The Tracker

Three mounted policemen are led by an Aboriginal Tracker as they hunt a fugitive across the Australian outback in 1922. In charge is the Fanatic, cold, ruthless and calculating. Then there is the Follower, a greenhorn, new to the outback and the Veteran, a thinker rather than a doer. But the real leader, whether the others know it or not, is the Tracker, a mysterious figure who clearly isn’t who he seems. They are half a day behind the Fugitive, a black man accused of murder. The whites sense a hostile black behind every tree. When they surprise a small group of bush blacks, the subsequent interrogation session turns into a small massacre. From that point the expedition falls into increasing disarray. The packhorse is speared, out of nowhere. Suspicion falls on the Tracker, who is chained for his impertinence. Then the Veteran is speared. His wounds slow the party’s progress, and that night the Fanatic, thinking he is unobserved, kills him. The pressure mounts …