Unburden yourself, my son.
I was with General Sherman on his march south.
What we did...
Evil...
Unspeakable things.
You were a soldier.
You were following orders.
No.
No, not just orders.
We opened a dark door,
and the devil stepped in.
The only way to cast out the devil
is to confess to God.
No.
No, I can't, Father.
Tell me about Meridian.
How do you know about Meridian?
A nation,
which nearly destroyed itself
by civil war between north and south,
can only be healed by the binding together
of east and west.
Mark my words, gentlemen,
it will be built.
The only question which remains is
which one of you
will join me in this mad, noble quest?
Who among you
will have to say in years hence
that he stood idly by
as this nation became an empire?
And who among you
will be able to say
he lent a hand in making manifest our destiny as a great nation?
Hear, hear.
Bravo.
It's all horse crap.
The faster I shovel, the faster they eat it up.
But it was a truly inspirational speech.
Twattle and shite, I say.
Then why am I here?
You are here to play your part.
Crédit Mobilier.
Crédit Mobilier
will be awarded all major construction contracts
on the Union Pacific Railroad.
I own it.
I'm giving you the chance to get in on the ground floor.
So, you'll be paying yourself
to build a railroad with Government subsidies.
Now that, my friend, is inspirational.
Yes, it is, but...
I can't afford these on a senator's salary.
As head of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Railroads,
I'm sure you will find a way to pay for them
over and over and over again.
Might I ask how many shares are here?
Two hundred. I think you'll find that's fair.
Four hundred sounds fairer.
Are you trying to renegotiate a bribe?
No. "Bribe" is such a dirty word.
Hmm?
Why don't you think on it, Doc, hmm?
We've got a vote before the committee next Tuesday.
Good luck with your land speculation in Nebraska.
Fifty thousand acres, bought on the cheap, hmm?
What would happen to the value of that land
if I decided to route the railroad around it?
Take the stocks, Jordan.
But I've decided to renegotiate.
One hundred shares.
MICKEY: "He was gun... Gunned down...
"While he..."
"Prayed."
I was getting it.
"Prayed...
"In the..."
"Conference."
"Prayed in the conference?"
Confessional.
Someone killed the poor bugger whilst he was confessing?
What is the world coming to?
Well,
I suppose the only consolation is that he got to heaven
that much faster.
How did you come by that conclusion?
Well, he confessed his sins.
He died in grace.
So... God just
up and punches his ticket to heaven, huh?
Well, yeah.
If that's how God goes about his business, you can keep him.
Keep God?
Do you not believe in a higher power?
Yes, sir, I wear it on my hip.
Are you a gunslinger then?
No.
I was just heading out west, looking for work on the railroad.
Yeah, so are we.
To seek our fortune, as it were.
I'm Mickey and this here's Sean.
Cullen Bohannon.
- Mickey has twelve toes. - And Sean but eight.
Individually, we're freaks.
But together, we're whole.
# There's a bullet in my pocket burning a hole
# It's so far from your weapon, the place you were born
# There's a bullet in my pocket burning a hole
# You're so far from your weapon and you wanna go home
# I tried to give you whiskey but it never did work
# Suddenly you're begging me to do so much work
# Right away from the get go, the bullet was cursed
# Ever since I had you, every little thing hurts
# You wanna get up, let go, I said no
# You wanna get up, let go #
Next.
Name?
Cullen
Bohannon.
Railroad experience?
None.
Why should I hire you?
I'm willing to do just about anything.
Uh-huh. You and a thousand others.
I ain't got no place else to go, sir.
Save it.
Will you work the cut crew?
- Yeah. - Yeah?
What's the cut crew?
Oh, it's brutal work.
It is not for the faint of heart.
It gets hotter than a whore house on nickel night out there.
I ain't afraid of hard work.
You're a Johnny Reb, aren't you?
Yes, sir.
I could tell by that Griswold you're carrying.
It was a Griswold like that that took off my hand.
Well, we all paid a price, Mr. Bohannon,
and I imagine you bear your own scars.
I was a Copperhead before the war.
So, I bear no hard feelings
towards you graybacks. You did what you had to do.
It's the darkies I blame.
The way I see it, they owe me far more than just a hand.
Say,
did you own slaves, Mr. Bohannon?
I did.
Well, then... I imagine you know your way around a nigger.
This is Mr. Bohannon,
your walking boss.
You can address him as Boss or Boss Man or Walking Boss.
Mr. Bohannon is a former master of slaves.
Some things don't never change.
So he's up to your tricks.
He's going to work the blue out of your gums, boys.
Any coffee boilers or otherwise slack work ethic
will be dealt with severely.
Now, dig me a cut.
# Pass me not, O gentle savior
Jesus Christ, accept this humble servant into your heart.
# Hear my humble cry
# While on others Thou art calling...
Be reborn in the glory of Jesus.
# Do not pass me by
# Savior...
Brother Joseph...
Your sins are washed away.
# Hear my humble cry #
# Oh, what a beautiful city
# Twelve gates to the city...
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa, whoa. Easy, easy, boy.
# There's three gates in the east
# There's three gates in the west #
Right here.
Unload the tent.
Raise the church.
In this den of thieves,
I shall build a house of the Lord.
You putting up a church here?
What better place to convert the wicked, sister?
You better keep an eye on your flock, Reverend.
We do our own share of convertin' around here.
Why have you made my roads so
straight?
Are we not in a race with the Central Pacific?
The Central Pacific?
Those imbeciles will never make it out of Sacramento.
They're so desperate, I hear they're hiring chinks.
What I was thinking
was something more like
this.
But we're building over flat land,
why wouldn't we make it straight?
"Why wouldn't we make it straight?" he asks.
Take a closer look.
Let me elucidate.
In case you haven't heard,
this undertaking is being subsidized
by the enormous teat of the Federal Government.
This never-ending, money-gushing nipple
pays me $16,000, per mile,
yet you build my road straight!
You're fired. Get out.
I said, get out.
You look like a bright, young man.
This land...
It's bewitching.
It hasn't changed since Lewis and Clark
first saw it 60 years ago.
Do you ever wonder if our work here
will be the ruin of all of this?
Progress comes with a cost, Lily.
I just think it's so much more beautiful without people.
Don't fool yourself. There are plenty of people here.
We're entering Cheyenne territory.
You do remember our agreement?
You mean our agreement regarding my not leaving your side
while you're ill?
No.
I mean, our agreement
that you should go back to Chicago once we entered
hostile Indian territory.
Yes, my dear, but it was before you took ill.
Yeah.
I believe our second agreement supersedes our first.
Oh, dear God, now you sound like a lawyer.
If you want me to go to Chicago,
lead the way.
I'm not leaving without you, Robert.
Don't tempt me, Lily. I might just do it.
You play me for dumb.
You've worked at this for too long to go back now.
We've worked at this.
This...
This would mean nothing to me
if you weren't here to share it.
Robert Bell,
are you hiding something in your trousers?
It must be all this fresh air.
Breathe deeply.
So, uh...
So how many slaves did you own?
Five in all. I had me a small tobacco farm.
Any women?
Two.
You ever sample the goods?
Uh-uh.
It wasn't like that.
Call.
You bitter that you had to give up your slaves?
I gave them their freedom a year before the war started.
Are you serious?
I kept them on at wages.
You are an odd duck, Bohannon.
I married a northerner.
She convinced me of the evils of slavery.
So, you...
You released your slaves, yet you still fought in the war.
Why?
Honor.
The southerner and his honor.
Where is your wife now?
She's dead.
Did the war take her?
Something like that.
Think they heard us?
Who cares?
I don't want to torment the poor bastards out here alone in the middle of nowhere.
They have their hands.
Ohh.
I feel this cough is going to be the death of me.
Nonsense.
- Nonsense. - Lily...
If I were to die...
Robert...
Please...
Please don't talk like that.
Don't talk like that.
The maps.
We have to save the work.
Run for the trees. Don't look back.
Shh.
No, please, no.
Robert!
Rise and shine, Bohannon.
It's another beautiful day on the railroad.
Get up!
Get up! Come on!
My horse.
My horse. My kingdom for a horse.
Hoe that line.
Half-hour to lunch!
Half-hour!
Peckerwood.
He ain't so bad.
Shut your dumb black ass up.
- I don't need no slave boss motivatin' me. - Mmm-hmm.
Come on!
Help me out here.
# All them pretty gals gonna be there
# Shuck that corn before you eat
Come on!
I say...
# All them pretty gals gonna be there
# Shuck that corn before you eat
# They gonna fix it for us rare
# Shuck that corn before you eat
# I know that supper gonna be big
# Shuck that corn before you eat
# I think I smell a fire roast pig
# Shuck that corn before you eat
Keep it going.
# I hope they got some whiskey there #
You might want to take a look at this, sir.
- Put it in the pile. - No, sir.
You really need to look at this.
Dear God.
Robert Bell is dead.
- Is this the entire message? - Yes, sir.
Nothing about
- Maps being found? - No, sir.
One last telegram.
"To the Union Pacific Board of Directors,
"change of plans. " Stop.
"Heading for Hell on Wheels immediately." Stop.
Send it.
You need some water.
No, it ain't break time yet.
Come on, you need some water. Come on.
Come on.
I thought I told you to dump that dirt on the other side.
- Hey. - Shut your mouth.
I told him to do it.
We fixing to fill in that dip over yonder next.
I figured we might just as well have some fill dirt nearby.
You talk to me before any decisions are made, all right?
Yes, sir, master.
What did you say?
Bohannon, what the hell is going on here?
You drink when I tell you to drink!
Get up!
Willy! Willy!
Willy!
This is what happens when you break my rules.
Now, what you planning on doing with that Arkansas Toothpick, huh?
Don't do it.
We ain't on no plantation no more,
walking boss.
Ain't nothing good gonna come from this.
Yeah,
well, ain't nothing good coming from this either.
That dumb nigger actually thought this was gonna change things.
Look where that got him.
Might just as well wipe my ass with it.
You kill him,
you will hang.
How they gonna hang me if there ain't no witnesses?
You come at me with a knife, son,
you better be ready to use it.
Yeah.
You got to let go of the past.
Have you let it go?
You're doing quite a trade here.
Not bad for a couple of Irish bumpkins.
Where's Mickey?
He's preparing
for the grand finale.
# When you're far away
# Far from the land you'll be
Do you not pine
for your own homeland, Mr. Bohannon?
No.
And why is that?
It's gone.
# Bright and fair
# And rich in its treasures
# Muldoon #
# Won't you come back soon
# Love you #
So, tell me, Bohannon,
did you see the elephant during the war?
Yes, I saw my share of action, yeah.
Where?
Yeah. I don't like to talk about it.
I loved the war.
I loved the war!
The best thing that ever happened to me.
I thought you said you were against it?
Oh, yeah, I was.
But that doesn't mean
that I didn't enjoy myself once pressed into service.
Hey!
Oh, hey, I'm skint.
No,
this one's on me.
Well,
thank you.
Most men shrink
when they see the elephant up close.
Oh, yeah?
- But I blossomed. - Mmm-hmm.
Thank you.
Though I...
I must admit that there were
certain lines that I crossed,
lines of morality that I didn't think myself capable of crossing.
But that's what men do
in war.
Moral men don't.
So, you did nothing that you were ashamed of?
I did plenty I was ashamed of.
You ever been to Meridian, Mississippi, Mr. Johnson?
That is my Remington pointed at your gut.
So, let's take a walk out back.
I know about the two men you killed in Maryland.
I read in the paper about Prescott
getting killed in that church by a Griswold.
But I'll be damned if you didn't show up a few days later
with a Griswold strapped to your hip, as plain as day.
And then you ask me about Meridian?
That cinched it.
I am not proud of what happened to your wife, Bohannon.
It didn't happen to her.
You did it to her.
Yes. Yes, we did it to her.
I did it to her.
Your wife was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I want you to know,
it wasn't my idea to kill her.
She hung herself.
No, she didn't.
The sergeant strangled her and strung her up.
Sergeant?
What sergeant?
Oh, he's out here, too. I figured you were saving him for last.
Oh, you didn't know about him?
You tell me who he is.
Well, it hardly matters now.
No!
Tell me his name.
Is it a villain you want?
I'll play the part.
After all, what is a drama without a villain?
What is the building of this grand road if not a drama?
This business is not for the weak of heart.
It is a thorny, brutal affair
that rewards the lion for his ferocity.
What of the zebra?
What of the poor zebra?
Well, the zebra is eaten as the zebra should be.
Make no mistake. Blood will be spilled.
Lives will be lost.
Fortunes will be made. Men will be ruined.
There will be
betrayal and scandal.
And perfidy of epic proportions.
But the lion shall prevail.
You see, the secret I know is this.
All of history is driven by the lion.
We drag the poor zebra,
kicking and braying,
staining the earth
with his cheap blood.
History doesn't remember us fondly,
but then history is written by the zebra for the zebra.
One hundred years hence,
when this railroad spans the continent
and America rises to be the greatest power the world has seen,
I will be remembered as a caitiff,
malefactor,
who only operated out of greed for personal gain.
All true. All true.
But remember this,
without me,
and men like me,
your glorious railroad would never have been built.