Young Guns II

The film opens in 1950 with a young attorney talking to an elderly man named Brushy Bill Roberts, who claims that he is William H. Bonney (aka Billy The Kid), whom "everyone" knows to have been shot and killed by Pat Garrett in 1881. The majority of the film takes place in flashbacks as the old man recalls his story for the lawyer, who asks if the man has any proof that he is the famous outlaw. Brushy Bill's story begins with the remaining Regulators having gone their separate ways. Billy has become part of a new gang with 'Arkansas' Dave Rudabaugh (Slater) and Pat Garrett (Petersen). The New Mexico governor has issued warrants for the arrests of those involved in the Lincoln County wars, including Billy, Doc Scurlock (Sutherland), and Jose Chavez y Chavez (Phillips), who are dragged into town and imprisoned in a pit dug into the ground to await hanging. This is when Chavez mentions the spirit horse (a horse that is said to carry worthy souls to the other side). Meanwhile, Billy meets with the new governor Lew Wallace who agrees to pardon Billy if he testifies against the Dolan-Murphy faction. Billy soon finds out that he was tricked into being arrested with no chance of testifying against his old enemies. After pulling out of his cuffs, Billy along with the help of Rudabaugh and Garrett, pose as a lynch mob to spring his old comrades from a hanging. When the gang successfully escape Lincoln, Billy mentions the Mexican Blackbird (a broken trail only him and few others know that leads down to ‘Old’ Mexico). Garrett decides not to go with the gang and, instead, open a boarding house. As they make a run for the border along with farmer Henry William French (Ruck) and 14 year old Tom O'Folliard (Getty), cattle baron John Simpson Chisum and Governor Wallace approach Garrett to offer him the job as Lincoln County Sheriff and $1000 to use whatever resources he needs to hunt Bonney down and kill him. Garrett agrees and, forming a posse, begins his pursuit of the gang. As the gang comes to an Indian burial ground, tensions flare between Rudabaugh and Chavez. They have a knife fight ending with Rudabaugh sticking a knife through Chavez's lower arm. Rudabaugh pulls his gun on Chavez, only for the rest of the men to pull out their guns on him. They soon come to the town of White Oaks where they meet up with former companion, Jane Greathouse (Jenny Wright) who runs a local bordello. Later that night, the town lynch mob comes for the gang and are intent on a hanging. Deputy Carlisle tries to negotiate a deal, ‘the Indian’ (Chavez) for a safe rideout. Billy shows his loyalty to his friend by refusing the offer and pushing the Deputy (who is accidentally killed by the lynch mob) out the door. Garrett soon tracks Billy to the bordello, but is too late. Jane not only proves unhelpful but disparages Garrett for turning against Billy, which causes Garrett to set fire to the bordello. In an inexplicable act of defiance, Jane strips naked in front of the posse and rides off on a horse. Billy and his gang are continuously tracked by the posse, narrowly evading capture, but Tom (being mistaken for Billy) is soon shot by Garrett. As they hideout, Billy reveals that the Mexican Blackbird doesn't exist; it was just a pawn to get the gang back together and to keep riding. Doc is angered and points his gun at Billy, but quickly puts it down and tries to leave for home. He is shot by one of Garrett’s men and sacrifices himself to enable his friends to escape. Billy is soon cornered and taunts Garrett, yelling, “You killed the boy and you killed Doc! You knew him!” Billy the Kid is soon brought back into Lincoln by Garrett and is sentenced to be hanged by the neck until he is dead, dead, dead, to which he tells the judge that he can go to hell, hell, hell. He is visited by Jane Greathouse, who arranges to meet him during his daily outhouse visit, where she gives him a pistol. Despite Billy's warning not to, the younger guard raises his own gun, forcing Billy to kill him with regret. Hearing the shots from across the street, Bob Ollinger, the other guard assigned to guard The Kid, rushes to the scene. Billy uses Bob's own shotgun, which he had used to taunt Billy earlier in the film, to shoot him dead with a double barrel shotgun loaded with dimes. Billy then says "best dollar eighty I ever spent" and then escapes to Old Fort Sumner. By the time he arrives, Dave has abandoned the group to make his way to Mexico, and Chavez lies close to death, only succumbing when he sees the spirit horse running towards him. Billy is incensed at how his actions have led to the deaths of his friends while he has been largely unharmed. During the night, after taking refuge with a female friend, he decides to get something to eat, realizing too late that he is unarmed just as Pat Garrett makes his presence known. Billy asks Pat to let him go, saying he'll hide. The lawman doesn't believe that it would work, saying that "they'd stone me." Billy then excoriates his old friend for his treachery and for killing his friends, but Pat throws back at him that Billy, in effect, is the one that killed everyone through his leadership. Billy turns around, forcing Garrett to have to shoot him in the back. Garrett shoots errantly, striking a distant pinata. In the morning, William H. Bonney is “buried” and Garrett’s horse is seen being taken by someone (presumably Billy the Kid) bringing to mind a conversation from earlier in the film where Billy had said that he would never steal a horse from a man he didn't like. In his words, "Did I like him? Hell no. I loved the son of a bitch." The film ends with Brushy Bill walking away while the lawyer chases after him, having been convinced of the man's true identity. The epilogue reveals that Dave was beheaded once he reached 'Old' Mexico to discourage more outlaws from crossing the border, Garrett's book detailing his pursuit of Billy is a dismal failure and he is eventually shot and killed, and despite corroboration from several surviving friends of the outlaw, Brushy Bill Roberts was never credited as being Billy the Kid and he died shortly after. Whether or not Brushy Bill was the actual Billy the Kid remains a mystery.