Roland Deschain

The gunslingers of Gilead guarded the Dark Tower, the axis that holds every world together. When the film opens, Roland is the only one left. He carries the order's revolvers and keeps the creed he learned from his father, Steven Deschain.

Roland blames Walter for his father's death and for the fall of everything he knew. The Tower is no longer his mission. All that's left is revenge.

He crosses Mid-World alone, from one dead town to the next, thinking of nothing but finding Walter.

In Mid-World, Roland meets Jake Chambers, a New York kid who came through a portal. Jake has seen Roland in his dreams and knows things about Walter no one should.

Roland doesn't want company, but he sees the boy has a strong shine, the very gift Walter is after. They head to a village where the seer Arra reads Jake's mind. An attack by Walter's men makes it clear the hunt is now on for both of them.

The road takes Roland to New York, a world he doesn't understand. Hurt, low on ammo and far from home, he needs Jake for everything, from a hospital to a gun shop.

In between, Roland teaches the boy to shoot and repeats the gunslinger's creed: I do not aim with my hand, I aim with my eye; I do not shoot with my hand, I shoot with my mind; I do not kill with my gun, I kill with my heart. When Walter murders Jake's mother, Roland's revenge becomes a promise to the boy.

Walter captures Jake to feed his shine to the machine that will bring down the Tower. Guided by the boy's mind, Roland storms the base and takes out the henchmen one by one.

Walter disarms him and wounds him with magic. Jake recites the creed, and Roland answers with a trick shot Walter never sees coming. He kills the Man in Black and destroys the machine, saving the Tower and the captive children. Back in New York, he asks Jake to be his apprentice, and the two return to Mid-World together.

Idris Elba plays Roland in the film, and Dennis Haysbert plays his father, Steven Deschain. In the books Roland is described as white and was inspired by Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name; Stephen King said the character's race didn't matter to him.