El Mariachi, a former musician and gunslinger, returns to a small Mexican town after being away for a long time. He becomes entangled with the local drug kingpin Bucho and his gang. El seeks revenge and takes on the gang in a bloody gunfight, facing betrayal and discovering secrets along the way. With the help of a bookstore owner named Carolina and his friends Campa and Quino, El fights his way to Bucho's ranch and confronts his past. In the end, El kills Bucho and escapes with Carolina, driving off into the sunset.

El Mariachi is a dark comedy about a guitarist mistaken for a criminal. He embarks on a chase to clear his name and seek revenge.

Antonio Banderas returns as El Mariachi, (`El' for short), in the final chapter of the Mariachi/Desperado trilogy. The story picks up years after El is presumed dead. CIA Agent Sands played by Johnny Depp tracks El down and offers him a job to kill General Marquez (Gerardo Vigil), the man who killed El's wife and child. El takes the job for personal revenge and honor, and not for the money. General Marquez is working for Barrillo (Willem Dafoe), the drug cartel kingpin who has plans to assassinate the president of Mexico and assume power. Sands also recruits a retired FBI agent Jorge, played by Ruben Blades, who has an old score to settle with Barrillo. Jorge's partner was tortured for two weeks and killed by Barrillo years earlier.