Left for dead after a vicious grizzly bear attack, a mangled Hugh Glass is left with a choice: to die an unfortunate death or to pick up his broken, brittle body and fight for what is his.

This is not a story of redemption, but revenge.

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant is inspired by true events and successfully displays the full spectrum of human pain, suffering and sacrifice. It tells the tale of a 19^th century fur trapper with nothing to lose, but everything to gain and the brutal search for the one man who wronged him.

This is not a story for the faint-hearted.

It expresses both physical and psychological trauma in a way that shakes the viewer to the core. There is no pause, no humor to break the horror, just raw, unfiltered emotion. Leonardo DiCaprio embodies this role with great success and fully captures the devastating beauty of a man desperately attempting to defy all odds.

Adding naturally stunning cinematography to the mix, The Revenant becomes a recipe that serves a much higher purpose.

This is a story about life.

Fragile and precious, yet strong and persistent, life is an unpredictable creature. With death always whisking its cold wind, there is an everlasting battle to fight. The Revenant faces life and death in a beautifully simplistic way. It is emotionally trying and brutally heart wrenching, but in leaving the theater with a pit in your stomach, you will also leave with a better sense of life and the experience of being alive.

“As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe. Keep breathing. When there is a storm and you stand in front of a tree, if you look at its branches, you swear it will fall. But if you watch the trunk, you will see its stability.”

See the trailer here.