The Lone Ranger by Glenn Heath, Jr.

Marvel films are known for their post-credit reveals, pseudo-epilogue teasers that are supposed to surprise audiences with a new character or plot twist but instead often seem more like hollow cash grabs. Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger puts them all to shame with its own wonderful post-credits moment that signifies the film’s old school dedication to character and the Western genre. After a rambunctious swooping helicopter shot across Monument Valley which acts as a final crescendo, the credits segue to a close-up of an aged Tonto walking alone in the desert. As the camera rises up, watching the old man slowly move deeper into the iconic landscape from a bird’s eye view, Hans Zimmer’s lovely score takes a more sorrowful tone. The wall of white credits continues, but the audience can’t take their eyes off the lone man who up to this point has been the film’s narrator. Eventually, Tonto’s small figure disappears into a blanket of shade, lost in the golden mise-en-scene overwhelmed by darkness. He is walking away from history and toward a greater transcendence.