Sergio Leone

Three men are on a mission to find a fortune that is buried in a remote cemetery. In the pursuit of the wealth, the two of them join hands with each other and team against the third only to eventually split-up and go on their own ways.

Eastwood (marketed as the Man with No Name) and Van Cleef (as Colonel Douglas Mortimer and marketed as the "Man in Black") portray two bounty hunters in pursuit of "El Indio" (Gian Maria Volonte), one of the most wanted fugitives in the western territories, and his gang (one of whom is played by Kinski). Indio is a ruthless, intelligent man. He has a musical pocket watch that he plays before engaging in gun duels. "When the chimes finish, begin," he says. Flashbacks reveal that the watch originates from a young woman (Rosemary Dexter), who killed herself while being sexually assaulted by Indio after he had found her with her lover (in Joe Millard's novelization of the film, the young man is her newly-wed husband) and killed him. The watch bears a photo of the woman and was presented as a gift by the young man before being killed. The film begins with Colonel Mortimer (Cleef) illegally stopping a train in Tucumcari, and soon after collecting a bounty of $1,000 on Guy Calloway (Jose Terron). Mortimer's gun-slinging skill is displayed as he easily kills him from long distance. After collecting the bounty, he inquiries about Red "Baby" Cavanagh (José Marco), who has a $2,000 bounty, and was last seen in White Rocks. Mortimer is told that Cavanagh has already been targeted by Eastwood's character, who is referred to as "Manco" (meaning one-armed in Spanish see below for an explanation). We see Manco ride into town and track down Cavanagh at a saloon playing five-card draw poker. Manco kills him and his men and takes the bounty. Eventually, the two bounty hunters, after learning about each other from different sources, meet in El Paso and, after butting heads, decide to team up to take down Indio and his gang. Indio's primary goal is to rob the Bank of El Paso and its disguised safe containing "almost a million dollars." Mortimer persuades a reluctant Manco to join Indio's gang during the robbery in order to "get him between two fires." Manco is offered membership in the gang after rescuing one of Indio's friends from prison. When Indio robs the bank, he brings the gang and the money to the small border town of Agua Caliente, where Mortimer reunites with Manco. The hunchback Wild (Klaus Kinski) recognizes the Colonel from a previous encounter in which the Colonel had deliberately insulted him and forces a showdown in which he is killed by the Colonel. The Colonel then proves his worth to Indio by cracking open the safe without using explosives, but Indio states his intention to wait a month if necessary to allow the furor over the bank robbery to die down and locks the money away in a chest in the treasure room. Manco and the Colonel meet in the treasure room and plan to steal the bank money from Indio. The Colonel had already taken the money out of the chest earlier and now locks it again with his special ability to open and lock locks without keys. When they leave the treasure room by roof (because the door is locked) they realize that the bandits are outside waiting for them, knowing that Monco is actually a bounty killer, and that the Colonel is his cooperator. Just before Manco jumps down, he throws the bag with the money in a tree unnoticed. When Manco and the Colonel have climbed down, Indio's band severely beat them. Afterwards, Indio finds out that chest is still locked, which makes him believe that Monco and the Colonel never stole the money. Later that night, Indio's right-hand man Nino (Mario Brega), on orders from Indio, kills the guard of Monco and the Colonel and releases them. Indio informs his gang that they "got away," and sends them after the escaped bounty hunters. He intends to kill off his gang with the bounty killers while he and Nino take all the loot for themselves. However, the smarter Groggy (Luigi Pistilli) figures out what Indio is up to and kills Nino. Before he can kill Indio, he finds that the Colonel has already removed the stolen money from the chest. Indio convinces Groggy to join forces with him to trap the bounty-killers. The next morning, Manco and Mortimer shoot down the gang, one by one, in the streets of the town. Standing alone, Mortimer shoots Groggy when the outlaw tries to run for it, but then has his gun shot out of his hand by Indio, who then takes out his pocket watch and begins playing it. As the chimes nears the end, Manco suddenly appears with an identical pocket watch, playing the same tune as Indio's, which Mortimer realizes had been taken from him earlier. As this happens, Manco holds a Henry rifle on Indio and gives his gun belt and pistol to Mortimer, evening the odds. "Now we start," Manco announces and sits while Mortimer and Indio face off. During the standoff, Manco looks down at the pocket watch and sees the same picture of the woman Indio had sexually assaulted. The music finishes, and Mortimer outdraws and guns down Indio. At this juncture, Mortimer takes Indio's pocket watch. Manco gives him back the other watch and remarks on a family resemblance; the Colonel replies, "Naturally, between brother and sister," indicating that the young woman's portrait was that of Mortimer's sister. His revenge complete, he decides to take no part of the bounty. As Manco tosses the last of the bodies into a wagon and counts them by the reward for each one, he realizes he is short of the $27,000 total, and spins around to gun down Groggy who had survived and waited in ambush. As he leaves, he takes the bag with the bank money out of the tree, though it is not clear whether he intends to return it. He then rides off into the distance with his horse towing the wagon full of the lifeless bodies of the entire gang.

A Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) arrives at a little Mexican border town named San Miguel. The Stranger simply observes the events of the town from a distance. The town itself is quite small and only has a few buildings. As the bell tolls, all residents of the town seek safety in their homes. The Stranger meets Silvanito who runs the town inn and bar. The town is visited by bandits and smugglers from Texas, who cross the border to load up on guns and liquor, which are cheaper in Mexico. Then they return to Texas and sell the same stuff to the Native Americans. The Stranger is quickly introduced to the feud between two families vying to gain control of the town: the Rojo brothers, consisting of Don Miguel (Antonio Prieto) (the eldest and nominally in charge), Esteban (Sieghardt Rupp) (the most headstrong) and Ramon (Gian Maria Volonte) (the most capable and intelligent), and the family of so-called "town sheriff" John Baxter (Wolfgang Lukschy), his matriarchal wife, Consuelo (Margherita Lozano), and their son, Antonio (Aldo Sambreli). Rojos own the liquor business and the Baxters own the gun business. Hence the town has 2 bosses. Both gangs pay in dollars. Rojos are the stronger gang due to Ramon. The Stranger quickly spies an opportunity to make a "fistful of dollars" and decides to play both families against each other. The Stranger kills 4 of Baxter's men who shot at him earlier when he rode into town. The Stranger than makes a deal with Don Miguel to work for the Rojos and gets paid $100 for killing the 4 Baxter men. He gets a room in the Rojo residence, where he finds a woman named Marisol. The Stranger overhears Esteban arguing with Miguel about hiring him and decides to leave the residence. The Stranger stays with Silvanito. His opportunity comes when a detachment of Mexican soldiers escorting a shipment of gold passes through the town. The gold is ostensibly being delivered to a troop of American soldiers at the border river in exchange for a shipment of modern American weapons. Upon following the Mexican troops, the Stranger watches from hiding as they are massacred by members of the Rojo gang, disguised in American uniforms and led by Ramon Rojo. After the raid Miguel introduces Ramon to The Stranger. Ramon instantly dislikes him as he believes that The Stranger is a sharpshooter and an intelligent man. The Stranger pretends to leave town saying that he is moving on. Ramon tells Miguel to extend a hand of friendship to the Baxter's. Ramon knows that the US and the Mexican Governments will investigate the massacre and he wants to lie low for the duration, even if it means letting the Baxters do what they want. The Stranger takes two of the bodies to a nearby cemetery with Silvanito's help and sells information to both sides (for $500 each) that two soldiers survived the attack. Both sides race to the cemetery, the Baxters to get the "survivors" to testify against the Rojos, and the Rojos to silence them. The factions engage in a fierce gunfight, but Ramon manages to kill (as he believes) the "survivors" and Esteban captures John Baxter's son Antonio. While the Rojos and the Baxters are busy, the Stranger takes the opportunity to search the Rojo hacienda for the Mexican gold, but accidentally knocks out Ramon's beautiful prisoner and unwilling mistress Marisol (Marianne Koch) when she surprises him. He takes her to the Baxters, who arrange for a prisoner swap with the Rojos. During the hostage exchange, Marisol's son and husband approach her. Ramón orders one of his men, Rubio (Benny Reeves), to kill Marisol's husband, Julio (Daniel Martín), but he is deterred by Silvanito (Pepe Calvo) and the Stranger. The Stranger orders Marisol to go back to Ramón, and her husband to take their son home. He learns from Silvanito that Ramón accused Julio of cheating during a card game and took Marisol as collateral. That night, while the Rojos are celebrating, the Stranger rides out and frees Marisol, shooting the guards and wrecking the house to make it look like it was attacked by a large band. The Stranger tells Marisol, her husband and their son to leave town, and gives them some money to live on. Marisol then asks the Stranger, "Why do you do this for us?" And for the first and only time, the Stranger provides some insight for his actions when he replies to Marisol, "Why? Because I knew someone like you once. There was no one there to help. Now get moving." The Rojos capture and beat the Stranger up after this betrayal, but he escapes, killing Chico (Mario Brega) in the process, with the help of the coffin maker Piripero (Joseph Egger). Believing the Stranger to be protected by the Baxters, the Rojos set fire to the Baxter home and massacre all the residents when they are forced to flee the flames, including John Baxter, his son and his wife Consuelo. The Rojos become the only gang left in San Miguel. The Stranger escapes town by hiding in a coffin and recuperates in an abandoned mine. When Piripero tells him that Silvanito has been captured and tortured by the Rojos for the Stranger's whereabouts, he returns to town to confront them. The Man with No Name returns to town to engage the Rojos in a dramatic duel. He first rescues Silvanito, who was tortured to reveal the Stranger's whereabouts. The Man with No Name has a steel chest plate hidden under his clothing and taunts Ramon to "aim for the heart" as Ramon's rifle shots bounce off. As Ramón's shots deflect until Ramón exhausts his Winchester rifle's ammunition. The Stranger shoots the weapon from Ramón's hand and kills Don Miguel, Rubio and the other Rojo men standing nearby. He uses the last shot to free Silvanito, who is hanging from a rope by his hands. After challenging Ramón to reload his rifle faster than he can reload his revolver, the Stranger shoots and kills him. Esteban Rojo aims for the Stranger's back from a nearby building but is shot dead by Silvanito. The Stranger bids Silvanito and Piripero farewell, and rides away from town.