You can tell immediately, in watching the trailer for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant, that, like Birdman and Gravity, it was shot by master cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, as the camera orbits and sweeps around characters’ brutal acts as though they were planets (…or Birdmen). It’s one of the things that makes the predominantly non-verbal first trailer for the film so captivating — well, that and Leonardo DiCaprio’s wild grimaces as he makes his way through the wilderness as a betrayed hunter seeking revenge.
The film is based on true events, and follows Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) on his quest to “exact vengeance” on John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), the member of his hunting team who betrayed him by leaving him to die after he’d been injured. The Revenant, which also stars Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter, was written and directed by by Iñárritu and adapted from the novel by Michael Punke.
Watch the trailer: