SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
Following the loss of their son, a retired sheriff and his wife leave their Montana ranch to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Let Him Go Plot Summary and Synopsis
In 1961 Montana, retired sheriff George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his wife Margaret (Diane Lane) live with their son James (Ryan Bruce), his wife Lorna (Kayli Carter), and their newborn grandson, Jimmy.
One day while James is out riding his horse, Lorna readies a sink bath for Jimmy. While they are bathing Jimmy, the wild horse comes running back through the farm without James.
George finally finds James dead alongside a creek. It is assumed that he died from being thrown from the horse, breaking his neck.
Three years later, Lorna marries Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain). While out one day, Margaret sees Donnie physically abusing both his wife and Jimmy. Margaret decides to visit Lorna and Jimmy at their new home, without knowing that Donnie has decided to leave town with Lorna and Jimmy.
When she discovers that Donnie, Lorna and Jimmy have left without even saying goodbye, Margaret worries over Jimmy’s safety. She eventually convinces George that the situation is dire enough to intervene, and the two set off to find the family.
Various sources clue them into the whereabouts of the Weboy family, including a young Native American man named Peter (Booboo Stewart).
Margaret and George finally locate Donnie’s uncle, Bill Weboy (Jeffrey Donovan), in Gladstone, North Dakota. Their initial meeting is cold, but Margaret refuses to be intimidated and accepts Bill’s invitation to the Weboys’ homestead for dinner.
At dinner, they meet Donnie’s family, including Blanche (Lesley Manville), Donnie’s intimidating and disturbing mother. Her charms do not last long as the dinner conversation progresses and an attempt from Margaret to hold Jimmy in her arms turns sour. Not feeling welcome anymore, they leave the Weboy house.
George and Margaret meet Lorna at work the next day, and convince her to go back to Montana with them. She then plans to leave her home at midnight, and tells them to wait for her at their hotel.
At 2 AM, instead of Lorna, the Weboys, having supposedly caught Lorna sneaking out, visit George and Margaret at the hotel. Margaret tries to convince Blanche by telling her about the physical abuse Donnie did to Lorna and her child, but Blanche hits Margaret and then tells Donnie to hit her even stronger.
George intervenes and later pulls out his pistol but is overpowered by the Weboys and the fingers of his right hand are hacked off by them with a hatchet as a form of punishment for having threatened them with a gun.
The corrupt local police sheriff visits George and Margaret in hospital where he sides with the Weboys and delivers a threat to their grandson’s life on behalf of Blanche if George and Margaret do not agree to promptly leave. They do so but due to George’s health, have to make a stop.
They stop at Peter’s house. Later that night, George takes the car and leaves for the Weboys’ house alone. After acquiring a shotgun from their house and starting a fire as a distraction, he attempts to help Lorna and Jimmy escape. He holds Donnie, who was sleeping beside her, at gunpoint and urges her to take Jimmy and leave. Donnie tries to overpower George, but George knocks him out with the butt of the shotgun.
At the same time, the others are awakened by the smell of smoke.
Bill comes out of his room and stops Lorna and Jimmy in the upstairs hallway. He takes Jimmy from Lorna and pushes her down the stairs. George points his gun at Bill but Blanche comes hurriedly out the room with her pistol, accidentally kills Bill, and then shoots George. Marvin and Elton then appear and try running up the stairs, but George takes control of Blanche’s gun in the struggle and kills them, giving Lorna a chance to escape outside with Jimmy.
Margaret and Peter, who had followed George on horseback, meet Lorna and Jimmy outside the Weboy house. They then go to help George out of the house, but are stopped by Blanche, who shoots and kills George.
In retaliation, Margaret kills Blanche with the shotgun. She then takes Lorna and Jimmy and leaves in the car, with the Weboy house burning in the wake.
Margaret thanks Peter for all the help he gave her and says goodbye to him.
Let Him Go Ending
The film ends with Margaret, Lorna, and Jimmy driving out of Gladstone.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).