On Swift Horses
On Swift Horses is a 2024 American historical romantic drama film directed by Daniel Minahan and written by Bryce Kass. Based on Shannon Pufahl's 2019 novel, it stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi, Will Poulter, Diego Calva and Sasha Calle.
It had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2024, and was released in the US by Sony Pictures Classics on April 25, 2025.
Plot
In the 1950s, Julius Walker travels to Kansas to spend Christmas with his brother Lee and Lee’s girlfriend Muriel, following the end of his Navy service in the Korean War. That evening, Lee proposes marriage to Muriel, and they plan to move from Kansas to California once Lee has finished his own military service, where Julius is invited to come and live with them in due course. Six months later, Muriel and Lee are now married and living in San Diego, but Julius prefers to follow his own path in life, and decides to travel to Las Vegas instead.In Las Vegas, Julius is hired by manager Terence to work in surveillance at a casino, looking down from the loft through a one-way mirror to try and spot people who are attempting to cheat at cards. At the casino he befriends Henry, a Mexican co-worker, and they soon become lovers, meeting in secret in Julius’ motel room. The two men fall in love and Julius tells Henry that for the first time in his life he feels like he has a future to look forward to.
Back in San Diego, Muriel decides to try her luck at betting on horse racing, and quickly scores a major win. Her success enables her and Lee to afford to move to a better house in the city, where she soon becomes friends with their neighbor Sandra. Meanwhile, Julius and Henry begin to gamble together in Las Vegas with great success, including notable victories at a casino called Aces High. However, Henry wants to take things further by using cheating to win, as an act of defiance against a world in which they must keep their love a secret. Julius is nervous about taking this kind of risk, but eventually agrees to Henry's plan.
In San Diego, Muriel is also taking risks at gambling when she returns to the racetrack to make another bet on a horse, where she encounters a woman named Gail who has bet on the same one. When their horse wins the race, the two women celebrate and Gail kisses Muriel on the lips. Afterwards, Gail gives Muriel a matchbook with the name of The Chester Hotel & Bar on it, implying that this is a place with a special significance. Later, Muriel checks out the hotel, and finds it is a secret meeting place for queer people. After Muriel’s discovery, she goes to see Sandra, who she has now realised is a lesbian, and makes it clear she is attracted to her. The two women kiss and begin a secret affair.
Back in Las Vegas, Julius and Henry's life together goes awry when Henry decides to try cheating at cards at the casino they work at, and is apprehended by the management. In an effort to protect Julius, Henry denies that Julius was involved in any of the cheating, but Terence fires Julius anyway and ejects him from the premises. After Henry fails to return to their motel room afterwards, Julius begins to worry that something has happened to him, and becomes desperate to find him again.
Julius returns to San Diego to see Lee and Muriel, and opens up to Muriel about Henry, explaining that he loves him and is determined to find him again, and asks her for money so that he can begin his search. Muriel is disappointed to learn he only came back to see them because he needed financial help, and requests that he leaves. The next day, she discovers that Julius has driven off, and has also stolen some of the money she and Lee had been saving together, which angers Lee.
Muriel continues her affair with Sandra, trysting in the afternoons at the latter's house. However, a disagreement leads Sandra to conclude that Muriel is not serious about their relationship, and she breaks things off, despite Muriel trying to convince her that she has been misunderstood. During an argument between the two women, Lee sees them together and realises that they have been romantically involved. Afterwards, Lee and Muriel have a talk and both realise that their marriage is over. Muriel packs her bags and leaves, with a sad glance at Sandra’s house on her way out. Later, Lee discovers that Muriel has left him the rest of her gambling winnings, along with a note saying she hopes he can use this money to help fulfil his dreams.
Meanwhile, Julius has crossed the border to Mexico, where he travels to Tijuana to begin a desperate search for Henry. However, in a twist, it turns out that Henry is not in Mexico after all but is actually in San Diego looking for Julius, and is unaware that Julius is in Mexico and that they are both looking for each other at the same time. At the Chester Hotel, Henry runs into Muriel, who has been staying there following the end of her marriage, although neither of them are aware that the other knows Julius. Just before leaving the hotel, Muriel finds a bulletin board in the lobby where people leave messages for those with whom they have lost contact. She writes a note telling Julius she is sorry, and says “goodbye” as she pins it to the board. After leaving San Diego, Muriel returns to Kansas and takes back her old home, finally free to live life on her own terms.
The following Christmas, Julius returns from Mexico to San Diego, where he writes an apologetic letter to Muriel telling her he is sorry for stealing from her, and wishes her well for the future. Julius then visits the Chester Hotel, where he sees Muriel’s note on the board in the lobby on the way out. However, he is overwhelmed to discover that Henry has also left a note for him there, in which he asks Julius to come back and meet him at the Aces High casino in Las Vegas. Julius is very emotional at finally making contact with his lover after searching for him for so long, and he takes the note and rushes away from the hotel, mounting his horse to begin the journey back to Aces High. As time goes by, Julius eventually reaches the outskirts of Las Vegas, where he rides down the road on his horse towards his hoped-for reunion with Henry.
Cast
- Daisy Edgar-Jones as Muriel Edwards Walker, Lee's wife
- Jacob Elordi as Julius Walker, Lee's brother, a Korean War veteran
- Will Poulter as Lee Walker, Muriel's husband and Julius' brother
- Diego Calva as Henry, Julius' lover
- Sasha Calle as Sandra, Muriel's neighbor and lover
- Kat Cunning as Gail
- Don Swayze as Terence
Production
Development
Producer Peter Spears and director Daniel Minahan announced in July 2021 that they were developing the film with Tim Headington and his production company Ley Line Entertainment, and that Bryce Kass would be adapting the novel by Shannon Pufahl. Mollye Asher and Michael D'Alto of FirstGen Content, along with Theresa Steele Page of Ley Line Entertainment, would later join Spears, Minahan and Headington as producers of the film, with financing from Ley Line Entertainment and FirstGen alongside Wavelength. The film's executive producers are screenwriter Bryce Kass, Alvaro Valente, Christine Vachon and Mason Plotts for Killer Films, Nate Kamiya and David Darby for Ley Line Entertainment, Randal Sandler, Claude Amadeo and Chris Triana for FirstGen, and Jennifer Westphal and Joe Plummer for Wavelength, along with Lauren Shelton, Jeffrey Penman, Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Teddy Schwarzman and John Friedberg.Filming
was confirmed to have begun in Los Angeles on February 28, 2023. Diego Calva told Variety that he and Jacob Elordi have some "pretty hot scenes" and that he "had like a neck pain for the first week from just kissing" Elordi.Music
The original score of the film was composed by Mark Orton. An original song for the film, "Song for Henry", was written by the singer-songwriter Loren Kramar and Sean O'Brien and performed by Kramar for the soundtrack. In a post on Instagram, Kramar said: "To be a part of this project, which has everything to do with queer lives and the ongoing pursuit of self, is a privilege." The soundtrack was digitally released by Madison Gate Records on April 25, 2025, the same day as the film's theatrical release in the United States. In addition to Orton's original score and Kramar's "Song for Henry", the soundtrack also included an a cappella cover version of the 1950s song "Mr. Blue", as performed by Kramar over the opening credits of the film.Release
It had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2024. In October 2024, Sony Pictures Classics acquired distribution rights to the film in North and Latin America, Turkey, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, India, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. A Variety article drawn from conversations with SPC co-president Michael Barker, mentioned the film as being a part of the company's slate for the following year. Following TIFF, the film was next shown in public as the Secret Screening at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on January 10, 2025. It was also the closing night film for the 2025 South by Southwest, screening on March 13, 2025. The film was released in the US on April 25, 2025. In France it was released under the title Les Indomptés by Metropolitan Filmexport on April 30, 2025. In Spain it was released under the title Indomables by the indie distributor Beta Fiction Spain on August 8, 2025.Marketing
The marketing of the film has been criticised by publications including Variety and the Washington Blade for frequently downplaying, and sometimes not mentioning, the fact that many of the characters are LGBTQ and that there are same-sex relationships in the film; the marketing was also criticised for straightwashing the promotional materials by falsely implying that the film includes a love affair between the characters played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi, when no affair actually takes place between them, and both are involved in same-sex romantic relationships with other characters instead. The misleading nature of the film's marketing was also highlighted by other outlets including The Observer and The Conversation.Variety chief film critic Peter Debruge noted in his review that the film was "a gay love story" and pointed out that this had not been mentioned in some of the official marketing materials. "It feels like the opposite of a spoiler — something between a consumer service and a selling point — to address what the festival capsules only coyly imply, using phrases like "self-discovery" and "exploring a love she never dreamed possible"." Debruge also stated that official plot synopses for the film had been "deliberately deceptive" and misled people about the nature of the connection between the male and female leads, as well as the fact that these synopses avoid mentioning that both characters are actually involved in same-sex relationships in the film. "The... queer period drama explores the challenges of coming out in the 1950s, as two characters attracted not to one another — as those deliberately deceptive plot synopses would have you think — but to members of their own genders."
The Washington Blade, the oldest LGBTQ newspaper in the US, praised the film but criticised the way it had been promoted, noting that "Sony Pictures' promotions avoid referencing queer sexuality of main characters." In a review, John Paul King said: "You might not know it from the publicity campaign, but the latest big-screen project for breakout "Euphoria" actor and sex symbol Jacob Elordi is 100% a gay love story" and "unequivocally a "Queer Movie"." King described the relationship between Elordi and Diego Calva's character as "joyously queer-affirming", and went on to criticise the fact that the promotion of the film had downplayed this: "Sony Pictures' promotions for the film – which avoid directly referencing the sexuality of its two main characters, instead hinting at "secret desires" and implying a romantic connection between Elordi and Edgar-Jones – feels not just like a miscalculation, but a slap in the face." The review concluded by commenting that the film's positive message about queer relationships should be something to be highlighted, not concealed in the marketing: "Though it's an eloquent, quietly insightful look back at American cultural history, it incorporates those observations into a wistful, bittersweet, but somehow impossibly hopeful story that emphasizes the validity of queer love. That's something to be celebrated, not buried."
Guy Lodge noted in The Observer that "the marketing led people to expect a swooning romance between Jacob Elordi and Daisy Edgar-Jones. In fact, it’s a sensitively drawn and classically styled queer love story, in which the stars play siblings-in-law Julius and Muriel – a fine Will Poulter plays Lee, his brother and her husband – tentatively exploring same-sex desires in a 1950s US... Julius is a languidly charismatic drifter, newly returned from the Korean war, with a penchant for gambling that leads him to Las Vegas, where he falls into the arms of casino worker Henry. Muriel... develops a horse-betting habit; more significantly, she can’t get her neighbour Sandra off her mind."
In a review for The Conversation, Kate McNicholas Smith observed: "That this is a queer film is not immediately obvious from its publicity. In fact, promotional materials might lead audiences to assume that Muriel and Julius embark upon an affair. While the pair are drawn to one another, the connection between them is more complex. Muriel is struggling with the gendered expectations of the era and, as the film will go on to explore, both characters are queer."