Cowboys & Aliens (2011) is a superhero film, directed by Jon Favreau and starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. The film is a standalone production outside any shared cinematic universe and was released by Universal Pictures. Audience rating: 6.0/10.
What is Cowboys & Aliens (2011) about?
A stranger with no memory of his past wanders into Absolution, Arizona — where he and his new allies must fight off an alien invasion using only their guns and fists.
Released in 2011, Cowboys & Aliens was directed by Jon Favreau and produced under the Universal Pictures banner. The film occupies a significant place within the Independent — telling a self-contained story outside of shared-continuity superhero franchises.
The film features lead performances from Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, among others, anchoring a story that adapts characters first brought to life in Independent. Its source material gives the film a foundation rooted in decades of published storytelling, which Favreau and the creative team interpret through a cinematic lens.
The film's 6.0 audience rating indicates a mixed response. Even so, it holds interest as part of the broader Independent catalogue and for how it fits into the lineage of Independent-based cinema.
What happens in Cowboys & Aliens (2011)? — Full Plot
We open in 1873 Arizona. A man (Daniel Craig) wakes in the desert with no memory and a strange metal bracelet on his wrist. He kills three bounty hunters in self-defense, mounts a horse, and rides into the small town of Absolution.
The town is controlled by Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), a wealthy cattle baron whose son Percy has been bullying the townspeople. The amnesiac stranger — eventually identified as Jake Lonergan, a wanted outlaw — clashes with Percy. Both are arrested.
As the prisoners are about to be transported, alien spacecraft descend on Absolution. The aliens lasso citizens with energy whips and abduct them — including Dolarhyde's son Percy and Lonergan's romantic interest. Lonergan's wrist bracelet activates, revealing itself as an alien-tech weapon. He uses it to shoot down one of the ships.
Lonergan, Dolarhyde, and a band of townspeople — joined by Apache warriors who have lost their own people to the aliens — track the alien spacecraft to a hidden underground base. Lonergan's amnesia clears: the aliens are mining gold from Earth for fuel.
The team infiltrates the alien base. The aliens have been holding their captured humans in suspended-animation tanks. Lonergan's amnesia is revealed to be the result of his own previous alien-abduction; the bracelet was implanted in him as a weapons-test specimen.
The final battle takes place inside the alien base. Lonergan uses his bracelet weapon to destroy the alien command structure. The remaining aliens are killed in close-quarters combat with cowboys, soldiers, and Apache warriors. The film closes with the captured humans rescued and Absolution restored.
Cowboys & Aliens grossed $174 million globally — a commercial failure relative to its $163M budget. Critics responded with mixed reviews. Jon Favreau returned to Marvel-related directing for The Mandalorian (2019); Daniel Craig moved to Skyfall (2012).
Who stars in Cowboys & Aliens (2011)?
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What are some facts about Cowboys & Aliens (2011)?
Cowboys & Aliens released in 2011, placing it within the 2010s era of comic book cinema — a decade that saw superhero films become the dominant force at the global box office.
Directed by Jon Favreau, the film was produced by Universal Pictures and adapts source material from Independent.
The principal cast features Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, with key supporting roles played by Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell.
The film belongs to Independent — an independent / standalone production, not tied to a shared cinematic universe.
Cowboys & Aliens carries an audience rating of 6.0 — a middling reception but one that hasn't prevented its cultural footprint.
The Independent source material for Cowboys & Aliens has been in continuous publication for decades, giving filmmakers a rich well of storylines, character arcs, and iconography to draw upon.
Modern superhero films like this one use a mix of practical effects and digital VFX, with entire sequences often shot against volume walls or LED stages pioneered by shows like The Mandalorian.
Cowboys & Aliens is catalogued on Movies on Comics among our collection of 162 comic book films spanning 48 years of cinema — from Richard Donner's 1978 Superman to the present day.
