Jane Got a Gun is a 2015 American Western film directed by Gavin O'Connor and written by Brian Duffield, Joel Edgerton, and Anthony Tambakis. The film stars Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Noah Emmerich, Rodrigo Santoro, Boyd Holbrook, and Ewan McGregor.
Bill 'Ham' Hammond finds himself in mortal danger when a notorious gang of criminals, the Bishop Boys, sets their sights on him. With no other options left, his wife Jane reaches out to her ex-fiance Dan Frost, who is battling alcoholism. Together, they must wage a fierce battle for survival against their merciless enemies.
Jane Got a Trope:
- Action Mom: Jane is the mother of a young daughter who takes up arms against very dangerous criminals to protect both her husband and her child, trained by gunslinger Dan Frost.
- Affectionate Nickname: Jane calls Bill Hammond, her husband, "Ham" after his last name.
- The Alcoholic: At the start of the film, Dan Frost is a a surly man living in a squalid house, who is constantly swigging from a whisky bottle he carries with him.
- *Click* Hello: Bishop cocks his pistol behind Dan after he gets the drop on him, announcing himself this way. Then a minute later Jane does the same thing to him.
- Damsel in Distress: Jane was made a sex slave and held in a brothel, with Bill rescuing her.
- Dead Guy on Display: At the end, John Bishop's body is displayed upright in his coffin, as was actually done with notorious outlaws killed during the Wild West era.
- Disappeared Dad: Dan unknowingly became one as he impregnated Jane, his fiancee, before going off to fight in the American Civil War. He never knew their daughter existed for years until Jane tells him. They reunite with their daughter and become a family at the end of the film.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Bishop denies having killed Jane's daughter Mary, and turns out to be telling the truth:John Bishop: I may be an outlaw, but I do not kill little children.
- Flashback: Several of these show Jane, Dan and Bill's backstory.
- From Dress to Dressing: When Jane is shot in the belly during the final shootout, Dan rips up a sheet to use as a pad and clamps it in place with her gun belt.
- Groin Attack: When Ham storms the brothel to rescue Jane, he shoots one of the pantsless men who is with her in the groin: with a Colt Walker 1847! Ouch!
- Hand Cannon: Ham carries a pair of Colt Walker 1847s, both of which have been converted to accept .44 metallic cartridges. Jane loads both Walkers in the beginning of the film, keeping one for herself and leaving the other for her husband.
- Human Traffickers: Jane decided to take her daughter Mary and move West on the Bishop wagon train. Too late, she and the other women on the wagon train realized that Bishop intended to start a brothel, forcing the helpless women into prostitution.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique:
- After Dan shoots the member of the Bishop gang who chances upon the Hammond farm, he interrogates him about the whereabouts of the rest of gang: stepping on the bullet wound in his chest and jamming his pistol barrel into the wound in his shoulder.
- Jane later coerces Bishop to tell her where Mary is by shooting repeatedly beside him.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Jane blows away one of the Bishop gunmen while he's in the middle of talking with Dan, trying to cut a deal.
- Love Redeems: Ham falls in love with Jane when she and the other women are being transported to the brothel. He wants to marry her and leave the Bishop gang. When John Bishop refuses to let him and sends Jane to the cathouse anyway, Ham quits the gang and storms the brothel to rescue her. He kills several of his former comrades and carries her off. He and Jane set up a farm and have a daughter together.
- Mama Bear: Jane, who has been largely fatalistic up to his point, goes into full Mama Bear mode when she discovers that her first child Mary is still alive and Bishop knows where she is.
- Man on Fire: The Bishop gang finally arrive at Jane's house under cover of darkness and riddle the house with bullets. Dan and Jane fire into the booby-trapped ditch, igniting the kerosene "bombs". Most of the gang are killed; going up like human candles.
- Pants-Positive Safety: When the first outlaw approaches the farm, Dan tucks his revolver down the back of his trousers so he he can walk out to meet him while appearing unarmed.
- POW Camp: Flashbacks show that Dan was held for years in a P.O.W. camp during the American Civil War.
- Protect This House: After Dan saves Jane from Fitchum, Jane and Dan ride back to her house. Ham is still alive but very weak. Dan has changed his mind about helping Jane, so they start preparing for the expected attack from the Bishop gang. Dan digs a shallow trench in Jane's front yard, and they fill it with jars containing kerosene, nails and pieces of glass.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Jane's final question to Bishop is punctuated by gunshots as she carefully fires around him as he squirms backwards across he floor away from her:Jane: Where. (BLAM) Is. (BLAM) My. (BLAM) Child?
- Retired Outlaw: Bill 'Ham' Hammond used to be a member of the Bishop Boys. He fell in love with Jane when the gang was transporting her and the other women they had kidnapped to the town where John Bishop was setting up a brothel. When Bishop refused to let Ham marry her, Ham rescued her from from the brothel—killing four other gang members in the process—and ran off with her. The married and set up a farm in remote New Mexico, and had a child together. The film starts with the Bishop Boys catching up with Ham again.
- Sex Slave: Jane was forced into prostitution at a brothel Bishop owned along with many other women.
- Shown Their Work:
- The film goes to some effort to only use firearms available in the year it is set, 1871, meaning that there are no Colt SAAs (Peacemakers) as these didn't enter production until 1873. Instead the film features several guns seldom seen in westerns, including the Colt Walker, the Colt 1860 Army, the Starr 1858 Army, a Remington 1858, and a Henry 1860 rifle.
- Notorious outlaws actually were displayed upright in their coffins once killed in the Wild West, as occurs with John Bishop at the end.
- Someone to Remember Him By: After Dan left to enlist, Jane discovered she was pregnant. When Dan did not return or write, she assumed he was dead, and life in Jane's war-torn town had become so wretched that she decided to take her daughter Mary and move West on the Bishop wagon train.
- Still Wearing the Old Colors: Fitchum, the member of the Bishop Boys who ambushes Jane outside the store and drags her into the alley, is wearing the remains of a Confederate uniform.
- Token Good Teammate: Bill was the only man in the Bishop gang to show any conscience, and gave up the criminal lifestyle because he loved Jane, rescuing her from them before he married her.
- "Wanted!" Poster: Several posters giving rewards for the members of the Bishop gang have been posted, which Jane sees. After she kills the gang along with Dan, Jane takes down these posters then collects their rewards.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Evil as he may be, John Bishop turns out to be above harming children, and actually left Mary alive doing chores.
