John and Tonto follow one of Cavendish's horses in an attempt to find where Rebecca and Danny have been taken to. John and Tonto arrive after one such raid abducts Rebecca and Danny Reid, Dan's widow and son, the former of whom shares a mutual attraction with John. Cavendish's men begin raiding settlements near the Comanche-American border while disguised as Comanche Indians. John touches the rock, which Tonto says to be cursed, and experiences a hallucination. There, they find Red Harrington, who gives them brief information about the fight between Dan and Collins over some silver rock. They then travel to a brothel which had been visited by Collins recently. He also gives John a silver bullet made from the fallen Rangers' badges and tells him to use it on Cavendish. As John is thought to be dead, he is made to wear a mask by Tonto to protect his identity as Butch would try and kill him permanently if he knew John had survived. Tonto also confirms that Collins (one of the seven original Rangers) betrayed Dan and is working alongside Cavendish, a " wendigo". When Reid awakens, he is informed by Tonto of his new status as a "spirit walker" (one that has been to the other side), and reveals that he cannot be killed in battle.
John is injured as well in the attack and dies, only to be found and revived by Silver, a white spirit horse thought to be sacred by the Comanche. The elder Reid recruits John as a Texas Ranger and the two are enlisted to track down the Cavendish gang alongside a group of six other Rangers.Ī few days into their expedition, the group is ambushed in a canyon by Cavendish's men who kill the Rangers, including Dan, who has his heart cut out and eaten by Butch himself. Cavendish's gang, however, hijacks the train, which derails soon after, resulting in Butch escaping and Tonto's arrest by John and Dan. Unbeknownst to John, the train is also carrying Tonto and outlaw Butch Cavendish, who is being transported for his hanging after being apprehended by Dan. Shifting to March 18, 1869, Reid is returning home via the uncompleted Transcontinental Railroad, managed by railroad tycoon Latham Cole, en route to Colby, Texas to visit his older brother and Texas Ranger, Dan Reid. It's also apparent the script was subjected to multiple rewrites intended to water-down its post-modern re-examination of The Lone Ranger mythology and make it more of a conventional crowd-pleaser to quote Alonso Duralde in his review for The Wrap, "the film feels constantly torn between deconstructing the legend and presenting it in a straightforward manner." As for Depp: his portrayal of Tonto as a capable warrior whose idiosyncratic behavior stems from the traumas of his past works well enough early on, yet it increasingly comes across as a tired - and, at worst, culturally and racially insensitive - shtick as the film runs on.In 1933 at a country fair in San Francisco, a young boy named Will, who idolizes a legend known as the Lone Ranger, encounters a seemingly ordinary mannequin that is revealed to be a real native American named Tonto, an elderly Comanche spirit warrior, who proceeds to recount his experiences with lawyer John Reid, the original Lone Ranger. The movie has many of the same flaws as Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, including a bloated runtime (just short of 2.5 hours) and a messy narrative that too often meanders (particularly during the second act). When it finally opened in theaters, The Lone Ranger took a beating from critics (see: its 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and for valid reason.