Beast (2022)

Poachers have just killed a pride of lions, but one escaped. The Lion turns into a rogue man-eater and starts attacking the poachers. Recently widowed Dr. Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) and his daughters, Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Sava Jeffries), arrive at the Mopani Reserve in South Africa for a vacation.

Nate reunites with his old friend, Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), a biologist and Mopani manager, who introduced Nate and his wife Amalhe (Naledi Mogadime). Martin takes Nate and the girls to the village where Nate's wife grew up. Nate confides to Martin his guilt over being distant following his and his wife's separation, after which she developed terminal cancer. Meredith blames Nate for abandoning them when their mother was going through cancer. The trip is to reconnect with his daughters. The next day, Martin and the family tour the reserve's restricted areas. Martin shows them a local lion pride and notices that one is injured. This is a pride that Martin has raised since they were cubs. At a nearby Tsonga community, Martin discovers most of the population is dead. Suspecting a rogue, man-killing lion is responsible, Martin rushes back to the nearest rangers station to report the finding. Nate & Martin encounter an injured Tsonga man on the road but are unable to save him. Martin is mauled as he tracks the lion with his gun. It then ambushes Nate, who takes cover in the car. Meredith speeds the car away but crashes into a tree, stranding them. Martin radios Nate on a Walkie-talkie, warning him to stay away, saying the lion is using Martin as bait to lure the others out. As the radio is out of range to contact help, Nate assembles a tranquilizer rifle. He confronts the lion, hoping to subdue it long enough to recover Martin and trek back to civilization. The lion attacks, and Meredith takes advantage of the distraction to save Martin. Nate is knocked off the top of the car and takes refuge under the car. As the lion attacks Nate by trying to get under the car, Norah stabs the lion with a tranquilizer dart from inside the car, after it knocks the gun from Nate's hands. This causes the lion to retreat. Meredith brings Martin back to the car, and Nate treats his wound. As night falls, the now-recovering Martin speculates the lion went rogue after poachers killed its pride. Soon after, the poachers arrive and initially agree to transport the group to the village in exchange for payment. Tensions rise after the poachers spot Martin, an avid anti-poacher, inside the car. The lion attacks and scatters the poachers, killing most of them. Nate maneuvers his way past the lion and finds the poachers' truck keys. Back at the car, Martin holds the lion off long enough to allow the sisters to escape, though Meredith sustains a deep laceration to her side. The car falls into a ravine and Martin sacrifices himself by setting off an explosion from the leaking gasoline, severely burning the lion. Nate starts the truck and races away with Meredith and Norah but has to stop the car before they run out of fuel. They leave the car and walk to an abandoned schoolhouse nearby. On the way they had passed the pride of lions that Martin had raised from cubs. At the abandoned schoolhouse, which the poachers used as their base, Nate treats Meredith's wound and forages for water. The lion appears and stalks the girls, but Nate returns and scares it off. Locking his daughters inside a room, Nate promises to return after subduing the lion. After provoking the lion into chasing him, Nate lures it to the local lion pride which Martin helped raise. The rogue lion overtakes and mauls Nate, nearly killing him, until the pride males intervene and kill the rogue. A Mopani worker arrives and saves Nate as he falls unconscious. Awakening in a hospital, a recovering Nate tells his daughters he loves them. Sometime later, the three return to the preserve, this time as a united family, and recreate the photo Nate's late wife took of herself next to her favorite tree.