The movie The Revenant starring Leonardo DiCaprio is getting a lot of buzz: Oscars, Golden Globes, you name it. The story of fur trapper Hugh Glass, also has a tie to Nebraska.
The Revenant follows frontiersman Hugh Glass on a fur trading expedition. He fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and then is left for dead by members of his own hunting team. It's inspired by true events, with ties to the good life. though its hard to imagine a good life in the bitter cold setting of the movie.
John Slader, Superintendent at Fort Atkinson historical park took KMTV out for the real story on the true events that inspired the film. Back in 1800's men hunted for beaver pelts in the west and midwest rivers. There was a hugh glass who was mauled by a grizzly bear during Gen. William Henry Ashley's expedition of 1823 in the Dakota territory, but it gets sketchy from there.
Sadler says, we do know that glass nursed himself back to health, and then hunted Jim Bridger and Thomas Fitzgerald the two guys that left him for dead.
"{Glass} came into contact with Jim Bridger by some of the remembrances and forgave him because Bridger was a young man at that time," Sadler said.
Then is was onto Fort Atkinson in Nebraska where Fitzgerald was. He had enlisted in the army.
"At that time {Glass} was probably not allowed anywhere near Mr. Fitzgerald. He was probably given a weapon and sent on his way," Slader said.
So the real story is not as dramatic as the movie ending. In the Revenant film, there's an avalanche fall and a fight between Tom Hardy, who plays John Fitzgerald and DiCaprio, who plays Glass. We won't tell you how that ends though, we don't want to have a spoiler in this story.
