Plot

In turn-of-the-century Mexico, two very different women become a bank-robbing duo in an effort to combat a ruthless enforcer terrorizing their town.

In 1848, a New York bank wants to put a railroad across Mexico, so it buys up small banks around Santa Rita, Durango, and evicts farmers on the proposed rail line who owe money. The bank's henchman is the murderous Jackson. He runs afoul of two women, María, the tough but uneducated daughter of a farmer, and Sara, the European-educated daughter of the owner of one of these banks. To feed the now landless people and to seek revenge, María and Sara become bank robbers, veritable Robin Hoods. But Jackson and his hired guns are after them. What are the women's options?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Set in Mexico during the 1850s, the film tells the story of Sara Sandoval (Salma Hayek) and Maria Alvarez (Penélope Cruz). Maria is an uneducated, poor farm-girl whose caring father is being forced off his land by a cruel U.S. land baron, named Tyler Jackson (Dwight Yoakam). Sara is the highly educated, wealthy daughter of Don Diego Sandoval (Ismael 'East' Carlo), and has recently returned from Europe where she attended numerous grade schools and colleges in England, Spain, and France for several years. Don Diego runs a local Mexican bank and owns the mortgages on all the local land holdings.

Jackson meets Don Diego with an intention to purchase all the mortgages and then force the farmers off their land. Don Diego sells all the mortgages to Jackson for a good profit. Maria breaks into the castle of Don Diego to complain about the sale of her father's mortgage to the US Bank represented by Jackson and is arrested. Jackson is working with Ashe (Denis Arndt) (from the Capitol Bank and Trust of New York) to consolidate the land holdings so that they can sell it to the railroads at a hefty premium.

After purchasing the mortgages, Jackson shoots all farmers who refuse to vacate the land, since they were all delinquent on their payments. Maria returns home to find her father shot and estate burned to the ground.

In one fell swoop, both Maria's and Sara's fathers fall under attack by the baron, (Sara's father is killed, Maria's is shot but survives). Sara returns home to find her father dead, apparently from a heart attack. Sara is unable to attack Jackson due to his overwhelming force. Sara manages to escape from Jackson and his goons who now control her father's entire estate.

Sara decides to rob her father's bank and finds that Maria already beat her to it and both women reach the bank one after the other. Sara wants the money to go back to Europe, but Maria wants to use the proceeds to help the destitute. As they fight, a local priest Padre Pablo (Jose Maria Negri) arrives and takes them to a nearby cave hideout, where all the displaced farmers and their families are staying as there is nowhere else for them to go. As an act of revenge, Maria and Sara team up to become bank robbers, stealing and giving back to the poor Mexicans who had lost their lands.

At first, the two are catty and quick to fight over the smallest matters over their different backgrounds, but under the tutelage of famed bank robber Bill Buck (Sam Shepard) they learn to trust each other. Bill Buck is a friend of the Padre Pablo and agrees to help the girls as Sara begs him that Jackson killed her father. Maria turns out to be a crack shot and, while Sara can barely hold a gun, she shows that she is an expert with throwing knives.

During a training session, the two women are testing their strength by hanging off a cliff over a wide river, and at the last moment Maria swallows her pride and tells Sara she can't swim. Maria nearly drowns but is saved by Sara, and it is then that the two women put aside their differences and agree that, while they are not friends yet, they can at least work together as partners.

Soon, the girls are ready and start robbing banks. The reward against their names keeps going up and up to $25,000. Angered by the recent attacks by the newly infamous 'Bandidas', Jackson brings in a specialist criminal investigator named Quentin Cooke (Steve Zahn). Now, Quentin is a very meticulous investigator and uses modern investigative methods such as fingerprinting and forensic analysis to determine the guilty parties.

It doesn't take long for Sara and Maria to hear of this, and they quickly capture Cooke and seduce him to help them. Sara and Maria take pictures with Quentin in compromising poses and threaten to send them to his fiance unless he cooperates with them. He has already figured out that Sara's father was murdered (he was poisoned) and therefore discovers that his employer is actually a criminal. Using Quentin as a prop, Sara teaches Maria how to kiss a man. As proof of Jackson's grand plan, the ladies show Quention all the stolen mortgage papers which have a contract clause that a farm that is behind in its payments can be bought by the bank in a single Peso. They demonstrate how all the farms being acquired lie along the proposed railroad route. In Jackson's office at the bank, Quentin finds a vial of poison, used to kill Don Diego. Quentin agrees to cooperate with the ladies.

In response, Jackson brings in reinforcements and now every bank is guarded heavily. So, Quentin pairs with Maria to infiltrate the banks, as the guards are looking for 2 women and not a couple. The trio embark upon bigger, more ambitious heists, during which María and Sara compete for Quentin's affections, which he rebukes because he is engaged. Quentin helps the ladies open the safes with his Stethoscope, and Sara helps them escape from the outside.

Meanwhile, all of Mexico's sovereign gold is also deposited with Jackson's bank. Jackson installs a state-of-the-art weight-based alarm system in his bank which triggers as soon as somebody steps on it. Sara and Quentin use skates to get to the safe by stepping into the gaps between the floorboards, where the alarm system is not implemented. But due to Maria's mistake who was on lookout, they are captured. As they are transported to be lynched, they are saved by the people of Mexico. In a move to make the money they have stolen useless; Jackson moves the gold that backs the money on a train up towards U.S. territories. Midway, he decides to steal the gold, betraying the Mexican government.

The Bandidas manage to hunt him down, but when they get their chance to kill him, they can't, feeling it would make them no better than him. Jackson manages to draw his gun and almost gets a shot off at Maria but Sara shoots first, finishing the villain off. In the end Quentin ends up with his fiance and Maria and Sara ride off into the sunset, their eyes set on Europe where the banks are, according to Sara, "bigger".