Plot
Four men stand staring one another down before a shootout. In a flashback one of the gunslingers, The Nomad, shows he shot a man in the Badlands named Milton while he is describing a vision of paradise just beyond the dunes. The Nomad loots through Milton's remains before camping for the night. That night the Nomad dreams of the preacher who sent him into the desert to protect a mysterious city, reminding him to make sure the horse is looked after. The Nomad wakes up realizing that the horse is more important to the mission than he is, and that he was never to see his home again. Rather than kill the next desert intruder, The Nomad conspires with him in faking his own death, which causes the horse to head home, tracked and followed by the Nomad. After the deal is struck, the Nomad goes to stop two more intruders entering the badlands. Now knowing his horse is actually an enemy, The Nomad takes a liking to the two strangers, The Entrepreneur and The Sherpa and chooses to stay with them. After a day of travel and a congenial dinner, they fall sleep around the fire. The Nomad again dreams of the preacher and his warnings. When the Nomad wakes up he finds his horse has vanished. Believing the two new strangers are responsible, he attacks them and ties them up for questioning. He finally realizes the culprit must have been the shady stranger from the day before.
Back at the 4-way shootout the tension is building as guns are drawn. The Entrepreneur's flashback shows him standing at a river with his father, discussing the opening of a new monorail station that is currently under construction, leading into the desert Badlands. The next morning the Entrepreneur's father is assassinated by The Criminal, who flees into the desert. That evening, The Entrepreneur and his servant, The Sherpa, are drinking at a bar when a loudmouth begins insulting the The Entrepreneur's father's memory. The Entrepreneur drunkenly beats the patron to death with his pistol. Once he and The Sherpa realize he would be arrested for the crime, they flee into the desert to chase down his father's assassin.
Once again, back at the shootout the Entrepreneur reaches for his pistol. This time, the Criminal's flashback shows he was hired to kill the Monorail Tycoon, which he does before fleeing in to the desert. He meets the Nomad, who spares his life so he can fake his own death and leave the Badlands. The Criminal agrees to a deal and consents to meet up with the Nomad in two days. Later, The Criminal spots The Nomad at a campfire with the son of his last kill. He assumes he has been betrayed and steals the horse.
Returning to the 4-way shootout, six gunshots are heard and each man falls to the ground, leaving the horse still standing. After the sun begins to set, one man stirs, gets up and follows the horse home.
Read more about this topic: Six Reasons Why
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The westward march has stopped, upon the final plains of the Pacific; and now the plot thickens ... with the change, the pause, the settlement, our people draw into closer groups, stand face to face, to know each other and be known.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)