Summary
- Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 is a film that explores the lives of various characters in the American West during the period before, during, and after the Civil War.
- The film also delves into the perspectives of Indigenous people, such as the Apache tribe, who are fighting to defend their land from the encroaching settlers.
- The film does not provide much in the way of resolution for any of its stories, but it emphasizes the price of freedom and the blood, sweat, and tears of the thousands of settlers who risked everything for the prospect of something better.
Kevin Costner's epic traditional Western series kicked off with Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1, and as opposed to wrapping up any of its sprawling story, its ending led right into Chapter 2 in August 2024. Driven by a talented and star-studded cast of characters headlined by Costner himself, the four planned movies of Horizon: An American Saga will explore the lives of multiple generations of settlers and Indigenous people as they struggle to carve out lives in the American West before, during, and after the Civil War. Chapter 1 introduced most of the major players and locations.
Kevin Costner provided some insight on the ending of Chapter 1, and reinforced the notion that the saga will unfold steadily over the course of all four movies. As a result, most of the lengthy runtime of Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 is spent introducing the most important characters and story lines that will develop in the series. While most of the major stories are treated as separate journeys, many of the threads of what will eventually cause the stories to intersect can be found in Chapter 1.
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 Ends With Footage From Chapter 2
One movie leads right into the next
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 doesn't provide much in the way of wrap-up, but instead dives right into a montage a few minutes long that includes footage from Chapter 2. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 were shot back-to-back, and with Chapter 2 set to release just a few weeks after Chapter 1 debuts, the movie closes with a massive tease of what's to come. Several new characters are introduced in the footage, so it seems the setup isn't quite done yet.
Kevin Costner reportedly invested as much as $38 million of his own money of the $100 million required to produce the first two chapters of Horizon: An American Saga.
Interestingly, Chapter 3 has already started filming despite the box office haul from the first two chapters being completely unsettled. The box office prospects for Chapter 1 seem dismal, and if an audience isn't built on the first part, Chapter 2 seems just as likely to fail. With millions of Costner's own money already sunk into the production of the first two chapters, it remains to be seen if the final two chapters of the story can even be completed, which likely explains Costner's insistence on teasing Chapter 2 at the end of Chapter 1.
What is Horizon?
A safe and prosperous destination in the west
The meaning of Horizon was more fully explored in Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 after being hinted at in the trailers. A flier continues to appear throughout the movie, in the hands of various (currently) disconnected characters, implying that knowledge of the town described in it is common. The flier tempts settlers with promises of a town in which they can be prosperous, and more importantly, they can live safely. If there is one point that Chapter 1 manages to make, it's that American settlers on the frontier are anything but safe.
The flier being referenced or held by characters across multiple stories indicates that Horizon may be the major point at which the stories intersect. Whether they'll find what they're looking for is another question entirely, as the end of the movie reveals that the fliers are being printed back in the east by a man named Pickering (Giovanni Ribisi). It could be that the real Horizon is in fact the location being surveyed at the very beginning of Chapter 1, and therefore, there is no Horizon for the characters to find.
What Happened to Frances and Elizabeth Kittredge
They have already dealt with terror and loss
While it's difficult to designate any character as the "main" character in a saga and a cast this expansive, Sienna Miller's Frances Kittredge and her daughter Elizabeth (Georgia MacPhail) come awful close given their prevalence in the story that gets some of, if not the most screen time. After losing her husband, son, and most of their neighbors to a raid on their settlement, the two surviving Kittredges find their way to Camp Gallant and fall under the protection of Lt. Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington) and Colonel Houghton (Danny Huston).
Kevin Costner Hasn't Earned My Patience For Horizon: An American Saga
The runtime and release schedule for Kevin Costner's epic Western passion project requires patience from fans, but he doesn't necessarily deserve it.
Frances sparks a romance with the chivalrous Lt. Gephardt while Elizabeth becomes somewhat of a camp mascot, acting as a bright spot for the U.S. Army soldiers at the camp. After the tragedy and loss that the two experienced, their life at the camp becomes one of the more positive stories in Chapter 1. However, when many of the young soldiers are called back east to fight in the ongoing Civil War, the safety of the camp becomes somewhat less certain. The movie ends with them still safe in the camp, but it seems as though that may be short-lived.
Why The Sykes Family Wants Ellen
Vengeance fuels the family
Jena Malone's Ellen Harvey (a.k.a. Lucy) bursts into the narrative by shooting an unnamed man in his bed before riding away with her infant son, leaving him badly wounded but alive. Her story jumps forward at least a couple of years, as she now lives with a salesman (Michael Angarano) at what appears to be a trading outpost in the territories, with the insolent prostitute Marigold (Abbey Lee) under her roof. She and her partner are lured to what they think is a sale, only to be ambushed by the sons of the man she shot, Caleb and Junior Sykes.
The two men seek vengeance for the attempted murder of their father James Sykes, and although her specific motivation isn't revealed, it's clear that he had wronged her well before she shot him. Caleb is sent to fetch her son for further vengeance, where he unfortunately (for him) runs into Costner's Hayes Ellison, who kills him in a gunfight. That turns the Sykes' attention towards finding Ellison, and the movie ends with Ellen in their custody and Junior and his companions on the trail of Ellison.