Editing The Wild Bunch (section)

==Plot==
In 1913 Texas, Pike Bishop, the leader of a gang of aging outlaws, seeks to retire after a final robbery of silver from a railroad payroll office. Corrupt railroad agent Pat Harrigan has hired a posse of [[bounty hunter]]s led by Pike's former partner Deke Thornton, who ambush and kill more than half of Bishop's gang in a bloody shootout, which also kills many innocent bystanders as Pike uses a serendipitous [[Temperance movement|temperance union]] parade to shield their getaway.

Pike rides off with the only survivors: his close friend Dutch Engstrom, brothers Lyle and Tector Gorch, the inexperienced Angel, and a fifth man blinded and mortally wounded by buckshot, who Pike mercy-kills. The loot from the robbery turns out to be worthless steel [[washer (hardware)|washer]]s planted by Harrigan. Needing money, they head for Mexico accompanied by the cantankerous Freddie Sykes and cross the [[Rio Grande]] to the rural village where Angel was born. The village elder warns them about General Mapache, a vicious [[Victoriano Huerta|Huertista]] officer in the [[Mexican Federal Army]], who has been stealing food and animals from local villages to support his campaign against the forces of [[Pancho Villa]].

Pike's gang ask the general for work at his headquarters in the town of Agua Verde. Angel spots his former lover Teresa in Mapache's arms and shoots her dead, angering the general and nearly getting them killed, but Pike defuses the situation. Mapache offers gold to the gang to rob a [[U.S. Army]] train so Mapache can resupply his army's dwindling stocks of ammunition and provide samples of American weapons to his [[German Empire|German]] military adviser Commander Mohr.

Angel gives his share of the gold to Pike in return for sending one crate of rifles and ammunition to a band of peasant rebels opposed to Mapache. The holdup goes largely as planned until Thornton's posse turns up on the train the gang has robbed and chases them to the Mexican border. The robbers blow up a [[trestle bridge]] spanning the Rio Grande as the posse tries to cross, dumping the entire posse into the river, but the exhausted posse continues their pursuit.
[[File:Wild Bunch Agua Verde.jpg|thumb|The director sets up the climactic gun battle sequences at "Agua Verde" (the Hacienda Ciénaga del Carmen).]]

Pike, anticipating that Mapache might double-cross him, hides the goods and has his men sell them to Mapache in separate amounts. However, Mapache learns from Teresa's mother that Angel stole some of the weapons and reveals this as Angel and Dutch deliver the last of the weapons. Angel desperately tries to escape, only to be captured and beaten. Mapache lets Dutch go after he states that Angel is a thief who deserves to be punished, and Dutch then tells Pike and the others what happened.

Sykes is wounded by Thornton's posse while securing spare horses. Dutch criticizes Thornton for working with the railroad, but Pike says Thornton "gave his word" to the railroad and must see it through. Dutch angrily declares, "That ain't what counts, it's who you give it to." Pike and the gang bury most of the gold and return to Agua Verde, where the townspeople and soldiers are drunkenly celebrating the weapons sale and Mapache is dragging Angel through town on a rope tied to the back of his car. Mapache refuses to sell Angel back to the gang, and after a period of reflection while visiting a [[brothel]], Pike and the others arm themselves to rescue their friend by force.

Mapache initially agrees to release Angel, only to cut his throat at the last second. The gang instantly opens fire and guns down the general. While the nearby soldiers are frozen in shock, Pike calmly takes aim and kills Mohr. This begins a bloody gunfight that kills Pike, Dutch, the remaining gang members, Mohr's aide, every member of Mapache's staff, and most of the assembled troops.

Thornton arrives and finds Pike already dead. Thornton finds a loaded revolver on Pike's belt and takes it as a sign that the days of men like him are over. Feeling outdated and tired, Thornton allows the remaining posse members to greedily strip Pike and his men of their possessions before taking them back to Texas for the bounty, while he stays behind. After some time, Sykes arrives with the elder from Angel's village and a band of rebels, indicating that they caught up with the bounty hunters, avenged the gang's deaths, and buried them properly. Sykes invites Thornton to join the coming revolution against the Mexican government. Thornton smiles and rides off with them.