Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer talk from the New Mexico set of the reboot

Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer talk from the New Mexico

LAMY, N.M. — Trouble is brewing between the masked gunfighter (Armie Hammer) and his newfound Comanche traveling companion, Tonto (Johnny Depp), late at night on the New Mexico set of The Lone Ranger. In the scene, the famed lawman is on a wooden porch, fuming behind his leather mask over the smoking carnage of an apparent Indian attack. The fuming turns to full-on rage as Tonto removes a ring from the finger of a body and places a white feather on the corpse's chest. The Lone Ranger sprints down the porch steps and grabs Tonto, only to have the Comanche flip him onto his back into the dirt in one seamless motion. Despite the resounding thud from Hammer, director Gore Verbinski calls for repeated takes of the scene. It's a key moment in the reboot — which has the Pirates of the Caribbean crew, Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, at the helm — since it encapsulates the spirit of Hammer and Depp's new adventure.

STORY: Armie Hammer is unmasked in The Lone Ranger TRAILER: The Lone Ranger REVIEW: Lone Ranger masks its fun behind bloated action tale In the original television series and comic books, the "Indian companion" Tonto never gave a cross look, much less a body throw, to his leading man. But in this origin story, the Native American is truly an equal to John Reid, who becomes the Lone Ranger, as the two are bound together searching for the men who killed Reid's brother. "This is definitely not our parents' Lone Ranger," says Hammer, taking a breather from being thrown. "There are not many episodes where Tonto throws the Lone Ranger over his shoulder. This is not the show where the Lone Ranger says, 'Tonto, go to town,' while the Lone Ranger saves the day." The scene also shows, quite clearly, that shooting the adventure story is a painful proposition. "How many times did we do that, a half-dozen times?" Hammer asks, managing a slight smile beneath his famous white hat. "Each time I was getting thrown, it was like, 'This is going to hurt in 3-2-1,' and each time I was right." Even Depp as the thrower, wearing his heavy, white Tonto makeup and a large stuffed crow on his head, has a few complaints. "He's quite a large guy to be tossing around; he ain't little," Depp says, before riffing about his co-star's height (6 feet, 5 inches). "They need to dig a trench for Armie, everywhere he walks." But in truth, the July 2012 evening during the marathon shoot (it's Day 102 of a massive 150-day shooting campaign) has been relatively stable. Hammer lists some of the difficulties the crew has overcome after lengthy stops in New Mexico, Colorado, California and Utah. "We've had scorpions, heat, snakes. We've been shut down by countless sandstorms, intense heat, tornadoes and lightning strikes. We had flash floods coming through base camp washing away equipment," he says. "It's been rough."

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