CREMASTER 2 is rendered as a gothic Western that introduces conflict into the system. On the biological level it corresponds to the phase of fetal development during which sexual division begins. In Matthew Barney's abstraction of this process, the system resists partition and tries to remain in the state of equilibrium imagined in Cremaster 1.
Bob arrives looking for the killer of his uncle. When the Sheriff chases him and his partner Rusty, Reno thinks they are the men he is looking for and takes them into his gang. There Bob finds his uncle's gun and knows he has found the right gang. However he realizes the gang has an unknown leader and he sets out to find him.
Dyer is buying ranches and then retrieving his check by having his gang kill the owner. Bob Worth arrives just as Buck Morton is killed and gets blamed for the murder. Fleeing from the Sheriff, Bob teams up with the Mexican outlaw Golinda. Having seen Dyer pay off his men, he has a plan to trap him and Golinda is just the man he needs to make it work.
As executor of the owner's will, singing ranch foreman Gene must see that the daughter/heiress doesn't marry without his approval.
Gene takes care of three tough kids sent west from Chicago after their father died and left them a cattle ranch. They help him catch a bunch of rustlers.
Rodeo contestants Johnny King and Corrigan meet, their fathers having been members of the Range Busters. When Johnny is knocked unconscious, time reverts to their father's era and the Range Busters are soon involved in the scheme to get Railroad right-of-way across Mother Slocum's ranch. When she is tricked into signing a release, the Range Busters find their job more difficult as the Sheriff is in with the crooks.
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.
Jim Killian arrives in a small Arizona town hoping to establish a peaceful life as the local preacher, but he soon finds himself in the middle of a feud between sheep ranchers and cattlemen. Leloopa, a young Native American woman, pleads for Killian's help after her shepherd father is hung by Coke Beck, the vicious son of the head cattle rancher. Killian must weigh his actions carefully lest he perpetuate the cycle of retribution and revenge.
In an indigenous village a murder occurs, and young man is sentenced to death for it. However his father, the real culprit, takes the responsibility.
Rancher Reynolds has fired his men and hired killers and is now using a crooked land deal to put the other ranchers off their land. Calico finds the reason why when he runs into his old nemesis Porter.
Zara Montalve, half Spanish and half America, returns to her native California in time to see her parents murdered for their hacienda and gold by Sheriff Jim Harding and his gang. Posing as Lola Belmont, an American visiting from Detroit, teams up with Joaquin Murietta, posing as Carlos Del Rio, to form a Robin-Hood type band that takes vengeance on the gang and restores stolen gold to its rightful owners, aided by militia leader Dan Hinsdale.
A sheriff and his posse set out to catch a murderer, but their mission proves more dangerous than anyone suspected after they become stranded in the desert and attacked by Apaches.
A study in greed in which treasure hunters seek a shipment of gold buried in Death Valley.
The conflict between a railroader and a stage line owner is being aggravated by bad guys who are sabotaging both sides. Roy and Gabby mediate the conflict and expose the bad guys.
Renegades trying to get the army to abandon their fort get the Indians addicted to whiskey, then convince them to attack and drive out the soldiers.
Gene goes after the badguys after they kidnap the baby he should have been babysitting.
Four unwitting heroes cross paths on their journey to the sleepy town of Silverado. Little do they know the town where their family and friends reside has been taken over by a corrupt sheriff and a murderous posse. It's up to the sharp-shooting foursome to save the day, but first they have to break each other out of jail, and learn who their real friends are.
Pat Garrett is hired as a lawman on behalf of a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid.
Upon receiving reports of missing persons at Fort Spencer, a remote Army outpost on the Western frontier, Capt. John Boyd investigates. After arriving at his new post, Boyd and his regiment aid a wounded frontiersman who recounts a horrifying tale of a wagon train murdered by its supposed guide -- a vicious U.S. Army colonel gone rogue. Fearing the worst, the regiment heads out into the wilderness to verify the gruesome claims.
A rancher comes home and finds that his son has been murdered and his daughter kidnapped by a bandit gang. He hires a professional tracker with a reputation for finding his quarry to help him find the gang and rescue his daughter.