Carlyle plays Colqhoun, a bearded scarecrow found near-frozen by the six flakes manning an Army outpost in the Sierra Nevada in 1847. He has a terrible Donner Party tale to tell of escape from snowbound pioneers turned cannibalistic, and when he leads a rescue party back to the vulval cave where it all happened, he has a nasty surprise in store for them. In fact, it could be nastier and more surprising, and though Guy Pearce as an officer with a few skeletons in his closet adds an edge of madness and homoerotic intrigue, all the brooding about the eucharist and western expansion proves a teasing garnish on a disappointing entree.