Zachary (Richard Harris) is based on real-life mountain man Hugh Glass. One of the two men left behind to await Glass' death was a very young Jim Bridger.
The bear attack scene was shot using a combination of a real trained bear and a stuntman in a bear suit.
Due to the success of The Revenant (2015), which sparked a growing interest in this film, Warner Brothers released this movie on Blu-ray on August 16, 2016, as part of their Warner Archive Collection.
This film is often mistakenly thought to be a sequel to A Man Called Horse (1970), due to Richard Harris' starring in both films within a year of one another and the similarities that both films' story lines share.