The Gates of El Presidio/dialogues

[John goes to Agave Viejo to find Abraham having sex with some broad.]

Woman: Tú eres la major puta qué he chingado. Ay, qué rico!

Abraham: John! Excuse me! Oye mamita. Cuándo te vea la próxima vez, que sea un poco mas durito, eh? And I mean rougher, huh.

Marston: What would your most loyal follower, Luisa say about that?

Abraham: Who?

Marston: Luisa. The girl from Campo Mirada.

Abraham: Ah, her. A gentleman never tells, but she was a most wonderful, ay... I just say she was incredible, yes. Let me tell you something. I strongly recommend her. You take her when you have the chance, my brother.

Marston: She thinks she's your wife.

Abraham: My wife! These peasant girls. They believe every word a fellow says. So naive! It's really quite charming. I love peasants. Don't you love peasants? I love them, they have such purity.

Marston: Are you going to marry her?

Abraham: Marry a peasant? My dear boy, don't be absurd. I'm going to be the next president of Mexico. My wife will meet ambassadors, kings, other great men. The very thought that I would marry some peasant girl with a tight cunt, and the hands of a farmer, well I really don't think so. My mother, qué Dios la cuide, will turn in her grave.

Marston: Interesting.

Abraham: But come on, let's run. I've got an amazing present for you my brother, oh yes. The man you seek...together, we will bring him to justice! Let's go.

[He rides shotgun with Reyes.]

Abraham: Bien! Vamos, hermanos! My brother, I just received word of your fight with Allende's men at El Sepulcro. Finally De Santa is dead! I am happy it was your bullet, John, after what he did to you in Chuparosa.

Marston: I wasn't goin' to give him a second chance to kill me.

Abraham: It must have felt good.

Marston: Not particularly. He was hardly worth a bullet. Where are they, Abraham?

Abraham: They are at El Presidio, John. Can you believe it? The place we first met. The scene of one of my greatest victories of Allende's traitors. You could not write a better story!

Marston: It's a story I want to finish.

Abraham: It is a story we both want to finish, my brother. If my rebels can take El Presidio, then we can move on Escalera. The revolution is happening, John.

Marston: Are you sure they're there? Escuella and Williamson?

Abraham: Javier Escuella is there, that much I am sure of. I don't know about Williamson.

Marston: Escuella will do for now.

Abraham: I am told they paid Allende to hide them. They have been in his protection since you arrived in Mexico. You see, you should have trusted your brother, Abraham, all along.

Marston: When we have them, then you can start making me feel bad, immediately after you thank me for everything I've done for you, amigo.

Abraham: I knew I had heard the name Javier Escuella before. He is from this province. They tell me he was once a notorious bounty hunter, and also one of the early revolutionaries.

Marston: That sounds about right.

Abraham: All before my rebellious urges took hold, of course. I think I was still travelling in Europe at the time. I was living in Madrid with the ambassador's wife.

Marston: That sounds about right, as well. Escuella was always a torn man. A cynic who desperately wanted to be a romantic.

Abraham: Whereas you, John, are a romantic who wants to be a cynic.

Marston: Javier would die fightin' for what he believed in. He had a lot of passion, but no love. Although he really admired Dutch, of course, but then we all did.

Abraham: He was the leader of your little group of fortune hunters, verdad?

Marston: When Dutch started fallin' apart, it hit Javier harder than any of us. He went crazy. It was like the one thing he'd ever believed in turned out to be a fraud.

Abraham: You talk about him fondly.

Marston: It ain't exactly fondness. We was close once. But he never cared for me or anybody else, not any of his so-called brothers. He left me to die, when he had the chance to save me.

Abraham: And he didn't teach you any Spanish during all the time you were together?

Marston: I remember cabrón being used a lot.

Abraham: Well now you get to pay that cabrón a surprise visit.

Marston: I ain't here for revenge. I just need him and Williamson.

[They ride a bit.]

Marston: So who was that girl back there?

Abraham: Another loyal supporter of free Mexico. What, you want a name?

Marston: You can't even remember the name of the girl you're marrying.

Abraham: Have you ever known power, John?

Marston: I'm a semi-literate farmer and hired killer. I ain't in the power game.

Abraham: Then you will never have the knowledge that any woman will bear your child? That, for her, it will be an honor?

Marston: I've known about enough bastards without making too many more of my own.

Abraham: A man like me cannot be with just one woman. It would be an injustice to the people I have devoted my life to serving.

Marston: You have an interesting way of servin' the people. Kind of like a national gigolo.

Abraham: I owe it to the future of Mexico to breed, my brother. If I can get noble blood flowing through the veins of peasants, can you imagine how great this country can be? An army of Reyes! Of Kings!

Marston: I wish I'd never asked.

Abraham: Have you enjoyed your time in Mexico, John?

Marston: It ain't exactly been a vacation. Why you talkin' like this is already over?

Abraham: I don't know. One way or another, this might be the end. What do you think of the Mexican people?

Marston: I ain't sure. Some of 'em been kind, but a lot of them have tried to kill me.

Abraham: Come, my brother. I know what you Americans call us. Greasers, sun-grinners, pepper-guts... For a land of immigrants, you don't like foreigners very much.

Marston: I don't care who a man is, what he does or where he's from. If he treats me right, I'll do the same.

Abraham: It's that simple for you, is it? You would make a fine socialist.

Marston: What about the Chinese workers here? I heard you ain't exactly made them very welcome.

Abraham: That is different. They are an inferior race.

Marston: You have all the makings of a great leader, Abraham.

Abraham: The revolution is gaining momentum! Do you have any idea how many times I have thought about the day I will march into Escalera and storm Allende's mansion?

Marston: I think I have some idea.

Abraham: Soon it will be me sleeping on those silk sheets, and the colonel lying with the cucarachas!

Marston: From what I've seen of Allende, you might want to wash those sheets.

Abraham: (laughing) You migh be right, my friend.

Marston: Do you really think the revolution can work? Do you have enough men?

Abraham: Revolution begins with one person, John!

Marston: One person ain't gonna defeat the Mexican army.

Abraham: The poor are many, and together we are strong. They are ready to fight.

Marston: If it does work...

Abraham: It will.

Marston: If it does work, and you take down Allende, what then?

Abraham: I will give the greatest speech of my life!

Marston: But after all the fighting, and all the speeches, are over, what will you do?

Abraham: I will march on the capital and take on Sánchez himself!

Marston: Alright, when Mexico is yours, when you have all the power you desire, what will you do with it?

Abraham: Like any great leader, my brother, I will delegate.

[They ride a bit.]

Abraham: I have to say, I am not usually in favor of American interference. But it will be sad to see you go.

Marston: I ain't goin' nowhere till I have Bill Williamson.

Abraham: What will you do when this is over?

Marston: I want to go home, work my land and grow old with my wife.

Abraham: That is hard for me to imagine.

Marston: It's hard for me too. But I've pulled this trigger too many times. I'm getting tired.

Abraham: Well, get ready to pull it a few more times. El Presidio will be heavily guarded.

Marston: Oh, I think I got a few more left in me.

Abraham: Maybe one day you can return to Mexico, like Landon Ricketts. A famous outlaw come to die in the sunshine. I can always use a cynical American renegade on my staff.

Marston: I'll bear that in mind.

Abraham: Allow me some silence on the journey. I have the weight of a nation on my shoulders. El Presidio is just up ahead. Préparate, mi hermano. This is our time.

[They finally reach the citadel.]

Abraham: My men will launch a ruse attack on the side entrance to the fort. Meanwhile, you, my American friend, will drive this wagon to the front gate and jump off when you're close. It's been packed with 5 crates of TNT.

Marston: That sounds crazy! How long is the fuse?

[He lights the fuse right then.]

Abraham: Yes. Like I say, fun times. It's plenty long enough I think? I'll see you in there, amigo. Remember to jump my friend!

[Marston blows up the gates and the rebels rush in.]

Abraham: Go look for Escuella! We will deal with these cabrónes!

[Marston finds Javier in a storeroom.]

Marston: Hello, old friend. It's been a long time.

Javier: Hello, brother. It's good to see you. I heard you was coming. You took your time, no? Come on, you're not going to shoot your own brother, are you? We was family.

Marston: Yeah, we were, then you and Dutch went crazy, and family didn't mean so much.

Javier: So now you do the government's work?

Marston: And what do you do? You just work for a different government.

Javier: Come on, brother, I think we should go our separate ways, huh?

Marston: What you and Dutch did was wrong. And the way you left me was wrong. Now, I ain't the judge, but as it turns out, it's you or me, the way I see it, it might as well be you.

Javier: We thought you was dead, brother. I promise. I'm telling the truth. Besides, I can give you Bill. And Dutch...Dutch is in Colombia. I can take you straight to him.

Marston: You left me to die, to save your own skin and now you expect me to care about you?

Javier: You got it all wrong, brother. I've always loved you, even now.

[He pushes a crate on him and leaps out a window.]

Javier: Go back to your farm, John!

[Marston ends up capturing him anyway.]

Marston: Where's Bill, you son-of-a-bitch? Do you think I won't kill you, brother?

Javier: He ain't here, brother. He's with Allende.

Marston: You're going to be locked up for a hell of a long time, unless they choose to hang you.

Javier: It's a little late for revenge, John.

Marston: I ain't here to kill you, Javier. This is just business.

Javier: Come on, amigo. Abigail wouldn't want this.

Marston: Abigail would've killed you already. She alwys thought you was a creep.

Javier: We was family, brother. You and me.

Marston: Like Cain and Abel, I guess, leaving each other for dead.

Javier: You don't understand what happened. It wasn't like you thought it was.

Marston: Whatever you say, old friend.

[He brings him to the fort's jail.]

Javier: Ah, you piece of shit. I hope you sure know what you're doing, brother. You sold me out. Didn't that life we had mean nothing to you?

[He tosses him on the stone floor.]

Javier: Ah, ah, you puto. Ah. One day, one day I promise you, you're gonna regret this.

Marston: One day is about all you got left.

Javier: I hope you and your wife, and children, rot in hell.

Marston: You know that life we lived is over. And when we was living it, it didn't mean nothing anyway. It was just an excuse and we all knew.

Javier: What I knew was that you was always a puto. And you're still a puto!

Abraham: Marston! Come with me. The Army's sent reinforcements. Come!

Javier: Yeah, go with your puto!

[John takes down the reinforcements by manning a cannon.]

Abraham: We did it, my brother! El Presidio is ours!

[John fetches Javier from the cell.]

Abraham: Two old friends reunited. It is a beautiful thing.

[Marston meets the federal agents near the border bridge.]

Ross: Mr. Marston. Fancy seeing you down here. I must say, it's a pleasant surprise to see you.

Archer: You've done well, Mr. Marston. Now, Javier here gets to see how far the hand of justice can reach. Come on you...get in the damn automobile!

Marston: Can we assume one of my commitments is cleared?

Archer: Unfortunately, nothing is cleared, John, until your obligations are met. We need you to find Williamson, then head to Blackwater as quick as you can. We have reason to believe Dutch van der Linde is in the area.

Ross: Oh, your wife sends her regards.

[They drive off.]