History Film / TheLoneRanger

* Film/TheLoneRanger2013
----
Tropes common across the films:
* ChannelHop: Several different studios have produced movies based on the Lone Ranger property:
** The serials were produced by Creator/RepublicPictures.
** The 1956 film, simply called The Lone Ranger 1956, was distributed by Creator/WarnerBros.
** The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold was released two years later by Creator/UnitedArtists. Both this movie and the previous one eventually reverted to producer Creator/JackWrather.
** The third one wouldn't come until 1981, and this time it was a complete reboot, The Legend of the Lone Ranger, released by Creator/ITCEntertainment[=/=]Creator/{{Universal}} and co-produced by Wrather. This film is now owned by ITV (Universal still holds theatrical rights).
** The most recent version, released in 2013, is also a reboot and produced by Disney. Since then, Dreamworks Animation (a unit of Universal as of 2016) now owns the Lone Ranger franchise and all film rights pertaining to it, including the first two films and half the copyright to the third one (through Wrather Productions).

** The serials were produced by Creator/RepublicPicturesCorporation.
** The 1956 film, simply called The Lone Ranger 1956, was distributed by CreatorWarnerBros.

** The third one wouldn't come until 1981, and this time it was a complete reboot, The Legend of the Lone Ranger, released by ITC[=/=]Creator/{{Universal}} and co-produced by Wrather. This film is now owned by ITV (Universal still holds theatrical rights).

[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Lone_Ranger_2013_Poster_6267.jpg]]

''The Lone Ranger'' is a film produced by Walt Creator/{{Disney}} Pictures and Creator/JerryBruckheimer that reunites Creator/JohnnyDepp with his ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'' director Creator/GoreVerbinski. It is the latest adaptation of ''Franchise/TheLoneRanger'' franchise. It was released on July 3, 2013.

In the film Creator/ArmieHammer (''Film/TheSocialNetwork'') plays the title character, while Johnny Depp portrays Tonto.

The trailers can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DU-qZP014I&feature=plcp here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjFsNSoDZK8 here]].

!!This film provides examples of:

* AccidentalAimingSkills: The traditional ImprobableAimingSkills are replaced with this, giving the Ranger a reputation for being a crack shot when he [[PinballProjectile kills two guys with one bullet.]]
-->'''Tonto:''' Great shot!\\
'''Ranger:''' ''[[[DoesNotLikeGuns horrified]]]'' That was supposed to be a warning shot!\\
'''Tonto:''' In that case, not so good.
* ActionDressRip: Rebecca tears the bottom off her dress before crawling along the outside of the train.
* AdaptationalVillainy: This movie contains probably the most evil version of Butch Cavendish to date.
* AdaptationalWimp: John Reid is somewhat less of a badass compared to his radio and TV versions. Justified as most versions of him are a Texas Ranger before donning the mask while this one is a CityMouse lawyer.
* AdvertisedExtra: Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter is in the film for about 10 minutes tops (in a 150 minute film). The marketing made her out to be the lead female.
* AdvertisingByAssociation: The reboot had trailers boasting that it was from producers Creator/JerryBruckheimer and Creator/GoreVerbinski, the people behind ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''. But instead of stating that outright, they just show the ''Pirates'' logo.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Everyone believes Dan is the better brother than John.
* AnachronismStew: Countless anachronisms, justified by UnreliableNarrator and RuleOfFunny.
* ArtifactOfDoom: Tonto considers silver to be this as it got his people killed. He wants to take all the silver and send it back to the river where it came from.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Regardless of how "out of balance" nature is, [[spoiler: desert hares could never eat meat. They lack the teeth and internal structures to chew and digest protein, which is why they are herbivores. The canine teeth seen on the pack of carnivorous rabbits, while scary, are simply impossible.]]
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Real-life Texas does not have the [[TheMountainsOfIllinois the rugged, pine-forested mountains]] seen in the climax. Also, Promontory Point (where the transcontinental railroad was completed) is in Utah.
** There ''is'' a real mountain shaped like a face...but it's called [[http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60773-d143103-i58819174-Chiricahua_National_Monument-Willcox_Arizona.html Cochise Head]] and it's in Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona.
* AudienceSurrogate: The boy in the Lone Ranger costume that is listening to an aged Tonto tell the story.
* AxCrazy: Butch Cavendish.
* {{BFG}}: Red's ivory leg gun.
* BigBad: [[spoiler: Latham Cole.]]
* BilingualBonus: Tonto is a Spanish word meaning "fool". [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] at the end of the movie.
-->'''John Reid''': You know what "Tonto" means in Spanish, don't you?
** Maybe that meaning is why the character was renamed Toro ("bull") in the Spanish dub.
* BornLucky: Whether it's blind luck or MaybeMagicMaybeMundane (Tonto is under the impression he can't be killed, [[spoiler:but Tonto is crazy]]), John Reid is exceedingly lucky: he survived the initial ambush, had [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy every single bullet miss him]] while he was essentially a human shooting gallery, killed two men with [[PinballProjectile one bullet]], survives an execution and then a cave-in, and then makes another improbable shot to [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands disarm]] the BigBad.
* BottomlessMagazines: Particularly during the climax. They're using six-shooters while [[TraintopBattle fighting on top of trains]], riding horses etc, and we never see a single one of them reload until the climax. Before that point many of the smaller action sequences averted the trope, notably a double-barreled shotgun with only 2 shots per load.
* BuriedAlive: The "sand necktie" version happens to the Lone Ranger and Tonto in the Comanche camp. And, just when they think things can't get any worse, scorpions starts crawling out of the ground.
* ButNowIMustGo: The Lone Ranger turns down joining the community he's saved and settling down with the woman he loves in favor of [[AndTheAdventureContinues being the Lone Ranger.]]
* ButtMonkey: The Lone Ranger himself throughout a massive portion of the film, until he finally becomes the badass we know and love.
* ByTheBookCop: John Reid starts out as a By-The-Book Prosecutor (The Book in this case being John Locke's ''Two Treatises On Government''), going so far as to insist on taking Tonto back into custody after he saves his life and helps him escape from a derailed train. His struggle through the film with whether ToBeLawfulOrGood [[ForegoneConclusion inevitably]] turns him into a CowboyCop ([[{{Cowboy}} ha!]]), albeit a [[TheCape scrupulously moral one]].
** One might say that the script kind of turns the simple "lawful or good" yarn on its head. In contrast with regular and even revisionist Westerns, here the evil, cynical and scheming villains turn out to be not some sociopathic deviation or even excess; they're portrayed as an inevitable societal norm in the implied future. The reveal of the villain's morbid arrangement before the finale is quite familiar and feasible for a modern viewer, and wouldn't look out of place in a much more dark and serious film about corporations and political corruption; it's the cartoonish, fairy-tale finale that reverses everything - and again, only in Tonto's retelling! In this context, Lone Ranger himself turns from an unruly helper of the [[LawfulGood government that's ultimately good and just]] to a desperate rebel vigilante who keeps on fighting despite the all-permeating corruption. Ditto the "never take off the mask" slogan and Tonto[[note]]Note that he is dressed (and moves) like Chaplin's Little Tramp, i.e. the first iconic "little man" lost in a modern version of a big cruel city ruled by cutthroat businessmen and rotten politicians.[[/note]] walking away directly from the heart of the City into the freedom and integrity of an empty canyon... painted on a wall.
* CanaryInACoalMine: Tonto scares the all the men out of the silver mine by walking around disguised as one of ChineseLaborers working the mine and carrying a cage containing his dead crow.
* CareerEndingInjury: Red lost her leg and her career as a ballerina with it, ending up as brothel madam in a WretchedHive instead. Not surprisingly, she's bitter about it.
* CavalryOfficer: He and his regiment are called in to take care of the Comanche [[spoiler:thinking they broke the treaty and raided settlements. He later joins forces with the villains after learning he spilled innocent blood.]]
* ChainedHeat: John Reid and Tonto spend their first fight against Cavendish shackled together.
* CharacterTics: Cole has a distinctive way of twirling his pocketwatch, [[spoiler:which Tonto can be seen trying to emulate before he's apparently even met the man. This hints at the fact that they've met before; Cole being the man who gave Tonto the watch when he was a child in response for being guided to a silver prospect, shortly before wiping out Tonto's entire tribe.]]
* ChekhovsGun: The silver bullet; Danny's slingshot; Red's LegCannon.
* CityMouse: John Reid starts off as a bookish lawyer who is out of place in the frontier.
* CloudCuckoolander: Tonto is crazy even by the standards of other Comanches.
* CoolHorse: Silver. Related tropes include HorsebackHeroism, SapientSteed, RearingHorse, and WhiteStallion.
* CoolMask: Cut from his dead brother's leather vest, with the eyeholes formed by the bullet holes that killed him.
* CoolTrain: The 'Constitution' and 'Jupiter', both locomotives were specially scratchbuilt for the film along with all of the rolling stock and track too.
* DamselOutOfDistress: While she ultimately needs the Lone Ranger to save her, Rebecca Reid is not helpless. She knows how to handle a gun, refuses to be cowed by her captors, and repeatedly attempts to rescue herself. She even climbs on the outside of a moving train at several points.
* DeadHandShot: [[spoiler:As Cole dies]], we see his hand open to release the watch into the river.
%%* DeadpanSnarker: Tonto.
* DeathByMaterialism: [[spoiler:Latham Cole]] perishes at the bottom of the river, pinned beneath the tons of silver ore he was attempting to hijack.
* DeconReconSwitch: At the start, John is a violence-adverse city-slicker law student. Tonto is admittedly crazy. The idea of wearing a mask is lampshaded. Yet, by the end of the film, Tonto's moral fortitude, combined with John's idealism and faith in the law come together to create the IdealHero duo. John also takes [[TookALevelInBadass a few levels]].
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The treatment of Native Americans, including calling them savages, reflects the time period the film takes place in.
* DemotedToDragon: Butch was the BigBad in the 1981 film ''The Legend of the Lone Ranger'', but here, [[spoiler: he's Cole's right-hand man.]]
* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Tonto leaves Latham Cole to fall to his death along with all the silver his plan revolved around mining.]]
* DistractedByTheSexy: Men get terribly curious about Red's ivory leg.
* DoesNotLikeGuns: John, ironically, considering his role in the movie and the gunslinging setting.
* DominoMask: Made from the vest of the Lone Ranger's brother. The eye holes were made from the bullet holes.
* TheDragon: [[spoiler:Butch Cavendish working for Cole, the BigBad]]
* DramaticGunCock: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since they're all using [[RevolversAreJustBetter single-action revolvers]].
* DyingRace: The Comanche play this up.
-->"We are already ghosts."
* EnemyMine: A meta example--the legalese on the publicity material and the film gives the owner of The Lone Ranger property as "Classic Media", which is currently also known as [=DreamWorks=] Classics, a unit of Creator/DreamWorksAnimation. (DWA bought Classic Media well after the film went into its original development.)
* EunuchsAreEvil: [[spoiler:Cole]] is hinted to have become a eunuch during the Civil War.
* ExactWords: After John was shot with an arrow.
-->'''John''': "I thought I couldn't be shot?"
-->'''Tonto''': "I said you couldn't be killed."
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Captain Fuller gets blackmailed into going along with Cole and Cavendish's scheme after he found out the Comanche he killed were innocent.]]
* FailureHero: [[spoiler: The Lone Ranger may kill the bad guy, but he utterly failed to save the Comanches from being massacred.]]
* FalseFlagOperation: Butch Cavendish and his gang disguise themselves as Comanches and attack white settlements in order to make it look like the Comanche have violated the treaty.
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: [[spoiler:The Lone Ranger's brother has his heart cut out and eaten by Cavendish]]. It's a SoundOnlyDeath as all we can see is John's horrified ReactionShot, and the audience only have their imaginations and the earlier rumors of [[spoiler:Cavendish's cannibalism]] to guess what's happening.
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: The film is quite violent at times, but for the most part it's BloodlessCarnage with a GoryDiscretionShot or two.
* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Tonto's backstory involves him [[spoiler:finding and rescuing Cole and Cavendish from the desert. After being nursed back to health, they proceeded to slaughter his tribe for silver]].
* ForcedFriendlyFire: Tonto hijacks a train and a cavalry soldier opens fire on him with a gatling gun. the Ranger lassos the gun barrel and redirects it towards the soldiers that are trying to apprehend Tonto, forcing them into retreat.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Tonto says silver made Cavendish, and it would kill him. [[spoiler:While this seems to be foreshadowing the silver bullet, it's ultimately how Cole meets his end; crushed under the very silver he spent all this time mining that made him and Cavendish the people they are. Though that silver bullet does end up saving Tonto's life.]]
** [[spoiler: Also a hint that the story being told about the kid who got his tribe killed was indeed Tonto.]]
** The fact [[spoiler:the chief mentions ''two'' white men that Tonto lead to the silver.]]
** [[spoiler: when you first see Cole, he flips his pocket watch before reading it. You later see that watch flip again during the story of Tonto's backstory. It's not only your first clue to who one of those men are, but it also hints slightly later at Cole's connection to Cavendish.]]
** The first thing seen in the film is [[spoiler: a half-finished Golden Gate Bridge,]] which is a large nod to how the story ends.
* FramingDevice: A young boy listens to the story of the Lone Ranger being told by an aged Tonto.
* GatlingGood: The original models used by the U.S. Calvary [[spoiler:to kill the charging Comanches.]]
* GoGoEnslavement: A maid dresses Rebecca in a fancy black gown and lipstick after she and Danny are [[spoiler:"rescued" by Cole, who intends to marry her so that her son can become his heir.]] Based on her reaction to seeing the lipstick on her wine glass, she is not comfortable in the outfit.
* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler:Cavendish eating Dan's heart.]] All we get is a ReactionShot of John watching it happen, frozen and unable to stop it.
** Although, [[spoiler: while the audience doesn't get to see what Cavendish does to Dan, we do get to see the reaction of his gang, including one that is being messily sick. The movie manages to turn a GoryDiscretionShot into a VomitIndiscretionShot. Well done?]]
* {{Greed}}: The main villains' primary motivation is silver.
* HandcarPursuit: Tonto and a bound and blindfolded Lone Ranger attempt to escape from a train on a handcar at the silver mine.
* HeroicBSOD: Tonto has two, one as a young boy [[spoiler:when he finds his people slaughtered because of his actions,]] and another [[spoiler:when he sees the bodies of the remaining Comanche floating downriver after the cavalry massacred them.]]
* HorsebackHeroism: Especially when the Lone Ranger and Silver appear on top of the building just before the climatic train chase.
* HowWeGotHere: Tonto starts his story with him and John robbing a bank. [[spoiler:It's where Cole hid his nitroglycerin.]]
* IHaveTheHighGround: [[CoolHorse Silver]] likes [[OffscreenTeleportation high places.]]
-->'''Tonto:''' "Something very wrong with that horse."
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Both Cavendish and [[spoiler:Cole]] pull this on Rebecca, [[spoiler:though in Cole's case nothing can actually happen, since he's implied to be a eunuch. His real reason for wanting to marry her is because she has a son that he can leave his railroad empire to.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: Butch Cavendish who eats the flesh of his victims. [[spoiler:He eats the heart of the title character's brother, and it is implied that he ate the right leg of the brothel madam, Red.]] It's another reason Tonto thinks he's a Wendigo.
* HumanoidAbomination: Tonto believes Butch is a wendigo in human form. He is never confirmed nor denied to be so.
* ImprobableAimingSkills:
** The first time it's [[ExactlyWhatIAimedAt purely an accident]], but for the second example John makes an impossible shot [[spoiler:across a ravine, from one moving train to another, to blast a gun out of another man's hand.]]
** Also, during the first flashback, he shoots a bottle of something or other out of a man's hand from a moving horse.
* InstantKnots:
** During his final fight with Cavendish, the Lone Ranger wraps his whip around a tree and uses it to get yanked off the runaway railway car.
** Dan uses this to pull Frank off the roof of the railway car.
* IveComeTooFar: [[spoiler:The reason the captain leading the American forces joins the villains; by the time he finds out what's going on, he's already killed too many innocent Native Americans and would be held responsible for their deaths.]]
* JustTrainWrong: Even though the filmmakers [[ShownTheirWork showed that their trains matched the time period]], they still got many things wrong similar to the problems in Film/WildWildWest.
** When the trains are stationary before the climax, most noticeably [[spoiler:when Tonto climbs aboard to steal the train]], the characteristic "chug-chug" of a steam locomotive can be heard. In reality you wouldn't hear that while the locomotive is stationary, as the noise is created by the steam being exhausted from the cylinders up through the smokestack while the engine is moving. There IS a similar noise when the locomotive is stationary, caused by the compressor recharging the air pressure used to operate the brakes. So it's possible the sound effects department DID realise this, in which case they get an A for effort, but they've used the wrong sound for whatever reason and anyone familiar with a steam locomotive can immediately tell the difference between the two.
** A steam locomotive like those would not be able to travel the distance covered in the chase scene - especially at that speed - with nobody adding fresh fuel to the firebox.
* KarmicDeath:
** [[spoiler:Latham Cole [[DisneyVillainDeath falls to his death]], along with the several tons of silver and a locomotive, both of which his plan revolved around, which crush him to death.]]
** [[spoiler:Butch Cavendish and the Captain are killed when they're caught in a train collision. To paraphrase the Captain, they were with the railroad company.]]
* KickTheDog: [[spoiler:Cole throws back his reward given to him during the opening ceremony, seeing it as worthless.]]
* KillerRabbit: Played straight, and pretty scary.
* LandInTheSaddle:
** John pulls off a variation incorporating a BanisterSlide.
** When Rebecca is pushed off the roof of the train by Cavendish, she lands backwards in Silver's saddle as he gallops beside the train. John follows her and lands facing forward.
* LegCannon: Red has a shotgun built into her ivory artificial leg.
* MagicalNativeAmerican: Tonto appears to be this in his manner of dress, his plot exposition, and his presenting himself as a ScarilyCompetentTracker who SpeaksFluentAnimal. It's subverted later on when John meets the rest of the Comanche, who inform him that Tonto is ''insane'' and the Native American myths that he's been reciting throughout the film are considered by the rest of them to be just that, myths; his skills as a tracker are also revealed to be hopeless.
* ManChild: John accuses Tonto of being this after hearing his back story from the Comanche tribe. While arguing the pros and cons of killing Cavendish and proceeding to insult one another John accuses of Tonto of being "a screwed up little kid" who never learned how to live with the guilt of getting his entire tribe wiped out by telling the film's villains the location of the silver mine .
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane:
** The Lone Ranger somehow [[ItWasHisSled survives the attack on his team]]. The horse tells [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Tonto]] that the Ranger died and came back to life. Tonto tries to convince the 'spirit horse' to [[TheUnchosenOne bring his brother back instead.]]
** Tonto also believes Cavendish isn't an ordinary criminal, but a Wendigo. This is the explanation for why the Lone Ranger uses silver bullets. Cavendish being a cannibal doesn't help things...
** The Lone Ranger not only gets a psychic vision from picking up a piece of Cavendish's silver, but despite not having fired a gun in ''eight years'' prior to his "death", he repeatedly pulls off ridiculous trick shots. He finally just goes with it.
--->'''The Lone Ranger''': ''"Spirit-walker." ... '''I can do this.'''''([[spoiler:[[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands Shoots gun out of Cole's hand]] with his [[OneBulletLeft last bullet]] - [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome saving Tonto]] with [[ChekhovsGun the bullet Tonto forged to kill the "Wendigo"]]]].)
* MickeyMousing: Briefly during the climax, there was a section where the gunfire taking out the glass of a window was done matching [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic the William Tell Overture]].
* MisplacedWildlife: The vultures seen briefly in the film are African Griffin Vultures, not Turkey Vultures as would be more appropriate for the setting. This is an especially odd case, considering how iconic, and readily obtainable real Turkey Vultures are.
* MissKitty: Red (Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter), who runs the brothel in Hell on Wheels.
* MoodWhiplash:
** The movie follows up a scene where Butch Cavendish [[spoiler:cuts out a man's heart and eating it]] with a slapstick comedy scene involving horse excrement. Also, the brutally violent gunfights alternate with almost comic book-ish stunt sequences.
** Even worse is Tonto's farcical jailbreak of the Lone Ranger segueing immediately into [[spoiler:a blood-drenched no-quarter battle between the Comanche and US Cavalry before their eyes.]] This is in turn followed by Tonto's HeroicBSOD upon seeing [[spoiler:the bodies of the slaughtered Comanche floating down the river]]... and then that crazy horse standing in a tree wearing the Lone Ranger's hat.
* MookHorrorShow: John and Tonto hid in a railroad tunnel and took out Cavendish's men one by one.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The Captain suffers two of them. The first one is when he realizes he was duped into leading his men to killing innocent Native Americans... but subverted when he's talked into burying the whole thing in denial. The second one comes after he stabs the Comanche Chief and sees his blood on his hands, calling back to the BigBad claiming he had blood on his hands from the first incident.
* MyNameIsInigoMontoya
-->'''Tonto''': "See the face of my people as you die!"
* MythologyGag:
** The carnival barker and the banner on Tonto's exhibit hearkens to "The Thrilling Days of Yesteryear", the introductory line used in most versions of the property.
** There's also a {{ContinuityNod}}/{{TakeThat}} to the ending of the [[Franchise/TheLoneRanger TV series]].
-->'''Ranger''': ''Hi ho, Silver, '''away!''' ''\\
'''Tonto''': '' ''[beat]'' Don't ever do that again.''
* NeverSayThatAgain: Tonto's reaction to "Hi ho, Silver, away!"
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Captain Fuller is General George Armstrong Custer in all but rank.
* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Latham Cole's death. He falls several hundred feet, is crushed under several tons of silver ore, and presumably drowned if all that didn't kill him.]]
* NoodleIncident:
** How Red lost her leg; though given that she says that Butch "took it", [[ImAHumanitarian we can draw our own conclusions]].
** Cole becoming a eunuch sometime during the Civil War. When some viewers brought it up to Creator/GoreVerbinski, he simply replied, "[[ShrugOfGod Of course. Somebody's paying attention!]]"
* NoodleImplements: "He wuz gonna violate me wit' a duck foot!"
* NostalgicNarrator: Tonto in 1933.
* NotSoDifferent: Cavendish says this word for word when [[spoiler: He discovers the Ranger is actually John. He says they're both men that have to wear masks, implying that he's had to maintain the secrecy of things he's done.]]
* NotWhatItLooksLike: "I just like 'em perty thangs."
* OhCrap: [[spoiler: Butch and The captain get this when they realize they're going to run right into each other. The former on the on the boxcar that's been turned to its side on the track. When he notices the Ranger leaving, he see the oncoming train about to nail him with the captain standing at the front of it.]]
* OutrunTheFireball: Butch throws kerosene and dynamite down a tunnel, and our heroes must outrun the result.
* PhraseCatcher: When people see the Lone Ranger they ask, "What's with the mask?"
* PreMortemOneLiner: "Bad trade."
* RailroadBaron: Cole [[spoiler:seems like a rare positive portrayal at first, but nope.]]
* RainOfArrows: [[spoiler:How the Comanche got the initial drop on the U.S. Calvary that just came under the control of Latham Cole.]]
* {{Ranger}}s: The eight rangers of whom the Lone Ranger was the last surviving member.
* RomancingTheWidow: It's pretty clear that Rebecca [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend was always in love with John]], even though she [[SettleForSibling married Dan after he moved away]]. [[spoiler:As a result she gets over Dan's death surprisingly quickly, but John thinks it's immoral to move in on his brother's widow, despite clearly returning her feelings.]]
* RunawayTrain: Both major {{Traintop Battle}}s end up involving runaway trains.
* RunningGag: Men just can't resist the urge to touch Red's ivory prosthetic leg.
** Tonto's "trades", which always seem to work out in his favor.
* SadlyMythtaken: The Wendigo is identified as a Comanche myth, but it is actually [[http://www.americanmonsters.com/site/2010/02/wendigo-canada/ Algonquian]], who were prominent in what is now the northern US and Canada, and the Atlantic coast - it's indicative of long winters and desperation.
* SapientSteed: [[RunningGag There is something very wrong with that horse.]]
* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: John gets shot in the shoulder in Indian territory, and goes down with a [[http://youtu.be/CwOVfPjCcas?t=22s very high pitched scream.]]
* SerialKiller: Butch Cavendish, who's stated to be an Indian killer and have murdered and eaten people, is a Hedonistic version.
* SettleForSibling: How Rebecca married Dan in the first place. Dan seems pretty resigned to the fact.
* SiblingYinYang: Rough and rugged frontier lawman Dan and big city educated lawyer John.
* ShipperOnDeck: Tonto for Rebecca and John.
* ShoutOut: Just as ''Pirates'' contained numerous references to old-fashioned pirate movies, ''Lone Ranger'' features quite a few homages to classic Westerns:
** The ending train chase/crash recalls Buster Keaton's ''Film/TheGeneral'';
** The plot of the "false Indians" being used to trigger a range war comes from Fritz Lang's ''Western Union''.
** ''Film/TheSearchers'' with the "Comanche" raid on Rebecca's farmhouse and the heavy use of Monument Valley.
** ''Film/TheManWhoShotLibertyValance'' inspires John's introduction as a gun-shy, Eastern educated lawyer.
** ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'' inspires Tonto looting the corpses of Dan's posse, he and John riding through the desert with an umbrella and the bridge detonation.
** ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'' gets quite a workout: the railroad plot, the intro of Dan and his posse wearing dusters, the squeaky windmill featuring in one scene, and Tonto revealing his past identity to [[spoiler:Cole]] "at the point of dying." Music/HansZimmer's music sounds like a conscious homage to Music/EnnioMorricone, too.
** ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid'' inspires the standoff between John, Tonto and two of Butch's henchmen, with the heroes arguing over who should kill whom, and John admitting he's not fired a gun in years.
** The train robbery features one of Butch's men forcing hostages to sing "Shall We Gather at the River?", in a nod to ''Film/TheWildBunch''.
** The Comanche scenes, flashbacks to the massacre in Tonto's backstory and the line "it's a good day to die" all originate from ''Film/LittleBigMan''.
** At one point, the BigBad tells Tonto "Pretty soon no one will even know you people were here." A very similar line popped up in the director's previous film ''{{WesternAnimation/Rango}}''.
** Tonto calls John a "Stupid white man." In Film/DeadMan, which stars Johnny Depp, the Native American character repeatedly calls people "Stupid fucking white man."
* ShovelStrike: When Tonto is about to finish off Butch, Reid knocks him out with a shovel to do things by the book and let the court handle things.
* ShowSomeLeg: Red manages to do this with her ivory leg to distract the Captain at Promontory Point.
* SiblingTriangle: Implied with Dan and John with Rebecca before John left to learn law. Dan married Rebecca and have a son, Danny Reid (Jr.). It is implied that Dan knows John and Rebecca still loves each other.
* SilverBullet: Tonto made one for the Lone Ranger to shoot the Wendigo.
* SlapSlapKiss: John and Rebecca have a lover's quarrel on horseback!
* TheSociopath: Butch Cavendish's primary motivation is to fulfill his own selfish desires and murders anyone who so much as annoys him.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Some argue that the movie would be more accurately called "Tonto: The Movie".
* TakeCareOfTheKids: Dan, after being fatally shot, asked his brother to take care of his family.
* ThemeMusicPowerUp: When [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic the classic Lone Ranger theme]] starts to play, you know things are about to get real!
* ThisMeansWarpaint: What we initially assume is TribalFacePaint on Tonto is revealed to be this. [[spoiler:He first painted it on with ashes in the midst of a HeroicBSOD after his tribe was slaughtered, and has kept it up ever since.]]
* ThouShallNotKill: As in the original series, the Lone Ranger wants the justice system to deal with the villains rather than take revenge himself, and enforces this trope on Tonto, despite the fact Tonto wants vengeance on Cavendish [[spoiler:and Cole]]. [[spoiler:In the end, Tonto passes up killing Cole... but has no qualms about leaving Cole to his KarmicDeath.]] Ironically, Reid's first attempt at ATeamFiring [[spoiler:[[PinballProjectile ends up]] killing the bad guys even more gruesomely than a gunshot would have done.]]
* ThrownFromTheZeppelin: [[spoiler:When Cole announces his hostile takeover of the railway, the chairman of the board strenuously objects. Cole shoots him in the backside (said to be an extremely painful location to be shot in), and asks who the other shareholders think should be the next chairman...]] The guy shows up later with JustAFleshWound.
* TontoTalk: Yup but Tonto is crazy. The Comanche chief speaks English somewhat more fluently.
* TookALevelInBadass: The Lone Ranger himself, from city mouse lawyer to heroic cowboy cape.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Anyone who's seen the trailer knows the climax [[spoiler: involves the Ranger and Tonto fighting the antagonists on board a moving train.]]
* TrainEscape: The 'unhook the carriages' variety.
* TrainJob: Butch Cavendish's gang stages a raid on a train in order to free their boss. Later Tonto steals an entire train full of silver ore from one of the villains.
* TraintopBattle: More than one. [[spoiler:Notably, they all end in train ''wrecks''.]]
* TribalFacepaint: Tonto, but he's the only one and the others think he's crazy.
* UndersideRide: Tonto, several times. The villain tells his {{Mooks}} to double-check the undercarriage.
* UnhandThemVillain: Butch Cavendish grabs Rebecca as a hostage during the final battle. When the Ranger orders him to let her go, Cavendish threatens to drop her off the side of the moving train. Then the Ranger tells him to do it as she always seems to land on her feet.
* UnreliableNarrator: Tonto is telling this story to a kid, and Tonto is crazy.
* VisionaryVillain: [[spoiler:Latham Cole has a vision for the railroad network.]] It's interesting that unlike usual [[spoiler:train baron villains]] he doesn't simply gloat or revel in the expected personal profit from his schemes (even though he's a regular dog-kicking asshole in all other respects); it seems that the sheer enormity of the business opportunities that a [[spoiler:nation-wide transportation and communication system could bring, and the whole resulting consumerist lifestyle it could sustain,]] - this vision seems to genuinely mesmerize him. The difference is subtle, but unnerving.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:Latham Cole seems to genuinely believe he's doing the right thing with his actions.]]
* {{Wendigo}}: What Tonto believes that Butch Cavendish to be. It's understandable, as he has a habit of eating human flesh.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: Cole]] is the only villain who dies on-screen. [[spoiler: Cavendish]] takes a speeding train to the face off-screen, so unless he really was a Wendigo (or at least Creator/RobertCarlyle's character from ''Film/{{Ravenous|1999}}'') it's pretty safe to assume he's dead too. However, Captain Fuller is last seen jumping from said train into the woods (a feat repeatedly shown to be survivable in the film), and is never seen or mentioned again. That said, given that he was ''in'' the speeding train at the time, if he wasn't killed then it's safe to say he was ''very'' badly injured.
** Also notable in the older woman being menaced by one of Butch's men in the barn (the mook dressed in women's clothes). The barn gets lit on fire, the duo fight their way out, and the woman simply disappears. Did they leave her to burn to death?
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim:
** Characters spend a massive amount of time simply pointing guns at each other and gloating/arguing when really they should just get on with it (this ''always'' ends with the intended victim escaping).
** Tonto's attitude towards Cavendish. However, whenever he actually gets a chance, he [[TalkingIsAFreeAction tends to stray]] into MyNameIsInigoMontoya territory.
* WhyWontYouDie: By the end of the film, Cavendish [[spoiler:(and Cole)]] become very frustrated about the Lone Ranger and Tonto's refusal to die.
-->'''Butch Cavendish''': These two have a hard time stayin' dead!
* WorthlessYellowRocks: Silver isn't worth much until it gets loaded into a train.
* WretchedHive: Hell on Wheels is a horrid place to live, hence the name.
----

* HowWeGotHere: Tonto starts his story with him and John robbing a bank. [[spoiler:Its where Cole hid his nitroglycerin.]]

* KickTheDog: [[spoiler:Cole throw back his reward given to him during the opening ceremony, seeing it as worthless.]]

* ManChild: John accuses Tonto of being this after hearing his back story from the Comanche tribe. While arguing the pros and cons of killing Cavendish and proceeding to insult one another John accuses of Tonto of being "a screwed up little kid" who never learned how to live with the guilt of getting his entire tribe wiped out by telling the films villains the location of the silver mine .

* OhCrap: [[spoiler: Butch and The captain get this when they realize they going to run right into each other. The former on the on the boxcar that's been turned to it's side on the track. When he notices the Ranger leaving. He see the oncoming train about to nail him with the captain standing at the front of it.]]

* SlapSlapKiss John and Rebecca have a lover's quarrel on horseback!

** Also notable in the older woman being menaced by one of Butch'es men in the barn (the mook dressed in women's clothes). The barn gets lit on fire, the duo fight their way out, and the woman simply disappears. Did they leave her to burn to death?

--->'''The Lone Ranger''': ''"Spirit-walker." ... '''I can do this.'''''([[spoiler:[[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands Shoots gun out of Cole's hand]] with his [[OneBulletLeft last bullet]] - [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome saving Tonto]] with [[ChekhovsGun the bullet Tonto forged to kill the "Wendigo"]]]].)
* MickeyMousing: Briefly during the climax, there was a section where the gunfire taking out the glass of a window was done matching [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the William Tell Overture]].

* ThemeMusicPowerUp: When [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the classic Lone Ranger theme]] starts to play, you know things are about to get real!

'''Tonto''': '' ''[beat]'' '''Never''' do that again.''

* ImAHumanitarian: Butch Cavendish who eats the hearts of his victims. [[spoiler:He does this to the title character's brother.]] It's another reason Tonto thinks he's a Wendigo.