(hooves clopping)
- Heard a lot of rumors about you, Mr. Wheeler.
All of 'em bad.
- Well, most are probably true.
- I sure hope not, for your sake.
(man grunting)
- Don't do this, Fred.
- I wanna make it sting next time.
- Okay, all right. - We're done, we're done.
- You got him. - No, no, no, come on.
- No. - Jimmy!
- It's on you, Fred.
(Jimmy grunting)
Think you proved your point, Fred.
- Yeah, I think he's got it.
- I told him to fuckin' stay down.
(Jimmy grunting)
- Fred, fuck.
(Jimmy groaning)
(Fred grunting)
What's the rule about fighting, Fred?
You wanna fight somebody, you come fight me!
I'll fight you all goddamn day!
- [Jimmy] I'm the one that started it!
It wasn't him, it was me!
(Fred coughs)
(Jimmy panting)
- You see this?
You know what this means?
This means don't fucking touch, Fred.
Don't fucking touch.
Now you guys can go get the supper that you didn't earn.
Get outta here.
- I didn't start it, he said it.
(whip cracks) (Fred groans)
(both grunting)
- If you ever hit a branded man again,
I will kill you, Fred.
I'll kill you, Fred.
(Fred grunts)
(Rip panting)
These guys, they just work here, Jimmy.
You'll see 1,000 of 'em come and go, but not us.
We die here.
This is your family.
We're your family.
All right?
Jimmy's no longer cleaning the stalls, Fred.
That's your job.
- No, no I ain't cleaning no goddamn stall.
- Lloyd?
Give this man his week's wages,
and get this piece of shit off the ranch.
- Get to the fuckin' bunkhouse.
- They come and go, Jimmy, but not us.
- I gotta wash up.
- Mm-mm, no, no.
You go have your supper,
and you make them look at you.
Now go on.
(suspenseful music)
(doors rattling)
- Put the stick down, son.
- You want it?
Come fuckin' get it!
- Let me see your flashlight.
Put the stick down, son.
(stick clatters)
You're in a fair bit of trouble.
- No fucking shit.
- Get these drifters through every now and then.
- You sure roughed him up pretty good.
- He was like that when I found him.
- Let me see your hands.
Those don't look like drifter hands.
That looks infected.
- Well, it sure feels infected.
- There's a pig farm down near Miles City.
Ex-husband showed up and beat the whole family to death
before somebody cracked his skull with a frying pan.
They still haven't found the oldest boy.
You know anything about that?
- All I know is this.
I should've killed that motherfucker years ago.
- What's your name, son?
- Rip.
- Rip?
You hungry, Rip?
(cows mooing)
Can you ride a horse?
- I can get from A to B.
- Can you rope?
- I can rope.
- Put the sandwich down, son.
If you're gonna work for me,
everything you've ever been through stays right here.
I won't have it on my ranch.
No fighting.
And if you steal from- - I don't steal, sir.
I ain't never started a fight in my life.
- You're gonna have to prove yourself if you wanna chance.
You gotta pay a price if you wanna work for me.
- I ain't got no money.
- Don't cost money, just a little pain.
- Well, sir, pain I'm used to.
May I finish my sandwich?
(people laughing) - It serves you right.
- Ready to burn that one, too?
- All right. - Boo.
- This man. - It's money.
- Comin' in hot. - Okay, calls?
- Comin' in firing. (phone rings)
- All right, I got queens.
Looks like I was the hot one.
- Hey. - Come to me.
- Where are you?
- You know where I am.
- How am I supposed to get there?
- The old Irish way.
You're still Irish, aren't you?
- I'm Irish enough, honey.
(insects chirping)
(gentle guitar music)
♪ Honey I am coming home now ♪
♪ It's where I wanna be ♪
♪ Gone too long ♪
♪ I'm not thinking ♪
♪ Much about me now ♪
♪ Ever again ♪
- Thought you were off of this.
- I'm off it being a crutch.
But I'll sip whiskey and stare at the stars with you, Rip.
- Oh, thank you.
- I want you to take me on a date.
- A date, huh?
- A date.
With dinner.
Maybe we can go to that music festival after all.
- Beth, I'm way too tired to analyze
exactly what it is that you want,
but I know it ain't a date.
- It's no test.
- No? - Mm.
Just a date.
Lord knows you can afford it.
Been wearing the same three pairs of jeans and jacket
for a fuckin' decade.
(Rip chuckles)
- Yeah.
- Probably got more money than me.
- No, money's the one thing I don't have.
- You get paid every week, don't you?
- Mm-hmm, yeah.
- So what do you spend your money on?
You're keeping a sweet little place in town
for Saturday nights?
- Jesus Christ, why is it that your mind always stops
at the first thing that you should never do?
- What's wrong with that?
If I was a man, I'd buy an apartment complex
and I'd fill it with buxom little bunnies.
I'd start on the first floor Friday,
and end up on the roof by Sunday.
(Rip chuckles)
I'm serious.
What do you spend your money on?
- Beth, it's a nice night.
Let's not ruin it with the truth.
- Tell me.
- I spent $22,000 on my mom's headstone.
It stands about as tall as me.
Marble.
I got the guy to etch her face into it.
I spent 30 on my little brother's.
It stands a little bit taller.
I don't know, guess I wanted him
to be a little closer to heaven.
But the best money that I ever spent
was 5,000 to a gravedigger in Forsyth.
- What did you pay him for?
- He dug up my father,
and gave me his bones.
And I drove from there, all the way to North Dakota,
throwin' 'em out the fuckin' window.
- I remember the stories of heaven and hell, in church.
Lies, a lot of it.
I think heaven's right here, so's hell.
One person can be walking the clouds
right next to someone enduring eternal damnation,
and God is the land.
(gentle guitar music)
Don't say it.
It doesn't mean anything on a roof,
under stars like a bunch of fucking hippies.
Hey, tell me,
tell me when it saves me.
- Okay.
I won't say it.
(tender music)
♪ Every song ♪
- Scared?
That why he runs?
- No, it's instinct more than anything, you know?
And with these wild horses, they're trying to figure out
who the boss is, you know?
Who they can trust.
I mean, a tourist will look at a mustang
that's running around, let's just say,
and think that they're playing.
But they're not playing, Tate.
They're seeing where they stand in the world, you know,
and who's their friend.
Here, get up a second.
Let me zip you up.
It's kinda getting cold out here.
There you go, better?
He sure is good-looking, isn't he?
- [Tate] Yeah.
- You wanna ride him today?
Make your dad get pissed off?
(Rip chuckles)
- Turns out, he's just a big teddy bear.
Who knew?
- Tell you what.
I'm gonna work with you on this horse,
we're gonna sort it out.
We'll make him the best horse we got around here.
(birds chirping) (somber music)
All right, it's your turn now.
Come on, boy, come on.
Easy now.
Here.
Feel kinda silly, feeding animals today.
Should be helping.
- No matter what we're going through,
they still gotta eat.
- What's going on, Beth?
- Walk with me.
- You know we have horses, right Beth?
- Just, all right.
- What are we doing?
(papers rustling)
- I'm gonna read to you.
- Okay.
- My great grandfather had a dream.
All of his sons on the same road, the same ranch,
working toward the same goal.
That dream survived 100 years, until me.
With me, it died.
I didn't have enough sons.
They just kept dying, or quitting.
(Beth sighs)
Then one day, not too long ago,
I realized that I have enough sons after all.
- I don't understand, Beth.
- He's saying it's yours.
- Mine?
- Yours.
(door creaks)
(Rip sniffling)
Well, there's no accounting for taste,
but I guess it's the thought that counts.
(Rip sighs)
- Will you read the, the end of the letter again?
- They just kept dying, or quitting.
Then one day, not too long ago,
I realized that I have enough sons after all.
(Rip crying)
- He called me his son.
- Yeah, baby.
He sure did.
(Rip sighs)
(somber music)
(door creaks)
- You have no future, none, beyond this place.
And if you don't find a way to get her trust back,
you're not gonna have this either.
And then your life is, well it's like your father's life.
And you know how that ended.
There's two roads in life.
One is you're winning, or learning.
And the other is that you're losing
all the way to the fucking grave.
Boy, you better choose quickly,
or life's gonna choose it for you.