Gunless is a Canadian Western comedy released in 2010, directed by William Phillips, and starring Paul Gross, Sienna Guillory, Tyler Mane, Dustin Milligan, Callum Keith Rennie and Graham Greene.
It follows the story of The Montana Kid whose real name is Sean Lafferty, a gunslinger who finds himself in Canada where the ethics of the wild west is borderline non-existent. The Montana kid arrives with a noose around his neck and dragging a broken tree branch, he also has a wound in his buttocks. To his horror, he realizes he is in Canada, quipping that he thought he couldn't get any worse. What follows is hilarity in Sean trying to act like a typical tough guy gunslinger only to find the residents are more or less oblivious to the code of wild west.His attempts to intimidate a local blacksmith backfires forcing him to hold an obsessive grudge against the blacksmith and calls him out to duel, only the blacksmith does not have a gun and Sean's personal code of honor prevents him from killing unarmed people.The plot then follows Sean's attempt to get a gun for the blacksmith so that they can duel.
This film features examples of:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Sean is introduced being brought into town tied up, with a noose around his neck and a bullet wound in behind, upon finding out he is in Canada, he states he thought it couldn't get any worse.
- Badass Bystander: The local blacksmith that Sean thought was a good idea to try an intimidate. Also the entire town shows they are not afraid to stand up to the ruthless bounty hunters.
- Bait-and-Switch: Upon leaving a store, Sean is faced with three armed men who have found out he is the Montana Kid. It seems like they going to try and kill or capture him for the bounty but it turns out they just wanted to meet him as he is only recently interesting thing to happen to the town, Sean is actually disappointed by this as he is accustommed to wild west call outs and was expecting to have a gun fight.
- Berserk Button: The Montana Kid does react well to being called "common"; apparently on account of what happened to his father.
- The Blacksmith: Gentle Giant Jack is a major character, where the Montana Kid is insistent on challenging him to a gunfight, despite him not owning a pistol.
- Blasting It Out of Their Hands: At the end of the film, Jack the blacksmith saves Sean's life by blasting Ben Cutter's gun out of his hand as he is about to shoot Sean.
- Bounty Hunter: A gang of bounty hunters led by Ben Cutter is chasing The Montana Kid for the $4,000 price on his head. They even follow him into Canada were they have no authority.
- Bring the Anchor Along: The film opens with the Montana Kid riding on his horse backwards, with his hands tied behind and a noose round his neck. Dragging behind the horse, tied to the rope of the noose, is a broken branch.
- Can't Bathe Without a Weapon: Sean is taking a bath in the Chinese laundry and appears to be asleep in the tub. The young girl Adell enters to bring him food. He suddenly stand bolt upright in the tub pointing his gun in her face.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: The entire town seems this way to Sean due to their non-wild west behavior. A genuine one is Larry, who comes across dangerously suicidal if you consider his poor attempts to remove a tree stump.
- Convenient Misfire: During the showdown, Jack's gun fails to fire, thereby thwarting Sean's attempt to commit suicide by gunfight. Entirely justified as Sean and Jack discuss what has gone wrong: it was already finicky due to conversion from percussion caps to cartridges; it had been severely damaged; and has undergone a rushed repair job.
- *Cough* Snark *Cough*: During the heated discussion between Sean and Jack in the schoolhouse about whether Sean is a killer (or only a killer), Larry goes *cough* killer *cough* during a lull in the argument. Sean just looks at him in disbelief and says:"Do you think I can't hear you when you do that?"
- Dances and Balls: The Mounties hold a dance at the fort to celebrate the arrival of the new recruits, and invite the local citizens to attend. This gives both Sean and Corporal Kent the opportunity to display their romantic interest in Jane, and also to demonstrate their Nice Guy credentials: when Jane arrives with Sean, Kent insists that she dance with him as he was the one who brought her, while later Sean pretends that a leg injury he received in a beating that Kent rescued him from is worse than it actually is, and insists that Kent dance with Jane so she will not be disappointed.
- Death Seeker: Sean seems to want to die as he is taken back when the Blacksmith says so and later during his duel with the Blacksmith, Sean purposefully adjusts his aim so that he would miss, allowing the Blacksmith to win the duel and kill him.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Sean claims that all of the eleven killings he committed were justified, and lists the reasons for all of them. However, one of them was his shooting a man he saw beating his dog: although he is at pains to point out that it was really savage beating. However, when his relationship with Jane causes him to question his life choices, this is the first killing that he he questions the justness of.
- Gentle Giant: Jack the blacksmith who is played by former wrestler Tyler Mane, imposing and very tall, yet very friendly and goes out of his way to help a horse with its broken shoe, unfortunately The Montana Kid thought he was stealing it and it leads to him calling him out.
- Genre Savvy: In-universe, Jane is the only one aware of the code of the wild west, which means she is not put off or intimidated by Sean, as she knows he won't kill an unarmed man.
- Gun Twirling: The Montana Kid has a habit of doing this whenever he draws or holsters his Peacemaker; seemingly to limber up his gun hand. It is never shown whether he does this in actual gunfights, however. (In one gunfight, he starts with his gun already drawn, and in the second he is trying desperately to avoid drawing.) There is an especially impressive extended sequence of him twirling Jane's gun after he finishes repairing it—presumably testing the balance—with enough long shots to show that it is actor Paul Gross
doing the twirling. - Human Notepad: The Montana Kid has a series of self-inflicted scars on his left arm: each one a tally mark representing a man he has killed.
- I Take Offence to That Last One: Being called "common" is a Berserk Button for Sean, as poor Jack keeps finding out, even when something else was the intended insult:Jack: You're being a common nuisance.
Sean: What did you just call me?
Jack; 'Nuisance'?
Sean: No, the other one!
- Jack: You're still just a common killer.
Sean: What did you call me?
Jack: 'Killer?'
Sean: No, the other one!
- Kick the Dog: While Cutter's men are terrorizing the Chinese rail camp, Cutter himself casually shoots a barking dog that is annoying one of his men.
- The Klutz: Corporal Jonathan Kent is extremely clumsy. In his first appearance, he gets his glove caught in Sean's door and can't extract it. Later, he wreaks havoc on the dance floor by wearing a dress sword at the company dance.
- The Man They Couldn't Hang: The Montana Kid survived a hanging by Cutter's Bounty Hunters when the branch they tried to hang him from snapped.
- Mystery Meat: This exchange happens when Sean is eating the first meal Jane made for him:Sean: What is this supposed to be?
Jane: (defensively) Meat.
She eats a forkful and makes a wry face - Nice Guy: Sean may try and act like a typical outlaw or gunslinger but in realty he is a nice guy who doesn't mind helping others, he even harbors hatred for himself due to his past.
- Noble Demon: Sean lives by a code where he cannot kill an unarmed man, hence the lengths he goes to make sure Jack gets a gun so they can duel.
- Obfuscating Disability: A minor example, but Sean pretends that the injury to his knee is much worse than it actually is and prevents him from dancing, to give the smitten Kent the opportunity of dancing with Jane during the dance at the fort.
- Pants-Positive Safety: Before their duel, Sean shoves the Navy Colt through Jack's belt because Jack does not a holster. Sean advises Jack not to thumb back the hammer before her draws the gun or else he'll blow his nuts off.
- Pair the Spares: The end of the film indicates that Corporal Kent and Miss Alice the Schoolmarm are about to become an item.
- Politically Correct History: The severe racist legislation and attitudes against Asians in Canada during this time period don't exist in this film's setting.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Two examples, one from Corporal Kent of the Northwest Mounted Police force who helps Sean despite them liking the same woman, and another that comes surprisingly from the leader of the bounty hunters, who agrees to not kill anyone if Sean comes willingly.
- Schoolmarm: Miss Alice, who runs the school and also conducts philosophy classes for the adults.
- Self-Harm: Sean carves notches into his left am so the scars form tally marks: one for each man he has killed.
- Shoot the Rope: Sean saves Mr. Kwon from being lynched by Cutter's men by shooting the rope (although in this case he actually shoots the pulley the rope is attached to).
- Shot in the Ass: Sean arrives in Barclay's Brush dripping blood from an unseen wound, which is eventually revealed to be a bullet wound in his butt just before he passes out. Later, Sean is trying to clear a jam in Jack's gun so they can finish their duel when the gun discharges accidentally. The bullet ricochets off a grindstone and hits Jack in the butt in exactly the same spot Sean had been shot earlier.
- Shout-Out: Larry's obsession with getting rid of a tree stump is almost certainly based on Joe Starrett's similar obsession in Shane.
- Sidetracked by the Analogy: Sean claims that a pistol is just a tool, not a weapon. While this sparks a argument with Jane and Jack, the rest of the room gets quickly distracted on how you can kill people with different tools, whether a rock is a tool, and how you can kill someone with a rope.
- Suicide by Cop: During the showdown, Sean seems to want to die. He purposefully adjusts his aim so that he would miss, allowing Jack to win the duel and kill him.
- Taxidermy Terror: Doc's hobby is taxidermy, and his office is filled with stuffed animals. When Sean wakes up after passing out from blood loss, he finds a creepy stuffed beaver staring him in the face and reacts appropriately.
- This Is My Side: The general storekeepers Claude and Carl have split their store in half following a disagreement about selling liquor.
- The Trope Kid: Sean Lafferty, a.k.a. 'The Montana Kid'.
- Verbal Tic: Larry has a habit of clicking his tongue three time between items when he listing things; especially when he is trying to look worldly wise, such as when he is reeling off nicknames for the Montana Kid's Colt .45. The Kid gets exasperated and snaps at him to stop doing that.
- Weapon for Intimidation: Sean asks Jane why she carries a broken revolver with her (broken to the point that when Sean tries to open the cylinder, the entire gun falls apart). Jane says that it is to discourage unwanted attention from menfolk.
- William Telling: The Montana Kid makes a point by shooting a teacup out of Claude's hand.
