Original subtitles

♪ MTV... ♪

The numbing shock of war is behind me now.

Pain has taken its place.

Hurts to move.

Hurts to breathe.

The back of my head throbs with every step of my horse.

I look at the world through the hazy lens of fever,

and somehow see it clearer.

Run little rabbit.

What is death?

What is this thing we all share...

rabbits, birds, horses, trees...

Everyone I love and everyone who loves me...

even stars die...

And we know absolutely nothing of it.

- State your business with the fort.

- You're boys.

- State your business.

- Who are you gonna protect?

- I guess I'll protect who needs protecting.

- You should spend some time outside these walls

before you make that statement.

- State your business or be on your way.

- Don't touch her!

- What's wrong with her? We don't need no smallpox.

- She got shot.

Get the surgeon.

- Follow me.

- Come on, baby.

- Major, a woman needs help.

- What happened? - She was shot.

- Gonna need to summon yer staff, Major.

Got two more coming behind-- head wound and a snake bite.

- Well, just list the ailments, sir.

I'll decide who to summon.

Looks like she's already been treated.

- Just a battle dressing.

- Is there a battle that I'm not I'm unaware of?

Gunfights do not a battle make.

- Captain.

Gunfights do not a battle make, "Captain."

Believe me when I say, I know the difference, Major.

- This wound is from an arrow. - Mm-hm.

Swelling in her liver.

I suggest you get her to Fort Laramie.

Nothing I can do for you here.

I got no porters, no nurses, no staff at all.

- How can you man a fort without a staff?

- There is no fort.

It's been abandoned.

We're meeting engineers from Pacific Northwest

as they map a path for the railroad north and east.

No more wagons for this country.

Who is she to you? - She's my daughter.

- The arrow hit her liver.

Hard enough to recover from a bullet through the liver,

let alone an arrow.

Those things are filthy and half the time poisoned.

And even if her liver does heal, sepsis is in her.

I'm not saying it can't be beat, but I've never seen it.

- Just get her strong enough to travel, that's all I ask.

- Travel? She's done traveling.

Laramie is as far as she goes. If you're lucky.

Best you can hope for is that she wakes

and you get to say goodbye.

I'll get my bag.

- Move!

- You ain't no soldiers but you're manning a fort.

- We're with the CY Ranch.

The ranch owns the fort.

- CY part of the Wyoming Stock Grower's Association?

- Part of it. Mr. Carey founded it.

- Don't that figure.

- Y'all need rooms for the night?

We rent 'em.

- We're gonna keep moving.

- Where'd they go?

- We head to Laramie.

- All this land is owned by the boss

of those deputies we killed.

This fort included.

- Go north. Hit the Bozeman trail.

- That'll put us in Montana for the winter.

You think this place is wild.

- Ain't gonna take them long for those deputies we killed.

This whole country will be hunting us.

Again.

- Your daughter needs a doctor.

- What's a doctor gonna do for her?

You been to war. I have too.

Three days.

Her liver either heals or it fails.

And if it heals, she's got another week maybe.

- Yeah.

- I gotta talk to my wife.

Walk with me?

- John, go check on your sister, okay?

- We can't wait it out here.

- Why not?

- Doesn't matter why. We just can't.

Ain't no doctor can help her.

Nobody can.

And we ain't gonna lay her to rest here.

We keep heading north.

Where she dies, that's where we stay.

She'll be with us.

And you can visit her any time you want.

- Oh, I'll be there every day.

Until you put me in the ground right beside her.

- I need everyone to gather around.

We're gonna head north from here.

Winter in the Bozeman valley,

then push on to Oregon in the spring.

- No no no. We go to Oregon now.

- In the springtime.

- You promised.

- I'm keeping my promise...

I just changed the way I'm keeping it.

Get ready to leave.

- Captain, these folks need a few days.

Gotta get Josef to the doctor.

- There is no doctor. Just more of those thieves.

And if we stay around here, they're gonna hang us.

- We are staying.

The trail is easy enough to follow now.

We will make it to Oregon without you.

- Suit yourself.

- Wait. Wait... We go with you.

- Show me your leg.

Show me your leg.

You can't drive.

You can't walk.

She can't drive.

How am I supposed to take you with me?

- I'll drive it.

- They're gonna die. - Then they die.

They're free people now. That's what they chose.

- Ain't my job to tell you what to drive.

- We got a herd of cattle just sitting in the prairie.

- Leave 'em.

- What do you want us to do?

- What do you want to do?

- I hate turning my back to ya, but...

If we ain't pushing cattle for you, we ain't much use.

- Where are we goin'?

- Montana, honey.

- Wonder what that'll be like.

- It was a hell of a thing riding with you.

- It was a hell of a thing riding with you.

Wasn't a day on this drive I was prettier than you.

You'll always the be one that got away, Elsa.

- Colton, you gotta be pretty damn good looking

to think the one you never had got away from you.

Go back to Texas, you pretty son of a bitch.

- Ma'am.

- I wondered what became of them.

Wondered if they staked their claim in Wyoming

and built sod houses,

bought cattle and tried to scratch a life from this place.

Or perhaps they fought the winter and braved their way

to Oregon, laying stakes in the emerald fields

of the Willamette Valley.

But I'd seen too much of this world...

knew too much about the nature of man

to think either would be their future.

Another future awaited them, and it lay in the abyss

of unmarked graves along the Oregon Trail.

- She any better today?

- She won't take water.

- Mm.

- Your leg is dying.

And the death is working its way up.

Now, we can take the leg...

or you can die with it.

Those are your choices.

- You know this?

- I know it.

- You know how to take the leg?

- I know how.

- Take it.

- Okay.

♪ Lullaby and goodnight... ♪

- Margaret's been holding out on us.

- She only sings for the kids.

- Not for you?

- She promised me she'd sing at my funeral,

but she made me promise she'd die first, so...

Got horse traded out of my song.

- Women will strike some tricky bargains, won't they.

- I've never come out on the winning end of one yet.

- During the war, I got a telegraph from my wife

that said she was taking another lover.

And leaving with him on Friday.

It was a Monday when I got the telegraph.

So, I got my sword real goddam sharp to slice

that son of a bitch, and rode two days straight.

When I got there she ran out of the house and...

tackled me in a hug.

Said she'd read the Rebels were in Pennsylvania

and she dreamed that I was gonna die on a battlefield

at Gettysburg.

That dirty, little liar saved my life.

- Josef's leg got's to come off.

We should do it now.

- All right.

- Thank you.

So we do this now?

- Not yet.

Not till you're so drunk you can't see straight.

Need about half that bottle in you.

- I'm German.

Half this bottle I'm just hitting my stride

We had these stupid French running through the streets

of Paris like dogs.

A-le-a-le-a-le...

- You know what the hell he's talking about?

- Some battle.

Don't matter.

Sumbitch can drink that whiskey.

What no one... understands about a battle

is the noise.

The noise of it...

When they start, you can hear the man

beside you scream over the bombs and rifles.

Before long, you can't hear the bombs over the screams...

- Now we're getting somewhere.

Finish that last swig, Josef.

- Fuck.

That ain't one of yer good ones, is it?

I don't have a good one.

- No, no, I'm not ready.

- You just lay right there and take a nap.

We ain't starting nuthin'.

- Don't you...

- We ain't doing nuthin'.

Just lay back and rest.

Let's give him a few minutes.

Y'all put your knees on his arms.

Press your hands into his shoulders, hard.

Thomas, you might need that.

- Which leg you want?

- I'm working the saw.

- I got the cutting leg.

He's gonna try to kick the life out of you when he comes to.

- I don't think he's coming to.

- Well, he's coming to.

Okay Slow down.

Cut around to the bone first, yeah?

- I'd go right to the saw.

- It'll heal better this way.

- Okay.

- All right, y'all get on him.

- Hold on.

Hold him! Hold him!

- Oh, my God.

Gotta bury that leg.

He don't need to see a coyote running through the plains

with his foot tomorrow.

- Y'all can get up now.

Are we in Montana?

- Almost.

- Hm.

- Honey, you need to lay down. - Mm.

- I'm cold. Wanna sit by the fire.

There anything to eat?

- I can sure make you something real quick.

- I'm sure glad I didn't get shot in the leg.

- Gonna have to hold out for about fifteen minutes.

- I ain't going nowhere.

- Fever's broke.

Color's back too. That's good.

How's the pain.

- It's there, but not like it was.

- You want some bacon?

- Sure.

Y'all made good time.

Went from prairie to pine trees in a day.

- We left the fort three days ago.

- Oh.

Slept my way here, I guess. - Yeah, honey. You sure did.

- I'm not sure what Oregon looks like

but I bet it don't look like this.

Should have aimed for this place from the start.

- I don't know what Oregon looks like either, honey,

but this is hard to beat.

- The only people who know what it looks like are already there.

Funny, when you think about it.

All those people from Europe...

Don't speak our language...

Don't know anything about this place.

Risking their lives over rumors and dreams.

- Rumors and dreams built this whole world, honey.

Every inch of it.

- Wanna know my greatest fear about dying?

It's being forgotten.

And I can't understand why cuz I won't be here

to know anyone forgot me.

But the thought is terrifying.

What a silly thing to scare me.

- Nobody's gonna forget you, Elsa.

And you ain't dying.

You should be dead.

But you pay about as much attention to the rules of nature

as you pay to mine.

- You look at me like I'm dying.

- I look at you for what you are--

the most important thing to me on this planet.

And that comes with a lot of worry.

Because I can't replace you.

- The others were wrong not to come with us.

You think they'll make it to Oregon?

- I don't think they'll make it out of Wyoming.

- Me neither.

- We never spoke of dreams or death again.

Never spoke of the Pioneers either.

Because there was no need.

Come on! Let's go!

To survive the frontier, you must learn to recognize

those who won't.

And be weary of their doomed decisions.

They are to be avoided at all costs, because their fear

is tragedy's closest cousin.

And tragedy is contagious in this place.

- Shea! - Hold up here.

Get ready.

- In the foot locker!

- She's hurt.

- I know. Shot. Lakota arrow.

- They been making war?

- Somebody made war on them.

They thought it was us.

- What do your, uh, doctors say?

- We have no doctors.

- I'll get you a doctor.

We need to put her in the creek.

- It's too cold.

She's got a fever.

- Cold is what she needs.

Stop the bleeding.

That was quite the battle, huh?

- Was a good one. -

- You her father?

- I can call him.

- Call him.

- You are her father.

- I am.

- What do you know of war?

- More than I care to.

- Mm.

You know that the Lakota, they dip their arrows

in manure, so a hit is fatal.

And an arrow in the liver is for certain.

- I know what's coming.

I just...

Where we put her in the ground is where we stay.

And I gotta find that place fast.

Otherwise I'm living out here in the sagebrush with you.

I know a place for you.

You go through that pass then you follow the river south.

I used to hunt that valley as a boy.

The winters are cruel,

but the summer's are rich and a man who plans can thrive.

And you look like a man who plans.

- What's the valley called.

- I don't know the word in your language, but it's, uh...

When you die, you go there.

- Heaven.

- No, there's another word, it's not...

- Paradise.

- Yes, Paradise. Good name.

that in seven generations

my people will rise up, and take it back from you.

- In seven generations you can have it.

- Mm.

How long's the trip?

Depends how fast you ride.

But with that wagon, it will take a week.

and she doesn't have that.

Some day my family might seek to hunt that valley

and if they do, you remember me.

And you let them.

- Your family can hunt the day I get there

and every day after.

- Mm. Good.

Feel better?

- You lied.

- I'm sorry.

- I'm dying.

- I know, honey.

- Make me a promise.

- Anything.

- Let me choose the spot. Please?

- Yeah, honey.

You choose the spot.

- They're fine. Ate good.

Went right to sleep.

- They haven't spoken since their father died...

in Texas.

- I couldn't get them to shut up.

- They talk to you?

- All the time.

Ask about what's this sound and this animal...

What's Oregon like...

- They won't talk to me.

For months.

Guess I'd blame me too.

- Ain't blame.

They just don't know what to say.

After all they seen you go through.

It's the journey that keeps them from talking with you.

To them, you're this, this giant egg...

They're terrified is gonna break.

They talk to me cuz

they couldn't care less if I break.

And that's fine.

Guess I don't care too much myself.

- What happens in Oregon?

- Don't know a thing about Oregon.

- With us, I mean.

- Figure we find a valley with, uh...

some good water

no people.

Then we stake it out and make it ours.

And your boys will talk to you again.

Cuz the journey's over.

- I've lost a daughter too.

Time will come when you blame yourself.

Think it's your fault.

For giving her so much rein.

And maybe it is your fault...

But I'll say this--

I've watched this girl for the last six months

and she has outlived us all.

I'm 75 years old and she has out-smiled me,

out-loved me, out-fought me...

She's outlived me.

She's out-lived all of us.

- She wants to pick the spot where she's buried.

She wants to choose it. Put eyes on it.

These wagons won't make the trip in time.

My boy can't make the trip on horseback.

- Mm-hm.

- And I gave her my word.

I can't let her life end with me breaking it.

And I have absolutely no idea how to tell my wife...

I gotta take her daughter away from her....

To die...

And she can't go.

She'll hear the logic in it from you.

From me, all she'll hear is the cruelty in it.

You think you can do that for me?

Please...

- Yeah.

I can do that for ya.

Ma'am?

- So, what is my husband too scared to ask me?

- He promised your daughter she could choose where she dies.

And that's where you build the ranch.

But it's a week's drive on a wagon.

She ain't got a week.

Horse can make it in two days.

- Still haven't heard a question.

- Well, I really don't know what the question is , ma'am.

I guess the question is, are you willing to say goodbye

to her here.

- Men are such fucking cowards.

- It ain't cowardice, ma'am.

It's a shame that the question's even being asked.

- When do they leave?

- Should leave in the morning.

- I'm sorry.

Ain't no other way.

- I love you.

- I love you both.

With all my heart.

- I'll see you in the valley, mama.

- See you there.

- I hope you prove 'em all wrong.

Hope you laugh about this in twenty years.

Laugh at all of us for doubting you.

- Well, if I can't...

I'll come meet you on the beach.

- I'll save you a spot.

We'll be right behind you.

- Keep 'em close.

- Like they were my own.

This way. Here.

Stop.

This is the spot.

- Where do you want to go?

- Against the tree.

Let's just sit here and...

Rest for a bit.

- You want a blanket?

- No.

You be the blanket.

What's your first memory?

- I was...probably three I reckon.

My daddy had an apprentice.

And he was banging horse shoes.

I remember the sparks.

He looked up at me and he smiled...

put his hands over his eyes, and said "peekaboo I see you,"

then he covered his eyes with his hands,

and he said you can't see me."

"Where am I."

I didn't understand the game,

I mean, he was hiding behind his hands.

And I could see him.

Plain as day.

And I thought he was a fool.

- Mine was...

All of these birds...

In the field behind the house.

Right after a rain.

Pecking at the ground.

Pulling out worms.

And I thought...

"How smart. Wait for the rain to soften the earth."

I just thought that was so smart.

- You were right, honey. That was smart.

- You birds sure are smart.

- Honey...

Honey...

- I understand it now.

- Understand what?

- I know what it is.

And I'm not scared.

I'm not scared, daddy.

- This is it.

- Mama! There's a river!

- Is it too far?

- Ain't nothing too far for us.

You want the river...

I'll stake you a river.

- Just look at that, Helen.

Isn't that beautiful...

- There is a moment where your dreams and your memories

merge together, and form a perfect world.

That is Heaven.

And each Heaven is unique.

It is the world of you.

The land is filled with all you hold dear

and the sky is your imagination.

My Heaven is filled with good horses and open plains

and wild cattle and a man who loves me.

- Race ya.

It is always sunrise in my world...

And there are no storms.

I am the only lighting.

I know death now.

I've seen it.

It had no fangs.

It smiled at me.

And it was beautiful.