WILD ROVERS

An aging cowboy, Ross Bodine, and a younger one, Frank Post, work on cattleman Walt Buckman's ranch in Montana. A neighboring sheepman, Hansen, is in a long-running feud with Buckman. Ross has a dream of riding off to Mexico to retire from the hard work of the range, but he does not have much money saved up. Frank suggests they rob a bank and head for Mexico together. While Ross thinks this over, Frank and he brawl with Hansen's men at a saloon. Buckman intends to withhold their pay to make restitution for the saloon's damages.

Desperate for money now, Ross agrees to the holdup. He takes banker Joe Billings to town at gunpoint, while Frank holds the banker's wife, Sada, hostage at home. Ross rides back with $36,000. Before making a getaway, he gives Billings $3,000, so Buckman's other cowboys will not lose any pay they have coming. Sada tells Billings to keep the money and not inform Sheriff Bill Jackson. A posse is formed that includes Buckman's two sons, hot-tempered John and easy-going Paul, told by their father that no cowhand of his is going to get away with breaking the law.

Ross and Frank get as far as Arizona and go into town for supplies. Ross hires a prostitute, while Frank plays poker. A card player dislikes Frank's winning of a huge pot and shoots him in the leg. Ross comes to his partner's aid and a shootout commences, leaving several people dead. Back home, Buckman and Hansen have a run-in that results in both their deaths. John and Paul hear about their father's fate from a Tucson sheriff. Paul wants to turn back, but John becomes obsessed with fulfilling the old man's last request, catching the bank robbers.

Frank refuses to see a doctor, and his leg injury grows much worse. Ross has to pull him behind a horse on a stretcher. Frank dies from the wound just before John and Paul turn up on the trail, where Ross is gunned down. Disgusted with the entire affair and sorry he had to shoot Ross, Paul rides off, leaving John alone struggling to return Ross' dead body to the scene of his crime. The movie ends with a flashback of Ross riding a bucking bronco, while Frank cheers him on.

Ross and Frank are eventually hunted down by their employer's sons. Frank dies from his injuries, and Ross is gunned down; Paul, one of the sons, leaves in disgust while John is left to return Ross's body.

The ending underlines the futility of the protagonists' choices and the harshness of the world they inhabited. Rather than finding freedom or redemption, both Ross and Frank meet tragic ends, highlighting the revisionist western's skepticism toward happy endings and traditional heroism. The final flashback to happier times reinforces the loss of innocence and the inescapable consequences of their actions.