GPS coordinates to locate the hidden lava tubes where the gold is supposedly cached.

• jack
• kent
• treasure hunt
• lava tubes
• gps
• newman gold