Gunsmoke: The Long Ride

The movie opens with Matt Dillon at his ranch during his daughter's wedding. The celebration is interrupted when a posse arrives to arrest him for murder. Dillon agrees to accompany them, hoping to clear his name through proper legal process.

The posse arrests him for murder and begins escorting him toward town. Dillon quickly senses that mob justice may triumph over due process. He remains calm, aware that a bounty looms over his head.

Realizing they intend to kill him for the reward, Dillon breaks away from the two men and rides for the nearest town. He hopes to summon a Circuit Court Judge who can grant him a fair trial. The pursuit becomes a pursuit of legal as well as physical safety.

In town, Sheriff Meriweather proves timid and unwilling to stand up to the violent posse led by Jules Braxton Jr. The town atmosphere hints that law and order will not easily prevail against mob pressure. Dillon must navigate a biased local justice system to survive.

To outpace the pursuing mob, Dillon takes a shortcut through open prairie, even venturing briefly into Ute territory. There he meets John Parsley, a mildly disgraced former preacher. Parsley is wary at first but becomes an essential ally.

Dillon rescues Parsley from a false charge of horse stealing and gains a loyal companion. Parsley explains his shaky past and his resolve to stand by Matt as they seek justice. Their bond strengthens as they move toward safety.

The group finds refuge at Uncle Jane Merkel’s isolated horse-trading post, a safe haven far from the mob's reach. Parsley and Jane form a stalled romance as Parsley debates his future and loyalties. Matt’s cause gains new emotional depth.

Collie Whitebird, the youngest gang member, is shot and left for dead by his confederates and brought to Jane’s. Matt oversees the amputating of Whitebird’s leg, turning him into a live witness who can testify against the gang.

Two gang members remain at large; Dillon engages one in a tense saloon shootout and kills him, carefully avoiding harm to the woman he is in bed with. The violence underscored the cost of mob justice and ongoing danger.

A captured outlaw attempts to escape and is accidentally killed when he and Parsley wrestle for a shotgun. The confrontation reduces the gang’s numbers and sets the stage for a final reckoning.

The posse arrives at Jane's place after Matt's party has moved on, and Jane is murdered when she refuses to sell fresh horses. Parsley, enraged by the attack, attacks the posse and is killed in the ensuing firefight, further thinning their ranks.

Matt's daughter and her husband track the case and she breaks into the dead man's attorney’s office. She discovers that the son leading the posse was about to be disinherited, a revelation that reframes the motive for the mob.

The son leads a final attack on the doctor’s office where Whitebird is treated. Matt's daughter and Dr. Strader defend the place and shoot back; the son takes Matt's daughter hostage, but Dillon kills him with a precise, steady shot to the head, ending the murderous line.

Dillon returns to Jane’s ranch to oversee the burial of Jane and Parsley side by side, honoring their loyalty and sacrifice. Whitebird is granted a sympathy release in exchange for his testimony, closing the circle of the case.