| Director | Sydney Pollack |
|---|---|
| Genre | Western film, drama film, film based on a novel |
| Runtime | 108 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $3.1 million |
| Box office | $44.7 million |
Around 1848, Mexican War veteran Jeremiah Johnson takes up the life of a mountain man, supporting himself in the Rocky Mountains as a trapper. His first winter in mountain country is difficult, and he has a run-in with Paints-His-Shirt-Red, a chief of the Crow tribe. Johnson inadvertently disrupts the grizzly bear hunt of the elderly and eccentric Chris Lapp, nicknamed "Bear Claw", who mentors him on living in the high country. After a brush with Crows, including Lapp's acquaintance Paints-His-Shirt-Red and learning the skills required to survive, Johnson sets off on his own.
He comes across a cabin whose inhabitants were apparently attacked by Blackfoot warriors, leaving alive only a woman and her uncommunicative son. The woman, maddened by grief, forces Johnson to adopt her son. He and the boy, whom Johnson dubs "Caleb", come across Del Gue, a mountain man who has been robbed by the Blackfeet. Gue persuades Johnson to help recover his stolen goods, but Johnson counsels against violence when they find the Blackfoot camp.
The men sneak into the camp at night to retrieve Gue's possessions, but Gue opens fire and the mountain men then kill the Blackfeet. Gue takes several Blackfoot horses and scalps. Johnson, disgusted with the needless killing, returns to Caleb. Soon afterward, they are surprised by Christianized Flatheads, who take them in as guests of honor. Johnson unknowingly places the chief in his debt by giving him the Blackfeet horses and scalps. According to Flathead custom, to maintain his honor the chief must either give his guest a greater gift or kill him. The chief gives his daughter Swan to be Johnson's bride. After the wedding, Gue goes off on his own, and Johnson, Caleb and Swan journey into the wilderness. Johnson finds a suitable location to build a cabin. They settle into this new home and slowly become a family.
This life is interrupted by the arrival of a U.S. Army cavalry rescue party tasked with saving a stranded wagon train of settlers. Although Johnson is reluctant, he is pressed into guiding the rescue party through the mountains, leaving his family alone at their cabin. During the journey, cavalry commander Lieutenant Mulvey orders the party to proceed through a sacred Crow burial ground against Johnson's advice. Afterward, Johnson returns home by the same route and notices that the graves are now adorned with Swan's blue trinkets; he rushes back to the cabin, where he finds that Swan and Caleb have been killed.
Johnson sets off after the warriors who killed his family and attacks them, killing all but one, a heavy-set man who sings his death song when he realizes he cannot escape. Johnson leaves him alive, and the survivor spreads the tale of the mountain man's quest for revenge throughout the region, trapping Johnson in a feud with the Crow. The tribe sends its best warriors one at a time to kill Johnson, but he defeats each one. His legend grows, and the Crow come to respect him. He meets Gue again and returns to the cabin of Caleb's mother, only to find that she has died and a new settler named Qualen and his family are living there. Nearby the Crow have built a monument to Johnson's bravery, leaving trinkets and talismans as tribute.
Johnson and Lapp meet for a final time. It is at this meeting that Lapp realizes the heavy toll that fighting an entire nation alone in a vast and lonesome frontier has taken on Johnson. Lapp indicates as much when he remarks that Johnson has "come far", to which Johnson replies "Feels like far." Lapp then queries "Were it worth the trouble?" "What trouble?" Johnson replies. Later, Johnson has a wordless encounter with Paints-His-Shirt-Red, presumed to be behind the attacks. While sitting astride their horses far apart, Johnson reaches for his rifle, but Paints-His-Shirt-Red raises his hand, open-palmed, in a gesture of peace that Johnson returns, signaling an end to their conflict. The film ends with the song lyrics, "And some folks say he's up there still."