Chicago-based new media artist jonCates’ influential body of work mixes the urgency of punk with the poetics of glitch. His latest project, a glitch Western, takes shape as a feature film and interactive game that critiques the myths and ideology of the American West.
After killing a friend in a gunfight, Jeff Douglas quits the Texas Rangers. He arrives at the Kenyon ranch just as Jonathan Kenyon apparently commits suicide. He and Janet Kenyon then become the new half owners. At first, he refuses to wear a gun and is believed to be a coward, but as trouble mounts, he straps it on once again.
In the city of Aguaprieta, two horses are part of the largest event in the region. The unbeatable horse Moro from the city of Cumpas faces the imposing Zaino de Aguaprieta. Two in a decided race in just 450 rods.
Forced to run from Texas Rangers after a heated misunderstanding leads to the death of a lawman, Mexican American farmer Gregorio Cortez sets off in desperate flight, evading a massive manhunt on horseback for days.
Just when Cjamango has won a bag of gold in a poker game, he is attacked by the gangs of El Tigre and Don Pablo. As he recovers from the injuries caused by the attack, Cjamango becomes attached to a Mexican boy, Manuel, and to a beautiful girl, Perla. El Tigre and Pablo are meanwhile at odds with one another about the gold, and Cjamango tries to play them against themselves
An orphaned girl in a western world ends up with two incompetent bank robbers. These two brothers are in a heap of trouble - they owe money to the nasty El Queijo.
Infamous Mexican bandit Pancho López recognizes Gilbert Jones as the man who once saved his life; therefore, when Jones is in danger of losing his ranch for default of mortgage payment, López determines to help him. At the same time, Morgan Pell, intending to cheat Jones out of his potentially oil-rich property, offers him a sum of money, which Jones conditionally accepts.
Taggart and his men are breaking wanted outlaws out of jail and then killing them for the reward money. Marshal's Whip, Jim, and Texas have a plan to trap the gang. Whip poses as a wanted outlaw while Jim joins Taggart's gang and helps break him out. But there is trouble when gang member Mike, wanting a bigger cut, double-crosses everyone.
Jim Rose is a young ranch hand in love with the boss' daughter, Mabel. The rancher, King Brentwood, who is being sued for breach of promise by a local widow, opposes the match. Learning that the annoying woman is coming to pay him a visit, Brentwood has his men fake a holdup of her stagecoach.
After witnessing the brutal murder of his entire family by Native Americans as a child, Jeremiah Bridger becomes a merciless Indian-killer and scalp hunter. After saving the life of a beautiful Native American girl named Tune, however, the lone and silent gunman slowly reconsiders his hatred. He starts to doubt his former persuasion, that it was really Indians, who killed his family, and soon has to find out that a greedy and unscrupulous landowner usually blames Native Americans for his own crimes.
When a solitary stranger robs the corrupt family controlling a remote Idaho town, his only guide to escape over the mountains is the family patriarch's headstrong granddaughter.
Florida, 1830 - Of all eastern Native American tribes, only the Seminoles have resisted being moved to reservations. Having retreated to Florida, they live a simple horticultural life. But white plantation owners, angry at the increasing numbers of black slaves fleeing to Seminole protection, want to take their land. Plantation owner Raynes, in particular, has convinced the military to wipe out the Seminoles. His rival Moore, a sawmill owner from the North who has a Seminole wife, is against slavery and considers it unprofitable. Chief Osceola sees the coming danger; he tries to avoid provoking the whites, but cannot prevent the war that breaks out in 1835.
On vacation at his ranch, western actor Roy quickly finds himself involved with a horse rustling operation and a boy ward of one of the rustlers, leading to the kidnapping of Roy's trick horse Trigger by the gang with a demand for ransom.