The Hunter is a 2011 Australian film starring Willem Dafoe. Dafoe plays Martin David, an agent of a mysterious organisation known as Red Leaf. He has been sent to Tasmania to illegally hunt down the last remaining Tasmanian tiger, intending to collect DNA samples, due to the alleged properties of the tiger's venom.
Along the way, he stays with a strange family, consisting of two children, Sass and Bike, and their mother, Lucy, who appears to be asleep most of the time. Their father, Jarrah, disappeared in the forest several months before. They are cared for by a family friend, Jack Mindy (Sam Neill), who also offers to guide Martin around the forest.
Martin poses as a scientist looking to research the Tasmanian devil. He spends much of the film in the Tasmanian wilderness laying traps for the elusive creature. However, things get ugly when the local townsfolk begin to suspect that he's up to something...
- Alas, Poor Yorick: Martin finds Jarrah's remains and holds the skull like this.
- Bear Trap: Martin sets many of these to catch the Tasmanian tiger.
- Chekhov's Gun: Jarrah's metal water bottle, the steel traps.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Done casually by an eight year old girl:
Sass: Dad says the fucking fucker's fucked! |
- Cute Mute: Bike never speaks throughout the entire film.
- Heel Face Turn: Martin, arguably, as he begins to care more for the family he is staying with than his mission and then betrays the organisation he works for.
- Infant Immortality: Heartbreakingly averted.
- Last of His Kind: The Tasmanian tiger, allegedly.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The look on Martin's face right after he shoots the tiger.
- Never Found the Body: Jarrah. Subverted when Martin does eventually find his remains.
- Scenery Porn: The Tasmanian wilderness provides plenty.
- Shoot the Tiger .