Editing Aguirre, the Wrath of God (section)

==Plot==
On Christmas Day, 1560, several scores of [[Spaniards|Spanish]] [[conquistador]]s under [[Gonzalo Pizarro]] and a hundred native slaves march down from the newly conquered [[Inca Empire]] into the [[Amazon rainforest]] in search of the fabled [[El Dorado]]. The men, clad in half [[personal armor|armor]], pull cannons down narrow mountain paths and through dense, muddy jungle.

On [[New Year's Eve]], Pizarro orders a group of forty men to build rafts and scout down the river. If they do not return to the main party within one week with news of what lies beyond, they will be considered lost. Pizarro chooses Don [[Pedro de Ursúa]] as the commander of the expedition, Don Lope de Aguirre as his second-in-command, portly nobleman Don Fernando de Guzmán to represent the [[Habsburg Spain|Spanish crown]], and Brother [[Gaspar de Carvajal]] to bring the word of God. Accompanying the expedition, against Pizarro's better judgment, are Ursúa's mistress, Doña Inés, and Aguirre's teenage daughter Flores.

One of the four rafts gets caught in an [[Whitewater#Eddies|eddy]] while traveling through river rapids, and the others are unable to help free it. That night, gunfire erupts on the trapped raft; in the morning, the men on board are found dead, with three missing. Ursúa wants the bodies to be brought back to camp for burial. Knowing this would slow down the expedition, Aguirre suggests that Perucho fire the cannon to clean the rust from it. He fires at the raft, destroying it and throwing the bodies into the river.

During the night, the remaining rafts are swept away by the rising river. Time has run out for the scouting mission, and Ursúa decides to return to Pizarro's group despite the danger from hostile natives. Aguirre leads a mutiny against Ursúa, telling the men that untold riches await them ahead, and reminding them that [[Hernán Cortés]] won an empire in [[New Spain|Mexico]] by disobeying orders. Ursúa orders Aguirre arrested, but he and a soldier loyal to him are shot. Aguirre nominates Guzmán as the new leader of the expedition and rebels against the Spanish crown, proclaiming Guzmán the emperor of El Dorado. A farcical trial of Ursúa results in his being sentenced to death, but Guzmán surprises Aguirre by granting Ursúa clemency.

Aguirre remains the true leader of the mutiny, so oppressive and terrifying that few protest his leadership. Only Inés has the courage to speak out against him. Knowing that some of the soldiers are still loyal to Ursúa, Aguirre ignores her.

The expedition continues downriver on a single large raft. An indigenous couple approaching peacefully by canoe are captured by the explorers, and when the man expresses confusion upon being presented with a Bible, Brother Carvajal kills them for blasphemy. Guzmán dines on the low food supplies while the men starve, and has the expedition's only remaining horse pushed off the raft because it annoys him; soon afterwards he is found dead near the raft's privy. After Guzmán's death, Aguirre proclaims himself leader. Ursúa is then taken ashore and hanged in the jungle. The group attacks an indigenous village, where several soldiers are killed by spears and arrows. The distraught Inés walks into the jungle and disappears.

On the raft, the group of slowly starving, feverish men begin disbelieving everything they see, even when shot at with arrows. The group stares in disbelief at a wooden ship perched in the highest branches of a tall tree. Aguirre orders that it be brought down and refurbished, but Brother Carvajal refuses. In a series of attacks by unseen assailants, all of the remaining crew except Aguirre are killed by arrows. Monkeys overrun the raft as Aguirre imagines conquering all of the Americas and founding an incestuous dynasty with his deceased daughter to rule over it. Picking up a monkey, he asks, "Who else is with me?"