Log Line
Rancher and alcoholic Sheriff fight to save a small town.
Script Info
Script Type: Feature
Genre: Western
Length: __ pages
Est. Budget: Less than $1M
Screenplay Synopsis
Open on a small Arizona border town, see the usual bustle of activity along Main Street, then close on LOUISA GREEN, owner of the local freighting office, she helps load supplies on an elevated platform,glances at two Mexican girls, sisters, former Catholic nun ROSA and 18 year old JACINDA… as now, HEAR the thundering roar of approaching horsemen, riding up hard, they slide to a fast stop, townspeople fleeing for cover. Fearless leader SLASH BARNES dismounts, guns fashioned bandolier style across his chest, he kicks open the front doors of a local mercantile, has a score to settle, he grabs the merchant’s wife throwing her to his gang of outlaws, then shoots the store merchant dead.
Drunken SHERIFF MASSEY is pulled from the local saloon. Barnes promptly whips him to his knees, making sure the townspeople watch the spectacle. Barnes and Massey are half-brothers, same mother, but different fathers. Massey killed Barnes’ pregnant wife seven years earlier, wrestling a gun from a drunken cowboy. Death is too easy for his half-brother, Barnes wants Massey to bleed, slow and painful like his pregnant wife did. He knocks Massey unconscious, his gunmen shoot up the town taking what they want and ride away. That night we learn Massey’s wife Rosa is pregnant from the local Priest.
Move to a small horse ranch run by Louisa’s estranged husband GRANT GREEN and their fourteen year old son SEBASTIAN. Louisa refuses to forgive Grant for the death of their eldest son Simon, killed by a bucking horse a year earlier. Sebastian tries hard to fill his older brother’s empty boots, but things usually go wrong. Grant berates Sebastian rather than offering encouragement, hiding behind his own fears that he caused the death of Simon. Grant comes to town and finds Louisa having dinner with J.C. WHITNEY who has recently acquired several copper mines across the border in Mexico. Louisa signs a contract to haul freight for Whitney who with the help of outlaw Barnes and his gang of killers, decides to dam back the San Pedro River on the Mexico side of the border. Whitney wants the water to extract ore from his copper mines, he cuts off the water supply to the Arizona ranchers.
One of Grant’s young vaqueros, PABLO, is attacked and shot by Barnes’ gunmen. Pablo has plans to marry Rosa’s sister Jacinda. The Arizona ranchers form a committee to go over the border and convince Whitney to release the river water. The ranchers ride into Mexico and are met by Barnes and his horsemen who gun down and kill the entire group. Whitney breaks his freighting contract with Louisa, leaving her with mounting bills. Blood thirsty Barnes decides to ride into Palominas and teach half brother Sheriff Massey and the other remaining ranchers a deadly lesson. Barnes kills Rosa and traps Louisa in town. Grant hearing of the attack on Palominas, saddles up and rides to Louisa’s rescue, now joined by a sober Massey wanting vengeance for Rosa’s death, as the two men try to stop Barnes and his bloody gang from taking the town of Palominas . . . .
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