I opened this place up.
But now people are trying to drag me off my land.
Your land?
I'm the one.
Soldiers on patrol. Corporal Jerome McClintock.
Troopers Billy Myers and Timothy Flynn.
And you gentlemen do things that others cannot think about.
It sounds like a grouse shooting.
Eventually they were found in a whorehouse.
Not him. You.
I took on a wolf once.
Alamooo-sa.
Hey!
Mrs Myers, Timothy Flynn had the same mark as your husband.
GUNSHOT
I'll take what's mine.
Your name Billy Myers?
He lives up where you want to go. Thinking on paying him a visit.
Are you sure that you don't want to... Leave you?
Go home. There's nothing to go back to.
You got a secret? One you ain't yet told?
You're looking a little red there, ma'am.
Why'd you take the child?
White Moon.
WHOOSH, WET THUD
HORSE WHINNIES
I'm so sorry.
# As she wheeled her wheel-barrow
# Through streets broad and narrow
# Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh."
Whoa.
Hey, Tap. Kelly.
Heard you'd taken off.
Weren't going to let no Limey snap off the other side of my jaw.
It was on your watch. You let all them cows get cut up.
Tell you for why. They weren't never going to live.
Moving house? Don't see I have to tell you.
Give it a guess. Buy a plot, put a house on it.
Buy another, move the house. Fool the government. How I done?
Something like. What's your number?
60,000. Plots?
Acres. Jeez, Tap.
Best learn count your fingers first.
Well, lucky for me, someone else has more faith.
Who'd have faith in a grub-line punk like you?
David Melmont. Huh.
I'm going to get myself rich.
Way more than no cow puncher can even dream.
Once he gone got us the water. Yes. Yeah, out here?
You best not cross him, Kelly. You don't know what he can do.
Got a fair idea.
It get nasty. Real nasty.
That how them cows got cut up?
That how you got this job?
You do it for him? Na-ah. Got a thing what does it for him.
A thing?
Uh-huh. Seen it with my own eye. Does whatever Melmont tells it.
He reads you bedtime stories too?
It come for you, you ain't never going to wake up again.
Well, you tell your boss... Now on, I'll be sleeping with one eye open.
Man, you are such a coot!
MUSIC: Crucify Your Mind by Rodriguez
# Was it a huntsman or a player
# That made you pay the cost
# That now assumes relaxed positions
# And prostitutes your loss?
# Were you tortured by your own thirst
# In those pleasures that you seek
# That made you Tom the curious
# That makes you James the weak?
# And you claim you got something going
# Something you call unique
# But I've seen your self-pity showing
# As the tears rolled down your cheeks #
Fetterman.
You know about that?
Big Indian fight, up country.
Hmm.
Before Big Horn, biggest ever.
80-plus soldiers. Mostly mutilated.
Badly.
That what this is?
Not a clue. About to pull it all down.
May I?
They sometimes used to.
Chalk River. Is there a river by that name?
Sometimes. It's a bourn, comes when there's a flood.
Where? Up out near Busted Belly.
You know about this?
I ain't never seen defeat.
But this sure comes close.
Who knows the best routes north?
Guess that'd be me.
What do you think? Ten days for Alberta?
Maybe, chinook up my ass.
Scalped.
Who'd do a thing like that?
Cut out. Burned out.
Next it'll be me, and then you.
So, who we got up there? Alberta?
Skeleton crew.
Go. Now?
Tell them I'm coming. With what?
The whole lot.
The herd? To Alberta? Now?
As well shoot them right here.
This is not what defeat looks like!
Not here.
Not in front of him.
All right.
That, er, that Sheriff who thinks he's got cause
to take back the Myers' cattle.
Looks like he's going to have to chase them up to Alberta.
No.
Cut them out.
Give them back.
Why?
She deserves a better hand...
..than mine.
It says here, "Billy Myers was given a dishonourable discharge."
I need you to ride up to Fort McKinney.
Find out why.
And ask him about Chalk River.
Why?
Just something I seen hanging on a wall.
Officially, troopers Myers, Flynn and Corporal McClintock
got a dishonourable discharge for "consorting with
"prostitutes while absent without leave." The civilian got a fine.
But really the soldiers were cashiered for taking part in
an unauthorised massacre of Cheyenne.
But that was their job, wasn't it? Killing Indians.
Yeah, but not so much the scalping and such.
Scalping? We're not looking to another Sand Creek.
Not then. Not now.
That's why you only agreed to meet out here?
Stella Shriver.
She used to run a place called the Hog Ranch outside of Fetterman.
Where they all got picked up.
Prostitute? Not any more. Goes by the name of Black Widow.
Hard luck tales of a calico queen.
Now her sweet-talking days are done.
But I think you'll find she's still got something to say.
How do?
Ticket? Stella Shriver.
Who? The, uh...
..the Black Widow. Oh, yeah, sure.
Is she around? What now? Today?
If possible? $10.
I don't have $10. Then it'll be two bits for 7pm,
like everyone else. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait.
Better be.
Trafford's finally admitted defeat.
Heading up to Alberta.
Branding.
Why do they do it like that? Hmm?
All in the same place.
Required to by law.
Trafford's brand has to go on the left rear hip.
Well, luck is, snow comes, they'll all freeze to death
on their right sides.
Then when he digs them out, he'll know which ones are his.
Left rear hip.
D... D.
T...
..T.
Going somewhere?
Spare us a minute before you do.
What for? Tell me why you put
a brand on Billy Myers and Timothy Flynn.
How many did they kill?
Lost count at 30.
And then?
Myers and Flynn had the spunk to try and join our outfit.
Suppose a starving man would ask anyone for a hand-out.
And all you gave them was a branding.
Seeing as the army didn't care to mark the occasion.
Did you do Melmont too?
They'd gone. Both snaked their way down to Colorado,
had a claim on the Alamosa.
And wouldn't you know it, struck gold.
So why did he come back?
Men like him, it's not enough just to succeed.
See your enemies fail.
He bought Myers and Flynn their plots, too,
just to rub my nose in it.
Is that why you took the Myers' cattle?
Did you kill her husband?
Oh, no, not I.
Dishonourable discharge.
The shame was on us all.
Tom...
..one day they'll name this town after you.
Please God! That's a curse I dodge.
Called the area Chalk River when we first came round here,
so that's what we've been following.
Afterwards, the Cheyenne, they named it "The Stench".
Bad luck. Do you know why?
Cos there's where it happened. Right there.
That's where they're all buried.
Even now.
He built the town on top of them.
And the word that the Cheyenne use, well,
I don't quite have the ear, but then none of us does.
But as far as we can be bothered,
it goes something like this.
"Hox-om."
CORNELIA LOCKE: "Crumbling is not an instant's act.
"A fundamental pause."
Are you a doctor? Young man, I am a surgeon of the mind.
Need help.
"Dilapidation's processes are organised decays."
Two bits for the Black Widow. Sure worth your while.
"Tis first a cobweb on the soul.
"A cuticle of dust.
"A borer in the axis.
"An elemental rust.
"Ruin is formal, devil's work.
"Consecutive and slow.
"Fail in an instant, no man did.
"Slipping is Crash's Law."
Syphilis?
Yes.
Do you know the stages?
Four. First two come
quite soon after being infected
when you are yourself infectious.
There's a third stage, it goes latent.
It disappears, non-infective,
sometimes forever.
But sometimes... It comes back.
The fourth stage.
This stage.
Do you know what will happen to you?
Erosion of the soft tissues and bone,
particularly of the face.
Blindness, deafness, heart defects,
stroke, mental insanity.
Finally death.
My son was born with it, you see.
I nursed him with it, all his life.
You didn't blink.
At a mother's love?
In some ways,
he was the parent.
Showed me the way.
So now I know how to follow.
Can take many years.
For him, it was almost 14.
The leg wound is actually a burn.
Yes.
The hands are scarred.
But the chest is worrisome.
I'm going to give you a dose of mercury vapour.
You breathe it in overnight.
Won't do much but at least it'll get you wherever you want to go.
Thank you.
You told him?
No.
He need to know?
Something tells me he already does.
What about the boy?
Broken leg. Nasty but it'll heal.
Ain't going no place awhile.
Will you take him? Hmm?
I ain't going to ask how you come by that.
Saved his life. Build one too.
As it happens,
I am looking for a backer in a new venture.
Flathead Jackson's Wild West Show. True Tales of America.
Beyond the Realistic.
With the medical treatments on the side.
Well, you have yourself a backer.
What's your cut?
A photograph of him at 18.
Show me he made it.
That's it? That's it.
Ma'am, how do you know to trust me?
The way you looked at my son.
One more thing. Tomorrow, I want you to take a photograph of Eli and me.
While I still look like this.
All righty now, very still.
Eli, I have to tell you something.
No, you don't. I do.
No need.
Knows it already.
Oh, Eli.
SHUTTER CLICKS
MUSIC: Long Time Traveller by The Wailin' Jennys
# These fleeting charms of earth
# Farewell, your springs of joy are dry
# My soul now seeks another home
# A brighter world on high
# I'm a long time travelling here below
# I'm a long time travelling away from home
# I'm a long time travelling here below
# To lay this body down #
Leaving the boy, right thing to do.
Only thing.
Whatever happens next, don't put yourself at risk.
Never been anything but.
But not for me.
Not just your story.
There you go, you see?
Magic.
Just a whole lot of aiming. And then one day a miss.
But not for this.
And not for me.
# I'm a long time travelling here below #
What has this country done to me?
# I'm a long time travelling here below
# To lay this body down
# Farewell kind friends whose tender care
# Has long engaged my love
# Your fond embrace I now exchange
# For better friends above
# I'm a long time travelling here below
# I'm a long time travelling away from home
# I'm a long time travelling here below
# To lay this body down
# To lay this body down #
Red.
Trafford's pulled out?
Yesterday. Whole crew. Hoping to beat the weather.
I'm looking for my boss.
Well, now,
delivering crowbait cattle to Martha Myers.
Touched or crazy, take your pick.
Oh.
You come far?
Looking for David Melmont.
He ain't here. Up country. Drilling for water.
Where? Can't say.
Can't or won't? Neither would make a difference.
Billy Myers? Graveyard.
Oh, widow's still about.
And the Sheriff? Him too.
I'm going there myself if you care to join me.
What do I owe you?
Answer to a riddle.
Why'd marry Billy Myers?
I didn't.
My folks went down Alamosa way in '77.
Pa heard you could stuff your
pockets full of gold just standing in the river.
Clear cleaned out by the time we got there.
Pa's pockets too by the time I left.
Alamosa. David Melmont.
Played my pa for the fool he was.
Why didn't you run away?
The gentlest heart sprung from the hardest soul.
Oh.
He know?
That I was defiled by David Melmont?
Enough...that I didn't have no choices.
Woman with child got to take what's given.
And you got given Billy Myers.
Least he didn't get to touch me.
Least he didn't get that.
Ma! Someone's comin'.
That's Thin Kelly, works for Trafford.
Thought he was shooting for Alberta.
Looks like Alberta shot back.
Go get the horse.
HORSE WHINNIES
Who is he?
Who are you?
He with Trafford?
No. I saw him on his own cutting country.
Over near Busted Belly.
Big calibre, couple of grooves.
58. Gatling.
Billy Myers your man?
More like she was his housekeeper.
Timothy Flynn?
Dead.
I remember them.
Jerome McClintock.
Him too.
David Melmont.
They all took part in a massacre in '75. Cheyenne.
Trafford told me. Where Hoxem now stands.
Did he tell you they got the...calamity?
Syphilis? From a ladies house they went to.
Wicked one, for sure.
Comes back, comes back hard.
The woman who told me,
nothing left of her face.
That's why Flynn killed his wife.
She had it. On her hands.
Grover Best thought it was the cowpox.
But that's what Billy was looking for. That's why he dug them up.
Not just them.
David Melmont too.
Jed. Outside.
Now!
He's his?
He got it?
How old is he? Why?
Did you show any signs early?
No. Nothing?
Never.
Good. There's a latent stage. What?
Where it disappears. Sometimes forever.
And if Melmont had...then,
then it's very possible he would not have infected you.
I don't think you've got it. Or your boy.
How you know?
Because I have.
Gave it to me.
Before.
You've got to get out of here.
Now. Before he gets here.
Who? Him.
58. Like he just did to me.
Like he'll do to us. Now.
Well, the walls are pretty thick.
HOOVES APPROACH, LOUD THUD
MAN SCREAMS
Couldn't say for the roof.
My boy.
Trouble's here. He's not.
Sir? I'll have that belt from the wall if you'd be so kind.
CREAKING, THUDDING
GUN COCKS
CREAKING, LOUD THUD
HORSE WHINNIES
Red!
HORSE WHINNIES
CONTINUOUS GUNFIRE
He's gone. My boy. Where?
Where Melmont is.
Up near Busted.
So?
Your boy went that way.
McClintock this.
You follow your boy, we'll follow McClintock.
Look.
Trafford's manager.
Clay.
Sheriff.
You look like you've had yourself one hell of a party.
But if it's Alberta you're looking for...
He gone killed them all.
Hmm?
Trafford. The herd.
Thomas Trafford?
Up country, cloud burst. Middle of the night.
Flash flood, I mean. I never seen the like.
Got his self up a stampede, see? Crazy Englishman.
We tried to save him.
Even got a rope around him one time but, well, he cut his self loose.
I, I don't underst...
He drowned, ma'am. He drowned hisself.
Where is he?
Atlantic. Pacific.
'Pends the way the water went.
We have to look for him.
He ain't exactly looking to be found, ma'am.
Well, find him, I will.
You don't follow. This is what he wanted.
Thomas Trafford, he opened up this whole place.
Least it can do is let him be a part of it now.
Few strays left if you're so minded.
You go whichever way you want. I go for my boy.
He's dead.
We're going to part soon.
Why?
No.
Are you angry?
You proved it. But it ain't your nature.
Sometimes just to see a thing is enough to let it go.
But I haven't seen him yet.
You're about to.
Here's we all are. Yessir!
He here? Oh, yessir. Up, up yonder. Been waitin'.
Takes you some time.
Guessing yous got youselves held up some.
Mojave?
Yessir. Are you looking to get killed?
Oh, yessir. But now I's ready. Ticket to heaven.
Huh.
Take us in.
Here, that's it. There you go.
Good afternoon, Cornelia.
Lovely as ever.
Though a little frayed round the edges, don't mind me saying.
I mean, if I knew you had this much spunk...
..I might've taken you with me.
Save me having to deal with this little fucker!
He's fucking...he's come at me with a broken sword.
Thomas is dead.
How?
A flood. He drowned.
Oh.
And when you going to tell me bad news?
Well, we might have shared a life together if it wasn't for you.
Well, then, you'd be face down with him, wouldn't you? Eh?
Oh. I know I died years ago.
You killed me.
Why not you?
Well,
it came,
then it went away.
It's never come back.
Until now.
Is that the sprog?
He look like me?
Oh, lucky boy.
Not his spirit.
Can't have it all.
What...what did, what, what you do with him? Did you, er...
..stuff him down the khazi?
I cherished him.
Why?
Because he drew breath.
Because he never gave up.
Because he knew pain
and pleasure and boredom.
And because he suffered.
He taught me to do the same.
Because you were the part that he was fighting
and I was the half that kept him alive.
Because of all this.
But mostly because I was his mother.
Am.
I do remember that the music was quite pretty.
Hmm, beautiful.
Hmm.
You.
I know you.
Oh, no, that is... Oh, hang on a minute,
that is...that's spooky. You were a mulatto thingy -
half-savage, half-soldier. You still are.
Weren't me covered in blood.
But it was you watching, though, weren't it?
Eh?
Do that a lot, do you?
Save your own skin, hmm?
Are you going to watch her an' all?
Looking forward to it.
What about him?
All set.
Oooh!
All set!
Whoa! Nellie!
Got us a couple of seconds.
Though I should warn you, I got a man looks out for me
and I wouldn't pick a fight with him.
COCKS GUN Ooh.
All right.
All right? Eh?
Eh?
You're not going to kill me, darling.
KISSES
And do you wanna know for why?
Cos there is a little bit of your boy walking on this earth.
And you can't kill that.
You just shot a man in cold blood.
Where is it? She's fine. I checked.
He's alive.
GASPS FOR AIR
Who...done it?
I did. GRUNTS
Now I'm going to have to arrest you both.
No. Just me.
Goddamn.
PANTING
I couldn't do it.
You didn't need to.
All right, you. I'm going to take you in.
Why? His workers come up here, find him,
there'll be a lynching. No question. Out of my hands.
Clear out as soon as you can. But not with us.
No, no. No.
We're safer separate. You understand?
I want these two with us. You want to live?
Do what I say.
SHOUTS: All of you! Now!
How do you think this is going to go?
Can never say till it has.
I can.
They're going to hang you anyway. Right in front of his store.
Is that illegal, Sheriff?
You know what's beneath that street?
I got a fair idea. History.
And that's where they're going to keep it.
Yep, that's how this story's going to end.
But not for you.
This is how it'll be for you.
I was up here looking for that boy
and I came across Melmont in some big argument with this fella.
I shot him.
But not before he got to stick
a cavalry sabre straight into our hero's heart.
That's the way it'll be.
And the only one way to make that work is for you to disappear.
Now. Forever. And never look back.
The woman I came in with.
She's got her own journey to face, wouldn't you say?
Now this one's done.
There's only one way out and that's not it.
DISTANT SHOUT: Eli!
Eli!
HORSE WHINNIES
Oh.
Eli!
What's happening?
This can't be. You shouldn't be here.
What? What...what can't?
Soon...has come.
No.
No, no, because look.
Look. Look, it's magic. All of it. All of it.
Time to go home.
No.
Home is here.
With you.
SHE CRIES
SNIFFLES
Where will you go?
Back to the Loup. Why?
Sometimes you got to see a thing, just to let it go.
I can't let you go.
I can't.
Lady, how many killings have you seen?
SHE CHUCKLES THROUGH TEARS
Quite a lot, actually.
Short or long...
..we ain't here but a moment.
You nor me.
None of us. But that star of yours...
Scorpio.
Next time you see it, look to its right.
The Wolf. Beside her.
Won't never change.
You've got to go!
It's wheat seed.
The best.
For that day.
I found it.
With you.
At last.
That's it, girl, keep coming.
ELI SINGS IN THE DISTANCE
SHOUTS
One, two, three. Go!
CROWD CHEERS, SHOUTS
FAKE GUNSHOTS
WAR CRIES, AUDIENCE CHEERS
Yeeha!
DISTANT CHEERING
White Moon.
My name is... I know who you are.
SHE WHEEZES SLIGHTLY
Here you are.
In England.
So strange.
Do you remember me?
Yes.
I thought maybe not.
I do.
It sounds like a dream.
I've seen the world.
And where's been your favourite?
Hastings.
They have a train there, goes straight up a cliff.
Hmm, Thomas used to live there.
Who?
Oh, just someone I once knew.
You know, I have written to you many times.
And if you ever wanted...
To leave? Yes.
And become what?
Whoever you want.
Join one of them schools?
Become an American?
I am Eae'he Ahvo'komaestse. Son of Touching Ground.
Son of Running Hawk.
Grandson of White Claw and Kills Twice Woman,
warrior of Wolf Creek.
Great-grandson of Howling Elk and Black Moon.
I was born on the Great Plains.
This is just a circus.
A zoo.
You know, I play him.
What?
Sergeant Whipp.
At Summit Springs, he saves a white woman.
Oh.
You see?
He would be very proud.
Thank you.
Actually, I came to... I came to give you something.
He gave it to me...before.
Take it. No.
While it's still mine to give. Please.
No.
Please.
The shame.
THEY KISS
But not for you.
RINGMASTER: Now the Pawnee Scouts enter the battle.
Led by Major North and First Sergeant Eli Whipp.
CHEERING
A big round of applause there, folks. These guys are dangerous.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE