Editing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (section)

== Plot ==
<!-- Per WP:FILMPLOT, plot summaries for feature films should be between 400 and 700 words. Please check the word count before making any additions. -->
In 1862, in the [[American Southwest]] during the [[American Civil War]], mercenary "Angel Eyes" interrogates former Confederate soldier Stevens for the alias of Jackson, a soldier who stole a cache of [[Confederate gold]]. Stevens gives the name "Bill Carson" and offers Angel Eyes a bribe. Angel Eyes kills Stevens regardless and, intrigued about the gold, kills his own employer.

Elsewhere, Mexican bandit Tuco Ramirez is fleeing from [[bounty hunter]]s, and is eventually captured by [[Man with No Name|an unnamed drifter]] he nicknames "Blondie". Blondie delivers Tuco to a sheriff and collects his $2,000 bounty. As Tuco is about to be hanged, Blondie severs the noose by shooting it and sets him free. The two escape and split the bounty. They repeat the process in another town; Blondie grows weary of Tuco's complaints, keeps all the money, and leaves Tuco stranded in the desert.

Bent on revenge, Tuco reassembles his gang and tracks down Blondie. Although his gang dies in a failed attempt, Tuco sneaks into Blondie’s room at an inn and forces him at gunpoint to put his head in a noose in the room. Blondie is about to be hanged but is saved by an explosion that allows him to escape. Tuco pursues and recaptures Blondie and force-marches him across the desert until he collapses from dehydration. A runaway ambulance arrives with several dead Confederate soldiers and a near-death Bill Carson, who begs Tuco for help, offering $200,000 in gold that is buried in a grave in [[Sad Hill Cemetery]]<!-- Please do not change this to Sand Hill. The subtitles and closed captions both are written Sad. See the talk page for further discussion. -->. When Tuco returns with water, Carson has died. However, before dying, he reveals the name on the grave only to Blondie. The two reluctantly set aside their grudge and work together, since each withhold their own half of the gold's location.

Tuco takes Blondie to a nearby [[Catholic missions|mission]] to recover, posing themselves as Confederate soldiers. There, Tuco reunites with his brother Pablo, who left his family to become a priest when Tuco was a child. Their meeting does not go well and Tuco angrily leaves with Blondie.

En route, Tuco and Blondie are taken prisoner by Union cavalry. The pair are sent to a [[POW]] camp, which Angel Eyes has infiltrated as a Union sergeant in his search for Bill Carson. Having posed as Carson, Tuco is tortured into revealing the cemetery's name to Angel Eyes, and is sent away to be hanged. Knowing Blondie would not divulge his secret under torture, Angel Eyes recruits him into his search. Tuco escapes by killing the henchman escorting him, then goes to an evacuated town where Blondie, Angel Eyes and his gang have arrived.

Distrusting of Angel Eyes, Blondie finds Tuco and together they kill the gang, but Angel Eyes escapes. En route to the cemetery, the duo witness a battle over a strategic bridge; they decide to blow it up to disperse the armies and clear their path. As they wire the bridge with explosives, Tuco suggests they exchange their secrets in case either is killed. Tuco reveals the cemetery's name, and Blondie says "Arch Stanton" is the name on the grave.

After the bridge is demolished, Tuco rushes towards Sad Hill to claim the gold for himself. Blondie catches up to him as he digs up the grave, and Angel Eyes arrives soon after. When no gold is found in the grave, Blondie admits lying about the name. He then places a stone in the middle of the cemetery's pavement, on which he says the true name is written. 

[[File:Mexican standoff.jpg|thumb|The iconic [[Mexican stand-off]], with Tuco seen on the left, Angel Eyes in the middle, and Blondie on the right. The scene is accompanied by Ennio Morricone's "The Trio".]]

Prepared to duel for the stone, the three men back away with pistols ready; they face each other in a [[Mexican standoff]], waiting for one of them to draw. Angel Eyes draws first and Blondie kills him as Tuco discovers that his gun isn't loaded. Blondie reveals that he unloaded it the night before, and that the gold is in the grave marked "Unknown" beside Stanton's.

Tuco digs up the grave and finds several large bags of gold. However, Blondie orders him at gunpoint into a [[hangman's noose]] beneath a tree. With his hands bound, Tuco is forced to stand atop an unsteady grave marker while Blondie takes half of the gold and rides away. As Tuco screams for mercy, Blondie severs the rope with a rifle shot, dropping Tuco face-first onto the remaining gold. Tuco furiously curses Blondie, who disappears over the hills.