Breakheart Pass
In the 1870s, residents of the garrison at the Fort Humboldt Army outpost are reported to be suffering from a diphtheria epidemic. A train is heading towards the fort filled with reinforcements and medical supplies. There are also civilian passengers on the train – Nevada Governor Fairchild (Richard Crenna) and his fiancée Marica (Jill Ireland), the daughter of the fort's commander.
The train stops briefly in Myrtle, where it takes on board local lawman Sheriff Pearce (Ben Johnson) and his prisoner, John Deakin (Charles Bronson), a notorious outlaw who was identified via a picture in a newspaper advertisement offering a $2,000 (approximately $44,000 today) reward. But as the journey goes on, several train passengers, including most of the train's soldier escort, are mysteriously killed or go missing. Deakin, who is actually a Secret Service agent, discovers en route that the "epidemic" at the outpost is actually a conspiracy between a group of killers led by the notorious outlaw Levi Calhoun (Robert Tessier), and a tribe of Indians under Chief White Hand (Eddie Little Sky). Instead of medical supplies, the train transports a large secret shipment of weapons, ammunition and dynamite stolen from U.S. manufacturers for sale to the Indians, in return for allowing Calhoun and his men to mine and smuggle gold from their lands. Most of the people on the train, including Governor Fairchild and Sheriff Pearce, are Calhoun's partners in crime, and those innocents who discover the evidence for his sinister plot are quickly silenced. Eventually, Deakin narrows his list of allies down to Marica and Army Major Claremont (Ed Lauter), who agree to assist Deakin in his efforts to prevent the arms delivery.
At Breakheart Pass, all hell breaks loose as Indians attack the train to take the weapons they were promised, and Calhoun and his men ride out to take the train in order to find out what's going on. Deakin and Claremont use dynamite to ground the train before it reaches the fort, and while Deakin runs interference, Claremont rushes to Fort Humboldt to free the soldiers imprisoned by Calhoun's gang. A gunfight breaks out when the freed soldiers clash with the Indians and bandits at the train; Calhoun is killed by Fairchild when he threatens Marica, but the governor is then in turn cut down by Claremont. At the end of the battle, Deakin interceps Pearce and shoots him when the corrupt Sheriff decides to go down fighting.
mystery, intrigue, action, murder