Between 1983 and 1987, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar (Javier Bardem) had a romantic relationship with the journalist and the television presenter, Virginia Vallejo (Penélope Cruz). Naples Ranch, Colombia, 1981. Pablo lives in a palatial property with his wife Maria Victoria Henao (Julieth Restrepo). Pablo orders a hired gun to attack a Govt building to find a file on him that connects him to the murder of a dozen agents. Pablo pays him USD 30,000 for the hit. Virgina arrives by chartered plane for a huge party that Pablo is throwing at his house. The plane lands in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by men with guns. She thinks she is being kidnapped. Virginia notices the social hierarchy. The soldiers are at the bottom, handling security and operations. Above them, are the cream, the artists, businessmen, soccer players, journalists, models. Pablo has made a lot of money in a short amount of time and Virgina is curious, how. At the top, are the kings of the hill. Pablo says he is building 2000 homes for the people living on the garbage dump. In reality this was the founding of the Medellin cartel and crowning of Pablo as its king. Later, Virginia interviews Pablo at the garbage dump about the housing project for the poor. She sees the 600 units he has already built and sees that the locals hold Pablo in high respect. Virginia respects Pablo for how he uses his money. Virginia starts dating Pablo. She is married to a plastic surgeon, who doesn't want to divorce her (but they are separated), since he doesn't want to marry his teenage girlfriends. Pablo forces her husband to sign the papers by abducting him from his operating room. Pablo takes Virginia to a private island, and they have sex. Pablo also attends a congress of drug traffickers. They are the Narco millionaires, and she is the only journalist with access to their exclusive club. That night they divide the USA among them. Medellin gets Florida. Cali gets New York. Virginia loves the power Pablo enjoys. In 1982, Pablo starts landing flights full of drugs on highways in Florida to supply cocaine in his territories. One kilo of cocaine is $7K in Columbia. Pablo adds lactose to make it 3 kilos and sells it for $150K in US. The traffickers transfer the drugs and abandon the plane by the time the police respond. Reagan appoints DEA Agent Shepard (Peter Sarsgaard) to lead the war on drugs. 80% of the cocaine is coming in from Columbia. Columbia offers to extradite the Narcos to US for trial as in Columbia they kill the judges. Pablo knows this treaty will hurt the drugs business, so he decides to get his men elected to the Columbian government to fight it from the inside. Congressman costs 10 MM pesos, senator 50 MM pesos and President 1500 MM pesos. It's about money and they have it. Cartel funds both sides of the election, so they can't lose no matter who wins. In exchange they ask for guarantees to repeal the treaty with the US. Maria asks Pablo to end it with Virginia and he promises. Pablo continues to have sex with Virginia. Pablo's party wins the elections, and he reaches the Columbian Congress in 1982. Pablo sends Virginia to US with a suitcase full of money to buy herself a new wardrobe for her TV show. Shepard meets Virginia after waiting in her hotel lobby for her to arrive. Virginia tells Shepard that US is not worried about the drugs coming in, but they are more worried about the cash flowing out of the US. Shepard guesses that Virginia is involved with Pablo. Meanwhile in Columbia, the minister of justice calls a special session to revoke the election of Pablo to Congress. Pablo questions the justice minister about the source of funds for his campaign and says he will give solid proof proving the corruption. Maria wants Pablo to resign as the President backs the minister (as even the President has stuff to hide). The justice minister leaks a story on Pablo's involvement in the murder of police officers. The hired gun spent the money on women and never did the job. He is put to death in the most brutal manner possible. Pablo gets all the cartels to deposit 10 MM pesos each and forms a company to kill the justice minister (this way they are all guilty). Pablo hires the Sicarios to assassinate the minister. The Sicarios are boys from the slums who are trained to be hit-men. They are prepared to die as the hit gives their family more money than they could earn in a lifetime. The minister is killed. The govt declares war on the mafia and the cartels relocate to Panama in 1984. This is where they keep the money. Columbia sends an ex-President to negotiate with the cartels. Pablo offers to pay the external debt of $12 Bn and 80% of income to be brought to Columbia for investments, in exchange for amnesty against extradition. Columbian govt is not willing negotiate the extradition as they are under pressure from North Americans. Govt offers reward of 1000 MM Pesos for Pablo. Pablo arms the slums and offers hard USD currency for every dead cop (2k for every beat cop, up to $50K for every dead major). The civil war is on. Bring the badge and get paid. Law sets its own exchange rate in the slums. 10 executions for each dead police officer. The Govt creates a special unit Search Bloc, to hunt Pablo. Shepard meets the Columbian officials and secures permission to hunt for the cartel members in Columbia, rather than wait for the extradition in US. Virginia is fired from her job due to her association with Pablo. Shepard meets Virginia in Columbia and offers protection in exchange for cooperation. Virginia is seen having this meeting with Shepard. Virginia begs Pablo to leave her alone. By now Pablo was having sex with teenage girls from poor neighborhoods, handed over to him for a few thousand pesos. This made it very easy for the Search Bloc to track down Pablo, as they now had many more informants. Pablo releases birds into the air to crash the helicopters to buy time to escape. As Pablo goes into hiding, the Cali cartel moves into Florida. One by one his main men are picked off. By 1989, Pablo has lost his strongest men and now he can only run. Virginia moves to Miami to host a TV show. Pablo declares all-out war against the government. Bogota airport is closed after a plane is shot down midair. Bombs go off all over Bogota. The country begs the Government to give Pablo what he wants. 2 US citizens were killed on the flight, and Shepard uses this to authorize military ops in Columbia to guarantee safety of US citizens. Pablo surrenders but is imprisoned in a prison that he built for himself in 1991. La Catedral, Medellin. Pablo builds a home for himself and lives in luxury. The business stabilizes and starts growing again. Pablo imposes protection taxes of 20% on his territories, while the Cali were only charging 5%. Virginia loses her ad contracts and has to sell her home to pay her debts. She moves into a small apartment. She meets Pablo at the prison to understand if she is safe. Virginia asks for protection and for $80K to go to Europe. Pablo refuses her and calls her a slut. Palo murders 2 business partners (who were stealing from Pablo) inside the prison. The news reaches the media, and this makes the Government an accomplice. They decide to move Pablo to a military prison. Pablo escapes before that. Government releases Narcos willing to fight Pablo in exchange for clearing their records. The Narcos, the search Bloc, DEA and FBI make a ruthless hunting party. Men are killed for working for Pablo. Bodies appear all over Medellin. Anyone ever close to him, is a target. Virginia is also attacked but manages to escape alive. Virginia reaches Shepard and informs him that Pablo is trying to get his family out of Columbia. Once they are out, he will wage war against the country again. Shepard lobbies hard with the US govt to deny entry to Pablo's family in Germany. They are returned back to Bogota and escorted by the military to a strong hold. They are held as bait for Pablo to come and mount a rescue. Pablo calls Maria and the agencies use the call to triangulate his position. Dec 1993. He is found and gunned out at his hideout while he is talking to his family. Virginia agrees to testify before a judge.
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