Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 (2024)
SINOPSIS
In order to delineate the homestead lots of a future frontier town, Horizon, two distinct surveying companies set stakes on opposing banks of the San Pedro River in the San Pedro Valley of Southeastern Territorial Arizona in 1859. Soon after, a missionary named Desmarais uses a printed pamphlet poster labelled "Horizon" to locate Horizon. When he does, he finds that all three surveying party members have been killed by a Western Apache war band. He founds the town of Horizon and buryes their remains.
A Pionsenay-led Apache raid on the now-American homesteader settlement of Horizon in 1863 claimed the lives of several settlers, including Frances Kittredge's husband and kid. During the slaughter, Russell Ganz, a settlement youngster, rides out on horseback to warn the Army at nearby Camp Gallant. Leading the infantry and cavalry unit from the United States Union are 1st Lt. Gephardt, Sgt. Major Riordan, and Neron Chavez, the Chief Scout of the Pima Indian Scouts. They help bury the deceased, look for the raiding party's trail, and tend to the survivors.
Along with the Army, Frances departs with her daughter Elizabeth in search of safety in Camp Gallant. Meanwhile, a scalp-hunter tracker and fellow survivor Elias Janney lead a posse that the orphaned Russell has joined to pursue the accountable Apaches. Gephardt alerts the posse to the possibility of indiscriminate reprisals against other non-combatant, uninvolved Native Americans motivated more by profit-scalping than by justification-based arguments. Elizabeth and Frances acclimatise to life at Camp Gallant. Gephardt disagrees with Colonel Houghton, his commanding officer, and his belief in the inevitable course of manifest destiny because of his non-interventionist moral code regarding indigenous land. After making friends with a few soldiers at the Post, Elizabeth is devastated to learn that they are being called back to fight in the Civil War. The widow Frances and Gephardt begin a romance.
Regarding his incursions against the settlers, Pionsenay quarrels with Tuayeseh, the tribe elder. Tuayeseh favours peaceful coexistence and is thinking about taking revenge on Pionsenay for his deeds, while Pionsenay thinks the settlers would drive them out and force them to go to fight with other tribes. One of Tuayeseh's sons is among Pionsenay's warband, who willingly depart the tribe to fight the settlers.
CAST
- Kevin Costner as Hayes Ellison
- Sienna Miller as Frances Kittredge
- Sam Worthington as First Lt. Trent Gephardt
- Giovanni Ribisi as H. Silas Pickering
- Michael Rooker as Sgt. Major Thomas Riordan
- Danny Huston as Col. Albert Houghton
- Jena Malone as Ellen Harvey/Lucy
- Michael Angarano as Walter Childs
- Abbey Lee as Marigold
- Jamie Campbell Bower as Caleb Sykes
- Jon Beavers as Junior Sykes
- Owen Crow Shoe as Pionsenay
- Tatanka Means as Taklishim
- Luke Wilson as Matthew Van Weyden
- Ella Hunt as Juliette Chesney
- Tom Payne as Hugh Proctor
- Georgia MacPhail as Elizabeth Kittredge
- Will Patton as Owen Kittredge
- Isabelle Fuhrman as Diamond Kittredge
- Jeff Fahey as Tracker
- Gregory Cruz as Tuayeseh
- Scott Haze as Elias Janney
- Angus Macfadyen as Desmarais
- Etienne Kellici as Russell Ganz
- Charles Halford as James Sykes
- Dale Dickey as Mrs. Sykes
- Wasé Chief as Liluye
- Elizabeth Dennehy as Mrs. Riordan
- Hayes Costner as Nathaniel Kittredge
- Alejandro Edda as Neron Chavez
- Tim Guinee as James Kittredge
- Colin Cunningham as Chisholm
- James Russo as Abel Naughton
- Douglas Smith as Sig
- Larry Bagby as Billy Landry / Flagg James
- Dalton Baker as Private Epps
- Chase Ramsey as Private Eklund
- Naomi Winders as Martha Kittredge
- Austin Archer as Virgil
- Raynor Scheine as Hermit
- David O'Hara as Bowler Hat Surveyor