The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger recap

The last gunslinger, Roland Deschain of the fallen land of Gilead, pursues the man in black across a vast desert in a world that has moved on. He passes through the town of Tull, where the sorcerer's meddling turns the whole town against him and forces him to kill everyone there, then finds a displaced boy, Jake Chambers, at an abandoned way station and takes him along. Crossing the mountains through dark tunnels, hunted by underground mutants and haunted by memories of his brutal apprenticeship in Gilead, Roland closes on his quarry. At the last he must choose between saving Jake, who is slipping to his death, and keeping his hold on the chase, and he lets the boy fall. He finally confronts the man in black, who reads his future in cards, foretells three companions Roland must draw to him, and speaks of the Dark Tower before a night-long talk ages Roland by years. He wakes alone and walks on to the edge of the Western Sea, still bound for the Tower.

In a world that has moved on, its old order broken and its lands turning strange, the last gunslinger, Roland Deschain of Gilead, crosses a killing desert in pursuit of the man in black, a sorcerer always just ahead of him. Along the way he stops at the farm of a border-dweller named Brown and, over food and shelter, tells of the town of Tull, where the man in black had lingered. There a preacher, Sylvia Pittston, had been stirred to fanaticism, and a dead man had been raised as a taunt and a trap. When the whole town, driven against him, tried to kill the gunslinger, Roland cut them all down, including the saloonkeeper Allie he had grown close to. He leaves Brown's farm and moves on across the sand, hardened and alone.

Nearly dead from heat and thirst, Roland reaches a long-abandoned way station and finds a boy there, Jake Chambers, keeping alive on the water of a working pump. Jake remembers little of how he came to this world, only broken images of another life in a huge city and a certainty that he died there. Roland, who has hunted so long alone, takes the boy with him. He half-suspects the man in black left Jake as a lure, but he cannot bring himself to abandon the child. Together they set out from the way station toward the mountains, where the sorcerer has gone.

Traveling toward the mountains with Jake, Roland stops at a ring of standing stones to consult an oracle, a dangerous spirit that can devour a man but also speak of what is to come. From it he draws word of three who must later be drawn to him, and hints of the road to the Dark Tower. The bond between the gunslinger and the boy deepens, even as Roland senses the quest may demand a terrible price. They press on to the foot of the mountains and begin searching for a way through.

Roland and Jake enter the mountains, descending through tunnels and following an ancient rail line on a handcar into the dark, stalked by the slow mutants that dwell underground. As they travel, Roland's memories return to his youth in Gilead: the harsh training under his teacher Cort, the sorcerer Marten's betrayal at his father's court, and the early, dangerous test that first won him his guns. The man in black stays just ahead, drawing them deeper toward a reckoning beneath the mountains.

At the end of the tunnels Roland faces a cruel choice: he can catch the boy Jake, who is about to fall, or keep his grip on the pursuit, and he lets Jake drop to his death rather than lose his quarry. Beyond, he finally sits down with the man in black, who reads his fortune with a strange deck of cards, foretelling the three he must draw and hinting at the vast design behind the Tower. Through a night that seems to last years, the sorcerer speaks of the size of the universe and the nature of the Dark Tower, then Roland wakes aged, alone, beside a set of bones. He walks on to the shore of the Western Sea, his guilt over Jake fixed in him and his eyes still set on the Tower far off across the worlds.

Roland catches the man in black only after sacrificing Jake, letting the boy fall to his death in the tunnels beneath the mountains rather than lose the trail. Face to face at last, the man in black reads Roland's fortune with a deck of picture cards, showing him figures that stand for the three companions he must draw to him and warning of the long road still ahead. He speaks of the Dark Tower as the linchpin that holds all worlds together, and of forces far greater than himself, then talks Roland through a night that stretches into what feels like years. Roland wakes much older, alone beside a set of bones, the sorcerer gone. Carrying his guilt over Jake and the knowledge that he must gather three to him, Roland walks west and comes to the shore of the Western Sea. The quest is only beginning: the man in black has pointed the way but given no comfort, and the gunslinger remains as driven and as solitary as ever, fixed on the Tower that stands at the center of everything.