Mohawk is a 2017 American action-horror film directed by Ted Geoghegan, co-written by Geoghegan and Grady Hendrix, and starring Kaniehtiio Horn, Ezra Buzzington, Noah Segan, and professional wrestler Jonathan Huber in his only feature film appearance.
Late in the War of 1812, the Mohawk tribe is struggling to remain neutral as the American forces commit massacres against their people. Okwaho, or "Oak", is a young Mohawk woman whose two lovers—a Mohawk warrior named Calvin and a British soldier named Joshua, one of whom is the father of her unborn child—push for retaliation. The hotheaded Calvin sets fire to an American camp, killing 22 sleeping soldiers. The survivors of the fire come seeking revenge, and Oak, Calvin and Joshua flee into the deep forest where they stage a desperate fightback against the soldiers.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: After Joshua and Calvin are killed, Oak goes on a one-woman Roaring Rampage of Revenge to wipe out Colonel Holt and all of his men.
- Aerith and Bob: The members of the Mohawk tribe include Okwaho, Wentahawi and Calvin.
- Alliterative Name: Hezekiah Holt
- Bad with the Bone: During their final fight, Oak stabs Holt with a broken bone from the bone breastplate of her Improvised Armor.
- Blast Out: An uneasy standoff between the American soldiers and the Mohawk erupts into a combat when one of the American soldiers fires his musket.
- Boom, Headshot!: When Myles is torturing Calvin by pouring boiling water into his mouth, Joshua kills him with a single expertly place musket ball through the forehead.
- Dawn of the Wild West: Is set in 1814, towards the end of the War of 1812.
- Dead Guy on Display: Oak removes Yancy's head and leaves it staked on a stick for Allsopp to find.
- Dwindling Party: Initially seven men (six soldiers and their civilian interpreter) survive Calvin's attack on the camp. These are gradually picked off until only Holt remains.
- Dying Candle: A sudden gust of wind extinguishes the candles in the chapel as Oak opens the door and finds the bodies of her murdered uncle and cousins in the yard.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The events of the film seem to take a little over 24 hours, although the dreamlike nature of some of the scenes make it hard to be sure.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Oak and Joshua steal a canoe from a Hunter Trapper after their attempts to trade for it go badly awry.
- Hunter Trapper: Oak and Joshua encounter a Québecois fur trapper in the woods as they make their way to the mission. The meeting does not go well, and they wind up stealing his canoe.
- Impaled Palm: During the fight in the mission, Colonel Holt drives his dagger through Oak's palm; nailing her hand to a post.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Oak finally kills Holt by throwing him onto the burnt remains of a tree, impaling him through the heart.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: During the Blast Out, Colonel Hawkes gets dropped by a Mohawk arrow through his throat.
- Improvised Armor: Oak constructs a makeshift suit of armor out of remains of a pregnant deer and its unborn fawn.
- Insane Admiral: Colonel Holt, assuming you accept his rank as legitimate (which is dubious as he bestowed it on himself after Colonel Hawkes was killed). Of borderline sanity before he assumed command, he quickly slips into paranoia and bloodlust through the strain of the trek through the hostile wilderness. He refuses to listen to advice and makes multiple bad calls that get his men killed until he is the only one left.
- In the Back: Colonel Holt stabs Joshua, who is his prisoner and restrained, in the back with his sabre.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Well-considered battle plans are not part of Calvin's mindset. He triggers the whole mess by sneaking off and setting fire to an American camp, and later attempts to take on the entire group of American survivors by himself, resulting in his capture.
- Lodged-Blade Recycling: Colonel Holt throws a tomahawk at Oak which buries itself in her bone armour. She pulls it out and throws it back at him.
- Made of Iron: Oak survives a pistol ball to the chest at close range, and recovers to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge the same day. It is hinted that there may be something mystic about her survival but this is not certain.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Oak has two lovers—a Mohawk warrior named Calvin and a British soldier named Joshua—one of whom is the father of her unborn child, but Oak does not know which.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It is not clear if Oak's recovery from being shot in the chest at close range is simply her being Made of Iron, or something more mystic. Certainly afterwards Allsopp thinks she is some kind of forest demon, and many of her scenes—especially her final showdown with Holt—have a strange, dreamlike quality.
- Off with His Head!: Oak removes Yancy's head and leaves it staked on a stick for Allsopp to find.
- Ominously Open Door: Oak and Joshua arrive at the mission hoping to find support from Oak's family, but find the gates wide open and the mission suspiciously deserted.
- One-Word Title
- Pinned to the Wall: During the fight in the mission, Colonel Holt drives his dagger through Oak's palm; nailing her hand to a post.
- Pregnant Badass: Oak is two months pregnant when she embarks on her Roaring Rampage of Revenge and wipes out the patrol of American soldiers who killed her two lovers.
- Reality Has No Subtitles: Oak and Joshua encounter a French-Canadian Hunter Trapper, whose Québecois French is far beyond Joshua's rudimentary French. He delivers impassioned plea that remains untranslated for both the characters and the audience.
- River of Insanity: Colonel Holt and his men are trying to get to Fort George through the wilderness of northern New York, but Holt's slipping sanity and bloodlust keep diverting them from their path and the Dwindling Party is picked off one by one. Eventually Private Allsopp looks at the setting sun and realises that Holt has been leading them in a completely wrong direction. On hearing this, Holt howls that when the war is over, he is going to have this forest cut down and turned into fields so a man can see where he is going.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Initially Oak's plan is to escape and meet up with her family. However, after Holt and his men kill both Calvin and Joshua, it becomes personal and she will not rest until she has slain all the Americans.
- Significant Haircut: After surviving being shot in the chest by Holt, Oak shaves her head into a bloody Mohawk and embarks on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Oak's Improvised Armor includes the skull of a deer which she wears as helmet/mask and a bone breastplate.
- Slashed Throat: After being stabbed In the Back by Colonel Holt, Joshua's dying act is to slash Beal's throat with a razor as the scout bends over him.
- Sociopathic Soldier: Captain Hezekiah Holt, who promotes himself to Colonel after Colonel Hawkes is killed; forces his civilian interpreter to take up arms; tortures prisoners for information; murders civilians, including priests; stabs a prisoner of war in the back; and forces his men to accompany him on mission of personal vengeance rather than taking them to safety.
- Tongue Trauma: Colonel Holt forces his son Myles to pour boiling water into Calvin's mouth.
- War Crime Subverts Heroism: Calvin sets fire to an American camp, killing 22 sleeping soldiers, as retaliation for American attacks against the Mohawk, despite the Mohawk being nominally neutral in the war.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: When Oak sneaks into the American camp, she is confronted by Yancy who points his musket at her. Knowing that the visibly shaky Yancy is a civilian and not a soldier, she tells him that he is not a killer and that he will not be able to bring himself to shoot her. When Yancy tries feebly to assert that he will if she makes him, Oak tells him that she is with child, at which point her breaks completely; lowering his musket and allowing her to escape.
