The film Pathfinder is highly spiritual as it captures the conflict between the Native Americans and Viking invaders. The film begins on a dull note where a lost and orphaned Viking boy is found by a kind Indian woman. There is muchresentment held by the Indians towards the Viking invaders. It would be understandable if the Viking orphan is abandoned to freeze to death by the Indians. Indians have a belief in destiny and deplore being considered monsters. They adopt the boy and let him live among them as one of their sons. Thecommunity has a tradition of having one of them as a Pathfinder, to ensure that they do not get lost in their hunting and spiritual expeditions. No one in the community would expect the stranger among them would be the one to take over that responsibility.
There is an extensive use of symbolism and metaphors in the movie that indicate the beliefs and spirituality held by the Indians. Their healing rituals such as the one in which they remove the arrow lodged in the shoulder of the boy seem to have a spiritual significance. The reigning Pathfinder speaks of a prophecy which says that the Indians will have a savior from strange lands. It is immediately before the Indian village is attacked by Viking invaders. The Viking boy, who is all grown at the present moment, is the one that leads in revenging the massacre of the Indian village that he has been brought up in. He fights against the Viking invaders, is captured, and then misleads his captors to their death using the instructions delivered to him by the deceased pathfinder. One statement that stands out in the film is when the Viking boy, in the midst of the invaders, is advised by the old Indian pathfinder as thus: ‘If you don’t have the strength to kill a bear, then use its strength to kill it.’