True Grit recap

Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross travels to Fort Smith after hired hand Tom Chaney murders her father and flees into Indian Territory. She recovers money from horse trader Colonel Stonehill and hires the hard-drinking, one-eyed marshal Rooster Cogburn to bring Chaney back. Texas Ranger LaBoeuf joins the hunt because Chaney is wanted in Texas. Mattie forces the two men to accept her on the expedition, and the three track Chaney to outlaw Lucky Ned Pepper's gang. Mattie finds Chaney and shoots him, but is captured before Rooster confronts the gang. LaBoeuf helps defeat Pepper, and Mattie shoots Chaney again, killing him, before falling into a snake pit. Rooster rescues her and rides Little Blackie to death seeking a doctor. Mattie survives but loses an arm. Decades later she goes to see Rooster in a Wild West show, arrives just after his death, and brings his body home for burial in her family plot.

In 1870s Arkansas, fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross recounts how her father Frank was shot and killed in Fort Smith by Tom Chaney, a hired hand with a violent temper. Chaney takes Frank's money and horse and escapes into Indian Territory, where Arkansas authorities cannot readily follow. Mattie travels from Yell County with farm worker Yarnell Poindexter to identify her father's body and arrange its return home. Rather than leave with Yarnell, she stays in Fort Smith to settle the horse purchases that brought her father there and to employ a federal marshal. Her mother and family lawyer remain at home, so Mattie relies on her own command of the accounts and her certainty that Chaney must answer for the murder.

Mattie studies the deputy marshals available for work in Indian Territory and is drawn to Reuben 'Rooster' Cogburn, a one-eyed veteran known for both courage and an alarming readiness to shoot. She watches him give sharp, evasive testimony in court about men killed during an attempted arrest. His rough appearance and questionable methods do not discourage her; they persuade her that he may possess the resolve the pursuit requires. She approaches him about hunting Chaney and makes clear that she wants the fugitive returned to face justice for Frank Ross's murder, not simply driven away or killed without an accounting.

Mattie forces livestock dealer Colonel Stonehill to settle over the ponies her father bought, using careful figures and the threat of her lawyer to overcome his resistance. The money lets her hire Rooster, though he remains inclined to manage the chase on his own terms. Texas Ranger LaBoeuf then appears with a competing claim: Chaney is also wanted for murder in Texas, and a substantial reward awaits his capture there. Rooster and LaBoeuf see advantages in joining forces, while Mattie insists that Chaney should first answer in Arkansas for killing her father. When the men try to leave her behind, she pursues them on Little Blackie and crosses the river herself. Her persistence wins her a place in the party, despite continued friction with both lawmen.

The three travel deeper into Indian Territory, following reports that Chaney has joined Lucky Ned Pepper's outlaw band. Their disagreements continue, but Mattie proves able to withstand the journey. At a remote dugout they find two of Pepper's associates, Moon and Emmett Quincy. Rooster wounds Moon and questions him about the gang's movements. Moon begins to reveal that Pepper is due at the hideout, but Quincy attacks him to stop him from talking. Rooster kills Quincy, and the mortally wounded Moon gives them enough information to prepare an ambush. The confrontation that follows is confused and costly, and Pepper's surviving men get away. The hunters nevertheless now know that Chaney is traveling with the gang and continue after them.

Mattie unexpectedly encounters Tom Chaney near the outlaws' camp and shoots him with her father's revolver, wounding but not stopping him. When the weapon fails to fire again, Chaney captures her. Rooster confronts Lucky Ned Pepper and the mounted gang in the open, charging despite being outnumbered. With LaBoeuf's long-range help, Pepper and the other outlaws are defeated. Chaney attacks again, but Mattie fires LaBoeuf's rifle and kills him. The recoil throws her backward into a deep pit. Her arm is broken, and a rattlesnake bites her before Rooster can climb down. Rooster kills the snakes, frees her, and begins a desperate trip toward medical care, pushing Little Blackie until the pony collapses and then carrying Mattie himself.

Rooster's urgent effort gets Mattie to treatment alive, but the damage and delay make it necessary to amputate her arm. He departs before she is well enough to thank him, while LaBoeuf survives and returns to Texas. Mattie goes home, settles into adult life, and becomes a capable banker; she never marries and never sees either lawman again. Twenty-five years after the pursuit, she learns that Rooster has joined a traveling Wild West show. She makes the journey to see him, but he has died only days before she arrives. Mattie has his remains brought to Arkansas and buried in the Ross family plot. Her final reflections defend his character against those who remember only his violence and roughness, and preserve the expedition as the defining proof of the grit she sought in him and showed herself.

After Mattie shoots Tom Chaney, the recoil knocks her into a deep pit where she breaks an arm and is bitten by a rattlesnake. Rooster gets her out and races Little Blackie toward medical help. The pony runs until his strength is gone and dies; Rooster then carries Mattie until they meet assistance. Treatment saves her life but not her injured arm, which is amputated. Rooster leaves before she recovers, and LaBoeuf returns to Texas after surviving his wounds. Mattie never sees the ranger again. Twenty-five years later, the unmarried Mattie learns that Rooster is appearing in a traveling Wild West show and goes to meet him, only to find that he died a few days before her arrival. She has his body moved to her family cemetery in Arkansas. Looking back as a successful banker, she remains proud of the hard journey and of the marshal she hired, while the graves beside him remain available for her and the family members who will eventually join them.