20 Secret Movie Sub-Plots You Didn't Notice

4. Family Ties - The Searchers (1956)

In John Ford's western classic The Searchers, John Wayne gives the performance of a lifetime as Ethan Edwards, a Confederate Civil War vet who spends an age looking for his niece (Natalie Wood), who has been kidnapped by local Comanches. 

The film presents Edwards as a hot-headed racist, driven by his hatred for all Native Americans; he's so racist, in fact, that he's willing to kill his niece when he learns she is living peacefully among the Comanche people (though he ultimately brings her home).  

Though it's easy to write Edwards' prejudice off as just another American conditioned to hate the Natives he once fought against, a very brief shot of a gravestone shows that his mother was killed many years ago by a Comanche, fuelling - but not condoning - his virulent hatred. 

It's a subtle bit of character work that speaks volumes about where Edwards came from and how his hate was formed, and packs a mean punch when he sets his hatred aside and finally brings his niece home.