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The Mexican moviie storyline. Jerry Welbach is given two ultimatums. His mob boss wants him to travel to Mexico to get a priceless antique pistol called “The Mexican” or he will suffer the consequences. The other ultimatum comes from his girlfriend Samantha, who wants him to end his association with the mob.
Jerry figures that being alive, although in trouble with his girlfriend is the better alternative so he heads south of the border. Finding the pistol is easy but getting it home is a whole other matter. The pistol supposedly carries a curse – a curse Jerry is given every reason to believe, especially when Samantha is held hostage by the gay hit man Leroy to ensure the safe return of the pistol.
The Mexican is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, with a plot that is a mixture of romantic comedy, adventure and road movie. Other starring are James Gandolfini, J. K. Simmons, Bob Balaban, David Krumholtz, Gene Hackman, Castulo Guerra, Mayra Serbulo and Melisa Romero.
The Mexican made use of Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí, Mexico, as a film location, as well as various areas in Las Vegas, Nevada and Los Angeles, California. Aeropuerto internacional Adolfo Lopez Mateos Toluca, Estado de México.
The film opened at #1 at the North American box office making $20,108,829 USD in its opening weekend, although the film had a 39% decline in earnings the following week, it was enough to keep the film at the top spot for another week. Ultimately, the film earned $147.8 million worldwide.
About the Story
The story follows Jerry Welbach as he travels through Mexico to find a valuable antique gun, The Mexican, and smuggle it into the United States. Five years earlier, Welbach had caused a traffic accident in which he hit the car of local mobster Arnold Margolese, who was jailed for five years after the police searched his car following the crash, finding someone tied up in his trunk.
In compensation for the jail time, Welbach has been sent on various errands by Margolese’s prickly second-in-command, Bernie Nayman. Retrieving the gun will be his final errand. Welbach has a girlfriend, Samantha, with whom he argues constantly and who leaves Jerry prior to the trip over his lack of commitment to their relationship.
Jerry arrives in Mexico and makes his way to pick up Beck, the Margolese employee now in possession of the gun. There, a drunken Beck tells Jerry about the gun’s history as a suicide weapon used as part of a jilted love-triangle between a woman, a nobleman, and the son of the gunsmith who forged the weapon, as well as its curse to misfire. Jerry helps Beck to his car, only for the man to be killed by celebratory gunfire from a nearby festival.
Panicked but determined, Jerry buries the body and then calls Bernie to report on the situation, only for his vehicle to be stolen while he makes the call, the gun still inside. Jerry briefly has an uncooperative donkey as transportation to follow the thief, then buys an old, damaged truck.
Meanwhile, Samantha gets kidnapped by a hit man named Leroy, who tells her that Jerry hired him to make sure she is safe from anybody that wants her dead. It is then revealed that Leroy is gay, which doesn’t bother Samantha. They pick up a postal worker named Frank, who then has a relationship with Leroy.
Another hitman follows them to Las Vegas and kills Frank to make it look like a suicide. Leroy kills him in an act of vengeance, and flees with Samantha. Jerry finds out that Ted, his friend and colleague, wanted to kill him and take the pistol to Margolese, but hesitated and ends up getting handcuffed to a pawnshop owner, after he received the gun from a policeman when Jerry was being interrogated for the bloodstain on the front passenger seat of his car.
Jerry then finds out he accidentally grabbed Ted’s Passport and tries to retrieve his own, but Ted has already fled. Jerry decides to pick up Samantha and Leroy at the airport, where Leroy recognizes him, but Jerry doesn’t recognize Leroy. Without a passport, Jerry is stuck in Mexico until further notice by the American Consulate.
The Mexican (2001)
Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini, J. K. Simmons, Bob Balaban, David Krumholtz, Gene Hackman, Castulo Guerra, Mayra Serbulo, Melisa Romero
Screenplay by: J.H. Wyman
Production Design by: Cecilia Montiel
Cinematography by: Dariusz Wolski
Film Editing byu: Craig Wood
Costume Design byı: Colleen Atwood
Set Decoration by: Sandra Cabriada, Robert Greenfield
Art Direction by: Michael Atwell, Diego Sandoval, Jennifer Vogt
Music by: Alan Silvestri
MPAA Rating: R for violence and language.
Distributed by: DreamWorks Pictures
Release Date: March 2, 2001
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