Quigley Down Under

About Quigley Down Under

Quigley Down Under is a 1990 western film. It was originally intended to star Steve McQueen in 1980, but after an illness by the star the project was suspended and not filmed until a decade later. Directed by Simon Wincer, the film runs 119 minutes, and is rated PG-13 in the United States.

Tom Selleck plays the titular Matthew Quigley, a cowboy and gunman from America with a keen eye and a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot at extraordinary distances. Quigley's weapon of choice is an 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle which fires .45-110 paper patch black powder cartridges. Its barrel is 34 inches long, which makes it four inches longer than an unmodified rifle. He answers an advertisement that asks for men with a special talent in long distance shooting, the job being in Australia. On arriving, he is met by employees of the man who hired him, Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman), and taken to Marston's homestead in the Western Australian outback.

Marston is a gentleman infatuated with stories of quick-draw gunslingers from the American Old West, believing himself to have been born on the wrong continent, and amazed that Quigley has actually been to Dodge City. He hires Quigley to come to Australia in the hopes that Quigley will use his sharpshooting skills to help eradicate the native aborigines. Quigley finds the idea abhorrent and the two men are quickly headed for a showdown.