Film / Young Guns II

Young Guns II is the 1990 sequel to Young Guns directed by Geoff Murphy and starring several of the first film's cast members, presenting a new story that picks up sometime after the events of the first film.

In 1950, an old man meets with a lawyer near a sparsely-traveled road and tells him that he is "Brushy" Bill Roberts (Emilio Estevez), but that his past alias was... Billy The Kid. When questioned, Bill tells the lawyer that he was promised a pardon by the Governor of New Mexico decades ago, and wants to receive it now before he dies. When the lawyer questions if Roberts can prove his claim, the old man begins to relate a tale of his past exploits...

In 1881, the Regulators have gone their separate ways, but "Doc" Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland) and Jose Chavez Y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips) are captured by law enforcement and set to be executed. Billy springs back into action to rescue them before the trio head south to Mexico. Just after they escape, John Chisum (James Coburn), a local Cattle Baron who was wronged by the group, pays one of Billy's former partners, Pat Garrett (William Petersen), to hunt and kill him, setting off an explosive series of confrontations.

The film received mixed reviews and middling box office at release, but generated a profit on home video and received a better reception in later years, generating enough interest to result in a release of Alan Silvestri's complete score for the film in 2011.

---

This sequel has examples of:

• Abnormal Ammo: Billy uses a rifle loaded with eighteen dimes instead of bullets to dispatch a bounty hunter.
  Billy: Best dollar-eighty I ever spent!
• Age Lift: Tom O'Foliard is depicted as a fourteen-year old boy but in reality was twenty-two when killed by Pat Garrett.
• Anyone Can Die: To the extent that the number of major characters who survive to the end of the film can be counted on one hand.
• Artistic License – History: Has its own subpage.
• Ascended Fanboy: Tom was fond of reading dime novels about Billy the Kid which made him want to become a member of his gang. When he meets Billy in Beaver Smith's bar he's rejected at first, but Billy soon changed his mind and welcomed him into the gang.
• Bittersweet Ending: Nearly every major character is dead by the end of the story, with only Billy, Hendry and Dave surviving through to the finale. In the epilogue, Dave is said to have been beheaded upon heading to Mexico, while Billy (presuming that he's "Brushy" Bill) pled his case to the Governor of New Mexico in 1950, but was discredited shortly before his death.
• Bond One-Liner: After shooting a sheriff with a shotgun loaded with 18 dimes, Billy says "Best dollar-eighty I ever spent!"
• Brick Joke: A particularly sad one. Shortly after Hendry joins the gang, he asks Billy if he can have a nickname. Billy jokingly says that until he does something to earn one, he's "just plain ol' Hendry." After Doc and Chavez's deaths, Billy tries to dub him, but Hendry, by now having realized the life of an outlaw isn't all it's cracked up to be, refuses.
  Billy: "Buckshot George". That's your name. Buckshot George.
  Hendry: ...My name is Hendry William French.
  Billy: (*near tears*) It's a good name. Good name.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Pat Garrett has an establishing moment when he finds a helpless enemy who says he knows him. After Garrett asks what the man's name is, he identifies himself as "Travers, from Tula Rosa". After Garrett thinks about this for a moment, he admits he has no idea who the man is and executes him.
• Casting Gag: James Coburn previously played Pat Garrett in 1973's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
• Composite Character: Hendry (Alan Ruck) is actually a composite of two separate historical figures — Jim French and Henry Brown, two of Billy's Regulators. The character traits of Hendry in the film (being timid/scared) don't correspond to the traits of the real-life figures.
• Continuity Nod: After rescuing Doc and Chavez from the lynch mob, the group stops for a short while so that Billy can shoot the chain holding Doc's cuffs, leading to a discussion about how Dave should have more respect for the Lincoln County Regulators, referencing John Tunstall in the process.
• Dead Star Walking: Doc (Kiefer Sutherland), who dies before the halfway point of the film.
• Death by Adaptation: Doc Scurlock (who died of a heart attack at the age of 80 in real life) takes Charlie Bowdre's historical place by sacrificing himself at Stinking Springs. Later, Chavez dies from injuries sustained during a gunfight with Garrett and his men, but the real Chavez lived for many years afterwards and enjoyed a relatively peaceful life, literally dying in his bed at the age of 72.
• Death by Cameo: In addition to performing the lead track for the film, Jon Bon Jovi appears in a small cameo as a chained prisoner who escapes (and is subsequently shot when he pulls a revolver on a deputy) during Billy's rescue of Doc and Chavez.
• Death Faked for You: The film concludes with Garrett and Billy's posse holding a fake funeral for him, and letting the world believe he's dead. Billy goes on to live the rest of his life under a fake identity.
• Death of a Child: The first person in Billy's gang to die is Tommy.
• Den of Iniquity: Invoked by Garrett, when he labels Jane's bordello a "house of sin" in order to have it burned down and draw the gang out of hiding.
• Distant Finale: The film ends with the Framing Device of Billy as an old man, who drives away a curious visitor before reflecting on the scars he's gained and the things he's seen before walking into the sunset.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Billy and the other Regulators dress up as members of the lynch mob in order to rescue Doc and Chavez, by bluffing the town sheriff into releasing them into their care.
• The Dying Walk: As a gut-shot Chavez is near death, he suddenly gets up and walks away from the outlaw hideout, but soon collapses alone and by himself in the town.
• Fake-Out Opening: Over the credits, an old prospector-type guy leads his mule across the desert. Which is fine, since this is a western — but then he's passed by a stake-bed truck. It's actually 1950, and the old guy is "Brushy Bill" Roberts, is on his way to tell an attorney about his life in the old West (by narrating the rest of the film).
• Famed In-Story: By this film, Billy has acquired quite a bit of notoriety, with stories of his exploits being written and released in proto-comic book form; the stories may be period-appropriate Fan Fic at best, but the trope itself is Truth in Television.
• Happy Ending Override: The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue of the first film explains that Doc and Chavez went on to live happy and full lives after the Lincoln County War, and survived their exploits with Billy. Come this film, their fates were changed so that Chavez dies from a lingering gunshot wound sustained during a battle with Pat Garrett and his men, and Doc sacrifices himself so that the group can escape Garrett's ambush at Stinking Springs.
• Have We Met?: Subverted in an early scene. After dispatching members of a rival gang, Garrett comes upon an injured man and stops himself from shooting, with the latter saying they've met before. Garrett asks the man his name, and when given a response that they do know each other ("Travers, from Tula Rosa"), Garrett thinks for a moment before flatly exclaiming that he doesn't — and then executes the injured man.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Dying of injuries sustained during a sneak attack by Garrett and his men, Doc Scurlock sacrifices himself so the rest of Billy's gang can escape.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Jane Greathouse.
• Human Shield: Doc Scurlock dies in this way, taking the full impact of multiple rounds fired at him by Garrett and his men while the rest of the group uses his body as cover as they run around a corner.
• I Let You Win: It is implied that Garrett intentionally allows Billy to escape from ambushes several times, and even decides not to shoot him with a rifle when he has him directly in his sights.
• Impaled Palm: Chavez gets stabbed in the arm (between the radius and ulna) with a knife. He then proceeds to slash Dave (the guy who did it) with his own knife, then casually asks if Dave wants his back. By pulling it out.
• Kick the Dog: Pat burning down Jane's brothel for seemingly no other reason than she slept with Billy.
• Male Gaze: Invoked in-universe as part of a gambit by Jane when she strips naked and walks out of the bordello in full view of the townsfolk, for seemingly no other reason than to let them know how much she holds them in contempt.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • Billy relates an anecdote (said by Tunstall) about a trio of three men playing a game in a bar just before being told the world is going to end, with the first two asking for frivolous "last requests" while the third man says he will "finish the game". This is used as justification for why Billy (and Doc) need to see their plans to escape through to completion. When it becomes clear that [[spoiler:Doc has suffered a fatal chest wound, he decides to enact a Last Stand and prefaces it with this.
  Doc: Billy! *ragged breath* Let's finish the game.
  • "Yoohoo, I'll make you famous," used during Billy's confrontation with Chisum near the beginning, and later reused as the final shot of the movie.
• Miss Kitty: Jane Greathouse is young examples, being a former companion of Bill that runs a bordello in White Oaks where him and his crew take refuge for a while.
• Ms. Fanservice: Jane, the attractive Fiery Redhead owner of the bordello in White Oaks, who rides out of town naked after Pat and the townsfolk drive her out, albeit covered with Godiva Hair (mostly) and Toplessness from the Back shots.
• Off with His Head!: Dave's fate, as revealed during the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
• Oh, Crap!: Garrett has this reaction when a group of Navajo get the drop on his posse while they're near a grave site that Dave had previously tried to ransack; the only thing which saves them is the intervention of the newspaperman Garrett brought along, since he speaks Navajo and is able to convince them the posses wasn't responsible.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Doc gives one to Billy, accusing him of being so enamored with what the newspapers write about him that he's become reckless, which in turn caused Tommy's death.
  Doc: Goddamn you, Billy Bonny. You are not a god.
  Billy: Why don't you pull that trigger and let's find out?
• Riding into the Sunset: Seen when "Brushy" Bill walks off in the ending, though this is somewhat subverted when Phalen runs after him and tries to get him to talk more to him.
• Say My Name: Invoked in the ending:
  Phalen: Mr. Roberts... Bill... BILLY!
• Screaming Warrior: Subverted. When the outlaws are seemingly cornered, Chavez appears to launch his horse at a cliff with a Navajo battle cry. The rest of the horses are apparently spooked and also go over the edge, carrying the riders. To everyone's surprise, they are all unscathed and uninjured, including the horses, allowing them to escape from Garrett and his posse. Afterwards one of the other outlaws asks Chavez what the battle cry meant and how the hell did it get the horses to do that. Chavez gives him a wry look and tells him that he was telling the horse "Stop!"
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Painfully subverted. Once Billy admits that there is no "Mexican Blackbird" trail, Doc tells him he's fed up with him and decides to leave. As soon as he steps out of the abode, he's shot by one of Pat Garrett's men, and only holds out for a few moments before sacrificing himself to get the rest of the group to safety.
  • Once the gang believes that Billy has been arrested and executed by Garrett after the former's capture at Stinking Springs, Dave immediately flees for Mexico in an attempt to avoid further reprisal from the posse.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: After Pat burns down her bordello for being considered a "devil's den" by the populace, Jane decides to leave town and in an last act of defiance, sheds all of her clothes in front of the crowd and rides out of naked telling the scandalized people to "Kiss my ass!"
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Doc is killed in an ambush, Chavez dies of a wound and Garrett is shot and killed many years later.
• Take a Moment to Catch Your Death: Chavez seemingly survives a major shootout with Garrett and his men, only for it to be revealed after the fact that he sustained what appears to be a fatal belly wound, only revealing it to Billy after the fact. Later that same evening, he walks away from the gang and stumbles back into town, before falling down and dying, so as to spare Billy the sight of seeing him die.
• Tempting Fate:
  • The premise that kicks off the film. Billy, Doc and Chavez could have just headed down to Mexico and waited for things to blow over, but the former instead decides to antagonize a cattle baron and force him to pay an uncollected debt before they leave. As a result, the baron hires Billy's old partner to track him down and kill him.
  • Also invoked with the Sheriff, Bill, who tries to stop Billy after being disarmed of one of his weapons and is being held at gunpoint, being told several times not to make a move.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • A deputy tries to shoot Billy, even though Billy already has a gun on him and warns him several times not to. Guess what happens.
    Billy: That was stupid, Bill.
  • The first thing Dave does upon crossing the border into Mexico is talk to two people he doesn't know and tell them that he is a wanted outlaw, and as the epilogue says, Dave was arrested soon after crossing the border and executed by Mexican law enforcement. The film even very subtly implies that the two Mexicans he's talking to may be bounty hunters or something similar, because they recognize Dave's name, whereas through most of the film Dave has been depicted as a case of Small Name, Big Ego, and nobody really cares who he is. Under this interpretation, them repeatedly looking at each other as Dave is talking can be taken as them not quite being able to believe that Dave has just delivered himself to them. The two also start to stand up just as the scene ends, perhaps going to capture and detain Dave.
• Unreliable Narrator: It is unconfirmed if anything Brushy Bill said is true.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Yen Sun has disappeared between films after riding off with Doc, and her whereabouts are never explained. Though Doc does mention that he has a wife and son, he never refers to her by name and her reaction to his death at Stinking Springs is never addressed.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The film ends by listing the fates of several characters, including Dave, Garrett and "Brushy" Bill.

---