The Lone Ranger
About the Film
At a San Francisco fairground in 1933, an ancient Comanche named Tonto begins telling a young boy the true story of how the Lone Ranger came to be. Back in 1869 Texas, idealistic city lawyer John Reid returns home just as his Texas Ranger brother Dan is murdered in an ambush by the vicious outlaw Butch Cavendish. Left for dead himself, Reid is nursed back to life by Tonto, who insists the “dead man” is now a spirit-walker destined to bring the killers to justice.
Reluctant partners, the masked Reid and the eccentric Tonto ride together to hunt Cavendish — only to uncover a far larger conspiracy involving the ruthless railroad baron Latham Cole, who is provoking war with the Comanche to seize a fortune in silver. As the Transcontinental Railroad nears completion, the unlikely duo must derail the scheme in a runaway-train finale set to the William Tell Overture.
Plot synopsis by johnny-depp.org.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp plays Tonto, the Comanche warrior who narrates the tale as a very old man and rides beside the Lone Ranger in his prime. Depp — who has spoken of his own Native American heritage — based the look on Kirby Sattler’s painting I Am Crow, with cracked white-and-black face paint and a dead crow perched on his head. He plays Tonto as a deadpan, damaged eccentric haunted by guilt over the massacre of his tribe, giving the character a strange, melancholy comedy.
Cast & Crew
Cast
TontoJohnny Depp
John Reid / The Lone RangerArmie Hammer
Latham ColeTom Wilkinson
Butch CavendishWilliam Fichtner
Rebecca ReidRuth Wilson
Red HarringtonHelena Bonham Carter
Dan ReidJames Badge Dale
Captain Jay FullerBarry Pepper
Crew
DirectorGore Verbinski
ScreenplayJustin Haythe, Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
MusicHans Zimmer
CinematographyBojan Bazelli
ProducersJerry Bruckheimer, Gore Verbinski
StudioWalt Disney Pictures
“Never take off the mask.”
— Tonto, The Lone Ranger
Filming Locations
- Moab and Monument Valley, Utah
- Creede and Cimarron Canyon, Colorado
- New Mexico, Arizona and Texas
- California (studio and location work)
More about this film
Trivia
- Gore Verbinski first floated the idea of Depp playing Tonto while they were shooting Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.
- When the ballooning budget nearly shut the film down in 2011, the director, producer and stars deferred about 20% of their salaries to keep it alive.
- Depp modelled Tonto’s striking make-up on Kirby Sattler’s painting I Am Crow.
- The climactic chase is scored to Rossini’s William Tell Overture, the Lone Ranger’s classic theme.
Awards
- 2014 Academy Award — Best Makeup and Hairstyling, nominated
- 2014 Academy Award — Best Visual Effects, nominated
- 2014 Visual Effects Society Award — Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects Won
