Amores Perros - Plot

Plot

The film is constructed from three distinct stories linked by a car accident that brings the characters briefly together.

Octavio y Susana

The first segment stars Gael García Bernal and Vanessa Bauche as the title characters. Susana is Octavio's sister-in-law; however, Octavio is in love with her and doesn't like the way his brother, Ramiro, treats her. Octavio tries to persuade her to run away with him to get from under Ramiro's abuse. Needing to make money so that he and Susana can escape and start a life of their own, Octavio becomes involved in the business of dog fighting. Octavio makes enough money to run away with Susana, but Susana takes the money and leaves with her husband. Octavio continues his dog fighting business until a rival owner shoots his dog Cofi. Octavio stabs the rival owner and finds himself in a car chase with his lifelong friend, Jorge, and the wounded dog. A collision follows; Jorge dies and Octavio is badly injured.

Daniel y Valeria

The next segment stars Álvaro Guerrero and Goya Toledo. Daniel is a successful magazine publisher who leaves his family to live with the Spanish supermodel Valeria played by Goya Toledo. Valeria's leg is severely broken in the accident with Octavio's car and she may be unable to continue working as a model. Valeria is using a wheelchair while she recuperates in the apartment she shares with Daniel. Her dog Richie disappears under the floorboards one day and stays there for days. The missing dog triggers serious tension for the couple, causing numerous fights which leads to doubts about their relationship on both sides. Valeria re-injures her leg trying to help the dog, resulting in severe internal bleeding which leads to gangrene. Her doctor is forced to amputate the leg, removing any chance she might have had at returning to her modeling career. Once her leg is gone, she realizes that her life is most likely ruined since her sense of purpose, modeling, has been taken from her.

El Chivo y Maru

The final segment stars Emilio Echevarría and Lourdes Echevarría. The story concerns a former private school teacher who had become involved in guerrilla movements that landed him in prison for 20 years. He appears in the film as a bedraggled vagrant pushing a junk cart accompanied by several mongrel dogs for whom he cares. Though he appears to live in perpetual squalor in an abandoned warehouse, he is in fact a professional hitman, El Chivo (The Goat). At times throughout his story, Chivo tries to make contact with his daughter, Maru, whom he abandoned when she was a two-year-old child when he began his guerrilla involvement. Her mother told her that her father had died, instead of telling Maru the truth about the abandonment and the prison sentence.

Meanwhile, Ramiro and an accomplice are attempting to rob a bank when he is shot and killed. Octavio, seriously injured from the accident, sees Susana for the first time since she and Ramiro fled with his money. Despite having been wronged, Octavio tries again to get Susana to run away with him, but she becomes angry with the fact that Octavio is willing to run away with her after she has just lost somebody she loves.

El Chivo is hired by a man to kill his business partner, and Chivo is about to make the kill when the film's central car crash interrupts him. During the chaos at the crash scene, Chivo steals Octavio's wounded dog and takes it home to nurture it. While Chivo is away from the warehouse one day, the rescued dog kills all of the other dogs in the house due to its previous dog fighting. Chivo is intensely upset and prepares to kill the dog but forgives him as he knows no better. Still grieving for his beloved dogs, Chivo captures his intended victim, and after learning that the victim is the client's half-brother, he also captures his client. After shaving his beard and grooming his hair (a drastic change in his appearance) he leaves both men alive and chained to the separate walls with a pistol within reach between them, their fate left undetermined. He then breaks into his daughter's house while she is away, he leaves her a large bundle of money and leaves a message on her answering machine explaining what happened to him and why the family was split, but just before he tells her he loves her, the answering machine stops recording. Then he goes to an autoshop where he sells the client's SUV. The mechanic asks him what is the name of the dog; He calls him "Negro" (Spanish for "Black" or "Dark"). After he receives the money for the car Chivo and Negro walk away and disappear once more.