Three hitmen, Willy Dick Rude, Norwood Sy Richardson, and Simms Joe Strummer, hole up in a Los Angeles hotel after a botched job. To escape their boss, Amos Dade Jim Jarmusch, they decide to head south toward Mexico, robbing a bank along the way. A major blunder follows when their car breaks down in the desert after someone filled the tank with diesel instead of gasoline. With the money buried in a suitcase, they begin a long, dusty walk to safety.
Night descends on a nearly deserted town, prompting the trio to slip into an empty bar and get drunk while Velma Courtney Love pesters them to slip away. They set up a makeshift camp on the town’s edge, and by morning Velma spots a convoy of cowboys rolling in, each truck carrying espresso machines—an odd sight that signals the town’s strange, bustling mood. Despite Velma’s insistence on flying under the radar, the men re-enter the town and head back to the bar, where a tense confrontation brews.
The bar confrontation draws Bruno Shane MacGowan and Angel-Eyes McMahon Spider Stacy, two members of the local gang that runs the town. A standoff seems imminent, but a competing arrival changes the tempo: Rusty Zimmerman Edward Tudor-Pole leads a group that aims to arrest Bruno and Angel-Eyes. The hitmen intervene, killing Zimmerman and his cadre, an act that unexpectedly earns them the town’s grudging welcome. The townsfolk—George Miguel Sandoval and Fabienne Jennifer Balgobin among them—gather, as does the town’s head, Frank McMahon Biff Yeager, who invites the trio to a party that evening. The next day, Frank’s elderly father is pushed from a building by his relative Sabrina, and the town conducts a funeral procession. A complication arrives when Mr. Dade’s operative Whitey disappears into the crowd, later being hanged on the gallows after his attempt to spill details about a bounty is cut short.
Meanwhile, the three hitmen navigate tangled loyalties: Simms carries on an affair with Fabienne, while Willy pursues Louise Michèle Winstanley, a wary woman who knows where the money is but isn’t easily swayed by romance. I.G. Farben Dennis Hopper appears in town, presenting himself as a house developer, only to depart quickly and leave behind a suitcase packed with machine guns for Norwood, Simms, and Willy. The next morning, Simms spots Mr. Dade’s car entering town, and he tries to convince a drunken Willy and Norwood to leave with Velma.
Tensions erupt when George, already upset by Fabienne’s infidelity, shoots Angel-Eyes in retaliation for sexual advances toward Fabienne, and the trio of hitmen become the town’s prime targets. A wave of gunplay erupts among the townspeople, Mr. Dade’s crew, and the hitmen themselves. Frank shifts allegiances and joins Dade’s team, turning the town into a chaotic battlefield. Willy’s pursuit of Louise ends badly for him when she shoots him, leaving him wounded but still crawling away. As Simms and Willy flee into the desert, a tense shootout with the town priest ensues, and the two eventually recover the buried money. In a final twist, Simms shoots Willy, Velma shoots Simms, and Frank with Velma escape, arm in arm, with the suitcase of cash.
Back in the town, chaos continues to flare. The store is set ablaze with Norwood and Fabienne inside, yet they survive and later shoot Mr. Dade and his cronies. The town’s bloodshed claims most lives, leaving Norwood and several women as the survivors. Frank and Velma flee in a truck with the money, but a brake failure sends them careening off a cliff. Norwood, now free to leave with the women, departs town as Farben Oil Company trucks roll in, signaling a new, oil-fueled era for the area.
