(Ellison): To build the transcontinental rail road,
Thomas "Doc" Durant once said,
"A man must face his demons and destroy them
or become undone by them."
The Hell on Wheels of 1868 is no place for bashful men,
the deluded or un-assured.
No place for sloppy men,
drunk and disorderly in their heavenly vestments
on their way to an early grave.
The rail road has contained the West these last three years,
with its iron horse and rails pinned to the ground.
Each passing day brings with it civilization -
if not civility.
And men in suits, who do now with their pens
what earlier, rougher men did with their guns.
(exclamations)
Cullen Bohannon, late of the Union Pacific,
is more gunman than suit.
His return to Cheyenne,
these days referred to as the Magic City of the Plains,
after months lost to the prairie and presumed dead,
with a Mormon wife and child in tow,
might be just the grease we need
to turn the wheels of our national obsession,
buried these long winter months in snow and now up to its wheel-wells in mud.
Or might it be the match strike of self-immolation?
For Mr. Bohannon has always worn his integrity
like a millstone around his neck.
- Howdy. - Whoa.
- Help you? - You can step aside.
- Bohannon's back!
- What's your business here? - None of your business.
- Heh. You hear that, Deputy? It's none of our business.
- There's nothing here for Mormons but trouble, friend.
- I ain't looking for trouble.
- Just the kind of people trouble finds in my town.
There's a Mormon settlement
50-60 miles to the Northwest.
You'll be welcome there. - Let go of my horse.
Let go of my horse.
(baby fussing)
- Don't touch me.
- I'd listen to her.
- I suggest you turn around and...
Ah!!
- Still blocking my horse.
(marshal groaning)
Thank you.
(clucking) Let's go.
- Cullen Bohannon has come home, dear reader.
And in our little world just west of civilization,
we find ourselves, once again, at his mercy.
(theme music)
(whistle blowing)
- Are you telling me it's impossible
to tunnel through that mountain? No man could do it?
- We've been blasting for more than a week. Damn thing keeps caving in on itself.
- For godssakes, Delaney, the Sierra Nevadas couldn't stop Huntington!
This blip of a molehill is not going to stop me!
- The Sierras are made of granite, Mr. Durant.
We're dealing with more unstable terrain here. Mud-rock and shale.
- Excuses will not get my tunnel built.
Now, do whatever you have to do.
Put on an extra shift to clear the rubble and print up more scrip to pay the men.
They won't work for nothing, not even the Freedmen.
- Mr. Durant... - That will be all. Thank you, Delaney.
- This is the rail road office, not the ticket office.
Behind the building. Across the tracks at the depot.
- Cullen Bohannon.
Here to see Durant.
(chuckling)
- Martin Delaney. - Oh.
Builder of Stony Brook bridges. - Chief Engineer at the Union Pacific.
- It's the ghost of Cullen Bohannon.
And... Mormon, no less.
(chuckling)
If ever there was proof that you cannot be killed, this is it.
The last time I saw you, you were being dragged away
by a gang of masked outlaws, never to be seen again.
- It was her daddy took me. Mormon militia. On account of the...
This is my wife Naomi and, uh, my son William.
We wintered up at Fort Smith. Took some doin', but I'm back now.
- And how many Mormons did you have to put in the ground to effect your escape?
- It wasn't like that.
- It's always like that with you, Bohannon.
You start a gunfight in my town, nearly have us all killed, and for what?
A girl you got pregnant.
- Come back for my old job. Is it mine or not?
- No. Not. - Your railroad's stuck, Durant.
I'm the only one who can get it moving again.
- Even if I could fire Mr. Delaney, he has done nothing to warrant it.
You, on the other hand, stand there wallowing in moral turpitude,
having just confessed to complete lack of regard
for the most basic fundamental needed to get this road moving.
Dependability.
- What you need to get this road moving again is a man who can get your over Sherman Summit.
He ain't him. - I am not going over, Bohannon.
I am going through. And without you.
Welcome to Cheyenne, Madam.
- This ain't how I planned on things going.
- This ain't how I pictured Cheyenne.
- I'll figure it out.
- We'll figure it out together.
- C'mon.
- Mr. Bohannon!
You are a sight for sore eyes.
Just when I thought me luck had run out, here you be.
What happened to you? - Got a Mormon girl in a family way,
and I need a job.
Any more questions?
- Grant sent a carpetbagger out to install law and order.
He hung a man from the rafters of my casino.
I could use a man like you.
- Mm-mm.
No, thanks.
- You just said you needed a job.
- Not that one.
It was good to see you, Mick. (clucking)
- By the way, I'm the mayor now!
- Congratulations.
- Is he a close friend of yours?
- Mm. He killed his brother and I helped to bury him.
Suppose that makes us something.
- I paid $28 for this rifle.
- You can take it out of his hide.
- When? - When I tell you.
(flies buzzing)
- A rare Bulgarian, that one.
Steal the milk out your tea as soon as he look at ya.
A surveyor for the Union Pacific.
An employee of Mr. Durant,
who happens to be a partner in my casino.
- He stinks.
Get him outta here.
- I'll leave that to you.
- Get him outta here, McGinnes. - He's your trash now.
And next time you decide to turn my business into a gallows...
you clean up before you leave.
Gentlemen.
- Whoa.
(man): Hey, Ma, coming to lunch?!
- This yourn.
I knowed you was comin' back,
I'd have guarded what little money was hid backside and front.
That money fed us good for a month.
Bought us one hell of a hangover, too.
(laughter)
- You give me a job, we'll forget about the money.
- You ain't been in the sun long enough for that, Mr. Bohannon.
- I've got a family to feed.
- Freedman work, Freedman wages.
- Fair enough. - Hmm.
Never thought I'd be the boss of the boss.
- Don't get used to it, Psalms. - Mm-hmm.
(train whistle blowing)
(bell dinging) - Ruth.
I was just on my way to see you now. Well...
we all got the shock of our lives today, didn't we?
With Mr. Bohannon's return to Cheyenne.
- Yes.
I've been praying these many months for such a miracle.
- How are you, Ruth?
- Still praying.
- Reckon nobody start a war you stay here.
(baby fussing)
(chickens clucking)
(baby fussing)
- It'll do just fine.
- Here.
Eat.
Yeah, there we go.
Now...
You have trouble on the way, you can see church lady.
Her name's Ruth. She'll help.
- I won't need any help. (gunshot)
(horses neighing) (gunshot)
I'll be fine.
We'll be fine.
- What you think?
You gonna be fine?
Huh?
Yeah?
- I expect Miss Ruth happy you're back.
Took it hard the day you gone missing.
Got her hands full with that boy, too.
Yeah, I expect she won't be none too happy to find out you got yourself a new woman.
New baby, too.
Uh-oh, here come your other woman problem.
- Elam went after you and got hisself killed!
- Elam went his own way, as always. (spitting)
- Eva, calm down now...
- You disappeared and he went after you!
As always! - Eva, I'm sorry.
- Sorry ain't gonna bring him back.
(train whistle blowing) - Alright, load 'em up, children.
That my daylight you burning, y'hear? I ain't cooking up no more.
(steam hissing) (whistle blowing)
- I'm curious to know if Mr. Bohannon will resume his role as Chief Engineer
now that he's returned.
- No, Mr. Delaney is Chief Engineer now and will be for the foreseeable future.
- You don't expect any political pressure from Washington
to restore Bohannon to his post?
- No, why? - He saved a young boy's life.
People around the country view him as a hero.
Washington loves a hero.
- There is a difference between a hero and a man who's lost his way, Miss Ellison.
Something Washington nor you seem to understand.
If I didn't know better,
I might mistake your obsession with Bohannon for something more, uh...
personal.
He's not that interesting!
Excuse me, Miss Ellison,
I, uh...
- That's the flag of the new Wyoming Territory.
- Odd place for it. - One day when people arrive on your train,
they'll look up, see that flag flying above my statehouse,
and know the value we place on law and order around here.
- Law-abiding people who admire
the confiscation of private property, hmm?
That's rail road land. - Technically,
if it's not in use by the rail road for rail road purposes,
that land is available for acquisition by the state under eminent domain.
That's the law, Mr. Durant.
- I will not be intimidated by your interpretation of law, Mr. Campbell.
Nor by the hanging shenanigans of your lawmen in the casino a few days ago.
Now, that land's the future site of the Union Pacific Food Depot.
My engineers are drawing up plans even as we speak.
- If there is no structure on that hill within 24 hours, Mr. Durant,
my office will file form 0939 condemning that property for state use,
as set forth by the United States Railroad Act.
- Fair enough, Mr. Campbell.
Fair enough.
- Mr. Campbell.
- Miss Ellison. That's a lovely colour.
- Excuse me?
- On you, that is.
- Thank you.
- Allow me.
- Oh, I can manage on my own. Thank you.
(train whistle blowing)
- I need half a dozen of my chicken coops on the hill
just east of the church by tomorrow morning.
Divert whatever manpower and supplies you need.
- I just put a second shift on the grade, per your orders.
- Oh, well, thank you, Delaney. Let me know when it's done.
(background chatter and music)
- You're late. - You playing Faro in here now?
- I don't see how that's any business of yours, Eva.
- How much does the last three cards pay? - Clean the tables.
You ain't thinking of gambling in my casino now?
- Uh... yeah, I'm thinking I will, Mickey.
- You could lose everything. - I got nothing left to lose.
- A small bit of advice, then.
Stay away from the Faro table.
The box is rigged.
- Afternoon, fellas.
- You lost, little lady?
- Why?
My money ain't good enough for you?
- Good enough for me. - Hey.
You wanna hear the story of how I lost my scalp?
- Not again, Wallace. Deal me in.
- My pleasure.
(men singing)
♪ All I hate about linin' track ♪
♪ These ol' bars 'bout to break my back ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em Oh boy ♪
♪ Can't you line 'em ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em ♪
♪ Oh see Eloise go lining track ♪
♪ Moses stood on the Red Sea shore ♪
♪ Smotin' that water with a two-by-four ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em Rattle rattle ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em rattle rattle ♪
Oh boy can't you line 'em ♪
♪ Go see Eloise go lining track ♪
♪ Oh boy will you line ♪
♪ Mary and the baby lie in the shade ♪
♪ Think about the money that I ain't made ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em Rattle rattle ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em rattle rattle ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em ♪
♪ See Eloise go lining track ♪
♪ All I want is a two-by-two You got it done at 8:02 ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em Rattle rattle ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em Rattle rattle ♪
♪ See Eloise go lining track ♪
♪ All I want is a two-by-two You got it done at 8:02 ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em Rattle rattle ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em rattle rattle ♪
♪ Oh boy can't you line 'em Rattle rattle ♪
♪ See Eloise go lining track ♪
(singing continues)
- Thank you. - Yes, sir.
- Name's Bohannon. - Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
(sighing)
- Any of y'all ever been chased by a bloodhound?
- We familiar.
- Well, on Sherman's march to the sea, he told his men, he said,
"You come across any bloodhounds, you shoot 'em."
They get to Savannah and this real green private,
he's walking down the street and sees this lady walking with a poodle.
One look at the poodle, pulls out his gun. Pfft. Right in the head.
Sherman comes running up, says,
"Son, why'd you kill that poodle?" And the private says, "Sir, well,
on account of you never know what they're gonna grow into."
(laughter) Come on.
- What's a poodle? (laughter)
- That'll be $9.23.
We take cash or scrip.
- Can I get credit? - No credit.
If you ain't got cash nor scrip, I can't sell you nothing.
- But... I need these things.
- And I got a business to run.
- That's alright, Mr. Adler.
I'll take care of Mrs. Bohannon's sundries today.
I'm sure Mr. Bohannon is good for it.
- Yes, sir... Mr. Campbell. Whatever you say.
(baby fussing)
- I'm-a raise you.
- Alright, young lady. Call.
- Full house.
Queens over tens.
(Eva giggling)
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy now.
Not so fast.
You know, it really is hard to beat a lady.
Unless you're a king.
- But how did... how'd you do that?
No, that ain't right. - Don't cry. It's only money.
Howdy, ma'am.
- I... I don't want my money back, I swear.
I just wanna know how you cheated me.
- You cheated yourself, woman.
By sitting down at a table with the likes of me.
Now, you are either desperate, greedy...
or stupid.
- I'm just desperate... and stupid.
And I need to know how you did it.
- That's dangerous knowledge for someone who don't know how to use it.
- I know how to use it.
- It's all in the grip.
Now, say if...
someone were to cheat:
thumb,
fingertips, thumb,
fingertips.
- Teach me.
- What took me years to perfect?
I ain't stupid.
- I'll make it worth your while.
- Double the powder on those charges.
- Yes, sir.
- That much powder is likely to get us all killed.
- Boss man decide how much powder we use. You ain't boss man no more.
- Mr. Delaney.
That rock... it's shale.
Where there's shale, there's methane.
You double that powder... shrapnel's likely to kill every man
within about a hundred yards of that wall right there.
- Get back to work, Bohannon.
I want your advice, I'll ask for it.
- Alright, turn them tables over, get behind 'em before that thing blows.
- You know I ain't one to come between two feuding white men.
- You don't wanna die, neither.
- Do it! Turn 'em over!
- Light those fuses.
- Mr. Bohannon, you about to get your job back.
- Shit.
(horses whinnying)
(whinnying)
- What do you want?
- I didn't know Elam'd gone looking for me.
- You shoulda known you'd disappear like that, he's gonna come looking.
- I didn't disappear. I was took. By armed men against my will.
- But by then, he wasn't listening to me.
I been having dreams... about Elam.
Not every night, but most nights.
I'm in a big city somewheres.
Chicago,
New York.
I'm lost. Walking the streets.
Looking into people's homes,
their nice warm windows.
I'm on the outside,
I'm always on the outside.
Everyone's afraid of me.
I think it's 'cause of my tattoo.
And then I realize...
that's not what it is.
And I see my reflection.
I'm not me anymore.
I'm a bear...
and I'm looking for Elam.
- Them's just dreams, Eva.
They don't mean nothin'.
- He considered you a friend, Mr. Bohannon.
I expect that might mean something to you since I know you ain't had many.
- Well... one fewer now.
- Mr. Thomas Durant of the Union Pacific
is not the first person we've run into who didn't see things my way.
- No, sir. (woman screaming)
- C'mere! - Ah!
- If people believe any one of them is above the law,
there will be no law.
- Durant?
- I'd like to ask Judge Webber his opinion on a remedy.
This hour, you're likely to find him at the Faro tables...
or the whorehouse.
- Yes, sir.
(man): Get off!
Come on!
(baby fussing)
- How was your day, husband?
- It was fine.
Yours? - Just fine.
(knocking) - Mr. Bohannon!
You in there?
Mr. Bohannon.
Governor Campbell.
It's nice to see you again, Mrs. Bohannon.
- Got something to say to my wife, you talk to me.
- I bought her a meal, is all.
How you enjoying it?
- I can buy my own meals.
- You handled yourself mightily
with my men yesterday.
- Like I told 'em, I ain't looking for trouble.
Y'all have a good night.
- General Grant holds you in high regard, Mr. Bohannon.
- And what do you want?
- A man of your... stature living amongst the, uh...
- Negros?
- Freedmen.
(scoffing)
Now you don't have to live in squalor, Mr. Bohannon. You work for me.
I'll pay you a decent wage. - Already got a job.
- I'll pay you three times what you make laying rail.
I'll help you build a house for your family.
Until then, allow me to engage a room for you at the hotel.
Hot bath, warm bed.
You could be there tonight, Mrs. Bohannon.
(laughing)
- Work for a carpetbagger?
Not a chance in hell.
- The Freedmen's Bureau, sir,
is but one legacy of Reconstruction
I believe I shall be remembered for. And fondly.
Should you change your mind...
- By my count, that's two good jobs that you've turned down since we got here.
(baby fussing) What are we meant to do, then?
- Naomi, everything I done,
all the death and destruction I put my hand to...
and was put to me...
all that is for naught if I don't finish this road.
(baby crying)
- Mr. Bohannon!
- Hmm.
Surprised you're still here.
- Likewise.
- Ah...
something about the place.
- The cuisine, no doubt.
- Thought you would've high-tailed it back to New York by now.
- The story keeps me here.
- Well... careful it don't kill you.
- It hasn't killed you. - Yet.
- I hear you got married.
- Yeah.
Nice Mormon girl.
- I'm interested in your story, Mr. Bohannon.
My readers will be, as well.
(scoffing)
- Ain't a story, Miss Ellison.
Just a life.
It's mine to live, nobody's to read about.
- Ah...
sorry to interrupt your supper.
Thought I should come by and say howdy.
Hey.
- We thought you were dead.
- Yeah? Why'd you think that?
- You would've come back otherwise.
- Why don't you go wait outside, boy. Go on.
- Ezra has missed you, Mr. Bohannon.
He grieved for you.
As did I.
- You done right by him. He's growing up tall.
- Yes.
We're our own little family now.
The two of us.
- Ruth.
I'm sorry.
- Now you're back.
With a new wife and child.
I'm sure as the rail road starts moving, you'll be moving with it.
I have my church to look after.
And the boy.
We'll be staying here.
- I come to ask a favour.
- I don't think I can help you.
- Naomi and my boy, William.
When I'm out in the cut... they're here all alone.
I know how you feel...
about... Mormons.
I was hoping you could find it in your heart to lend a hand... if need be.
- I have built the walls of my church to be a stronghold for the needy, Mr. Bohannon.
Should your wife and child ever find themselves at my door...
they, like everyone else in this town,
will find it open.
(sighing)
(grunting)
(sniffing)
- You know, ain't none of this your fault, son.
- You traded yourself for me.
(chuckling)
- Come on. You would've done the same.
- Anyways...
thank you.
- You're welcome.
♪ And he walks with me ♪
♪ And he talks with me ♪
♪ And he tells me I am his own ♪
♪ And the joy we share ♪
♪ As we tarry there ♪
♪ No other ♪
♪ Has ever known ♪
(Ellison): The defrocked Chief Engineer's return to Cheyenne
means another actor has entered the play,
already half-finished.
With the bombastic dreamer, his legacy depending on completing this road.
And the carpet-bagging bureaucrat
tasked with bringing civilization to a land that just yesterday boasted wild and free.
Cullen Bohannon, for reasons this reporter has yet to divine,
seems determined to see this road through.
Whether he does it as labourer or boss,
alive or dead,
only time will tell, dear reader.
Only time will tell.
(grunting) (groaning)
♪ And he walks with me ♪
♪ And he talks with me
♪ And he tells me ♪
♪ I am his own ♪
♪ And the joy we share ♪
♪ As we tarry there ♪
♪ No other ♪
♪ Has ever known ♪