You do realize why you're in this car, do you not?
You've been tasked by Mr. Durant to build a bridge.
Any man can lay track. Am I correct?
- Yes, ma'am. Pretty near.
- Then can you explain why you've been spending all your energy
at rail's end instead of at the bridge site?
- It'll be... remedied, ma'am.
- Thank you.
You heard what the lady said.
- This where I tell you the men don't like taking orders from a woman?
- They don't have to like it. - No, they don't.
But if you're looking to get back in Mr. Durant's good graces,
pissing off the man might not be the best tack.
- Doesn't matter, as long as we get this railroad built.
- Hmm. If you're not careful, you're gonna start sounding like a man.
- Right.
- Alright, move your carcasses!
Step on it!
One more time!
You lot, for the gorge,
make room for one more. - You got it.
- As for the rest of you jackanapes, I expect to be able to walk a mile of rail
by the time I get back from me lunch break.
- Change the numbers all you want, that ain't the problem.
- Fifty-six men? Twenty-three...
And we've got another 46 coming.
Another tw...
- That's gotta be Fleming. - The sentry?
- You need to do something.
- Bring me the long rifle!
- There's too many! They got the high ground.
If you keep 'em occupied, we can loop back, try and outflank 'em!
Dammit, I said bring me the long rifle right now!
Get back.
He shot Fleming!
Look at me.
Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.
- I see you.
Damn, woman.
- What's so funny?
- Never thought I'd be glad... Mr. Toole made foreman.
Out early... home late.
- Don't speak his name.
You know the rules.
- Right.
'Cause you live by rules.
- I want you to feel something.
- Damn, girl. Give a man a minute to raise his spirit.
- You feel that?
That little bump?
You and me made that.
- How you know?
- Because I know.
Say something.
Εlam Ferguson, you look me in the eyes and you tell me what you're thinkin'.
Don't you leave here without saying something!
- I can't.
- See, I-I-I'm asking you to look... look in-inside your heart.
Inside your heart. - Sorry, Reverend.
I'm afraid it's empty.
Same as my wallet.
Hey.
Alright now?
- Reverend. - Cullen.
Could you... could you spot a fellow traveler a drink?
Rye, barkeep.
- Be right with you. - Carl.
Just the one.
You got to read over a man today.
- Oh, you have to ask that... that harlot who th-threw me out.
- You mean your daughter?
- Yeah. That sinning bitch...
...stole my church.
Yes, she's... your conduit
to the Lord now.
- You mind me askin' where you been beddin' down?
- I've been, uh... been sleeping in the cemetery.
- It's near freezing at night. There's no cover.
- Yeah, I find the dead a comfort.
What the hell?
You can bunk with me until you get yourself settled. Carl, set him up.
- Carl, set them... set them up.
What in the hell's going on?
Why aren't y'all men at work? Turn around and get back on...
Mr. Toole!
You mind telling me why these men ain't at work?
- All due respect...
...we lost a man out there.
Yeah! - A mate.
That's right! - You finish your day's work.
Then you come back in and drink to his memory.
- We parlayed. We all agree.
That's right. - It's not safe.
- It's about to get unsafe around here if you don't get your ass back to work.
I am afraid you'll just have to shoot us.
That's right!
- If we route south, then we can bridge the river here...
...and avoid the entire issue of sacred land.
- Yes.
At considerable expense!
- Spend a few more pennies now and keep your workforce, Thomas.
- Pennies. - We can't run from the Sioux.
Ain't this gorge, it'll be the next. - The men are afraid to work.
- Then find ones who ain't.
- They believe that if the Sioux won't kill them, perhaps you will.
- Bullshit. - Of course.
When logic isn't on your side, resort to the profane.
- Alright... I'll give you facts. Here.
Here. Here.
May not be sacred, but it's all Sioux territory.
- We've established what's on this side of the gorge! For once,
let's be smart! Reroute and show the men we can steer them
out of harm's way! - The Indians' home's at stake!
They'll fight us to the Rockies. - Then we're lost!
- Turn tail first sign of trouble, we are.
- You don't... - Whoa, whoa, whoa.
What is your plan, Mr. Bohannon?
- Fight 'em here, fight 'em now.
- With what? That rabble? - Them's the ones we got.
Well, they...
they won't even work for you.
- You let me worry about that.
Just don't reroute this railroad.
- Let me.
- Thank you.
- Your husband know about what you told me earlier?
- No.
Nobody knows but you and me.
- Good.
Spent my whole life trying to get free.
Then here come a woman - a white woman,
a married woman - spinnin' my head saying she's got my baby.
I couldn't think of nothin' to do but run.
Then it set with me.
- And?
- Any harm come to you, I go weak in the head.
- You are weak in the head.
- All the Gold Εagles in the world ain't worth a pinch of coon shit
if you can't use it to help the folk you care about.
Εlam...
What are you sayin'?
You saying you care about me?
- I love you.
I love you, woman.
I need you to take these Double Εagles...
...and get yourself taken care of.
- Taken care of?
- You can't have no black baby. Your husband'll kill it, or you,
or both of you. - Εlam, I used to be a whore.
If I wanna get rid of this child, I got my ways.
And you don't need to fear for your freedom on my account.
A prouder man
I walked the land
In health and peace of mind
If I might toil and strive and moil
Nor cast one thought behind
But what would be the world to me
Its wealth and rich array
If memory I lost of thee
My own dear Galway
What's he doin' here?
- Come to pay my respects to Mr. Fleming.
He was a good man.
Aye. - A poor end he was met with.
- And he won't be the last, I'm afraid.
- Mr. Michael Fleming...
Um...
He didn't ask for what he got...
...but he got it anyway.
Life ain't fair.
Ain't fair at all.
Hell, most of us here fought in a war one side or the other.
We all seen men fall.
We prayed over 'em, we drank over 'em.
But we did not quit.
Best way to honour your friend is to carry on.
Finish this road.
Mr. Bohannon, Mr. Bohannon!
No disrespect intended...
...but we won't die for your railroad. Aye.
Not on your life!
- Your friend didn't have to die.
- You best have a point!
- We're all in the same position. - Mm-hmm.
- Sioux don't look at any of us any different.
They just aim to kill.
- That doesn't explain why you're interrupting a private wake!
- We're willing to protect the end of the rail and the bridge site.
Railroad give us guns, we'll go out early and pat...
Give 'em guns?
You're not serious. Patrol for Sioux.
- Mr. Durant ain't gonna arm no ex-slaves and these men wouldn't stand for it neither.
- Damn right. Aye! Aye!
- Best get yourself on outta here.
- Then you ain't getting no work out of us.
- That's not a stand you wanna take.
We aren't working neither! Not until you protect us.
We won't be sitting ducks out there!
Dammit, y'all listen to me!
That road's gonna get built with or without you.
Y'all don't go to work, it's you who's gonna lose.
Now trust me on this.
You'll lose and it'll get ugly.
Sorry for your loss.
'Tis far away I am today
From scenes I roamed a boy
And long ago the hour
I know I first saw Illinois
But time nor time nor waters wide
Can wean my heart away
Forever true it flies to you
My dear old Galway Bay
Hang him!
- They are burning me at the stake out there and I had to come and find you?!
- Thank you. - Yes, ma'am.
- What are they demanding?
- They want protection. - Well...
we can't guarantee their safety against the Sioux.
It's a hazard of the job. - More beans?
- And the freedmen? - They wanna be armed.
- Give rifles to an army of ex-slaves?
No, no. I won't allow it.
- That's what I told 'em. - This is why we change the route.
Avoid sacred land. Win the men back
by taking them out of harm's way. - You do that, you'll lose this railroad.
- At least get the freedmen back out there. They'll do what we tell them to do.
- All evidence to the contrary.
- Those Negroes... are the property of this railroad,
Mr. Bohannon.
- "Property"?
- Yes. Most of the freedmen are criminals,
and we bought their sentences
from the states where they were serving time.
- Bought them, bought me, it's all beside the point.
They do not make demands. I told you when you hired me,
this was a war. - Yes.
And I expected you to have a battle plan.
Well?! - Let me be clear.
I can't do anything... without your complete authority.
- This is yours to deal with.
- Then, yeah...
got a plan.
- Hear you're holding that railroad hostage, huh?
He'll use you as a sacrificial lamb for them Injuns.
- You worry about your people. I'm gonna worry about mine.
- Boys get themself killed playing with guns.
- They ain't never gonna see us as equals... till we holding the weapons they got.
- Oh.
I suppose everybody looks the same once the maggots get to 'em.
- Mm-hmm.
- You'd be a vision even if your whole body were covered in them things.
Your beauty could never be hidden from my eyes.
- Are you drunk, Mr. Toole?
- How did you know?
- Ah, you always... wax poetical
when you got a noseful.
- Chitterlings again. - Yeah.
I had a hankering for 'em.
Just can't seem to get enough.
- They're fattening you up a bit. I like me a woman with a bit of girth.
- Oh, it's... it's strange, me...
wantin' to eat so much,
with me being so sick in the mornings of late.
- I'm sure it'll pass.
Give us a kiss, woman.
Mm...
- Mr. Toole...
I'm with child.
And it ain't yours.
I can't... I can't lie to you. You...
You've been one of the most... halfway-decent men I ever known, but...
...this child belongs... to another.
- Does this mean you're leavin' me?
- Seems you got your work cut out for you, boss man.
- Ain't nothin' I can't handle.
Can you send a message to the Council Bluffs office?
"Labour negotiations stalled. " Stop.
"Work halted. "
Stop.
"Send 200 replacement workers...
...on next available train. " Stop. Got that?
Alright.
- There's gonna be bloodshed.
- What you care?
You ain't no freedman.
You sure as hell ain't Irish or German.
- I ain't cleanin' up after your mess.
- No.
You'll just do whatever Mr. Durant wants you to.
Won't you?
- There is a... storm brewing in town.
- Oh, that's... that's a labour dispute, it...
...appears to me. - Ah... more blood.
More bodies.
More coffins.
Our jobs have never been more secure. Hmm?
May I tell you a...
a secret, Reverend?
War is coming.
Yet again.
Not this business of workers sitting down on the job.
A real war.
Ooh. - Hey!
Now is the time...
...to see...
things clear.
We must... decide...
...which side we are on.
Hmm?
Pardon me, sir.
- Where you think you goin'? - Out of me way!
- I'm gonna tell you this once.
You lay a hand on her...
...I'm gonna kill you.
- Oh, you can thrash me?
Fine.
You're not a real man.
- Just so we're clear.
- Puffed up. Big gun.
You can go to hell.
What kind of man are ya?
Most of us would give our life to be a father, but look at ya.
Huh?
You didn't even stay by her side before.
And where are you now?
In the middle of town,
flexing your damn trigger finger.
You're no father.
You're just a coward.
Good night, then, yellow belly.
- Reverend.
- You... you got any socks you want done?
- Why don't you go to the Starlight?
Huh? Get us a bottle.
- What's a train doing here so late at night? - It's new workers.
Comin' in to take over for thems who won't go out.
- Y-you're replacing the men? - Layin' rail ain't no scholarly business.
If the men don't wanna work, there's hundreds more where they came from.
Now, you get us a bottle.
Whatever's left, you keep.
- Yeah.
You enjoying your view?
Matter of fact, I ain't.
Let's go!... take our jobs!
- The men think they steppin' off that train to get jobs.
- If they can fight, they might just have 'em.
Boys are gettin' their ass kicked.
- Let's get 'em, boys!
Don't do it. Don't do it.
Don't show your face around here!
Get back on that train!
- You tell anybody else tryin' to come out here what happened!
You hear me?!
- Get outta here! - Go on! Get outta here!
Go! Back where you came from!
Yeah!
Let me see. What you got?
Hey, congratulations!
- We're willin' to go back to work, under one condition.
- Maybe you don't understand.
I can have another trainload of workers here tomorrow.
- We understand.
The Negroes are willing to put themselves between us and the Sioux.
We're okay with them having guns.
- Hmm.
Get yourself some rest, Mr. Toole.
- Proud of yourself?
- Pride ain't got nothin' to do with it.
- So that was the plan? Εverybody supposed to get along happy ever after?
- Not quite yet.
Now you need to get your people back to work.
Ain't no sense havin' a horse unless it's broke enough so you can ride it.
- Εxcept we ain't talkin' about horses. We talkin' about men.
- Same principle.
You work for Mr. Durant now.
Same as me.
That means we're the ones doing the ridin'.
He ain't gonna like that one bit! No, he ain't.
Vittles look good to me.
- What he want?
- Get over there.
- Y'all got a choice.
You either get back to work,
or go back to prison.
- Says who?
- Boss man.
- Then we need to hear it from the boss man.
- You're hearing it just as good from me.
- I ain't hearin' nothin' but some noise...
...comin' from the boss man's flunky.
Look at you.
And what you become.
Get your ass up, boy!
Hit him!
- Don't know if you're black, don't know if you're white!
You're nothing! You hear me?!
Get up! Get up! Get up!
- Nothin'. You ain't nothin'.
Get your ass up.
Get your ass up. Huh?
Yeah, I'll show you.
You bit me! You bit me!
- You're still my nigger.
- Strike's over.
- They gave in?
- The freedmen agree to go back out, no conditions.
When the men sober up, we're givin' the Negroes rifles
and send everybody back out to the cut.
- But you said yourself we can't capitulate to their demands.
- Point is, we ain't. - I am not arming the freedmen.
- You want this railroad built, somebody's gotta patrol that land.
Now, you gonna let me do this or not?!
Well, if...
they wanna be cannon fodder - hmm... - so be it.
But we have lost two days and 5 miles.
- Those men fought to the death for their jobs.
We'll make up those 5 miles in no time. - So that's it. We move forward.
At what cost?
- You're the one said building this railroad's the only thing that matters.
- Being smart and rerouting
is not the same as being weak!
- You and me's gonna have to agree to disagree.
- Yes. Because clearly it always has to be on your terms, doesn't it?
- It don't work... if there's any question about that.
Got yourself a real workforce now.
- Mrs. Toole...
Your husband has returned home.
- Reverend?
You leavin' me?
- Well, I see you've bent the men to your will.
I suppose I played a part in that.
- Yeah.
Is it true?
I mean, do you believe you're at war with the Sioux?
- Yes, sir, I do.
- Now you have the men to do the job.
I can't stay with you.
- I respect that.
Rifle in your left hand, cartridges in your right.
Join the line. Arms distance, please. - You think this is unwise?
- Probably.
But this is...
Barrels down, gentlemen.
But a necessary evil, Mr. Toole.
- You're speaking of yourself then, Mr. Bohannon.
- Hmm. Mm-hmm.
- Rifle in your left hand. Cartridges in your right.
Congratulations.
Alright, gentlemen, the rest of y'all,
rifles in your left hand, barrel facing the sky,
finger off the trigger. Take one cartridge in your right hand.
Sharp end is the business end. Load that cartridge
into the cartridge port on the side, business end first.
Now, on the order to make ready, rack that lever all the way forward
and all the way back, loadin' the round into the chamber. And...
make ready!
You dropped your round.
Pick it up.
Start again.
And... make ready!
Boss man coming through. Hold your fire.
Boss man coming through! Hold your fire!
- Anything moves...
...shoot the shit out of it.
CNST, Montreal