[theme music]
[music continues]
[ocean waves crashing]
[flute music]
[gunshot]
[men laughing]
Please...
...listen.
I am Benito Cardona.
An unworthy priest...
...who has stolen the great chalice.
Understand?
You are a priest?
Who has done sacrilege.
Oh, my child...
...how can I die...
...with this attachment to a mere thing?
Save me.
Make restitution for me.
I do not understand.
Find those men.
Return the chalice to San Blas.
Promise?
I am...
...going to my last judgment.
Will you promise?
My chalice...
...I wanted it....
-Where are your parents now? -Both dead.
Your grandparents?
Dead. All dead.
In the Shaolin temple...
...we have never accepted anyone
of other than full Chinese birth.
There is a first for everything.
Come here.
Quickly as you can...
...snatch the pebble from my hand.
When you can take the pebble from my hand,
it will be time for you to leave.
Padre Braganza?
I am the Padre.
I am Caine.
Caine, you are welcome to San Blas.
The news I bring may not be so welcome.
Then perhaps you should not leave it here.
San Blas has enough bad news today.
The great chalice was stolen right from the altar.
What is that?
I found it. Some distance from the place I buried...
...Padre Cardona.
Benito?
Four men attacked him.
And they stole his chalice.
[chanting indistinctly]
You buried a saint.
You loved him.
He built all this.
He even made the great chalice with his own hands.
-You saw the men who did it? -Yes.
Four. All young.
They laughed as they rode away.
At least we know where to find the chalice.
We do?
Then can we not return it?
Four things would prevent us.
They are named Gilchrist,
Traphagen, Conkel, and Los Vidrios.
They are killers.
Three days ago, they stole a Gatling gun.
Where's my Gatling gun?
There must have been a mistake. Keep in touch.
Day or two, the other party will discover the trouble...
...and likely wanna swap it back.
Next thing you reply had best answer my need, boy.
You're the only one that delivers freight.
Where'd you deliver a crate like that?
Mission San Blas.
-When? -Beginning of the week.
Get over there and get that crate back,
and don't even stop to pray.
You are wasting my time.
It's been stoled.
No point in me going and bothering everybody.
Heard they got one stole from the mission.
You keep a quiet, friendly tongue in your mouth.
Wouldn't want to bury you in your own plow crate, you hear?
[sighs]
[praying in foreign language]
[continues prayer]
Padre...
...in your religion, what is "restitution"?
The return of the stolen property
by the thief or his agent.
It is an obligation of justice that must be done...
...if the sin is to be forgiven.
I do not understand.
If the sin of stealing is not forgiven,
the thief will lose his soul...
...his spiritual essence, and suffer in hellfire forever.
But does not a work of art belong forever to the artist?
We are Franciscan priests.
We vow absolute poverty.
He owned nothing.
Much less, all that gold.
You own nothing...
...that you may be owned by nothing?
Yes.
Then I must return the stolen chalice for him.
You?
Why?
I understand him.
[instrumental music]
Time for you to leave.
Remember always...
...that a wise man walks with his head bowed...
...humble like the dust.
[music continues]
I thought to keep it.
It is yours.
I want it too much, master.
I have formed an attachment for it I was not aware of.
For a fragment of shining stone?
From wanting it in my hand all these years.
A foolish thing, master.
Perhaps.
The universe contains a certain pebble known as the Earth.
And many are the men who have formed attachments to it.
No less foolish than yours.
Hey, Traphagen! Cut it out!
It was turning as easy as a cow's tail before.
Just couldn't wait, could you?
Los, find me that aiming thing.
Looks like the clapper on a goose.
Never did see anything like this machine before.
That Mr. Gatling done himself proud.
Give me a drink.
Looks like we got a few parts left over, Gilly.
Spares. Put them in a gunnysack. We'll throw them in here.
Get me another rack of bullets.
Ready?
She's set too high. Los, we gotta take her down some.
Gilly. Look.
Lever up about eyeball high.
I have lost one war, sir.
Now I have the chance to aid the cause
of my fellow man below the border.
Your gun, captain,
the great chalice, and the same thieves...
...have made both of us mourn.
Where might I find them?
-Gilchrist. -Where?
Gilchrist is the thief.
If the devil has acolytes...
...Gilchrist holds the first candle.
Yeah, I've met his like.
Where can I find him?
Fort Hogan.
I have already sent one, captain,
after the great chalice.
Poor brother Caine.
A heathen, mind you, on a holy mission to those sons of Satan.
I'm not looking for the Holy Grail,
just a Gatling gun, sir.
I'm in your debt, Padre.
I am Caine.
It's a Yaqui Indian come a-trespassing.
I have come for the chalice you stole from the priest.
No chalice here, Indian.
Is that not it in your hand?
This?
Well, this ain't no chalice.
This here's my watch fob. Gospel truth.
The priest died.
He told me his soul would not rest
until the chalice was returned to San Blas.
-Like to help you, Indian. -That ain't no Injun.
That's a Chinee.
Do a Chinee like you believe in hell?
What is "hell"?
It's a shame you don't believe in hell.
When you get down there, you tell them...
...Swamper Gilchrist was the one that made you a believer of you.
Jammed again!
The chalice was worth more than gold to Padre Benito.
I promised to return it.
You hear that, Gilly? Says it's worth more than gold.
The Padre has made it with his own hands, Gilchrist.
That a fact?
And if we could get a reward....
How much you willing to give for it?
I do not know.
Worth more than gold to him.
You, Chinaman.
You got yourself a maybe.
Now, we'll talk to that priest.
No reward, no chalice.
And you. You'll get it right under that two-quart hat.
You take my meaning?
I take your meaning.
Go get the horses.
I'm gonna tie me up a Chinee.
Conkel! Get your useless south end down here...
...and get yourself married to my new gun.
And Conkel! Keep away from that gun.
I said, you should watch it.
I didn't say you could touch it.
[dramatic music]
[music continues]
[gunshot]
My gun!
My gun! Where's my gun?
Lie down, boy.
Before I turn you into a good Chinaman.
You understand what I'm saying?
I speak English.
You speak it real nice too, boy.
-You got a name? -I am Caine.
Gilly!
I'm shot! I'm bleeding!
Never mind that. Give me a hand.
What are you doing with Gilchrist?
His laundry?
I seek to restore the chalice
he stole from the mission at San Blas.
A mite hard to do from the wrong end of a rope.
I promised Padre Benito.
And Gilchrist was gonna return it for you, was he?
He believed there would be a reward.
-A buckskin horse. -And a mouse-clean hat.
Luther Staggis.
Of a certainty, we are dead men.
Give me that chalice.
I cannot leave without the chalice.
You never want to interfere with a man
while he's in the midst of his job.
You want to die too?
All you gotta do is say so. I'd be glad to oblige you.
I do not wish to die.
Nor to see others die needlessly.
-Then close your eyes. -Captain Staggis!
Captain Staggis!
I never knowed it was your gun. My mistake, captain!
And I got something here that might help square things.
Gold chalice!
Better than double eagle!
Come on out!
Hands up. And empty.
Remember, I still got plenty of ammunition!
-They wish to surrender. -I'll just test the sights.
You come from a whole other swamp, don't you, Mr. Caine?
You really fixing to try and stop me
with nothing in your hand but fingers?
[gunshot]
-Let's leave. -What about our horses?
In a choice of my life or my horse, I choose my life.
We'll wait till dark.
[speaks in foreign language]
No moon tonight.
That gun's worth its weight in gold.
Before dark...
...I will bring them from the fort.
You will receive the rewards, and I will return the chalice.
You'll fetch them out?
I don't doubt it.
No, sir, I don't doubt it.
And they'll carry you out in little yellow pieces.
I will do as I say.
No one need kill or be killed.
I'm due restitution on that gun.
And if I have to chase you across the state plains naked...
...I'll run you to the ground till I get it.
So help me God.
You keep at that, boy,
you just might come up with ingrown anklebones.
Would you have killed me with your pistol?
I didn't.
You aimed at my heart.
You got a nice eye for detail.
Never missed before.
How'd you manage it?
You did not miss this time.
Well, I don't mind saying...
...that does make me feel some better.
You're a dead man.
You know that?
Perhaps.
I'd sort of like to see them quarter you up...
...but that'd deprive me.
You ever kill a man?
Once you do, you're hooked for life.
[instrumental music]
Please get up.
Why have you come?
To confess my unworthiness, honorable sir.
I have disgraced my teachers and shamed this holy place.
Tell me how.
I have senselessly taken a life.
You speak of the nephew of the emperor.
It was he, was it not, who killed our Master Po?
I have shamed my master's memory.
Did you not think to run?
I thought to run...
...but I could not find it within me
to leave Master Po dying.
This is the grave of Master Po.
This earth is honored to receive him.
May his bones find rest in this place.
And may his passing, in its violence...
...not wake the tigers of outrage,
the dragons of vengeance.
May it rather, in its sadness...
...wake nothing but the dove in us, the lamb in others...
...so that together, in the bond of compassion...
...we may rejoice in the memory of Master Po...
...and wipe away forever
the tears from the eyes of the blind lion.
The pursuit by the imperial police
will be relentless, unending.
I understand, master.
You remain a Shaolin priest.
Nothing is diminished. Nothing undone.
Thank you, master.
You have visited the grave of Master Po.
Now you must leave us forever.
And I cannot say which is the greater grief to my heart.
Go.
[dramatic music]
Mister, you are one hell of a laundryman.
You believe bringing that chalice back
is gonna raise Benito's bones out of hell?
I believe the chalice belongs in the mission.
Well, looks like a couple thousand dollars
you got there in your hand.
Mr. Staggis, I have made a promise to Padre Benito.
If you don't quit telling me about your debt of honor...
...there's no way we can do business.
What business?
What happened back there with those Gilchristos
changed my thinking some.
You're a first-class fighting man. I can use you in Mexico.
I do not wish to be used in Mexico.
-You got other plans? -Not for fighting.
You didn't seem too averse to fighting me.
I saw no way to avoid it.
That's what I keep trying to tell you.
There's no way you can avoid it...
...unless you come in with me.
Mr. Staggis...
...I will not give you the chalice,
and I will not go with you to Mexico.
Well, if you don't beat the tail feathers off a brass duck.
Then we fight.
But just so it's fair enough and holy enough for you...
...I'm gonna fight you your way.
So when you get to that mission, you pick yourself out a nice...
...peaceful gravesite.
Listen, Chinaboy.
That Staggis, he's a bloodthirsty,
meat-eating animal.
-You gonna fight? -No.
A man like Caine's got better sense.
[instrumental music]
Please, sir...
...may I speak to Padre Braganza?
I was expecting you to give us a helping hand
before we got into town.
I did, pilgrim.
I sent a wire straight off to U.S. marshal:
"Bring me my reward."
Fetch you four hogs off to Santa Fe.
A miracle.
It is, indeed, a miracle.
Benito, you see what he has done?
He has saved your soul.
[speaks in foerign language]
Such Christian heroism in a heathen...
...with no knowledge of the priest.
I must return this to the tabernacle at once.
Come with me, brother.
To your exact specifications.
Three chains, each cincuenta y siete pulgadas in length.
Now a handle of strong hickory...
...thong for my wrist.
Is it permitted to ask what this will be made to do?
To kill a hero.
Go now, Benito.
Go, Christian soul.
To the bosom of our divine master.
[church bell tolls]
Priest!
A fugitive. Murderer. He was seen near here.
Well, as you can see, there's nobody here
but the Lord and his humble servant.
No one?
I know you're doing little else but your duty,
but I'd like to continue my prayers.
Two imperial policemen.
They're gone, but I don't trust them.
I do not wish to cause you trouble.
The Reverend Provincial has given me permission
to find you passage.
It is arranged already?
With the help of Mr. Sam Lowe.
The one who always wears the red muffler.
I have seen him.
In the morning, we will have a special Mass of thanksgiving.
Then we will go out to Benito's grave.
-You will stay, my friend? -Yes, Padre.
Until the marshal comes.
And so, dear Lord, the thieves will be brought to justice.
San Blas will no longer live in terror of outlaws
in our streets.
This man has already done much...
...and he will perform one more favor for us later today...
...when he takes me to where he gave a Christian burial...
...to the body of our beloved...
...Padre Benito.
In whose honor we will celebrate this morning's Requiem Mass.
His name is Kwai Chang Caine.
Love means very little, unless it is put into practice.
So, what do we mean by love?
To love is to wish other persons good in all things.
To allow them to love you in return.
Saint Paul tells us
that we may have all wisdom and knowledge...
...but if we do not have love, we are nothing.
-May I help you? -Where is the fugitive?
I realize that you are not familiar with my faith.
However, this is a religious service.
His name is Caine. Kwai Chang Caine!
I'm in the middle of a mass, if you will wait.
Caine!
I'm gonna shoot me a few dozen citizens
unless you trot yourself out here!
No cause for alarm, my people.
I will deal with this man.
Caine!
Where is he?
Padre, you turn him over, or I'm gonna blow you all
over that back wall.
You will leave this church.
Get that horse out of here.
I'm not a patient man.
Thought you might have forgot about me.
Leave this church.
I will go with you.
Alright.
You cannot take the chalice.
Right.
Not till I try you man-to-man.
-Chalice. -Only one way to get it.
Come away from that door.
You shouldn't have come back.
I had to.
Run, my dear friend, straight to the ship.
Go now, before they come back, as they always do. Please.
-The police did not-- -I told them nothing. Nothing.
[grunting]
[groaning]
[instrumental music]
[flute music]
Dear Benito, rest in peace with the angels.
Is it permitted that I attend the grave?
[instrumental music]
[theme music]