Families, friends and foes discover the lure of the Old West as the Civil War divides the country.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is a 2024 American epic Western film directed and produced by Kevin Costner from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jon Baird, based on an original story by the pair and Mark Kasdan. It is the first installment in the titular film series and features an ensemble cast consisting of Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, and Giovanni Ribisi, with Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt, and Jamie Campbell Bower in supporting roles.
Chapter 1 premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2024, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 28, 2024. The film received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed $32 million worldwide. It will continue with Chapter 2, scheduled to be released at an unspecified date; Chapter 3 started principal photography in May 2024, while Chapter 4 is in development.
In 1859, in the San Pedro Valley, a party of surveyors mark stakes to outline the borders of a forthcoming frontier town, Horizon. Soon after, Desmarais, a missionary, seeks out Horizon and discovers the surveying party dead at the hands of a Western Apache war band. He buries their bodies and establishes the town of Horizon.
Four years later, a flourishing Horizon is set upon by an Apache raid led by Pionsenay, killing several residents, including the husband and son of Frances Kittredge. Local boy Russell Ganz flees on horseback during the carnage to alert the Army at the nearby Camp Gallant. A detachment of Cavalry and Infantry, led by 1st Lt. Gephardt and Sgt. Major Riordan, and Neron Chavez, Chief Scout in charge of the Pima Indian Scouts, assist with the burial of the dead, the searching for the tracks of the raiding party, and the recovery efforts of the survivors. Frances and her daughter Elizabeth leave with the Army to seek sanctuary at Camp Gallant. At the same time, Russell joins a posse led by fellow survivor Elias Janney and scalp-hunter Tracker to go after the Apache. Gephardt warns the posse of indiscriminate retaliation against the Natives driven by scalping profitability. Frances and Elizabeth adjust to life at Camp Gallant. Gephardt's non-interventionist moral code regarding Indigenous land clashes with his Commanding Officer, Colonel Houghton, and his ideology of the inevitability of manifest destiny. Elizabeth befriends some of the troops at the Post and is heartbroken when they are recalled East to fight in the Civil War. Frances and Gephardt begin a romance.
Pionsenay argues with his tribal elder Tuayeseh over his raids on the settlers. Pionsenay believes that the settlers will push them out and lead them to war against other tribes, while Tuayeseh believes in co-existence and considers reprisal for Pionsenay's actions. Pionsenay and his warband, including one of Tuayeseh's sons, voluntarily leave the tribe to continue their war against the settlers.
In Montana territory, Lucy shoots James Sykes and flees south to Wyoming with her young son Sam. With Sykes wounded, the family matriarch Mrs. Sykes orders her sons to go and recapture her. Living under the name Ellen Harvey, Lucy marries businessman Walter Childs and cohabitates with Marigold, a prostitute working independently. Marigold propositions horse trader and customer Hayes Ellison, before she returns home to care for Sam while Walter and Lucy depart for one of Walter’s land sales. Walter and Lucy realize that the land buyers are the Sykes brothers, Caleb and Junior. Walter is accidentally killed by Caleb as the men kidnap Lucy. Junior, the eldest brother, sends Caleb to find Sam in town, where he encounters Hayes. They both go to Lucy's home where Hayes kills Caleb in a shootout when he realizes Caleb is going to kill Marigold. Hayes flees the town with Marigold asking him to take her and Sam. Settling in a railroad work camp, Marigold abandons Sam and Hayes for a traveling gambler who offers her a life with security. She leaves the child in the care of a Chinese worker's family.
A wagon train led by Matthew Van Weyden treks the Santa Fe Trail to Horizon. Among the group is the pretentious British couple Juliette Chesney and Hugh Proctor. It also includes the extended family of Frances' late husband. As they travel, they are watched by a pair of Pawnee warriors scouting the Wagon Train, causing them to slow their progress and prepare to defend themselves. During the night, Juliette catches two men peeping at her as she bathes in the drinking water, Van Weyden must warn the two away from the couple but neither appears to intend to listen.
Elias and Russell’s posse encounter and try to intimidate an Indigenous man at a Trading Post, but Janney and the Trader deescalate it from turning into a bloodbath. Due to the lack of results in finding Pionsenay's band, the group decides to go after any Indians wherever they can find them. They learn of a Tonto Apache village nearby and wait for the village's hunting party to depart before massacring and scalping the women, children, and elderly of the tribe to Russell's horror. The posse rides away, leaving before the hunters can return to take their revenge, with the consequences of their action soon to show across the land.
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