Movies Like Rango

Frequently asked about Rango

Common questions people search for, with answers written by us at MoviesPack.

• Who is the Spirit of the West and why does he appear to Rango?▾

  The Spirit of the West is a mythic cowboy figure Rango encounters in the desert after he flees Dirt in shame, having been exposed as a fraud. Visually modeled on Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name (complete with the Oscar statuette in his golf cart), he represents the legendary Western hero Rango has been pretending to be. He tells Rango that 'no man can walk out on his own story,' pushing him to return and become the hero Dirt actually needs rather than the one he was performing.

• Why is there no water in Dirt, and who is behind the shortage?▾

  The water shortage is engineered by Mayor Tortoise John, who has been secretly diverting the town's water supply to drive residents off their land so he can buy it cheaply and control the valley's future. He hires Rattlesnake Jake and the moles to steal the remaining reserves from the bank and intimidate the townsfolk. The 'drought' is therefore man-made, a scheme dressed up as natural misfortune so the Mayor can consolidate power, echoing the plot of Chinatown.

• What is the significance of the highway and the pipeline running past Dirt?▾

  The highway and the giant water pipeline represent the modern human world encroaching on the Old West frontier the animals inhabit. Water from the pipeline (controlled by a distant human valve) is what actually saves Dirt at the end when it bursts open and floods the town. The contrast underlines the film's theme that the mythic West is a story the characters tell themselves while real power and resources flow elsewhere, controlled by forces they barely understand.

• How does Rango defeat Rattlesnake Jake at the end?▾

  Rango lures Jake into a showdown in the flooded main street of Dirt, having figured out that the Mayor betrayed Jake by trying to kill him along with everyone else. Rango shoots a single bullet that ricochets and frees Jake from the Mayor's glass water jar prison, earning Jake's respect. Jake then drags the Mayor off into the desert himself, sparing Rango because Rango faced him down honestly and proved he had become a 'true' hero.

• What does the opening car-crash sequence establish about Rango's character?▾

  Rango begins as a nameless pet chameleon performing theatrical scenes alone in his terrarium, obsessed with finding a story and a role to play. When the car carrying him swerves to avoid the armadillo Roadkill, his tank is flung onto the highway, stripping him of his safe, scripted life. This forced exile sets up the film's central question of identity: without an audience or a script, who is he, and can he invent a self that is more than performance?