Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1

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.

Plot
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.

Production
Kevin Costner first commissioned Horizon as a single film in 1988 and later approached Walt Disney Pictures with the project after the release of his 2003 film Open Range. It was announced in January 2022 that Costner was set to direct and produce the film, a passion project for him, in addition to starring. It began casting in February. In April, Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema joined the production to distribute. In a June interview, Costner stated he plans to make four movies out of the premise and was looking to cast over 170 speaking roles.

In August, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jamie Campbell Bower, Luke Wilson, Thomas Haden Church, Jena Malone, Alejandro Edda, Tatanka Means, and Michael Rooker were cast in the film. Isabelle Fuhrman, Ella Hunt, Jeff Fahey, and Tom Payne would be among the numerous casting announcements made throughout September. In October, Will Patton, Owen Crow Shoe, and Danny Huston were added to the cast.

Filming of at least the first installment began on August 29, 2022 in southern Utah, concluding in November. Filming of the second installment began by May 2023, before concluding in the summer of that year.

Release
In a May 2023 interview, Costner expressed hope to have the first film released by fall 2023. In October, it was announced the film would release in two parts, with Chapter 1 releasing on June 28, 2024, and Chapter 2 on August 16, 2024. Later that month, it was announced that K5 International, the recently relaunched international sales arm of K5 Media Group, would handle international sales on the film at the American Film Market. In April 2024, it was announced that the first part would premiere out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2024, where it received a nine-minute standing ovation at the Grand Théâtre Lumière.

However, on July 9, 2024, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced that Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 will debut on digital streaming via premium video on demand on July 16, 2024.

Box office
, An American Saga – Chapter 1 has grossed $28.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $32.5 million.

In the United States and Canada, An American Saga – Chapter 1 was released alongside A Quiet Place: Day One, and was projected to gross $10–15 million from 3,334 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $4.1 million on its first day, including $800,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $11 million, finishing in third behind Inside Out 2 and A Quiet Place: Day One. In its second weekend the film made $5.4 million (a drop of 51%), finishing in sixth. Losing nearly 750 theaters in its third weekend the film made $2.4 million, finishing in seventh.

Critical response
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.

Bilge Ebiri of Vulture gave a reservedly positive review, likening its incomplete nature to the 2021 film Dune: Part One and stating that "Its stately pace never feels boring, so it doesn't feel like it should have been shorter. But it also doesn't really work on its own.... And it feels impossible to judge this film, because, in some weird way, it doesn't feel like anything has really happened yet."

A review at RogerEbert.com wrote, "Even with the cataclysmic scenes of death, the first hour does little to endear these characters. They’re disparate people whose connections aren’t immediately clear and only become vaguely obvious toward the picture’s conclusion.", and further noted, "While the first film in the possible “Horizon” series does well in setting up future pictures, continuing the momentum Costner gained before he left “Yellowstone,” this single film is a chore to sit through. It rarely gives viewers what they want: seeing Costner on the open range. It gives us few memorable characters outside of Costner: I can’t remember the name of a single figure without looking at my notes." Forbes was more positive and found the film had a "great sense of place" while The Guardian found the film was "an unapologetically old-school western". The BBC website was very critical and described the film as a non-film: " It's like the tantalising pilot episode of a television series – but a pilot episode that drags on and on for three hours."

A mixed review in Esquire, however, expressed hope about the sequels. Addressing the duration and the serialization of the film, Owen Gleiberman of Variety adopted the opposite approach: "Yet I think the idea is that the design of it all will come into focus as we see "Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2" (later this summer), and then, at some point, "Chapter 3" (which is now scheduled) and maybe, if all goes according to plan, more chapters. I seriously hope not. I'm not sure how much juice there is to squeeze out of these characters, but even if there is some I don't want to see movies turn into television. Just about every Western of the studio era came in at two hours or less, and so did most of the revisionist Westerns (and some of those were complicated). There's a reason for that. It’s all the time they needed." Richard Brody of The New Yorker gave the film a negative review, writing that "the inflated production of "Horizon" shows in its aesthetic. The dramatic format seems borrowed from television, with multiple threads jumpily interweaved, to ward off impatience. With so many balls in the air at once, the movie lacks the kind of patient observation that this story demands.

Sequels
In June 2022, Costner stated he plans to make four Horizon films in total, shot back-to-back. In November 2022, Costner confirmed that the first film had been completed and that the second had been greenlit, set to be filmed in spring 2023. Production for the second film commenced in April 2023, with Glynn Turman, Kathleen Quinlan, and Giovanni Ribisi joining Costner, Miller, Worthington, Hunt, Patton, Wilson, Fuhrman, and Haden Church, who continued on from the first film. Director of photography J. Michael Muro, production designer Derek R. Hill, editor Miklos Wright, and costume designer Lisa Lovaas would also return. The second film finished production in summer 2023, with the production of the third film being paused because of the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes.

In May 2024, casting calls for background actors had commenced, while production was slated to begin later that month in St. George, Utah. Later, it was reported that production initially commenced in 2023, before progress halted in part due to the Hollywood strikes. One month following the completion of the previous installment, Costner began filming a montage sequence that features scenes from Chapter 3. Costner stated that principal photography commenced on May 13, 2024, explaining that production had initially been planned to commence on April 25 before being moved to May 6 in order to accommodate funding.

In June 2024, Costner stated that Giovanni Ribisi's character, H. Silas Pickering, appeared in the ending montage of the first film as a way to tease what's next in the saga, while saying that H. Silas Pickering will be a supporting character in the next film, but will become a main character in the third and fourth films, potentially as the villain of the saga.