Murder at Yellowstone City is an American Western film directed by Richard Gray from a screenplay by Eric Belgau, and starring Gabriel Byrne, Isaiah Mustafa, Thomas Jane, Anna Camp, Nat Wolff and Richard Dreyfuss.
In the once booming Yellowstone City, fortunes have taken a turn for the worse. However, a glimmer of hope emerges when a local prospector discovers gold, hinting at a potential revival. Yet, this optimism is dashed when the prospector is found dead, leading Sheriff Jim Ambrose to swiftly apprehend a mysterious newcomer Cicero. But life in this sleepy western town is far from straightforward, with many locals harboring secrets and motives for murder. As the savage killings persist, dividing the community, Yellowstone City descends into a bloody spiral toward a final confrontation where not everyone will make it out alive.
Tropes:
- Amateur Sleuth: With Sheriff Ambrose convinced of Cicero's guilt, the town's preacher Thaddeus Murphy and his straight-shooting wife Alice set out to find the real murderer.
- "Awkward Silence" Entrance: The saloon isn't bustling when Cicero arrives,but the piano falls silent and everyone turns to look at him.
- Badass Preacher: Minister Thaddeus Murphy turns out to a Retired Outlaw who straps his guns back on to defend the falsely accused Cicero from Sheriff Ambrose's Posse.
- Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Thaddeus shoots Jim, Jr.'s Navy Colt out his hand during the shootout at the Dunnigans' cabin. Thaddeus wants Jim, Jr. alive and his gun to prove that he is the murderer.
- Boom Town: Yellowstone City is a boom town that has gone bust after the gold played out. Prospector Robert Dunnigan makes a major gold strike that promises to revitalize the town. Then he gets murdered...
- Designated Girl Fight: During the final shootout,Alice Murphy is the one to shoot and kill Emma Dunnigan; the true mastermind behind the murders.
- Destroy the Evidence: Emma Dunnigan burns the other letters from her secret lover after Violet discovers one of them.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Jim Ambrose, Jr. dies in the arms of his father after confessing to the murders.
- The Drifter: Cicero is an ex-slave who has been roaming the Wild West since the end of the American Civil War, looking for a place where he belongs.
- Grave Robbing: Thaddeus digs up Robert Dunnigan's body so he can extract the bullet from it to prove that it didn't come from Cicero's gun.
- Guns Akimbo: When Dunnigan is ambushed, he rushes out firing a pistol in each hand. Not that it does him much good.
- Heel–Faith Turn: Preacher Man Thaddeus Murphy is a Retired Outlaw who found God and turned his life around while on the run.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: After Pistol-Whipping Cicero to the floor of the cell, Deputy O'Sullivan kicks him multiple times in the ribs.
- Miss Kitty: Isabel Santos is the chief whore in the saloon, and not only looks after the other working girls, but also takes care of the orphans of the town: regarding their future lives as being the one good thing that might come out of hers.
- Mrs. Robinson: Emma Dunnigan is having an affair with the much younger Jimmy Ambrose, Jr., and promises to run away with him, in order to commit murder for her; starting with her husband.
- Out with a Bang: The murderer hires Isabel's services as a prostitute, then slits her throat while they are having sex.
- Pistol-Whipping: After arresting Cicero, Deputy O'Sullivan pistol whips him once he has him in the cell. Later, he uses his pistol to knock out Mickey O'Hare after Mickey turns against the Posse during the final shootout.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Robert Dunnigan is the Prospector who makes a major gold strike that promises to revitalize the dying Boom Town of Yellowstone City. It is his murder that sets in motion the plot.
- Police Brutality: After arresting Cicero, Deputy O'Sullivan pistol whips him once he is in a cell and then kicks him repeatedly while he is one the floor.
- Posse: After Isabel is murdered, Sheriff Ambrose presses every able bodied man into town into joining a posse to hunt down the escaped Cicero; who he believes is responsible.
- Preacher Man: Thaddeus Murphy is the recently arrived minister of Yellowstone City. t his wife's Alice's urging, he investigates the murders—like her—becomes convinced of Cicero's innocence. It is later revealed he used to be a bad man before he turned to God.
- Prospector: Robert Dunnigan is the prospector who makes a major gold strike that promises to revitalize the dying Boom Town of Yellowstone City. It is his murder that sets in motion the plot.
- Quote-to-Quote Combat: After arriving in Yellowstone City, The Drifter Cicero earns the trust and friendship of actor-turned-Saloon Owner Edgar Blake when he recognizes a portrait of William Shakespeare on the saloon wall and makes a quotation from Shakespeare and—when Edgar quotes Shakespeare back to him—is able to match him quote for quote.
- Retired Outlaw: Preacher Man Thaddeus Murphy was apparently a bad man before he underwent Heel–Faith Turn. When his wife Alice asks him how he knows so much about bullets and the inside of the human body, Thaddeus tells here that before he knew her he had committed every sin he now preaches against, and that when he came to God, he was running from something else.
- Saloon Owner: Edgar Blake and Mickey O'Hare run the saloon in Yellowstone City. They are a pair of actors who started the saloon after their theatre closed down when the Boom Town went bust. They are also a homosexual couple, which is apparently an Open Secret to the rest of the town.
- The Sheriff: Jim Ambrose is the iron-fisted sheriff of Yellowstone City. He believes it is his job to restore hope to "his" town. He also believes it is more important for justice to be seen to be done than it is for justice to actually be done. As such, he intends for Cicero to be executed for the murders even after it become apparent he is innocent.
- Shovel Strike: When the murderer attacks Violet in the livery stable, she tries to fight him off with a shovel.
- Slashed Throat: After wrestling Violet to the ground, the murderer kills Violet by slitting her throat. They later murder Isabel the same way.
- Tragic Keepsake: As Cicero is riding out of town at the end of the movie, he stops at the livery stable and looks inside. As he does so, a single feather falls from the rafters and lands on the bloodstained patch of floor where Violet was murdered. Cicero picks up the feather and ties it to the collection of keepsakes on his saddle—which Violet had admired when he first arrived—before riding off.
- We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: After Cicero stumbles into the church wounded and collapses, Thaddeus operates on him to extract the bullet.
