[Thomas] I opened this place up...
But now people are trying to drag me off my land.
[Sheriff Robert] Your land?
I'm the one...
[Jerome] Soldiers on patrol...
Corporal Jerome McClintock...
Troopers Billy Myers
and Timothy Flynn.
[David] You gentlemen do things that others cannot think about.
It sounds like a grouse shooting.
[David] Eventually they were found in a whorehouse.
Not him. You!
I took on a wolf once.
Alamos a!
[suspenseful music playing]
[man] Hey!
[Sheriff Robert] Mrs. Myers,
Timothy Flynn had the same mark
as your husband.
[gun cocks]
- [gunshot] - [Martha] I'll take what's mine.
[Eli] You hear the name Billy Myers?
Lives up where you want to go.
Thinking on paying him a visit.
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 me?
You looking a little red there, ma'am...
Why'd you take the child?
[Eli] Pregnant...
I'm so sorry...
[birds cawing]
[indistinct]
Ho!
Hey, Tap.
Kelly.
Heard you'd taken off.
Weren't gonna let no Limey snap off the other side of m'jaw.
It was on your watch.
You let all them cows get cut up.
Tell you for why.
They weren't never gonna 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? - Sixty thousand.
- 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. - [Tap] Gonna get myself rich.
Way more than no cow puncher can even dream!
Once he gone got us the water.
Yes, sir!
- Ya out here? - 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.
Gotta thing what does it for him.
- A thing? - Uh-huh!
Seen it with my own eye!
Does whatever Melmont tells it.
He read you bedtime stories, too?
It come for you,
you ain't never gonna wake up again.
Well, you tell your boss,
now on, I'll be sleeping with one eye open.
Man, you are such a coot!
[country music playing]
[singer] ♪ 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 ♪
[theme music playing]
[horse neighs]
[thuds]
[gun cocks]
[tense music playing]
[fire blazing]
[tense music playing]
[horse neighs]
Fetterman.
You know about that?
Big Indian fight, up country.
Hmm.
Before Big Horn, biggest ever.
Eighty 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.
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...
Alright.
That Sheriff, he thinks he's got cause to take back the Myers cattle.
Looks like he's gonna have to chase them up to Alberta.
No!
Cut them out...
give them back.
Why?
She deserves a better hand...
than mine...
[indistinct chatter]
[Sheriff Robert] It says here,
Billy Myers was given a dishonorable 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.
[Captain Knox] Officially...
troopers Myers, Flynn and Corporal McClintock
got a Dishonorable Discharge
for "Consorting with prostitutes while absent without leave."
The civilian got a fine.
[Red Morgan] But really the soldiers were cashiered
for taking part in an unauthorized massacre of Cheyenne.
But that was their job, wasn't it?
Killing Indians.
[Captain Knox] But not so much the scalping and such.
- Scalping? - We're not looking to another Sand Creek.
Not then. Not now.
That 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 anymore.
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.
[door opens]
How do?
Ticket?
Stella Shriver.
Who?
The er...
- The Black Widow... - Oh, yeah, sure.
- She around? - What now?
Today?
If possible?
- Ten dollars. - I don't have ten dollars.
Then, it'll be two bits for 7:00 pm, like everyone else.
- I'm sure it'll be worth the wait. - It better be...
[dramatic music playing]
[Kier Grant] Trafford's finally admitted defeat.
Heading up to Alberta.
Branding.
Why'd he do it like that?
- Hmm? - All in the same place.
[Sheriff Robert] Required to by law.
Trafford's brand has to go
on the Left Rear Hip.
[Kier Grant] 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...
T...
[dramatic music playing]
[cows mooing]
[Sheriff Robert] 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 thirty.
And then?
Myers and Flynn had the spunk to try and join our outfit.
Suppose a starving man'd ask anyone for a handout.
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 Alamos a.
And wouldn't you know it...
struck gold.
- So why'd he come back? - Men like him,
it's not enough just to succeed,
to 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?
[Thomas] No, no, not I...
Dishonorable Discharge...
the shame was on us all.
[dramatic music playing]
[Sheriff Robert] Tom...
one day they'll name this town after you.
Please God, that's a curse I dodge.
We called the area Chalk River
when we first came out here,
because that's what we'd been following.
But afterwards, the Cheyenne they named it...
The Stench;
Bad Luck.
Do you know why?
Because there's where it happened.
Right there.
That's where they're all buried.
Even now...
He built the town on top of them.
The word 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".
[dramatic music playing]
[Cornelia] "Crumbling is not an instant's act...
a fundamental pause...
[metal dangling]
[Eli] You a doctor?
Young man, I am a surgeon of the mind.
Need help.
[Cornelia] Dilapidation's processes are organized Decays...
[Master of Ceremonies] Two bits for The Black Widow!
Sure worth your while.
[dramatic music playing]
[floor squeaking]
[Cornelia] 'Tis first a Cobweb on the Soul...
A Cuticle of Dust...
A Borer in the Axis,
an Elemental Rust.
[Cornelia] Ruin is formal, Devil's work.
Consecutive and slow...
Fail in an instant, no man did...
Slipping is Crash's law.
[dramatic music playing]
[Flathead Jackson] Syphilis?
Yes.
[Flathead Jackson] Do you know the stages?
[Cornelia] 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?
[inhales]
[exhales deeply]
In some ways,
he was the parent,
showed me the way.
So now I know how to follow.
[Flathead Jackson] Can take many years.
[sniffles] For him, it was almost 14.
The leg wound is actually a burn.
Yes.
[Flathead Jackson] The hands are scarred.
But the chest is worrisome.
I'm gonna give you a dose of Mercury vapor, you...
breath 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?
Ain't gonna 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.
[Flathead Jackson] 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.
[Flathead Jackson] All righty now.
Very still.
[metal clanks]
Eli, I have to tell you something.
- No, you don't. - I do!
No need.
Knows it already.
- Oh, Eli... - [camera clicks]
[singer] ♪ Ye 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 traveling here below ♪
♪ I'm a long time traveling away from home ♪
♪ I'm a long time traveling here below ♪
♪ To lay this body down ♪
[Eli] Leaving the boy.
- Right thing to do. - [Cornelia] 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.
Then one day a miss.
But not for this.
And not for me.
[singer] ♪ I'm a long time traveling here below ♪
- ♪ I'm a long time traveling ♪ - What has this country done to me?
[singer] ♪ Away from home ♪
♪ I'm a long time traveling here below ♪
♪ To lay this body down ♪
[cows mooing]
[singer] ♪ 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 traveling here below ♪
♪ I'm a long time traveling away from home ♪
♪ I'm a long time traveling here below ♪
♪ To lay this body down ♪
♪ To lay this body ♪
♪ Down ♪
[Keir] Red.
Trafford's pulled out?
Yesterday. Whole crew. Hoping to beat the weather.
I'm looking for the boss.
Well, now,
delivering crowbait cattle to Martha Myers.
Touched or crazy, take your pick.
[dramatic music playing]
You come far?
Looking for David Melmont.
[Keir] Ain't here. Up country.
- Drilling for water. - Where?
Can't say.
- Can't or won't? - Neither'd make a difference.
- Billy Myers? - Graveyard.
Oh, widow's still about.
- Sheriff? - [Red] Him too.
I'm going there myself if you care to join me.
[cows mooing]
[Martha] What I owe you?
[Sheriff Robert] Answer to a riddle.
Why'd you marry Billy Myers?
[Martha] I didn't.
My folks went down Alamos a 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...
[Sheriff Robert] Alamos a...
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?
[Martha] That I was defiled by David Melmont?
Enough...
That I didn't have no choices.
Woman with child gotta take what's given.
And you got given Billy Myers.
Least he didn't get to touch me...
Least he didn't get that.
[Jed] Ma! Someone's comin'!
[Martha] That's Thin Kelly, works for Trafford.
Thought he was shooting for Alberta?
[Sheriff Robert] Looks like Alberta shot back.
[Thin Kelly groaning]
[panting]
Go get the horse.
[horse neighs]
Who is he?
Who are you?
[Sheriff Robert] He with Trafford?
[Red Morgan] No. I saw him on his own cutting country.
Over near Busted Belly.
[metal clanks]
Big caliber, couple of grooves.
58. Gatling.
Billy Myers your man?
More like she was his housekeeper.
- Timothy Flynn? - [Sheriff Robert] Dead.
I remember them.
Jerome McClintock.
Him too.
[Red] David Melmont.
They all took part in a massacre in '75.
- Cheyenne. - [Sheriff Robert] Trafford told me.
Where Hoxem now stands.
Did he tell you they got the...
calamity?
[Sheriff Robert] Syphilis?
[Red] From a lady's house they went to.
Wicked one, for sure.
Comes back, comes back hard.
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 cow pox.
But that's what Billy was looking for.
That's why he dug them up.
Not just them.
David Melmont too.
Jed. [clears throat] Outside.
Now!
[screaming]
[dramatic music playing]
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.
- A what? - [Cornelia] 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.
He gave it to me.
Before.
[Thin Kelly groans]
You gotta get out of here...
Now. Before he gets here.
- Who? - Him. '58.
Like he just did to me. [groans]
[suspenseful music playing]
Like he'll do to us.
Now.
The walls are pretty thick.
[horse galloping]
[rumbling]
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.
[heavy footsteps on the roof]
[gun cocks]
[heavy footsteps, clattering]
[horse whinnying]
[suspenseful music playing]
[guns firing]
[Sheriff screams]
[guns continue firing]
[horse whinnying]
[suspenseful music playing]
- [gun cocks] - [gunshot]
[suspenseful music playing]
[horse whinnying]
[gunshot]
[suspenseful music playing]
He's gone.
- My boy. - Where?
[Red] Where Melmont is!
[Martha] Up near Busted!
[suspenseful music playing]
[Martha] So?
Your boy went that way, McClintock this.
You follow your boy, we'll follow McClintock.
[Cornelia] Look!
[dramatic music playing]
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 round him one time but, well, he cut his self loose.
- I don't underst... - He drowned, ma'am.
He drowned his self.
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.
[Clay] You don't follow.
This is what he wanted.
Thomas Trafford, he opened up this whole place.
Least it can do is let him a part of it now.
Few strays left if you're so minded.
[dramatic music playing]
You go whichever way you want.
I go for my boy.
[intense music playing]
[suspenseful music playing]
[horse whinnies]
He's dead.
We gonna 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!
Yes, sir!
- He here? - [Simon] Oh, yes, sir!
Up yonder.
Been waitin'!
Tooks you some time.
Guessing you got yourselves held up some.
Mojave?
Yes, sir.
You looking to get killed?
Oh, yes, sir.
But now I's ready.
Ticket to heaven.
Huh.
Take us in.
[suspenseful music playing]
Here, nice hat.
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?
Flood.
He drowned.
Oh.
And when you gonna tell me bad news?
We might have shared a life together if it wasn't for you.
Well, then you'd be face down with him, wouldn't ya? Ey?
[scoffs]
Oh, no. I died years ago.
You killed me.
Why not you?
Well, it came, then it went away.
It's never come back.
Until now.
[stammers] Is that the sprog?
He look like me?
Oh, lucky boy.
Not his spirit.
Can't have it all.
What did... what do you do with him?
Did you, uh...
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...
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?
Ay?
Do that a lot, do ya?
Save your own skin.
You gonna watch her and all?
Looking forward to it.
What about him?
- All set. - [David] Oooh!
All set. Woah!
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.
[suspenseful music playing]
- [David] Oh. - [gun cocks]
Alright? Eh?
Ey.
You're not gonna kill me, darling?
[suspenseful music playing]
Do you wanna know for why?
'Cause there is a little bit of your boy walking on this earth.
And you can't kill that.
[gun clicks]
[gunshot]
[dramatic music playing]
[gun cocks]
[gunshot]
You just shot a man in cold blood.
- Where is it? - She's fine.
I checked.
[Jed Myers] He's alive!
[David wheezing]
Who dunnit?
- [Eli] I did! - [grunts]
[dramatic music playing]
[Sheriff Robert] Now I'm gonna have to arrest you both.
[Eli] No.
Just me.
[Martha] Goddamn!
[groaning]
[Cornelia] I couldn't do it.
You didn't need to.
[Sheriff Robert] All right, you, I'm gonna take you in.
[Cornelia] Why?
His workers come up here, find him, there'll be a lynching.
No question. Out of my hands.
Clear out as soon as she can.
But not with us.
No, no!
[Sheriff Robert] We're safer separate.
You understand?
[sighs]
I want these two with us.
You want to live?
Do what I say!
All of ya! Now!
How do you think this is gonna go?
Can never say, 'til it has.
I can.
They're gonna hang you anyway.
Right in front of his store.
Is that illegal, Sheriff?
You know what's beneath that street?
Got a fair idea.
[Sheriff Robert] History.
And that's where they're going to keep it.
Yep, that's how this story's gonna 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.
[dramatic music playing]
There's only one way out and that's not it.
[dramatic music playing]
[horse neighing]
[Cornelia] Eli!
Eli!
Oh...
[Cornelia] Eli!
What's happening?
[Sheriff Robert] This can't be! You shouldn't be here!
What? What, can't?
[Eli] "Soon..."
Has come.
No!
No, no, because look! Look.
Look it's magic! All of it!
All of it!
Time to go home.
No!
[dramatic music playing]
Home is here.
With you.
[sobbing]
[sniffles]
Where will you go?
Back to the Loup.
Why?
Sometimes you gotta see a thing, just to let it go.
I can't let you go.
I can't.
Lady, how many killings have you seen?
[laughs]
[sniffles]
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.
[dramatic music playing]
You've got to go!
[Cornelia] Eli!
It's wheat seed.
The best.
For that day.
I found it...
with you.
[dramatic music playing]
At last...
That's it, girl, keep coming...
[Eli chanting]
[dramatic music playing]
[speaking foreign language] I cherish you.
[soft music playing]
[Flathead] One! Two! Three! Go!
[crowd cheering]
[man chanting]
[horse neighing]
[Cornelia] White Moon.
My name is...
[White Moon] I know who you are.
[Cornelia] And here you are.
In England.
So strange.
Do you remember me?
Yes.
[Cornelia] I thought maybe, not.
I do.
[Cornelia] It sounds like a dream.
I've seen the world!
[Cornelia] And where's been your favorite?
Hastings.
They have a train there, goes straight up a cliff!
[Cornelia] Hmm, Thomas used to live there.
- [White Moon] Who? - [Cornelia] Oh, just someone I once knew.
You know, I have written to you many times...
and if you ever wanted...
- To leave? - [Cornelia] Yes.
And become, what?
[Cornelia] Whoever you want.
Join one of them schools?
Become an American?
I am Eše'he Ôhvo'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.
[Cornelia] This is just a circus.
A zoo.
You know. I play him.
[Cornelia] What?
Sergeant Whipp.
At Summit Springs, he saves a white woman.
[Cornelia] Oh...
You see?
[Cornelia] He would be very proud.
Thank you.
[Cornelia] Actually, I came to... I came to give you something.
He gave it to me before...
- Take it. - [White Moon] No.
[Cornelia] While it's still mine to give.
Please.
Please...
[man whistles]
[Cornelia] No.
[White Moon] Please...
[Cornelia] The shame.
But not for you.
[dramatic music playing]
[Flathead] Now the Pawnee Scouts enter the battle.
Led by Major North and First Sergeant Eli Whipp.
A big round of applause there, folks!
These guys are dangerous!
[dramatic music playing]
[singer] ♪ Many's the time I've been mistaken ♪
♪ And many times confused ♪
♪ Yes, and I've often felt forsaken ♪
♪ And certainly misused ♪
♪ Oh, but I'm all right, I'm all right ♪
♪ I'm just weary to my bones ♪
♪ Still, you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant ♪
♪ So far away from home ♪
♪ We come on the ship they call The Mayflower ♪
♪ We come on the ship that sailed the moon ♪
♪ We come in the age's most uncertain hours ♪
♪ And sing an American tune ♪
♪ Oh, and it's all right it's all right, it's all right ♪
♪ You can't be forever blessed ♪
♪ Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day ♪
♪ And I'm trying to get some rest ♪
♪ That's all I'm trying to get some rest ♪