Gunslinger 1956

After her husband, Marshal Scott Hood, the town marshal of Oracle, Texas, is killed by two assailants, Rose Hood steps in as temporary marshal and, with the town still reeling, the legendary Cane Miro is brought in to officially take the job. At the funeral, Rose keeps a cool, lethal vigilance and spots the second killer, delivering a decisive shot to finish the act of vengeance that started the chain of events. The town begins to stir with a fragile order that will soon be tested in ways no one anticipated.

That night, Rose asks Erica Page to close her saloon at 3 a.m. in accordance with town regulations, but Erica insists the establishment stays open 24 hours. When the two women clash, Erica relents and closes for the night, yet she immediately turns to manipulation, directing her lackey Jake Hayes to hire a gunslinger, someone who can tilt Oracle’s balance in her favor. The hired gun, Cane Miro, looms as both a threat and a possible shield, and the tension around him begins to ripple through the town’s political and personal life.

In the saloon, Mayor Gideon Polk warns Erica that she has overextended herself by buying property along a proposed railroad line, but his cautions fall on deaf ears as scheming ambition overpowers prudence. As Cane rides toward Oracle, Rose mistakes him for Nate Signo, a man she has been pursuing for years, and fires a shot. Realizing her mistake, she apologizes, and the two reluctantly ride together to locate Signo, a pursuit that ends with Cane shooting Signo and the pair forming an uneasy alliance.

Cane enters the saloon and confronts Polk, while Erica reveals a darker plan—that she had paid Cane to kill Rose, though she suggests that if the railroad project succeeds, Rose may not have to die. The plot thickens as Erica buys a freight line from Zebulon Taub for $15,000, and Jake Hayes is sent to shadow Taub and ensure the deal goes through. Jake retrieves the money after Taub is killed, but the sequence of ambition and betrayal spirals further when Rose and Cane appear and Erica’s jealousy erupts into dangerous resolve.

Cane’s purpose becomes clear: he has come to see Polk, a former commander whose battlefield failure had cost Cane’s four brothers their lives. The moment prompts Rose to demand that Polk be kept safe, and he is placed under protective custody. The town’s fragility deepens as three of Erica’s dance-hall girls, banished by Rose, ambush Rose in a bid to hang her; Cane intervenes just in time, and the would-be lynchers skid away from Oracle in a fury of fear and anger. Cane’s influence over Erica grows; he drinks, leans into a dangerous kiss with Erica, and Jake—ever watchful—sees it but leaves before Erica is rejected.

Erica, increasingly unhinged, orders Cane to kill Rose. In the saloon, Jake catches Erica’s temper and slaps her, and Erica vows to kill him in return. Jake gathers his courage and informs Rose of everything he has learned, but when Jake turns up with a gun on Cane, Cane silences him for good. Rose refrains from arresting Cane, arguing that Erica’s version of self-defense cannot justify punishment when so much else rides on the railroad’s fate.

The tension crescendos as Erica steals a letter announcing the railroad’s cancellation and murders the messenger in the act, riding into Oracle with the aim of forcing Cane to kill Rose. Deputy Joshua Tate confronts the danger but is killed in the clash. Cane attacks Polk and, in a brutal moment, Polk’s wife dies shielding him before Polk himself falls to Cane’s gun. Rose enters the town just as Erica tries to take aim; Cane shoots Erica before she can fire, ending her threat once and for all. Rose pursues Cane beyond Oracle’s borders, and as the two exchange fire, Cane’s wounds prove fatal. In his last breath, he asks whether Rose felt the same way about him, and she answers that she did—before he dies.

With the town left to reckon with the violence and fallout, Rose rides away, determined never to return. Sam Bass arrives right as she departs and asks whether Oracle will stay quiet, a question she answers with a steady, unreturning resolve: yes, the town is quiet—for now.