Prairie Fever is a 2008 American Western film directed by Stephen Bridgewater, starring Kevin Sorbo, Lance Henriksen and Dominique Swain.
Preston Biggs (Sorbo) a former sheriff of Clearwater, escorts three women suffering from prairie fever to Carson City. Lettie (Jillian Armenante) tried to kill her husband, Abigale (Swain) too fragile for prairie life, and Bible-quoting Blue (Felicia Day) just snapped on her farm, with the help of a gambler named Olivia (Jamie Anne Allman) who wants to go straight and is running from her villainous partner Monte (Henrickson). Meanwhile, a pair of brothers decide they want they money they paid for their brides and chase after the wagon planning to extract it from Preston.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: After accidentally killing his wife while attempting to stop a Bank Robbery, Preston Biggs goes from being The Sheriff to being the town drunk. During the trip to Carson City, his supply of whisky is destroyed when the wagon loses a wheel, and he is forced to use his replacement whiskey as Molotov Cocktail. This lack of booze, combined with his newfound sense of responsibility toward the women in his care (and some strategic nagging from Olivia) forces him to sober up, to the point that he is able to sit in a saloon for several hours without having a drink. He briefly falls Off the Wagon when he learns the truth about Olivia and Monte, but the end of the film indicates he is back on the wagon for good.
- As the Good Book Says...: Blue is suffering from the religious mania and spends the first half the film doing nothing but quoting the bible.
- Bank Robbery: The film opens with a Bank Robbery that ends with Sheriff Preston Biggs accidentally killing his wife when one of the robbers uses her as a Human Shield.
- Bar Brawl: One erupts when James and Earl attempt to push Preston into a gunfight and he responds by punching one of them.
- Briefcase Full of Money: Throughout the film, Olivia is carrying a carpetbag full of the cash she took off Monte when she ran away from him.
- Bullet Dancing: Olivia does this to James and Earl to prevent them following the wagon after their ambush goes wrong at the trading post.
- Chained to a Bed: When Olivia runs away from Monte, she leaves tied to a bed and gagged with one of his own socks.
- Closest Thing We Got: Abigale is pressed into removing the bullet from Preston's back because her aunt was a nurse, and she has least seen this operation performed.
- Destination Defenestration: During the Bar Brawl, Preston hurls James bodily through the saloon window.
- Due to the Dead: After Blue is shot by Logan, the others bury her: marking her grave with a cross of branches, hung with a sketch of her done by Abigale, while Lettie plays the organ and sings a hymn. Preston then speaks some words over the grave.
- Escort Mission: Preston's assignment is to take the three Mail Order Brides suffering from 'prairie fever' from the small frontier town of Clearwater to the railhead at Carson City where they can be put on a train and sent back east. Needless to say, things do not go smooth.
- Human Shield: During the Bank Robbery at the start of the film, one of the robbers grabs a woman to use as a human shield, not realising that she is the sheriff's wife. This ends badly for everyone.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: At the start of the film, Sheriff Biggs tries to stop a bank robber who is using his wife as a Human Shield, but shoots and kills her instead. Two years later, he is the town drunk and laughingstock.
- Karma Houdini: At the end of the film, Monte rides off unpunished for all of his evil deeds. He even gets to keep all of his ill-gotten gains (in what must have been a refreshing change of pace for Chronically Killed Actor Lance Henriksen).
- Mail-Order Bride: The Preacher Man of Clearwater arranged for 17 mail order brides to be delivered, but three of them go mad from the 'prairie fever', and Preston Briggs is hired to deliver them to the railway station in Carson City so they can be shipped back east.
- Molotov Cocktail: When the wagon is being pursued by James and Earl, Preston gets Abigale and Blue to tears strips off their skirts, and passes his precious case of whiskey to Lettie, who stuffs the strips into the bottle; turning entire box into one giant Molotov cocktail. The box is then hurled out the back of the wagon where it explodes in a fireball that spooks outlaws' horses.
- Newspaper-Thin Disguise: When Preston and the women arrive at the Carson City Hotel, Monte Walsh is sitting in the lobby, concealed behind a newspaper.
- Off the Wagon: After sobering up during the trip from Clearwater to Carson City, Preston briefly relapses after seeing Octavia put in the same situation that killed his wife and being unable to act.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: It seems unlikely that Blue is her actual given name, but no one—not even her husband—ever refers to her as anything else.
- Preacher Man: The preacher of Clearwater arranged for 17 Mail Order Brides for the farmers. Now he wants to ship the three crazy ones back east to avoid embarrassment.
- Professional Gambler: Monte James is a crooked one, and Olivia is his partner-in-crime, until Olivia decides she has had enough and blows town.
- Ransacked Room: After Olivia discovers that Monte has been in the hotel, she races back to her room and discovers the room has been ransacked and the carpetbag full of money is gone.
- The Sheriff: Preston Biggs was the sheriff of Clearwater until he accidentally killed his wife while trying to stop a bank robbery. His replacement is his former deputy, who is a Reasonable Authority Figure who gets Preston the job escorting the women to Carson City in an attempt to get him sobered up and financially solvent.
- Shipper on Deck: Abigale is convinced that Preston and Olivia are in love, and keeps telling them, which they dismiss as Abigale being a hopeless romantic. As proof, Abigale points out that every time she draws the two of them, they are sitting closer together.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Preston and Abigale are travelling back to Clearwater when Olivia, who they had left in Carson City, catches up with them. Preston and Olivia start their usual argument when Preston suddenly grabs her and kisses her. When he releases her, Olivia slaps him, and then grabs him and kisses. Shipper on Deck Abigale watches all of this with a huge smile on her face.
- Suicide by Cop: Preston attempts to goad Monte into shooting him; both because he wants to die, but also as part of a Thanatos Gambit. Although he looks like he is reaching for a gun, he is actually unarmed, and by shooting an unarmed man, Monte would be guilty of murder and hang.
- Thanatos Gambit: Preston attempts to goad Monte into shooting him. As he is unarmed, this would mean that Monte would hang for murder and Olivia would be free of him. However, the gambit fails when Olivia intervenes: ostensibly to save Monte, but in reality to save Preston.
- Title Drop: The mayor and the preacher diagnose the mental conditions the Mail Order Brides are suffering from as 'prairie fever': a malaise brought one by being unable to cope with the wide open spaces of the prairies.
- We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: Preston gets shot in the back while getting the wagon with the women in away from outlaw brothers James and Earl. Olivia is (somehow) able to diagnose that they need to get the bullet out, and looks to the other women. Lettie and Blue shake their heads, but Abigale tentatively raises her hand and says that her aunt was a nurse and she once watched her remove a bullet.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The outlaw brothers James and Earl aren't seen again after Preston and the women use a Molotov Cocktail to spook their horses. Given how badly they wanted Preston's head, it seems odd that would just give up.
