Mikes Film Talk

Hell on Wheels AMC Iron Horse Western

Last Week’s episode of Hell on Wheels, the AMC Iron Horse western drama, featured Elam Ferguson surviving his battle with a bear using only his knife. The man is mangled up and barely alive when a Comanche party find him and the dead animal together. According to the show’s lore, the Native American tribe believe that any “warrior” who kills a bear takes on its power and cannot be killed or defeated in battle. This cues the tribe to make an attack on cavalry troopers who are searching for a woman kidnapped by the Comanche.