Open Range 🎥 2003 Movie Info

Plot Summary

In Montana in 1882, “Boss” Spearman is an open range cattleman, who with hired hands Charley Waite, Mose, and Button, is driving a herd cross-country. Charley is a former Union soldier who served in a “special squad” during the Civil War and feels immense guilt over his past as a killer of both enemy soldiers and civilians. Boss sends Mose to the nearby town of Harmonville for supplies. The town is controlled and the saloon owned by ruthless Irish immigrant and rancher Denton Baxter, who hates open-rangers for using his land to feed their herds.

Mose is badly beaten and jailed by the town’s corrupt marshal, Poole, after defending himself in a fight with some of Baxter’s men. The only Harmonville inhabitant willing to openly defy Baxter is Percy, the livery stable owner. Boss and Charley become concerned when Mose does not return. They retrieve him from the jail, and Baxter gives them an ultimatum to leave the area before nightfall. Mose’s injuries are so severe that Boss and Charley take him to the local physician, Doc Barlow, and meet his assistant, Sue. Charley is attracted to her but assumes that she is the doctor’s wife.

They decline her invitation to stay the night in a spare room, since it would look improper. After catching masked riders scouting their cattle, Boss and Charley sneak up on their campsite that night and disarm, humiliate, and injure them. At the same time, other riders trash their camp and shoot Mose and Charley’s dog Tig dead. Button is badly injured after being shot in the chest. Charley and Boss vow to avenge their friend. They leave Button at the doctor’s house and go into town; with help from Percy, they capture Poole and his deputies, subdue them with chloroform stolen from the Barlows, and lock them up in their own jail.

Meet the Cast