Tom Hardy's Unforgettable Survival Movie Is Officially the Best Western on Netflix

Published Sep 18, 2026, 4:50 PM EDT

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If you're caught up on spaghetti Westerns, you're probably also well aware of the fact that a Western doesn’t have to be set in a desert to be classified as such, since The Great Silence is an absolute all-timer of a non-American Western, and that’s one of the coldest (visually and emotionally) movies ever made. The same goes for The Hateful Eight, which is exceptionally snowy yet definitely a Western, with that movie coming out in 2015… an unusually good year for chilly and unconventional Western films, since The Revenant also arrived in cinemas that year.

It’s been more than a decade, but people are still watching it, suggesting it’s got staying power and might well be on its way to qualifying as a genuine classic one day (assuming a certain number of years have to pass before classic status is confirmed). The Revenant’s been high on Netflix’s charts, with stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy remaining popular since 2015, but some of that current popularity might also have something to do with the director of The Revenant, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, having – at the time of writing – a movie about to come out: 2026’s Digger. Not that you need a reason to rewatch The Revenant, and maybe there are more reasons not to revisit it, owing to how intense and intentionally grueling it is, but it has remained popular and survived in public consciousness… which is fitting, for a movie that is so heavily about survival.

'The Revenant' Works as a Movie About Survival and Revenge

Image via 20th Century Fox

The Revenant focuses on Hugh Glass, who’s played by DiCaprio, and really kicks off when he’s left for dead in the wilderness, which follows a bear attack, but the bear attack follows another brutal sequence where Glass and the fur trappers he’s accompanying are attacked (and almost wiped out) by a war party. Post-bear attack, John Fitzgerald (Hardy’s character) tries to kill Glass, but only succeeds in killing Glass’s son, Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), settling for merely leaving Glass himself for dead. Glass is buried, but not genuinely dead, and he overcomes an immense amount of psychological and physical anguish to get back to civilization and/or get revenge on Fitzgerald.

Glass is buried, but not genuinely dead, and he overcomes an immense amount of psychological and physical anguish to get back to civilization and/or get revenge.

He’s motivated to survive against all odds, and then it’s very easy to understand why he also wants to seek vengeance. It’s probably even the desire for the latter that keeps him going, as regards the former (you know, surviving). If it was one or the other, The Revenant would be great, but it’s the interplay between the two – and the way that enhances the psychological drama/character study stuff at the film’s center – that really elevates the overall movie. And with all the other things helping, of course, including those two prominent performances by DiCaprio and Hardy.

Tom Hardy's Role in 'The Revenant'

So, as the plot summary makes clear, Tom Hardy is the antagonist in The Revenant. He’s a complex antagonist, and the kind where you might see where he’s coming from, for a while. There is a certain pragmatism to his feelings that Hugh Glass should be left for dead, and before he kills Glass’s son, he has more of a point. He does betray Glass, since he volunteers to wait with an injured Glass before using the opportunity to try to kill him… but you can maybe understand his point of view. To a point.

His fight for survival, against a not-quite-dead Glass, does mirror Glass’s own fight for survival, in some ways, because Fitzgerald does some brutal and questionable things in the quest to stay alive, but that attempt to survive is in line with the protagonist’s. It’s something they technically share, even if Fitzgerald is someone who got himself into a mess with his immoral decisions… that’s a big difference. But you need a difference between the protagonist and antagonist in a film like this, and as long as they share a few similarities (abstract or more direct), then that’s okay. It works for The Revenant, and while it’s principally a character study for Hugh Glass, and allows Leonardo DiCaprio the most by way of opportunities to shine, Tom Hardy still ends up making a notable impression through his role.

How 'The Revenant' Qualifies As a Western

Image via 20th Century Studios

If you didn’t think of The Revenant as a Western, that’s forgivable, especially considering how cold it is. It’s a wintry sort of Western, and admittedly set a little before the period that most classic/traditional Westerns are set, because it plays out in the 1820s, while most Westerns take place during the second half of the 19th century. What it unpacks thematically is very Western-ish, though, since it’s about morality and justice in times that were overall a bit more lawless, to say the least. And it explores conflict that took part during the American Indian Wars, too, which itself (or all the conflicts contained within it) played out over at least a couple of centuries.

It’s enough of a Western, and honestly, a bit of a range in terms of setting and content (this is far more violent than your run-of-the-mill traditional Western made during the genre’s heyday) doesn’t hurt the genre overall. The Revenant is great, obviously, and its success on Netflix recently is more than understandable. If you've seen it too many times and want something else from 2015 that stars Tom Hardy and might almost/sort of be a Western if you squint hard enough, there is always Mad Max: Fury Road (for what it’s worth, a fight for survival plays a pretty big role in that movie, too).

The Revenant