Warning: SPOILERS for The Harder They Fall.
real historic figures, Netflix’s The Harder They Fall showcases the rivalry of two rival gangs in the American Old West, the Nat Love gang and the Rufus Buck gang. After Rufus Buck is released from prison by his dangerous associates Trudy Smith (Regina King) and Cherokee Bill, Nat Love recruits his gang to finally exact his revenge on Buck, who murdered his father when he was a child.
Once the significant battle between the Nat Love gang and Rufus Buck gang commences, several personal fights break out between the rivals. Nat Love and Rufus Buck finally confront one another with Nat coming out alive, Cherokee Bill kills Jim Beckwourth in their quick-draw shootout (though Bill cheats), and Stagecoach Mary and Trudy Smith have a long, choreographed hand-to-hand fight scene. At the end of the final action-packed sequence between The Harder They Fall’s characters, only the Nat Love gang survives, with the exceptions of Jim and Pickett - or so they thought.
The final moments in The Harder They Fall reveals that Stagecoach Mary never actually killed Trudy Smith, even though Regina King’s character looked verifiably dead after their fight. Mary had hit Trudy across the face with the butt of her pistol, and the camera pans to Trudy’s blood spattered on a nearby structure. It’s hard to believe that Mary would have just walked away from Trudy without actually checking to see that she died, but Trudy is extremely cunning and dangerous, so she likely faked it in an extremely convincing way. Even though it seems unlikely, the person at the end is definitely Trudy. She’s standing on the cliff in the same signature black coat, black gloves, and black bowler hat she was wearing right before she died.
While movie, Zazie Beetz's character likely believed Trudy to be dead because of all the blood and the idea that she was probably knocked unconscious.
Alternatively, Mary may have never even thought that Trudy was dead, simply taking concession in winning the fight by making her unable to retaliate. At no point in the rest of The Harder They Fall does Mary say that she killed Trudy. Their fight simply ends with Trudy face-down while Mary screams into the camera, simply cutting away to another fight elsewhere. A few moments later, Mary, Nat, Reeves, and Cuffee have buried Jim and Pickett while marking a grave with Nat’s name to fake his death. Mary and Nat ride away together, only for Trudy to be shown from the back watching them go. Whether or not Mary actually believed that she killed Trudy, The Harder They Fall’s reveal of her survival suggests a Netflix Original movie sequel could be in play with Trudy searching for her own revenge. The only sure way to find out how Trudy survived the fight would be in a revenge-seeking second movie.
