Detailed Description of the First Act of COWBOYS & ALIENS
I don't know about the rest of you, but one of the movies I'm really excited about seeing this year is Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens. I've noticed that when the trailer for this plays in a movie theater the audience laughs and makes dumbass comments about how stupid it looks. This movie obviously isn't going to be for everyone, but I don't understand how they can't see the awesome fun in this story! It's cowboys and indians fighting aliens for cryin' out loud! Not only that, but the movie looks really freakin' good. I love that it has the gritty feel of a old school western.
IGN has released a detailed description of the first act of the movie. They got a chance to hand out with Favreau and editor Dan Lebental in the editing room where they saw the first act of the movie which stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde.
I will warn you, the description below does contain spoilers. I'm ok with spoilers for most movies, but I know many of you aren't so I just wanted to warn you before you kept reading.
The movie opens with outlaw Jake Lonergan (Craig) waking up in the middle of nowhere with a strange, futuristic gauntlet on his arm and no idea of how it got there. Jake is one bad hombre; this is immediately established when he adeptly takes out a few riders looking to do him harm.
Moving on from there, Jake arrives in the town of Absolution where he intervenes to help a meek saloon keeper, Doc (Sam Rockwell), who is being harassed by young thug Percy Dolarhyde (a scene-stealing Paul Dano) and his cronies. Going into Doc’s saloon for a drink, Jake is approached by a beautiful, enigmatic jezebel named Ella (Olivia Wilde) who knows a helluva lot more about Jake than she possibly could. But before Jake can get answers as to how, Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) and his deputies arrive to take Jake into custody. Turns out Jake is quite the wanted man who, although he has no memory of it, allegedly stole from powerful local rancher Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford), who is — you guessed it — Percy’s badass dad.
Before the Colonel can take Jake away to mete out punishment, distant lights hearken the sudden and violent arrival of alien invaders. The brutal attack on Absolution plays out like an Old West Pearl Harbor. The alien ships destroy the town and abduct some of its inhabitants, before Jake is able to down one of the spacecraft with that strange gauntlet of his. This otherworldly threat forces enemies Jake and Dolarhyde to ally for the greater good.
Most of this we've seen in the trailer of the film, but then Favreau reveals what happens next.
What happens next is that it becomes a road movie as they band together and try to track this thing and find where all the people are being held. All the people they meet along the way and all the different groups coming together, this ragtag group finally confronting this unapproachable enemy. That’s also what’s fun about a good western, like The Magnificent Seven, is how are they possibly going to defeat this enemy? It’s just through heart and faith. How can you make it that they can face these odds and it doesn’t feel like bullshit? It’s guiding the audience through each step so that they believe you and have them get invested in the characters.
The film is scheduled for release on July 29th, make sure to head on over to IGN to read more about what they thought of the footage, and what Favreau said about working with the actors.
So are you excited for this film or what?