The Animals

Alice McAndrew, a schoolteacher on her way to a post in Phoenix, is a passenger on a stagecoach with Emily Perkins, the wife of the mayor, when the coach stops at the Arizona Territorial Prison to pick up Pudge Elliott, a convicted robber who is being taken to trial in Phoenix by a territorial marshal. After the marshal and his prisoner board the stage, the coach heads out and is soon ambushed by Karl, Cat Norman, Jamie and Peyote, members of Pudge's gang, who viciously gun down the stage driver, the man riding shotgun and the marshal, then steal the gold shipment. When Pudge molests Alice, Emily tries to protect her and Pudge retaliates by shooting her in the stomach, then knocking Alice unconscious. The boisterous outlaws take their prisoner into the desert where they set up camp and draw cards to determine the order in which she will be raped. Hearing gunfire, Chatto, a lone Apache, creeps onto the ridge above the camp to investigate. Becoming infuriated when Alice tries to fend off his advances, Pudge orders her stripped and staked out "Indian style." Chatto watches silently as the men then take turns raping Alice. After the men satiate themselves, Pudge announces that they should split up because the law will be looking for a gang, not single cowhands. Stating that they should meet in El Paso in three months, Pudge takes his share of the gold and decides to join a cattle drive for cover. After they leave the unconscious Alice behind to die, Chatto rescues her and builds a litter to drag her to safety. Meanwhile, Phoenix sheriff Allan Pierce and his posse discover the dead bodies and abandoned stage and follow the outlaws' tracks to the camp, where they finds shreds of Alice's dress and the stakes to which she was bound. Spotting a moccasin print and the unshod tracks of an Indian horse, the posse suspects that Alice may have been kidnapped by Indians. That night, Chatto approaches a Wells Fargo station. Unhitching Alice's litter from his horse, Chatto calls to the cabin's inhabitants and leaves Alice behind. The man and women inside are afraid of Indians, however, and when Alice's litter is still outside the next morning, Chatto hitches it back to his horse and takes her to his cave, where he nurses her back to health and gradually wins her trust by making her a deerskin shirt and boots. After three days of tracking the fugitives, the posse is running out of supplies and insists upon returning home, and the sheriff acquiesces. However, once they reach Phoenix, the sheriff announces that he is going after the gang and asks the posse to join him. One day, Chatto trades some animal skins to Indians in exchange for a horse and women's clothes, which he then gives to Alice. When he orders Alice to leave, she begs him to let her stay and, saying she has nowhere to go, tenderly kisses him, then asks him to help her find "them." After teaching Alice to ride a horse and handle a gun, he sets out with her to exact revenge. Coming upon Karl playing poker in a tent with some miners, Chatto and Alice frighten off the miners, after which Chatto cripples Karl by shooting him in the leg. Spotting a keg of gunpowder near the wounded Karl, Alice fires into the keg, igniting an explosion that obliterates the outlaw. Soon after, Sheriff Pierce and his posse capture Peyote and threaten to hang him unless he reveals the names of the other gang members. As the sheriff tugs at the noose encircling Peyote's neck, Alice, hiding in the bushes, guns him down, then rides off with Chatto. Spotting the two figures clad in buckskin, the posse assumes that the Indians shot Peyote to silence him and are now certain that the Indians kidnapped the schoolteacher. Following Cat's trail, Alice finds him seated in an outhouse and coldly shoots him. She and Chatto then track Jamie to Tucson, where they watch as Jamie takes his mistress into a room to have sex with her. Chatto then tosses some pebbles at the window, luring Jamie outside, where Alice shoots him. Tucson sheriff Martin Lloyd organizes a posse to look for Jamie's killers, and on the outskirts of town, they come upon Sheriff Pierce and his posse, who mistake for them for fugitives. After both groups realize that they are on the side of the law, Sheriff Lord tells Sheriff Pierce that he is tracking the two Indians who killed a man in town. Certain that the Tucson killers are the same Indians who shot Peyote, the sheriffs combine their two posses to track their quarry. Chatto and Alice have traced Pudge to the cattle drive, and that night, as the wranglers sleep, Chatto and Alice sneak into camp, knock out the guard and kidnap Pudge. Soon after, the posses come upon the cattle drive, and when they find Pudge's abandoned saddlebags filled with the stolen gold, they realize that he must be one of the thugs who kidnapped Alice, robbed the coach and killed the guards. As Chatto and Alice ride with the captive Pudge, he outwits them and rides off. After Chatto chases and subdues Pudge, they stake him down and Alice castrates him. Although he howls and spits at her, Alice is so traumatized that she is unable to kill him, and so Chatto steps in and kills Pudge with a blast of his shotgun. Now in a state of shock, Alice rides off and Chatto follows and grabs the reins to her horse. Passing out, Alice then falls to the ground. Meanwhile, the posse hears the shots and rides in their direction, arriving just as Chatto is kneeling over the catatonic Alice. Thinking that Chatto is responsible for Alice's condition, Sheriff Pierce shoots him point blank. Mortally wounded, Chatto reaches out to Alice, calls her name and dies. Chatto's execution is witnessed by a group of Indians who have congregated in the rocks above and are preparing to attack the sheriff and his men in retaliation.