The plot unwinds as the two travel from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota to the All Nations powwow in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a trip the grandson takes only under duress.

Shane's grandfather then tells how Eagle Boy follows the advice of a shining spirit elk, and seeks out an old woman who can give him weapons with which to slay the mighty serpent Uncegila.

Eventually, the gang members who are after Shane catch up with them, but accidentally drive their car off a cliff and into the Rio Grande River while chasing him.

The gang members ride with them for a ways, until they and the redheaded hitchhiker leave them in order to travel with a group of attractive young Cheyenne women who are also headed to the powwow.

The ending of Eagle Boy's story is revealed Filming lasted four months and took place mainly in Canada, Arizona, and, New Mexico.

[2] Visual effects supervisor Nicholas Brooks states that in order to create the heavenly, otherworldly look of the land of Sky Woman in the "Legend of She Crosses the Water and the Thunder Spirit," the filmmakers decided not to film the actors against blue screen.

[3] Instead, the color and texture of the scenes were later altered, sometimes in a rather arbitrary manner controlled by the computer, which Brooks says lent the sequence a particular psychological feel.