Bone Tomahawk is a 2015 American Western film written and directed by S. Craig Zahler in his directorial debut, and starring Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Evan Jonigkeit, David Arquette and Sid Haig. It was produced by Jack Heller and Dallas Sonnier. The film is about a small-town sheriff who leads a posse into a desolate region to rescue three people who were abducted by a cannibalistic Native American clan.
Development of the film started when Zahler's friend and manager Sonnier recommended to create a film adaptation of Zahler's Western novel Wraiths of a Broken Land. Realizing that such a project could not be adapted on a low budget, Zahler opted to write a rescue Western instead. Casting began in October 2014, with Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Olyphant, and Jennifer Carpenter signed on to play before being replaced by Wilson, Fox, and Simmons respectively due to scheduling conflicts. Principal photography took place in California over a course of 21 days in October 2014.
The premiere of Bone Tomahawk took place at Fantastic Fest on October 1, 2015. RLJ Entertainment gave the film a limited release on October 23, grossing over $480,000 in theater sales and $4.32 million in home media sales against a $1.8 million budget. The film received mainly positive reviews, with praise for Zahler's screenplay and direction and the performances of the ensemble cast, and has since become a cult classic.
Plot
In the 1890s, brigands Purvis and Buddy encounter a Native American burial site. They are ambushed and Buddy is killed while Purvis escapes. Purvis reaches the nearby town of Bright Hope and buries his loot; seeing this, Deputy Chicory reports him to Sheriff Franklin Hunt, who shoots Purvis (who tells the sheriff his name is Buddy) in the leg when he attempts to escape. Hunt sends the confident gunslinger John Brooder to fetch the town's doctor, but ends up fetching Samantha O'Dwyer, the doctor's daughter and assistant, who is caring for her injured husband Arthur. Hunt leaves Samantha in the sheriff's office with his other deputy, Nick, to tend to Purvis' wounds. That night, a nearby stable boy is killed.
Hunt learns of the murder and goes to his office finding it empty, with an arrow left behind. The Professor, an educated Native American, links the arrow to a tribe that he refers to as "Troglodytes" and locates the valley they inhabit on a map, warning Hunt that they are a group of inbred cannibals shunned and avoided by other native tribes. Certain that Samantha, Nick, and 'Buddy' (actually Purvis) have been captured by them, Hunt forms a rescue party with Chicory and Brooder. Arthur insists on accompanying them to find his wife, despite his injury.
Days into their ride, two strangers stumble across the rescue party's camp and are killed by Brooder, who fears they are scouts for a raid. The rescue party set up a new camp, but are ambushed by raiders who injure Brooder's horse and steal the rest. The following day, a fight breaks out between Brooder and Arthur, exacerbating Arthur's leg wound. Chicory leaves him to recover while he, Hunt, and Brooder continue on foot. Reaching the valley, the rescue party are ambushed by the Troglodytes. The rescuers kill three, but Brooder is injured, choosing to sacrifice himself, rather than live as 'a cripple'. Hunt and Chicory are captured and imprisoned.
Hunt and Chicory find Samantha and Nick in a different cell and learn the Troglodytes have already killed and eaten Purvis. The group witnesses Nick stripped, brutally scalped, bisected alive, and then consumed. Hunt tricks several Troglodytes into drinking liquor laced with opium tincture, with one dying while another becomes unconscious. Arthur follows the men's trail and discovers the valley. He kills two Troglodytes and discovers they use an animal bone in their windpipes as a whistle. He blows on it, luring another Troglodyte, then kills him.
In the cave, the Troglodyte leader grows angry at the poisoning. The Troglodytes cut open Hunt's abdomen, shove the heated opium flask into the wound, and shoot him. Arthur arrives and aids Hunt in killing the leader, and frees Samantha and Chicory. A mortally wounded Hunt stays behind with a rifle, promising to kill any surviving Troglodytes when they return, to prevent them from terrorizing Bright Hope. As the three leave the cave, they see two pregnant Troglodyte women, who have had all their limbs amputated and stakes driven into their eyes to blind them. After the party is at a distance from the valley, Arthur blows on the Troglodyte whistle, with no response. They then hear three gunshots.