This article discusses the ending of the Netflix film The Harder They Fall and will contain spoilers.
Ready Steady Cut Film Critic, M.N. Miller, said, “The Harder They Fall is a relentless Western that bristles with vitality.”
The Harder They Fall uses real-life black legends of the west to tell its story of the endless cycle of revenge. The man looking for some satisfaction is Nat Love (The Last Black Man in San Francisco’s Jonathan Majors), a former slave that’s going to take that from Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) of the aptly titled Rufus Buck Gang. They have a terrible reputation for murder and robbery. Nat knows this all too well. Rufus came to his house and murdered his preacher father and his saint of a mother. He didn’t kill Nat, however. He did, though, carve a cross in his forehead, this way he could see him coming when he seeks revenge as a man.
Team Love consists of Stage Coach Mary, an outlaw, and the owner of several saloons. Rounding out the group are Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi), Jim Beckworth (RJ Cyler), Mary’s hired muscle, Cuffee (Danielle Deadwyler), and the legendary lawman Bass Reeves. Team Buck consists of “Treacherous” Trudy Smith (Regina King) and the eloquent Cherokee Bill (Keith Stanfield). The latter is a spokesperson of sorts. They meet in a town that might as well be called Bucksville, The Lovebugs need to spring Stage Coach Mary. She is being held, from what I can only guess, has been dedicated as Rufus Buck prison.
Netflix film The Harder They Fall ending explained
It all comes down to this— after Cherokee Bill kills Beckworth and Pickett, he is gunned down by Cuffee. Mary has a rough tussle with “Treacherous” Trudy. She ends up knocking her out cold. She doesn’t kill her, however. More on that later. Then Buck and Cuffee let Nat enter the home where Rufus watched from his perched view like his vulture.
When Nat meets him in the foyer, Rufus takes a snort and looks like he is in his Western Sunday’s best (cool hat). Nat demands he stands up and grabs his gun, but Rufus shockingly refuses. He approaches Nat with a look in his that he will unveil a hidden truth that has been weighing on him for years. And he does. It’s not as big as the one Darth Vader told Luke, but it’s close. He tells Nat that he, Rufus, is Nat’s half-brother.
Nat, understandably shocked, is upset. Nat’s father was an abusive drunk who beat Rufus and his mother until he left him as a child. He straightened out his life. He became a preacher and started a family, with that child being Nat— the one he carved the cross into! Rufus begs him to end the revenge right there and now. With tears flowing down his eyes, he pulls the trigger and kills his brother. Not finishing the cycle of revenge but continuing it. Why? Because as the remaining members of Nat Love’s group ride away, we then see the back of Trudym standing on a hill. She watched them ride off into the sunset.
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