Summaries

Synopsis

In 1878 in the Montana Territory, gunfighter Colton Briggs is a member of an extrajudicial posse organized to arrest and hang the brother of Walter McAllister, a notorious bandit. Walter and his men try to foil the public execution, resulting in a shootout that leaves Colton and McAllister's son, James, as the only survivors. Colton assures Walter's brother that he won't kill him; his execution was merely a feint to force his brother out of hiding. Enraged, the younger McAllister tries to shoot Colton in the back. Without hesitation, Colton guns him down and calmly rides away as Walter's young nephew James watches.

Twenty years later, Colton is a changed man: under the influence of his wife Ruth, he has become a respectable, clean-living merchant with a general store and a small farm, raising a twelve-year-old daughter named Brooke. To Colton's dismay, Brooke is defiant and unruly; he notices that she is also emotionally withdrawn and unable to behave like "normal folk", traits that remind him of his former life. Four men ride up to Colton's farm one day; their leader identifies himself as James McAllister. His gang stabs Ruth to death before painting a taunting message with her blood on the wall and leaving.

Colton and Brooke return to find Franklin Jarret, the U.S. Marshal tracking the McAllister gang, waiting at the farm with several deputies. As Ruth is buried, Jarret reveals to Brooke that he and Colton were once close friends and that he's proud of Colton giving up his violent ways to raise a family. Before leaving, he urges his old friend not to act on any desire he may have to take revenge on James. Colton decides to do so anyway and tells Brooke that she'll accompany him. Dressing in his old gunfighter's clothes and armed with his old pistols, Colton burns down his farm and house before leaving with Brooke.

The pair eventually catch up to Jarret after ambushing a wounded deputy for his horse; James had set a trap for his pursuers, killing three and leaving the others too injured to continue. Colton and Brooke disarm the survivors and threaten to torture them unless Jarret talks. He finally admits that James is traveling to Santa Rosa, a town in southern Colorado, to recover a buried stash of pesos and flee across the border while the heat on him dies down. Colton informs Jarret that he will take a horse and warns him not to interfere with his vengeance or he'll kill him.

Reaching Santa Rosa, Colton tells Brooke to visit a local shopkeeper and question him as to James's whereabouts while he waits just outside of town. James isn't fooled and captures Brooke as she tries to leave. Anticipating more ambushes, Colton manages to kill five members of the McAllister gang using his experience and wits before the last remaining member comes out with a shotgun aimed at Brooke. James tells Colton that he has two choices: he can either kill him, at which point Brooke will die, or he can for himself.

Taking stock of his situation, Colton chooses to kill the second man as James puts a bullet through his chest. As James crows over his victory, Brooke picks up her father's gun (having learned to shoot during their travels) and avenges him by killing James.

Later, Jarret rides in and agrees with Brooke to tell everyone that Colton Briggs died a hero's death apprehending the criminals, in exchange he would keep McAllister gang's money. However, unknown to Jarret, most of the money had been transferred to a pair of saddle bags, which Brooke prepares to ride back home with as the film ends