Young Guns (film)

For the Wham! song, see Young Guns (Go for It).

Young Guns
File:Young guns.jpg Young Guns movie poster
Directed by	Christopher Cain
Written by	John Fusco
Produced by	Christopher Cain Joe Roth
Starring	Emilio Estevez Kiefer Sutherland Lou Diamond Phillips Charlie Sheen Dermot Mulroney Casey Siemaszko Jack Palance Terence Stamp Peter Jay James Hall
Cinematography	Dean Semler
Edited by	Jack Hofstra
Music by	Brian Banks Anthony Marinelli
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (U.S. and Canada) Vestron Pictures (outside North America) Lionsgate (current distributor for all media except television) Warner Bros. Television (domestic television distribution)
Release dates	August 12, 1988
Running time	107 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Young Guns is a 1988 action/western film first made by Morgan Creek Productions and released by 20th Century Fox (in North America) and Vestron Pictures (outside North America). It was directed by Christopher Cain and written by John Fusco.

Its stars include Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, and Casey Siemaszko. It also features Terence Stamp, Terry O'Quinn, Brian Keith, and Jack Palance. Young Guns is a fictionalized retelling of the adventures of Billy the Kid (Estevez) during the Lincoln County War, which took place in New Mexico during 1877-1878. It was filmed in and around Los Cerrillos, New Mexico.

Plot

John Tunstall, an educated Englishman and cattle rancher in Lincoln County, New Mexico, hires wayward young gun men to live and work on his ranch. Tunstall's ranch is in heavy competition with another well-connected rancher named Murphy and their men clash on a regular basis. Tunstall recruits Billy and tensions escalate into the murder of Tunstall. Billy (Estevez), Doc (Sutherland), Chavez (Phillips), Dick (Sheen), Dirty Steve (Mulroney), and Charlie (Siemaszko), consult their lawyer friend Alex who deputizes them and gives them warrants for the arrest of Murphy's murderous henchmen.

Billy quickly challenges Dick's authority as leader of the group, vowing revenge to Murphy and the men responsible for killing Tunstall. The men call themselves "The Regulators" and begin to kill many of the men they are charged with arresting, most of them by Billy's own hand. The men are stripped of their newly-found badges, which they find out about by reading a newspaper. That same paper also confuses Dick for Billy, showing a picture of Dick labeled "Billy the Kid", a nickname to which Billy takes an immediate liking. While the local authorities begin their hunt for Billy and the boys, The Regulators decide to finish off their list of arrest warrants. The last one on the list is cornered in an outhouse and an intense shootout begins that ends up killing Dick. Billy appoints himself as the new leader of the group. The gang becomes famous and the U.S. Army are brought into the arena, charged with bringing them to justice under Murphy's corrupt political influence.

The gang eludes attention for some time but are tracked down and trapped while in the home of their lawyer on the main street of Lincoln, New Mexico. An intense shootout begins as the authorities enter the house. A ceasefire is called for the night, but the battle continues the next morning when the Army rolls in, accompanied by Murphy. They torch the house and Chavez runs out the back of the house, appearing to desert the gang. As the house begins to burn down, the men come up with an escape plan. They begin throwing the possessions of Alex, their lawyer, out the windows of the second floor. Billy places himself inside of a large trunk, and when it lands in front of the house, he takes his opponents by surprise when he leaps out and begins to open fire.

Almost at the same time, Doc bursts out of the stairway leading to the top floor with guns blazing. He's followed by Charlie and Steve. As all the men make it to the lawn, Billy is shot twice in his arms. Charlie challenges the bounty hunter John Kinney; Kinney shoots Charlie and Charlie fires back. Charlie kills Kinney but in the process takes a few more bullets and dies.

Chavez takes the Army by surprise. He is riding a horse and has two more horses with him. He comes from behind the army and jumps their barricade to get his two extra horses to the surviving Regulators. Billy jumps on one horse as Doc gets on the other. Doc gets shot as his girlfriend screams; he rides over to her and picks her up, and they ride off. Chavez tries to get Steve on a horse, but Steve is unable to get on in time and Chavez is forced to ride off. Steve is left without a horse and unarmed. He is shot multiple times by the Army and Murphy's men. He falls into a dirty puddle, dead.

Alex cheers the boys on as they ride away. The army opens fire on him with a Gatling gun and he is killed. As the remaining men ride away, Billy returns to the street for only a moment to shoot Murphy right between the eyes, growling "Reap it Murphy, you son of a bitch."

The final scene is a voice over of Doc explaining what happened to the surviving three Regulators. In Doc's explanation, he includes that Chavez took work at a farm in California; Doc moved east to New York and married the China Girl he saved from Murphy; and Billy continued to ride until he was gunned down by Patrick Garrett. Billy was buried next to Charlie Bowdre at Fort Sumner. A stranger went to the grave of Billy the Kid late at night and made a carving into the headstone. The epitaph read only one thing: "PALS."

The film was followed by its sequel, Young Guns II, in 1990.

Availability and rights issues

Once the film was released on home video, Fox surrendered its North American rights to Vestron Pictures and Video. Today, Lionsgate (Vestron's successor company) owns full rights to the movie except domestic television distribution, which under contract is handled by Warner Bros.

Cast

• Emilio Estevez as Billy the Kid
• Kiefer Sutherland as Doc Scurlock
• Lou Diamond Phillips as Jose Chavez y Chavez
• Charlie Sheen as Richard "Dick" Brewer
• Dermot Mulroney as "Dirty Steve" Stephens
• Casey Siemaszko as Charlie Bowdre
• Terence Stamp as John Tunstall
• Jack Palance as Lawrence G. Murphy
• Terry O'Quinn as Alexander McSween
• Sharon Thomas as Susan McSween
• Geoffrey Blake as J. McCloskey
• Alice Carter as Yen Sun
• Brian Keith as Buckshot Roberts
• Tom Callaway as "Texas" Joe Grant
• Patrick Wayne as Pat Garrett

External links

• Young Guns at IMDb