True Grit
The film is narrated by Mattie Ross (Elizabeth Marvel), who explains that her father was murdered by one of his hired hands, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), when she was 14 (Hailee Steinfeld); Chaney made off with her father's horses and two of his California gold pieces. While collecting her father's body, Mattie inquires about a Deputy U.S. Marshal to hire to track down Chaney. She is given three recommendations, but chooses to hire Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), because he is described as the most merciless. He repeatedly rebuffs her attempts to hire him.
Meanwhile, at the boarding house where she is staying, Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Matt Damon) arrives on the trail of Chaney. La Boeuf has been pursuing him for several months over a murder in Texas. He proposes to Mattie that they should team up with Cogburn, since the Marshall knows the Choctaw terrain where Chaney is hiding, while La Boeuf knows how the man is most likely to behave. Mattie rejects La Boeuf's offer, partially because he would take Chaney back to Texas to be hanged for the prior murder, instead of her father's. After finally securing Cogburn's services, Mattie is instructed to meet him the following morning to begin the search for Chaney. Instead of meeting her, though, Cogburn leaves her a note telling her to go home, while he goes to apprehend Chaney.
Mattie catches up with Cogburn after fording a river on her horse. He has teamed up with La Boeuf and agreed to split the Texas reward for Chaney. Accusing him of fraud, Mattie threatens to have Cogburn arrested for breaking their agreement, which specified that she must accompany him on the manhunt. Reluctantly, he allows Mattie to come along. After a disagreement, La Boeuf sets off on his own in search of Chaney. Eventually, Mattie and Cogburn come across an isolated shack, where two outlaws are staying. After they turn on each other, Cogburn kills the older outlaw, and as the younger one is dying, he explains that "Lucky" Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper) and his gang were planning on returning to the shack later that night. Believing Chaney to be riding with Pepper's gang, Cogburn and Mattie lie in wait for the gang.
However, La Boeuf rides up to the shack ahead of the gang. When the gang arrives, they lasso La Boeuf and drag him behind a horse. Cogburn opens fire from his hiding spot, and kills several members of the gang, wounding La Boeuf. During the night, Cogburn drinks a great deal of whiskey and is severely drunk the next morning. The following night, he and La Boeuf argue again, and La Boeuf departs once more. The next morning, as Mattie draws water at the river, she encounters Chaney who is watering the gang's horses. She draws her father's pistol and shoots him. The pistol misfires as she tries to finish him off, and he drags her back to the gang. Ned uses Mattie as a hostage, to get Cogburn to ride off. Ned leaves Mattie with Chaney, ordering him not to kill her. He plans to send a horse back for Chaney later in the day, once the gang have reached a new hideout.
Once alone, Chaney attacks Mattie; La Boeuf knocks Chaney out with his rifle butt, and explains that when he heard the shots in the morning, he rode back and encountered Cogburn, who hatched a plan. La Boeuf and Mattie watch from their perch as Cogburn takes on the four surviving members of Ned's gang. He kills three of them and mortally wounds Ned before his horse is shot out from under him. As the dying Ned is about to kill Cogburn, La Boeuf fires his rifle and kills Ned. Chaney comes to and attacks La Boeuf. Mattie grabs La Boeuf's rifle and kills Chaney, but the recoil knocks her back into a snake-filled chasm. She is bitten before Cogburn can rescue her. Cogburn and Mattie leave the wounded La Boeuf at the chasm, and Cogburn rides through the night to get Mattie to a doctor, arriving just in time.
Twenty-five years later, Mattie – now 39 and with only one arm, due to amputation necessitated by the snakebite – receives an invitation from Cogburn to meet him at a traveling Wild West show with which he is performing. When she arrives at the site, she learns that Cogburn died three days earlier. She has his body moved into her family plot, and the film ends with her standing over his grave and pondering how time catches up with everyone.
