The Story Of Red Dead Redemption Explained

The Red Dead series has all the elements of a proper Western: gritty protagonists meting out their own version of justice, a crime-ridden desert backdrop, and long-awaited shootout showdowns that keep everyone on their edge of their seats. Plus, the Houser brothers have given the games a continuing narrative filled with heists and chases that gel well with the Rockstar brand. Red Dead became one of the most revered series in all of gaming, and it's story began back in 2004 with the release of Red Dead Revolver.

The "Red" in Red Dead Revolver is Red Harlow, who is on the familiar mission of avenging his family's death. After his father was double-crossed by his partner, Red became a bounty hunter, capturing and killing all sorts of ne'er-do-wells. In the well-intentioned pursuit of being paid for taking down outlaws (and an evil circus), he discovers the men responsible for his parents' deaths. In the ensuing battles, Red wins. Naturally.

While not the most remarkable game in its own right, Revolver set the stage for more stories to unfold in the lawless West. The next games would tell the better — and more epic — tale of an outlaw seeking redemption, his story inevitably ending bloody.

They escape south to the town of Rhodes, where the people are still feeling the effects of the Civil War. The gang masquerade as reformed folks and get in good with the sheriff, managing to even get half of them deputized. Ever-opportunistic, Dutch sees a possible payout in playing both sides of two rival families: the Grays and the Braithwaites. Rumor has it that they are hoarding Civil War gold that's just ripe for the picking while they steal each other's horses and burn fields, so Dutch plays up their rivalry.

However, when Dutch's machinations are discovered, the families turn on the gang. An ambush by the Grays claims the life Sean MacGuire, the young and plucky Irish thief. The Braithwaites kidnapped John Marston's son Jack as revenge. After the gang kills most of the family in retaliation, the Braithwaite matriarch reveals that she had sold Jack to Saint Denis crime lord Angelo Bronte.

Fortunately, the man had taken good care of young Jack and returns the boy without much trouble. He mocks Dutch and even tips them off about a tram station filled with cash and ripe to be robbed. However, after the tram station job turns out to be a trap, the gang turns on Bronte. After decimating his henchmen and capturing him, they plan to hold him for ransom. Bronte insults Dutch one too many times, so he does the sensible thing: he drowns the Italian and throws him to the gators, shocking everyone.

They might be criminals, but they're not evil. Arthur has become disenchanted with Dutch — who he had considered family — and his extreme behavior. The rest of the gang is feeling the strain of the outlaw lifestyle as well, and questioning Dutch's decisions. After the Pinkertons assault their camp, Dutch becomes paranoid that there is a traitor in their midst.

John was arrested following the bank heist, and although Dutch wants to wait to jailbreak him, Arthur and Sadie Adler go ahead and aid in his escape from prison. While doing recon for the rescue mission, Arthur is diagnosed with tuberculosis: a death sentence at the time. This revelation galvanized the outlaw into becoming a better man. Meanwhile, Dutch's lover Molly admits to being the mole and is shot dead there and then.

Blowing up another bridge in a feat that nearly costs them their lives for the sake of one of Dutch's money-making schemes, John and Arthur vow to escape the gang together with John's family. Dutch has continually gone too far. His latest plan would claim the lives of US soldiers and Native Americans alike as he played up their antagonistic relationship. Dutch had killed Leviticus Cornwall in cold blood and later left John for dead in a train robbery gone wrong; he was no longer than man that Arthur had known and admired.

The Marston family had escaped a life of lawlessness at last, but there were still some final scores to settle. John purchased some land to become a rancher and prove to Abigail that they can live an honest life. When John learns of Arthur's death, he sets out to give him a proper burial, facing the sunrises he loved to watch. Arthur's sacrifice allowed John to try to become a better man and he finally proposes to Abigail.  

When Sadie tells John that she may know where Micah has run off to, John cannot let his friend's death go unavenged. John, Sadie, and Charles track down Micah, who has formed a new crew and is camped at Mount Hagen. To everyone's surprise, Dutch is also there, but alongside John he kills Micah as vengeance for his treachery. The money the gang had left behind in Blackwater all those years ago is left for John to pay off his bank loans and start anew.

However, this killing draws the attention of Agent Ross from the Bureau of Investigation, leading him to John's ranch at Beecher's Hope, setting up Red Dead Redemption.

Thankfully, John is saved after being left to the mercy of the elements and rattlesnakes. Bonnie McFarlane finds him half-dead and takes him to the local doctor in Armadillo. He owes Bonnie his life, and $15, which he works off at the McFarlane ranch. While recovering and working off his debts, John is still determined to capture Williamson, but Bill is behind the high walls of Fort Mercer, surrounded by his loyal cronies. John will have to first get through the impenetrable walls before having to deal with a shootout. John makes some unlikely friends while working as a ranch hand in the form of unintelligible drunkard Irish, psychotic prospector Seth Briars, snake oil salesman Nigel West Dickens, and US Marshal Leigh Johnson. Not quite a gang, but an effective posse nonetheless.

When Williamson finds out that John is still alive, he takes it out on the McFarlanes. He burns down their barn and nearly hangs Bonnie. John and company form a plan to sneak into Fort Mercer via Trojan Horse — or Trojan snake oil stagecoach in this case. With a Gatling gun and the help of his newfound friends, John takes down most of Williamson's gang once Dickens ferries them into the fort. When the dust clears, they find that Williamson had already fled to Mexico by the time they had assaulted Fort Mercer.

John just has one target left: Dutch van der Linde, the man who raised him. Dutch has made a new gang for himself out of Native Americans, bonded by a mutual hatred of the government. They have created something of a mountain fortress known as Cochinay and carry out various crimes upon the people of Blackwater.

Before John can even think of attempting to raid Cochinay, Dutch manages to rob the local bank and kill his human shield of a young lady right before John's eyes, disappointed that his adopted son had become an "errand boy of the law" and that he had "married a whore." Not the most happy of reunions, and not their last. Dutch would go on to nearly kill John in a hotel shootout before Agents Ross and Fordham got the US Army to launch a siege on Cochinay. There John narrowly avoids becoming Swiss cheese at the end of a Gatling gun and chases Dutch to the edge of a cliff.

Dutch tells John that his death will not release him from his deal with the Bureau, that the law will just move on to find another big baddie to kill. Rather than get shot or captured, Dutch steps off the cliff to his death.

John knew that after his death, the government would have no reason to go after his wife and child. They could continue on with the dream of a peaceful future, but John's bloody end left its mark on the Marstons. Abigail followed her husband in death just three years later, buried beside John's own grave. Jack, now nineteen and the spitting image of his father, has forgone the simple life of a rancher. Jack has decided to avenge his father's death.

In the very last mission of Red Dead Redemption, Jack goes to Blackwater, pretending to have a message for Edgar Ross. He finds him duck hunting outside of town, and when he meets the man who effectively ruined his life, he channels Inigo Montoya.

"My name is Jack Marston. You knew my father."

Ross shrugs off Jack's accusations, saying that John's life of lawlessness was the real killer in the end. It's clear that only one man will walk away from this confrontation as the two hover their hands above their pistols. Jack has clearly inherited more than just his father's face as he turns out to be the quicker draw. He kills Ross and avenges his family, but is now the outlaw that John never wanted him to be.