History Film / Desperado

* SouthOfTheBorder

->"So, I'm sitting there...and in walks the biggest Mexican I have ever seen. Big as shit. Just walks right in like he owns the place. Now, nobody knew quite what to make of him, or quite what to think. There he was and in he walked. He was dark, too. I don't mean dark-skinned. No, this was different. It was as if he was always walking in a shadow. I mean every step he took towards the light, just when you thought his face was about to be revealed...it wasn't. It was as if the lights...dimmed...just for him."

* DistractedByTheSexy: Carolina's introduction. Hey, it's Salma Hayek, they have an excuse. Judging by her reaction to the car crash, it's not the first time that's happened. This led to a meta example when she and Antonio Benares filmed their sex scene and the ''entire crew'' came to watch.

* DistractedByTheSexy: Carolina's introduction. Hey, it's Salma Hayek, they have an excuse. Judging by her reaction to the car crash, it's not the first time that's happened.

** [[spoiler:Bucho calls his brother "Manito" though that is not his name, but rather a shorter form of "hermanito" wich means "little brother" in spanish.

* NoNameGiven: El Mariachi, the Short Bartender, the guy played by Creator/QuentinTarantino, and many of the other characters don't have names.
** [[spoiler:El's first name, Manito]] is revealed at the end for the first and only time in the whole trilogy.

* TheUnfavorite: [[spoiler:Bucho (Cesar) hated the fact that their father loved Mariachi (Juanito) more than him]].

Our NoNameGiven Protagonist has lost his love and put down her killer. Ever since losing her, however, the Mariachi has changed. No longer the innocent who just wanted to play his guitar and get by, he has made a transformation into a hard, vengeance-driven gunslinger who has made the cartel that Moco worked for his enemy; and is seeking out the cartel's boss, who goes by the name of Bucho, so that he can finish the job. Unfortunately for El Mariachi, he'll have to use every gun in his guitar case against {{Mooks}} in seedy bars, thugs after his life, a knife throwing assassin, to do it. And all of this while keeping Carolina (Creator/SalmaHayek), his new love interest, friend and informant, and random bystanders alive.

Our NoNameGiven Protagonist has lost his love and put down her killer. Ever since losing her, however, the Mariachi has changed. No longer the innocent who just wanted to play his guitar and get by, he has made a transformation into a hard, vengeance-driven gunslinger who has made the cartel that Moco worked for his enemy, and is seeking out the cartel's boss, who goes by the name of Bucho, so that he can finish the job. Unfortunately for El Mariachi, he'll have to use every gun in his guitar case against {{Mooks}} in seedy bars, thugs after his life, a knife throwing assassin, to do it. And all of this while keeping Carolina (Creator/SalmaHayek), his new love interest, friend and informant, and random bystanders alive.

Our NoNameGiven Protagonist has lost his love and killed her killer. That's just not enough for him. So he's trying to find her killer's boss and kill him, too. Unfortunately for El Mariachi, he'll have to use every gun in his guitar case against {{Mooks}} in seedy bars, thugs after his life, a knife throwing assassin, to do it. And all of this while keeping Carolina (Creator/SalmaHayek), his new love interest, friend and informant, and random bystanders alive.

** [[spoiler:El's first name]]is revealed at the end for the first and only time in the whole trilogy.

* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler: El kills Bucho but it's not explained how he and Carolina escape because everything fades to white. It's commonly assumed by the audience that they had to blast their way through Bucho's entire gang.]]

* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler: El kills Bucho but it's not explained how he and Carolina escape.]]

* AnachronismStew: As El Mariachi walks into town, we have a shot of a horse-drawn taxi trotting down the street ahead of a modern gleaming tractor-trailer.

* DrinkOrder: El Mariachi drinks soda. This is probably for the best, since the bar only serves "piss-warm Chango."

* TheCastShowoff: That's really Antonio Banderas playing and singing with Music/LosLobos in the dream sequence.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: To the annoyance of all Spanish-speakers everywhere the word "desperado" is horribly mangled Spanish. The correct spelling should be "desesperado".
** However, the word "desperado" has its own connotations in English (likely borrowed from Spanish itself) that quite befits El Mariachi. And one can hardly accuse Creator/RobertRodriguez of not knowing Spanish -- the movie's title in Spanish is the more appropriate ''Pistolero'', or "pistoleer."

* CaptainObvious / AskAStupidQuestion: When the goons at the bar [[ItMakesSenseInContext confront El Mariachi about the guitar case]], he invokes this: "What is that?" "My guitar case." "What's in it?" "...My ''guitar''...?"
** A CallBack to the first movie, where the exchange involves a different character.
* TheCastShowoff: That's really Antonio Banderas playing and singing with Los Lobos in the dream sequence.

* {{Confessional}}: Mariachi is a good Catholic, so he goes to confession after cleaning out Tarasco in the bloodiest shootout in the entire film:

* DrinkOrder: El Mariachi drinks soda. MANLY soda.
** "All I got is piss-warm Chango."

** Then he calls them, and... RealityEnsues. Sure, they're badass and able to cause lots of damage, but the town is pretty much still there. [[spoiler:They wreck havoc for a while, then they get dispatched rather easily. How anti-climatic.]]

* GunsAkimbo: The Mariachi uses dual Ruger KP90s to clean out the Tarasco Bar and to [[spoiler:kill his BigBad brother]].

* ImprobableWeaponUser: The musicians wield guitar cases that double as rocket launchers and machine guns.

* KnifeNut: The knife throwing assassin Navajas, played by Creator/DannyTrejo.

* RetCon: At the end of ''El Mariachi'', the Mariachi said his injury would pretty much certainly doom his career as a musician. Uh, maybe not...
** [[{{IncrediblyLamePun}} On the other hand]], the screenplay does acknowledge this: when showing a child some guitar tricks, The Desperado says, "ignore the left hand. The left hand is not important." The only time he plays more with more flexibility is [[spoiler: in a dream sequence.]]
** He also starts to sweat when playing with the guitar and stops abruptly, as if the pain has become too much.
** The movie also suggests that the pain is in his head and the only thing injured is his confidence.

** Then he calls them, and... {{RealityEnsues}}. Sure, they're badass and able to cause lots of damage, but the town is pretty much still there. [[spoiler:They wreck havoc for a while, then they get dispatched rather easily. How anti-climatic.]]

* HeroicBSOD: After Bucho pays Carolina a visit at her bookstore, El, who had been hiding behind the counter, seems to have one for a while, presumably because he had the chance to take Bucho out and didn't. [[spoiler:It's actually because Bucho is his brother.]]

* HeroicBSOD: After Bucho pays Carolina a visit at her bookstore, El, who had been hiding behind the counter, seems to have one for a while, presumably because he had the chance to take Bucho out and didn't. [[Spoiler:It's actually because Bucho is his brother.]]

* FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin: A scene from the end of the original ''ElMariachi'' is reprised at the beginning of ''Desperado'', with Banderas in the role instead of Carlos Gallardo. It's fairly convincing.

* RemakeCameo: The star of ''ElMariachi'', Carlo Gallardo, has a minor role in ''Desperado''.

* WhamLine: Mariachi and Bucho's confrontation.