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Synopsis
Jack
Beauregard, once the greatest gunslinger of the Old West,
only wants to move to Europe and retire in peace. But a young
gunfighter, known only as "Nobody", idolizes him
and wants to see him go out in a blaze of glory. He arranges
for Jack to face the 150-man gang known as The Wild Bunch
and earn his place in history. Written by craterspike
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Aging
gunfighter Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda), tired of being hounded
by people who want to kill him for various reasons, wishes
to retire and leave the country for Europe. While he is still
trying to come up with the money needed for a ship's passage
he encounters a strange and quirky man who just calls himself
"Nobody" (Terence Hill) and professes to be a fan
of Jack.
Nobody,
who is a formidable gunman in his own right, doesn't like
the idea of his hero simply vanishing away silently. He wants
the name of Jack Beauregard to become a true legend, written
down in the history books, and for this purpose he has dreamed
up a conflict of truly epic proportions: pitting Jack alone
against the 150-man-strong bandit gang, called "The Wild
Bunch".
Unable
to believe that Nobody could be serious, Jack initially views
Nobody as yet another rival gunman, who is just out to make
a name for himself by killing Jack - but Nobody is indeed
quite serious about his plan.
The potential
for such a conflict exists because of one Mr. Sullivan (Jean
Martin), the owner of a worthless mine, through which the
Wild Bunch is laundering stolen gold. Jack Beauregard's brother,
called the Nevada Kid, used to be co-owner of the mine, until
Sullivan killed him. Now Nobody is hoping that Jack will take
revenge upon Sullivan, thereby earning the ire of the Wild
Bunch.
Sullivan
himself expects Jack to come gunning for him as well and has
already sent goons after Jack to kill him, on previous occasions.
Those were foiled by Jack himself on one occasion and by Nobody
on another. When Sullivan wants to hire gunmen for another
attempt on Jack's life, Nobody pretends to take the job and
- after some confrontational banter and gun-play - warns Jack
of the ambush waiting for him, helping him dispatch the other
two gunmen lurking in hiding.
Jack,
however, disappoints Nobody and defies Sullivan's expectations;
he declines to exact blood vengeance for a brother who, he
claims, was just as much of a crook as Sullivan. He merely
corners Sullivan and takes off him the money he needs for
his passage to Europe, then rides off along the train tracks
toward New Orleans, where his ship is anchored.
Not to
be dissuaded so easily, Nobody absconds with a gold transport
train that runs along those same tracks. Jack suddenly finds
himself being followed by a slow-moving train that keeps pace
with his horse but refuses to let him approach - and the Wild
Bunch is thundering toward them from the horizon.
Jack realizes
that he can't escape the confrontation that Nobody has engineered
and settles down, using the embankment of the tracks as cover,
to fight off 150 bandits on his own. He remembers that, at
an earlier point, he had seen some of the riders load up their
saddle bags with dynamite, and is able to use the blinking
of their gaudy decorations in the sunlight for aiming. He
sets off several great explosions, cutting a huge swath through
the bandit gang and reducing their number to a fraction of
its former size.
When the
confrontation settles down to a prolonged gunfight, with both
sides hunkered down and shooting from behind cover, Nobody
drives the train forward again, between the two opposing sides,
and allows Jack to board. Together they drive off toward New
Orleans, leaving the remnants of the Wild Bunch behind.
Now that
Jack Beauregard's name in history is secured by a legendary
victory, there is only one thing left to do, before he can
leave for Europe: he must appear to die in battle. It turns
out that even his strange choice of a name has been part of
Nobody's plan for Jack all along - one staged duel in the
streets of New Orleans and a public death scene later, the
grave of Jack Beauregard bears the epitaph, "Nobody was
faster on the draw."
Jack can
board his ship in anonymity and says farewell to Nobody with
a letter wishing him luck, now that the remainder of the Wild
Bunch and aspiring gunmen looking for fame will be gunning
for him instead of Jack, while the old rules of the west are
changing around them in modern times. Even as the letter is
read in voice-over, Nobody is shown dealing with these threats
in his own uniquely quirky style, demonstrating that if anybody
can handle himself, it's Nobody. (See
here)
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