A 1995 New Old West film written and directed by Tab Murphy, starring Tom Berenger, Barbara Hershey, and Kurtwood Smith.
While tracking three escaped convicts in the remote mountains of Montana, Bounty Hunter Lewis Gates (Berenger) discovers evidence of a Hidden Elf Village of Cheyenne warriors known as the Dog Soldiers, who have been in hiding for 128 years. Intrigued, he seeks them out, aided by anthropologist Lilian Sloan (Hershey).
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Lewis has been a heavy drinker since his wife died and is introduced passed out on a bar table. This character trait largely disappears as the film progresses.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Sears, the leader of the convicts, is a dangerous and ruthless fugitive who has a stash of hidden loot that the police are desperate to recover. He's killed during an encounter with the Dog Soldiers less than 1/4th of the way into the film.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Twentieth-century Bounty Hunter Lewis comments that he was born a century too late and that his anthropologist associate Lilian was born a century too early.
- Bounty Hunter: Grizzled cowboy Lewis Gates is an experienced tracker who hunts down criminals through the wilderness. However, he has mainly been a hunting guide since the death of his wife. At the beginning, he has to be blackmailed over his chronic leash law violations before he'll take a job chasing escaped prisoners.
- Determinator: Lewis is determined to find out the story behind the missing fugitives despite having no real incentive to do so, going to great efforts to recruit Lilian and then search the mountains. The narrator describes him as "just no good at giving up."
- Hidden Elf Village: The Dog Soldiers have been living in the unexplored Montana wilderness for 128 years since they fled the Sand Creek Massacre, and have had no contact with the modern world beyond a few violent encounters with intruders. Doubles as The Remnant.
- My Fist Forgives You: After making peace with the Dog Soldiers, Lewis still punches the warrior who (non-lethally) shot his dog.
- New Old West: The film is set in 1995 but features a Hidden Elf Village of Native Americans, a Bounty Hunter, and the Montana wilderness. The narrator even calls it a modern-day Western.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Sheriff Deegan is Lewis's father-in-law and hates Lewis for failing to save his daughter from drowning, striving to make Lewis miserable.
- Run for the Border: Ruthlessly mocked when three men escape from jail and head in the direction of the border. Even before running into a Hidden Elf Village of Native Americans who don't care for being shot at, it's obvious that the trio lack the physical prowess and outdoor experience to make it even a fraction of the journey.Deputy:What do you figure they'll do?Sheriff Deegan: Keep running, make for the border, buy a little condo on a lake somewhere and live happily ever after. There's only one thing standing in their way...4,000 square miles of the roughest country God ever put on a map. There's not a road, not a town... hell, there's places out there that haven't even seen a footprint.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Gates is a gifted tracker. Although he mostly works as a hunting guide, occasionally he is employed as a bounty hunter to track down and recapture escaped criminals.Deegan: Drunk or sober, you're still the best tracker in the state.
- Scenery Porn: The majority of the movie takes place amidst stunning mountain scenery (although the film is set in Montana, it was filmed in the Canadian Rockies) that looks like it has never seen the effects of the Industrial Age.
- Sleeps in the Nude: Lilian invites Lewis to sleep on her couch if he doesn't feel like driving home, although she warns him that she often walks around her house naked in the morning. It's unclear whether she was being truthful or just messing with Lewis.
- Survivor Guilt: Lewis is filled with guilt and self-loathing over his failure to save his wife from drowning, to the point where he's started drinking heavily.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Lewis says this word for word after Lilian tries to appease their Dog Soldier captors by saying Lewis will fight any of them hand-to-hand.
