In the prologue of the movie, Nicolas Cage plays Colton Briggs, a cold-hearted gunslinger going about his violent job.
However, he has left all of that behind when the story picks up 20 years later.
He currently manages the neighborhood general store in the surrounding town and is married to the attractive Ruth, with whom he has a small daughter named Brooke.
But of course, just because he is finished with the past doesn’t mean that the past is finished with him, as was once said in a marginally better movie.
One day, a group of men led by an escaped prisoner named James McCallister corner Ruth after forcing him to walk Brooke to school before opening the store.
She doesn’t know them, but James is likely to be aware of her husband—Colton killed his father in front of his eyes when he was a young boy—and kills her violently to make a point.
When Colton and Brooke return home and learn what has happened, it doesn’t take long for him to go on the hunt for Ruth’s killers.
The only snag is Brooke’s presence, and when his initial plan for caring for her fails, he ends up taking her along on his quest.
Along the way, he teaches her to shoot and take care of herself, and we eventually learn the reason for their strangely frosty relationship dynamic—neither of them can process emotions like grief and fear in “normal” ways.
This may not be appropriate for interpersonal relationships, but it can be advantageous when embarking on the dangerous journey they have chosen.
Eventually, the two arrive in the town where McCallister has been holed up with his men for years, plotting his elaborate revenge.
Beyond some striking locations, there is nothing exciting about the action or shootouts in the film The Old Way.
However, it is somewhat forgivable given that the plot leads to a classic gunslinging showdown with a twist and weight and stakes.
The father-daughter dynamic, not to mention solid performances from Nicolas Cage and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, overcome the misfires in one half of The Old Way.
It has enough Cage grit to be effective.
