Summary
A group of people carry Lucy on a stretcher into Lordsburg. A woman asks where the baby is, and the group looks over at Dallas, who is following holding the infant. A nurse comes over and takes the baby from Dallas. In the stretcher, Lucy says to Dallas, “If there’s ever anything I can do for you.” Dallas covers Lucy with her coat and says, “I know,” before looking over at the stagecoach arriving in town. A couple men marvel at the fact that Ringo is aboard.
One of the men runs into the nearby saloon to tell everyone that the Ringo Kid is in town, and one of the Plummer brothers, Luke, is sitting playing poker when he hears the news. He throws his cards down on the table and tells the dealer “Cash in.” Luke goes to the bar for a drink, preparing for the imminent shootout. After downing a shot of liquor, Luke looks over at the man playing the piano. Everyone in the saloon is looking at him with vague concern.
Outside Dallas watches as some soldiers carry Mr. Peacock in to get medical attention for his bow and arrow wound. Peacock says goodbye to Dallas and invites her to visit him and his family. Dallas then goes over to watch as the other passengers of the stagecoach get off. As Curley gets off the stagecoach, Ringo asks him how much jail time he’ll get for breaking out. When Curley tells him “about a year,” Ringo asks him to make sure that Dallas gets to his ranch. “Sure,” Curley says, seriously.
The sheriff of Lordsburg has Gatewood arrested for stealing funds from the bank and hauls him off to jail. When an angry mob departs with Gatewood in tow, Dallas approaches the stagecoach, where Ringo, Boone, Curley, and Buck are standing. Ringo asks to be given 10 minutes to go have a shootout with the Plummer boys, and Curley hands him a rifle. Ringo has three bullets left, one for each Plummer brother.
He puts on his hat and walks with Dallas towards town. When they get a certain distance, Dallas says her goodbyes, and when Ringo wants to know where she’s going, she replies, “No, don't come any further. It's all been a crazy dream. Went out of my mind just hoping. Say goodbye here Kid.” Ringo simply says, “We ain’t never gonna say goodbye.”
Ike and Hank Plummer find Luke and prepare for the shootout. Doc Boone comes into the saloon and posts up at the bar. As Boone drinks and stares at the Plummer brothers, Luke procures a shotgun from the bartender, which he uses to break a number of glasses on the bar. The bartenders take the mirror in the saloon down and a prostitute runs to Luke to try and get him to give up on the shootout, but he pushes her away.
Outside, Dallas and Ringo walk down the street, passing various saloons. Near a brothel, Dallas acknowledges that she’s a prostitute, but Ringo insists that he doesn’t mind and still wants to marry her. She weeps and he tells her to wait there for him.
Buck enters the saloon and all of the Plummer boys draw their guns, which frightens him. Nervously, he tells them that Ringo is passing through that area soon. Luke motions for his brothers to go outside, but Boone tries to stop them, saying he wants to take the shotgun from him. “You’ll take it in the belly if you don’t get out of my way,” Luke says. “I’ll have you indicted for murder if you step outside with that shotgun,” Boone replies. The two men stare at each other, when suddenly Luke smiles, puts down his shotgun, pushes Boone out of the way, and goes outside unarmed.
Outside, a woman tosses Luke another shotgun. A man runs to the local newspaper and tells him to start writing a story about Ringo’s inevitable death in Lordsburg. The Plummer brothers walk through the shadows and one of them shoots at a cat, but misses. Ringo emerges from the shadows and walks towards the Plummer brothers. Suddenly Ringo dives onto the ground and shoots.
The scene shifts abruptly to Dallas as she hears the gunshots from another part of the town. Screams echo through the night as she climbs the stairs calling Ringo’s name. We see a group of people in a saloon waiting to see what happened. Luke comes into the saloon, apparently fine, but suddenly falls down dead after a few steps.
Dallas holds a fence post mournfully, sure that Ringo is dead, when suddenly he walks towards her. They embrace as romantic music plays. Doc Boone rides up in a carriage driven by Curley, who tells Ringo to get in to go to the jail. Before getting in, Ringo says to Dallas, “Curley’s gonna see you get to my place across the border.” Boone gets out of the carriage and Ringo takes Dallas’s hand and says goodbye. Sympathetic, Curley gets out and invites Dallas to get in the carriage with Ringo so they can say a proper goodbye. Suddenly, he and Dr. Boone encourage the horses to ride away, cheering and whooping.
The carriage drives away and Dallas and Ringo head to his cabin together. Watching them go, Doc Boone turns to Curley and says, “Well, they're saved from the blessings of civilization.”
Analysis
Even though Dallas and Lucy are able to connect on the stagecoach when Dallas steps in to help Lucy with childcare, once they reach Lordsburg the vast class gulf between them reopens. Lucy is reunited with the “respectable” women of her upper-class circles who, when they see the baby being held by a common prostitute, rush to intervene, taking the baby from Dallas’ arms. Nothing is said, but Lucy and Dallas share a meaningful look and Lucy makes a weak attempt to offer her help if Dallas ever needs it. They know and we, the viewer, know that this is an impossible promise, that there is too much separating the two women.
Meaningful looks and silences have a special weight in Stagecoach, communicating that which words cannot. This is also true of the moment we are introduced to the brutish Luke Plummer. We see him in a saloon, drinking stoically at the bar. When the news that the Ringo Kid is in town arrives, Luke wears a vague look of concern, fear, and violent resolve, and the saloon goes silent. The usually jubilant and raucous environment loses its energy and all eyes are on Luke. In these moments of silence, we feel the violence building up within Luke, as we watch him realize that he must fight Ringo.
Weighted silence also becomes an important part of Dallas and Ringo’s interactions once they reach Lordsburg. They walk through the streets of the town in silence before Ringo goes to have the shootout with the Plummer Brothers. They do not have to say much, but the complex dynamic between them is palpable. They walk past saloons and the seedier parts of the town, Dallas looking anxiously at the brothel, a place she knows well. The viewer knows that she is worried that Ringo will reject her when he knows she is a prostitute, and meanwhile they both worry about the imminent shootout. The silence is filled with tension and anxiety as each character wonders what will happen next.
For all of the buildup, the shootout itself is barely shown, an instance of pure set-up. We see Ringo dive with his gun as the shootout begins, only three bullets in his gun, and the camera shifts to show Dallas elsewhere. The climactic moment of the film is filtered through Dallas’ secondhand experience, which has the effect of heightening both the suspense of the scene and the love story between Ringo and Dallas. The viewer watches her expression in closeup as she wonders what the gunshots mean, whether it means that she can hope for redemption and marriage to Ringo or whether she must return to her precarious position in society as a prostitute.
Of course, it all works out, and Ringo emerges victorious in the shootout. Not only that, but Curley does not enforce Ringo’s jail time for breaking out, and instead sends him and Dallas on their way to Ringo’s cabin across the border. As the carriage sets off, Doc Boone says, “Well, they're saved from the blessings of civilization.” By surviving a shootout and professing his love to Dallas, Ringo manages not only to come out on top, but to drop out of “society” and “civilization” altogether with the woman he loves. In the Western imaginary, this is the greatest trophy of all: the opportunity to go back to the land and transcend the divisions of society such as class and an aspirational “respectability.”
