Cowboys & Aliens

In 1873, Jake wakes up in the middle of New Mexico  without a single memory of who he is or how he got   here. There's a wound on his stomach, a picture  of a woman he can't recognize on the ground, and   a strange bracelet on his arm. Pulling it doesn't  do anything, and hitting it with a rock is useless   too. Suddenly, three cowboys show up to ask for  directions and think Jake must be a criminal on   the run, so they try to capture him, only for Jake  to quickly defend himself and kill them all in   seconds. Then, Jake steals some clothes, money,  and a gun, before taking one of the horses into   town in the company of the cowboys' dog. When he  makes it to town, Jake notices there aren't many   people left and it's all rather poor. He enters a  seemingly empty house to look for some water for   his wound, but he's found by Preacher Meacham, who  doesn't lower his weapon until he realizes Jake's   amnesiac and needs help. Meacham takes Jake to his  church and takes care of his wound as he points   out the shape is strange and it couldn't have  been a gunshot, it was almost cauterized too.   He also explains this used to be a mining town,  but everyone started to leave when they ran out of   gold. At that moment, some gunshots could be heard  outside. It's Percy, an insolent young man that   likes to cause trouble because his father's the  only source of jobs for this town thanks to his   cattle business. The local barman, who everyone  calls Doc because of his old profession, tries   to confront Percy because he's tired that the  boy keeps drinking for free and scaring off his   clients. The Doc's wife Maria tries to stop him  but it's too late: now Percy's angry and brings   Doc closer to hit him. Meacham cuts in to stop  them then, and to make fun of him, Percy begins   asking the town for a donation to make up for  Doc's bad fortune. Jake refuses to collaborate and   hits Percy, a gesture that impresses Ella while  she watches with interest. A furious Percy fires   a warning shot and accidentally hits a man, so  Sheriff Taggart comes to arrest him. Nat, a Native   American that works for Percy's father, warns  Taggart that it isn't a good idea to ever arrest   Percy, but Taggart explains he has no choice  because the idiot shot a deputy and must be taken   to the federal marshal. Meanwhile three cowmen  are drinking while taking care of the cattle when   suddenly, something falls nearby and explodes as  it covers the whole area with bright lights. Only   one of the men survives because he falls into the  river while relieving himself, and when he comes   out, he finds the land obliterated. Back in town,  Taggart takes Percy to jail and finds a wanted   sign with Jake's face on it. Speaking of Jake, he  visits the local tavern and is approached by Ella,   who wants to know where Jake found the bracelet.  Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by   Taggar, who has come with his men to arrest  Jake while his grandson Emmett watches through   the window. Jake refuses to give up and beats all  the men up, but when he's about to shoot Taggart,   Emmett comes inside to stop him. At that moment,  Ella hits him on the head and knocks Jake out,   causing him to have a flashback of him lying  next to Alice, the woman from the picture, an   abandoned house, some gold coins, a bright light,  and some weirdly shaped beings. When he wakes up,   he finds himself in jail with Percy as his cell  neighbor. Since the boy keeps bothering him,   Jake knocks him out with a punch. In the meantime,  Percy's dad Dolarhyde is hurting the only survivor   of the explosion to make him confess what really  happened to his cows because he doesn't believe   the bright lights story. He's suddenly interrupted  by Nat, who has come to inform his boss of what   happened to Percy and the fact the infamous Jake  is around, so Dolarhyde lets one of the horses   drag away his employee before gathering his men  to go to town. Moments later, while Taggart puts   handcuffs on Jake to take him to see the marshall,  he lists all the crimes Jake is accused of,   including arson, assault, robbery, and killing  Alice. Jake doesn't believe that last part because   from that little memory he got, he could feel  how much he loved Alice. Jake and Percy are put   together in a car for the transfer, and Ella takes  the chance to approach him again, apologizing but   also explaining she couldn't let Jake get away.  Emmet doesn't want his grandfather to leave either   because he's the only family he has, but before  the car can take off, Dolarhyde shows up with his   men. Dolarhyde wants his son back and accuses Jake  of being the thief that stole all his gold, so he   starts an argument with Taggart to stop him from  taking them away. This is suddenly interrupted   by a bunch of lights appearing in the sky. Jake's  bracelet starts beeping too, and when the lights   get closer, it's revealed that they're alien  starships that begin attacking the town, starting   many fires and scaring the horses. As all the  men take out their weapons to defend themselves,   Emmett tries to hide under one of the buildings  and Taggart goes after him to rescue him. However   the aliens are also kidnapping lots of people,  and they take both Taggart and Maria with them,   thus Ella runs to rescue Emmett instead. The car  with the prisoners takes off until it crashes   on the ground, and Jake breaks Percy's finger to  free him from the handcuffs, but they can't find   a way out. Suddenly Jake's bracelet starts glowing  and shoots an energy beam that destroys the car's   door, allowing Jake to escape. Percy is too scared  to run and Dolarhyde has to pick him up, but   before they can go too far, the aliens take Percy  as well. Jake tries to use the bracelet again and   manages to shoot down a starship, scaring all  the others away. He and Dolarhyde come closer to   check it out and find it empty, so now everyone in  town believes this is the work of demons. A sudden   scream makes them turn toward a house, where a  person shoots at some kind of beast that runs   away in the same direction the starships went.  Nat finds footprints on the ground and is sure he   can track the creature, thus Dolarhyde announces  they'll take off in the morning. He wants to bring   Jake as well because of the bracelet and when  Jake says no, Dolarhyde hits him, but Jake just   hits him back before leaving. The next morning,  Jake discovers Ella's following him and jumps on   her to demand answers. Ella explains the aliens  took her people too and she's been looking for   them for a long time, so they should work together  to find them, but Jake refuses and leaves again.   Moments later, he finds the house he saw in that  vision, and a new memory hits his mind: he sees   himself coming to the house and meeting Alice with  a kiss. He also brought a bunch of gold coins that   Alice didn't like because it was dirty money, but  their argument was interrupted by a light melting   the coins through the roof to take them away. The  bright light took Alice too, and Jake could see   her connected to some weird machine. Meanwhile in  town, Dolarhyde gets his men ready to go, and Doc,   Ella, Emmett, and the dog join them as well. After  a few hours of riding, they're found by Jake,   who has decided to help them after all because  he wants to find Alice. When night falls,   the group is shocked to find a huge boat  standing upside down in the middle of the desert,   which makes no sense because there isn't any  river nearby. Since it's raining rather heavily,   they decide to spend the night inside. Nat wonders  if they should've called the army, but Dolarhyde   refuses because he remembers his days as a colonel  with bitterness. He tells the story of all the men   he lost in war, and Nat comments he loved hearing  Dolarhyde tell those stories to Percy. This angers   Dolarhyde because those stories were for his  son only, and he scolds Nat, sending him to keep   guard. Emmett watches this whole discussion with  interest and is curious about Dolarhyde's knife,   so the colonel gives the knife to the kid for him  to protect himself. Meanwhile Doc takes the chance   to finally learn to fire a gun from Meacham, and  Jake looks for a source of clean water to clean   his wound. Ella finds him and reminds him it's  important for him to remember when suddenly,   Jake's bracelet starts beeping again and a  bunch of rats begin running away. It turns   out the alien's here, and it kills a bunch of men  from the shadows. Emmett hears the dog barking,   and when he goes to check, he's found by the alien  too. Emmett accidentally drops the knife in fear   and the creature reveals a set of extra limbs  to grab him, but at that moment Meacham shows   up and tries to shoot it to save the boy. The  bullet does nothing and the alien attacks him   until Jake shows up as well. His bullets do  nothing either, but the bracelet reacts and   Jake shoots with that instead, causing the alien  to run away. Afterward Jake checks on Meacham,   but unfortunately the preacher dies in his arms.  The next morning, Emmett can't find the dog,   and Dolarhyde only has a few men left. Jake and  Doc bury Meacham and offer a few words before   rejoining the group to keep following the alien,  and during the journey, Dolarhyde tells Emmette   the story of his first kill to teach the kid not  to hesitate next time. Hours later, Nat finds more   footprints going in the direction of the canyon.  The group tries to hurry up, but in the middle   of the road they're suddenly ambushed by a cowboy  gang. To everyone's surprise, this gang puts their   weapons down when they recognize Jake as their old  boss, it turns out these are the men that helped   him steal the gold. Jakes pretends he remembers  them and orders them to take them back to camp,   where leadership has been taken over by Dolan.  Jake tries to order his old gang to follow him,   but Dolan stops him, explaining they're angry with  Jake because he abandoned them to take the gold   to some woman. The gang takes the gun from Jake  and starts beating him up to get him to confess   where the gold is, but they're interrupted by the  bracelet beeping. Jake uses it to kill Dolan and   make everyone else drop their weapons, allowing  the group to escape. The gang immediately begins   chasing after them, but once they're back in  an open area, they're found by the aliens,   who open fire from their starships. One of these  ships kidnaps Ella, so Jake follows it on his   horse until he's close enough to jump on the ship  and shoot it with the bracelet, causing them to   fall into a river. As Jake and Ella climb out of  the water, they're attacked by the alien pilot,   who hurts Ella before Jake manages to kill it  with the bracelet. Ella's wound is pretty serious,   but Jake covers it with a piece of her dress  and carries Ella in his arms until he finds   the group again. Doc takes a look at Ella but  unfortunately it's too late: she's already   dead. Jake barely can register the tragedy before  the group is surrounded by a group of Chiricahua   Apaches that capture him and take them to their  tribe. An Apache warrior throws Ella's body to   the fire while the group is approached by Chief  Black Knife, who explains with the help of Nat's   translation that they blame the cowboys for  bringing the aliens to this area. An argument   ensues until the bonfire suddenly flames up and  Ella walks out of it, apologizing for having lied   to everyone. It turns out she's also an alien and  she took this form as a disguise, it only needed   a bit of time to heal. Ella's from a different  planet than the aliens that came to Earth, but her   people had also been killed by them. These aliens  are looking for gold because it's rare for them   too. The people they kidnapped are still alive  because they're using them to study humanity's   weaknesses, and if they send this information to  their home planet, a whole army will come back.   Black Knife is ready to take his men to fight the  aliens, and Ella points out they can find them   if Jake manages to remember the location. To help  him, the Apaches prepare a special brew that kicks   off his memory, and Jake finally remembers that  he and Alice had been in the alien's operation   room. The creature experimented on Alice first  until he killed her, then it came for Jake with   a surgery tool that gave him that strange wound.  Jake fought back using that tool, and when he   tried to leave the surgery table, he accidentally  put his hand on the bracelet the alien left there,   causing it to attach to his wrist. Afterward, Jake  ran out of the building, discovering that was the   alien mothership connected to a series of caves  in the canyon. The next morning, the group rides   to the area and Ella explains the mothership is  digging for gold and the aliens are hiding inside.   The smaller starships fly by and enter the top of  the building often, so to save their people, they   should use the caves. Dolarhyde wants to find a  way to lure the aliens out to allow Jake to sneak   inside unseen, but an argument ensues with Black  Knife because he has his own fighting strategies   and he doesn't want his people to be led by a  white man. Meanwhile Jake rides away to go looking   for his gang, who is currently having a fight  over how to divide the little gold they have,   they also have the dog. They want to run away from  the aliens, but Jake points out that the aliens   will find them anyway and asks them to fight with  him to recover all the gold from the aliens. Back   in the canyon, Nat's explaining to Black Knife  that Dolarhyde's a good man that saved him after   the war and gave him purpose, which a surprised  Dolarhyde finds very touching. Black Knife doesn't   believe Dolarhyde can be a good warrior with  these few men following him, but at that moment,   Jake shows up with his entire gang, and everyone  finally agrees to work together. The group spends   the night getting ready for their plan, and Nat's  allowed to sit with the tribe because he's still   considered a good Apache. Ella takes the chance  to tell Jake she won't be around for long,   and Jake answers with a kiss. The next morning,  the group hides while Jake and a few of his men   begin climbing the mothership to plant a bunch of  explosives at the top before going back down. The   plan works and the explosion causes the aliens  to come out, so the group opens fire on them.   Emmett and the dog are on watch duty while  Doc goes around taking care of any wounded   men and Jake and Ella enter the cave. A fierce  battle begins between aliens and humans with   casualties on both sides, and Dolarhyde's knocked  off his horse. When an alien is about to kill him,   Nat comes to save his boss and captures the alien  with some rope, but the alien's stronger and drags   Nat to the ground to attack him. Dolarhyde tries  to get the alien's attention with a few shots   that do nothing, but thankfully the creature's  head suddenly explodes when Doc lands a shot   on its weak spot. Then Dolarhyde checks on Nat  and tells him he's the kind of son he's always   wanted before Nat dies in his arms. In the cave,  Jake and Ella find the mining machine first,   and going deeper into the tunnels allows them  to find all the kidnapped victims connected   to a bright light. This light tries to hypnotize  Jake as well, but Ella destroys it with a shot and   everyone finally wakes up. While Ella disconnects  the victims, Jake follows a noise down the tunnel   and finds a bunch of aliens, so he shoots them all  with the bracelet, but there are more coming. Jake   positions himself in front of the tunnel that  connects the mothership to the cave and shoots   the aliens as they come while Ella guides all the  victims out. However instead of going out too,   Ella goes deeper into the cave, and Jake follows  her. Outside the mothership there are more aliens   coming out too, and one of them goes after  Emmett. At first he tries to hide, but when   the alien comes closer, Emmett remembers to be  brave and stabs the creature. Back in the caves,   Jake discovers Ella has gone all the way to  the base of the mothership because she wants to   destroy it by detonating the bracelet. Jake can't  seem to take it off, so to distract his mind,   Ella kisses him, effectively making the  bracelet fall. Then Ella climbs into the   mothership's core and asks Jake to pass her the  bracelet, but instead of just dropping it there,   she takes it with her deeper into the ship, ready  to leave this world if it means saving it. Jake   wants to go after her but more aliens show up and  he has no choice but to run into another room for   safety. Outside, Emmett sees all the victims  leaving the cave and makes the announcement,   but when Dolarhyde hears Jake and Ella aren't with  them, he enters the caves as well. In the caves,   Jake's suddenly grabbed by an alien, who wants  to put him back on the surgery table. When the   procedure is about to start, Dolarhyde shows  up and distracts the alien with a few shots,   giving Jake the chance to shoot at a pot of  melting gold that falls on the alien and kills   it. Since the aliens are losing, the mothership  activates to leave the planet. Jake and Dolarhyde   run out of the caves while an alien tries to stop  Ella, but as soon as the ship leaves the ground,   Ella activates the bracelet and makes the ship  explode. With their enemies gone, the group takes   the chance to meet with their loved ones. Emmett  reunites with Taggart, Doc sees Maria again, and   Dolarhyde finally sees Percy free. Sometime later,  Jake rides to the old house to leave flowers in   Alice's memory. Then he returns to town, which is  now flourishing again thanks to all the gold they   got from the aliens and will get its own railroad  soon. Percy now behaves and even pays his tab,   so Dolarhyde decides to make him his business  partner. Both Dolarhyde and Taggart, who has   adopted the dog, are surprised to see Jake return,  and when he points out he's a wanted criminal,   the men tell him he can go in peace because  they'll lie and say Jake the thief died in the   caves. Jake leaves the town for good after shaking  hands with Dolarhyde, ready to start a new life.