Hell on Wheels

Cullen!

There he is. Go get him, William.

Come on.

Come here.

Ah, you got me.

Cullen!

It's time to come in for supper.

- Mama made us fried chicken and pie.

- Fried chicken and pie? Oh! That sounds good!

I think I'm gonna have a piece of pie about that big.

You want one like that? Yeah?

Okay, I'll be up real soon. - Okay.

Go see Mama. All right.

- Dear God, what I'd give for a campfire,

a bowl of stew, and a nice warm spot to put my...

Shut the hell up, Shorty.

Holy shit.

Is that what I think it is?

I believe it is.

You did it, you bastard.

Break out the whiskey, ya gypsies,

Bohannon's found the mother whoring route to Utah.

Ripped By mstoll

- Bohannon, you ugly piece of work.

'Bout time you showed that mug back in Truckee.

- I'm touched you missed me, Jim.

Saved you plenty of granite.

Not too much, I hope.

Couple of miles, give or take.

- It's been a month. - Inches a day, Bohannon.

Works for the wife.

Come around tonight for supper with me and Mrs. Strobridge.

You'll like her.

Ah.

Mr. Bohannon!

You have the visage of a great explorer, sir,

returned from this wild continent's dark places.

I hope to light the way for civilization.

Tell me you've found the route to Ogden.

- Straight through the coal fields of Weber Canyon.

- Straight down the throat of the Union Pacific.

- Now, we go through the mountains here, and here,

then we're into the Nevada desert and all the way to Utah.

- Shaves 100 miles off our previous route.

- If we don't wither in the desert.

We've got 15,000 workers, Bohannon,

Irish and Chinamen combined, plus livestock.

Not to mention Mrs. Strobridge, our kids, their dogs.

Thirsty bastards, all.

No, the creeks are marked.

We build dams here, and here for tank ponds.

- Trout in them ponds? - We can stock them.

The rest we take from the Sierras. Meltage from the snowpack this spring.

Build tanks, ship 'em out on the flatbeds.

The snowpack idea ain't bad.

- I been known to come through on occasion.

- Congratulations, gentlemen. We might just have a shot at winning this race.

Oh, uh.

Chang has fresh Chinamen out by his rice hut.

Any of them telegrams for me?

It's only been a month.

No luck finding your wife and child?

Well, we have ongoing business with the Mormons, Mr. Bohannon.

I'm sure Brigham Young will answer our inquiry eventually.

Yeah. I'll see to Chang.

Boss man.

Mr. Bohannon,

an honor to finally serve you in my humble rice shop.

What can I get for you? Something to eat? Tea?

Just them workers right there.

- Oh, in China, it's an offense to refuse a host's offer of food or drink.

But this isn't China, thank God.

I fought for the Taiping Kingdom.

- Yeah, your leader thought he was a brother of Jesus Christ,

something like that.

But then he had y'all hanging human meat in the marketplace.

- Well, atrocities were committed on both sides.

As they were in America's Civil War.

Andersonville Prison comes to mind.

Tragic, but that's what happens in war, isn't it?

- Yeah. That should be enough pay for about 50 workers.

- As you know, I provide so much more than tunnel fodder for my friends.

Spirits, opium, women.

What's your pleasure?

- Workers will be fine. Let's get these men to the work site, Mr. Tao.

Lot of new recruits.

These men got a railroad where they're from?

- Guangdong province is very poor.

Many villages devastated by rebels.

Men like Chang.

- Here we are all guests of Gold Mountain.

Chang bad man.

Please forgive my son, Mr. Bohannon.

He is young, his manners are bad, and his English is worse.

Maybe.

But I'm inclined to agree with him.

God damn it, John!

Get your rice-eating asses back down there and repack that powder!

Jesus, Bohannon.

Leave the Johns to that Hell's mouth and get back to your desk.

You're a stakeholder, for God's sake.

- Never have learned how to sit behind a desk, Mr. Strobridge.

- If I was you, I'd figure it out. It's tight as a Chinese trap down there

and smells about as good as a syphilitic whore.

- Least it ain't downwind of you.

You're liable to lose a limb.

Keep an eye out for me, Jim.

Y'all started the horizontal blasting?

Yes, boss man.

You any good with that thing?

Come on.

Ah, that should be good.

Black powder?

- Clear out! - Yes, sir.

You too. I got this. Go.

Boss man stay, I stay.

Easy! Easy!

Go!

- Get them out of there! Come on!

- Hey. Keep it covered. Keep it cool, all right?

Thank you, boss man.

Name's Bohannon.

Fong.

Thank you, Fong.

Hey.

Chang. He steal.

Chang steal Chinese gold eagle.

Pay roll.

Chang take half. Chinese have family. Debt.

Need gold eagle.

I'll tend to my son.

Welcome, what's your pleasure?

- I need to have a word with your boss.

- Mr. Bohannon, you've reconsidered my offer.

Uh, no.

I come to see you distribute the Chinese payroll square.

- Payroll distribution has continued without incident.

- You're skimming the wages. That stops now.

This is very unusual,

a white man coming into my establishment

to lecture me on how I conduct my business.

- The railroad is my business, Mr. Chang, and all the workers on it.

- Well, the Chinese workers are contracted through my company, Mr. Bohannon,

for a negotiated price.

How we then compensate those workers is Chinese business.

- You sell your dope, pimp your whores.

If you don't want me back in here regular,

pay the workers what they're owed.

Give my regards to Mr. Tao.

- He's a pirate, whelped aboard a British opium ship

commandeered in South China sea.

Chang's father was a Manchurian prince

who turned to piracy after a failed plot to murder his brother.

But it was his mother,

a Polynesian beauty pillaged from her tribe of cannibals,

that gave him his taste for human flesh.

- Stop it, James! They'll never sleep!

That's not real.

Do you believe that's real?

- Uh, it's nothing your daddy can't handle.

Chang is, uh, stealing from his own people, though.

- That's between him and his Chinese.

Doesn't concern us. - Concerns the workers.

- Chang provides our workforce, Mr. Bohannon.

And he takes a little from them off the top, that's his business.

- Them Chinese struck last year over wages.

Now they got Chang taking a piece.

Only a matter of time till they strike again.

Chang keeps them in line.

- Sooner or later, a beat dog bites.

Heavenly Father.

Thank you.

Thank you for...

I'm sorry, brothers, I know not what to say.

- Heavenly Father, bless this loathsome gruel

we have set before us.

Thank thee for this time with our beloved companions,

Hunger, Want and Desolation.

Bless this frigid, lonesome desert,

this emptiness which threatens to freeze our hearts.

For though we are alone

and surrounded by wolves,

we know we are not forsaken...

For our faith sustains us.

In the name of Jesus Christ.

- And our prophet, my father, Brigham Young in Zion.

- Amen. - Amen.

Yeah.

Thank you, brother Thor.

- We must not lose faith, brother Phineas.

- Sometimes I fear it is my father who has lost faith.

In me.