Summary

• Cowboys & Aliens combines thrilling action and sci-fi adventure with comedic moments, making for an entertaining ride.
• The character Ella Swenson provides a surprising twist as an alien who sacrifices herself to save Earth, driven by her desire to prevent the same fate her planet suffered.
• Jake Lonergan's stolen gold creates animosity between him, his former gang, and Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde, ultimately leading to a sense of forgiveness and absolution among the characters.

Based on the graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Cowboys & Aliens follows Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), a criminal who awakens with no memories and with a strange bracelet on his wrist and its ending is surprisingly a bit complicated. It becomes clear that Lonergan is an outlaw who's guilty of many crimes and who many people would rather see imprisoned. When aliens arrive and begin killing and abducting the people of the small, Wild West town of Absolution, Lonergan teams up with Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), other townspeople, and a tribe of Native Americans to defeat the aliens.

Black Knife (Raoul Trujillo), the Chiricahua Apache chief, helps Lonergan regain his memories, allowing him to locate the alien ship where he was once held prisoner and where the abducted people are being held. He and Swenson free the townspeople and Swenson successfully blows up the alien ship, saving the townspeople, and humanity, once and for all. While much of the plot is a straightforward, sometimes comedic, thrill ride, some of the smaller details of what exactly is happening in Cowboys & Aliens can get lost within the action/sci-fi adventure.

As of the writing of this article, Cowboys & Aliens is currently available on Netflix.

How and Why Ella Swenson Sacrificed Herself at the End of Cowboys & Aliens

Ella's story provides the biggest twist of the movie.

After being presumed dead and having her body thrown into a fire, Swenson emerges, unharmed. She reveals herself to be an alien whose species was destroyed by the same aliens who target Earth throughout the film. She explains that she took on a different form so she could walk among humans, and that she intends on saving Earth from the same fate her planet suffered.

Near the end of Cowboys & Aliens, Swenson asks Lonergan for the bracelet-weapon he stole from the aliens because she knows how to turn it into an explosive device. She says a heartfelt goodbye to Lonergan before crawling to the alien ship's core and detonating the device, sacrificing herself and saving all life on Earth. Her knowledge of the attacking aliens' technology gave her the skills to be able to defeat them. Swenson's desire to save humanity from the same horrifying fate her species experienced made her willing to sacrifice herself to do so.

Why Ella Was So Interested In Jake Lonergan

Ella wants Jake's bracelet and its secrets.

Ella watches Lonergan from afar several times early on in the film. She approaches him, talks to him, and follows him, much to his chagrin and despite his lack of interest in speaking to her. At first, it seems as though the pair know each other, but that Lonergan may have forgotten who she was after losing his memory. She even asks him, "You don't anything, do you?," again suggesting that the two have history.

Ultimately, however, Ella its that they don't know each other. She's interested in Lonergan because of his bracelet. She recognizes it as a piece of the invading aliens' technology, hinting that he was at their base of operations at some point and managed to escape. Ella was so interested in speaking to Lonergan and finding out what he ed so that she could find out where the aliens were located. She wanted to go to the alien base and destroy them, with the help of Lonergan and the alien weapon he had obtained.

Why Jake’s Former Gang, and Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde, Had a Problem With Him

It has to do with the past Jake can't .

Many people Lonergan runs into throughout Cowboys & Aliens are immediately hostile towards him. This confuses him, since he lost his memory after being abducted by the aliens and had no recollection of who he was or what he'd done. The first time they encounter each other in the film, Dolarhyde explains that he takes issue with Lonergan because he stole gold from him.

Stealing gold seemed to be a common crime for Jake and his fellow gang . Later, Lonergan runs into a group of men who recognize him and identify themselves as Lonergan's former gang. While some are happy to see him again, others are reluctant to his cause to fight against the aliens because they explain that he stole the gold from their last robbery. He took it all for himself in order to run away and start a new life with Alice Wills, the woman he loved.

This is significant because this appears to be the gold that Lonergan brought home and showed Wills in a flashback. She wanted him to return it because he stole it, but he insisted that the money was what they needed to start a life together. This gold led the aliens to their home, who took the gold, abducted the couple, and killed Wills. The stolen gold is important in Lonergan's story because it not only led to animosity between himself, Dolarhyde, and his former gang, but the stolen gold is the reason why Lonergan blames himself for Wills' death.

The Meaning of the Town Name “Absolution”

The town's name has symbolic meaning.

The small town that's home to the characters in Cowboys & Aliens is known as Absolution. The word "absolution" can mean being relieved from guilt or punishment. In a religious context, "absolution" can also mean being forgiven for sin. This is the perfect name for the town in the film because the movie includes religious characters, such as Meacham the preacher, as well as several characters guilty of crimes, such as Lonergan and his former gang. The town being called Absolution also connects back to the film's theme of forgiveness.

The Real Meaning of Cowboys & Aliens

Historical and familial animosity run deep.

A major theme in Cowboys & Aliens is forgiveness. Many characters in the film have wronged each other or take issue with one another. Lonergan and his former gang are guilty of many crimes. His former gang and Dolarhyde had an issue with Lonergan because he stole gold from them. Lonergan felt guilty for Wills' death. The Chiricahua Apache Native Americans blamed the townspeople of Absolution for the alien threat, indicating a longer history of animosity between the two. The people of Absolution were frustrated with Percy Dolarhyde's mistreatment of them, and his father, Woodrow, looked down on him, too.

Despite this, everyone puts aside their problems with each other and works together to successfully defeat a common enemy: the aliens. By the end of Cowboys & Aliens, everyone is absolved of their sins and crimes. Sheriff John Taggart legally considers Lonergan dead, relieving him of criminal charges and allowing him to live as a free man. The relationship between Percy and his father is repaired when Woodrow gives him a position of power in his business. This gives Percy a sense of purpose in Cowboys & Aliens and shows him that his father respects him, seemingly fixing his reckless behavior.