Plot

Six short stories that explore the extremities of human behavior involving people in distress.

The film is divided into six segments. (1) "Pasternak": While being on a plane, a model and a music critic realise they have a common acquaintance called Pasternak. Soon they discover that every passenger and crew member on board know Pasternak. Is this coincidence? (2) "The Rats": A waitress recognizes her client - it's the loan shark who caused a tragedy in her family. The cook suggests mixing rat poison with his food, but the waitress refuses. The stubborn cook, however, decides to proceed with her plan. (3) "The Strongest": Two drivers on a lone highway have an argument with tragic consequences. (4) "Little Bomb": A demolition engineer has his car towed by a truck for parking in a wrong place and he has an argument with the employee of the towing company. This event destroys his private and professional life, and he plots revenge against the corrupt towing company and the city hall. (5) "The Proposal": A reckless son of a wealthy family has an overnight hit-and-run accident, in which a pregnant woman gets killed. He wakes his parents up and his father calls the lawyer. The parents propose to pay the groundkeeper to take the blame for the boy. Soon the father discovers that he is a victim of extortion of his lawyer and the public prosecutor in charge of the investigation. What will be his decision? (6) "Until Death Do Us Apart": During the wedding party, the bride discovers that her newlywed husband has been cheating on her with one of the guests, and she decides to pay him back.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Composed of six short segments dealing with revenge and violence, "Wild Tales" pivots around the universal theme of retribution and the complications of seeking catharsis through vengeance. Starting with "Pasternak", an attractive young model, while aboard a plane, strikes up a conversation with another passenger about a guy named Pasternak, only to realise that they're not the only ones who know him. Who is the man locked in the cockpit? In "The Rats", a young waitress comes face-to-face with her painful past and agonising moral dilemmas. Is revenge a dish best served cold? Then, in "The Strongest", a remote highway in the desert becomes the macabre backdrop for two drivers. Who will prevail? In "Little Bomb", a parking violation sets in motion a series of unfortunate events, as a demolition engineer's whole world comes crashing down around him. Will he put his skills to good use? In "The Proposal", the affluent parents of a teenage driver who has committed a horrible hit-and-run accident devise a plan to get him off the hook. But, can money buy everything? Lastly, in "Till Death Do Us Part", a blissful bride discovers that her groom has cheated on her. Will she turn the tables on him?—Nick Riganas

Six separate stories, whose characters find themselves facing a reality that shifts and suddenly turns unpredictable, and crossing the divide between civilization and barbarism. A lover's betrayal, a return to the repressed past and the violence woven into everyday encounters drive the characters to madness as they lose control.

The first story and prologue is "Pasternak": Two passengers on a plane discover that they know a man named Pasternak: the woman was his former girlfriend, and the man was a music critic who savagely reviewed his work. They find out that everybody else on the flight is also connected in some way to Pasternak. It turns out that the whole flight was a trap organized by Pasternak, who was the purser. Pasternak crashes the plane into his parents' house.

"Las Ratas" (Spanish: The Rats) features a usurer who stops at a small restaurant by the highway. The waitress recognizes him as a man who had ruined her family. She refuses the cook's offer to mix rat poison in his food, but the cook adds the poison anyway. When his son joins him and eats the same food, the waitress tries to take the poisoned food away. The man begins to attack her when the cook appears and kills him with a butcher's knife. Soon after the cook is taken away by the police.

"El Mas Fuerte" (Spanish: The strongest) features two men driving cars on a lone highway. Mario, whose car is old and damaged prevents Diego, whose car is fast and expensive, from passing him. But Diego finally gets around the slower car, insulting Mario as he passes. Further up the road, Diego gets a flat tire, so Mario catches up with him. Mario parks his car in front of Diego's and proceeds to smash his windshield and defecate and urinate on his roof. Diego then pushes Mario and his car into the river and drives off but has second thought and returns to run down Mario, losing control and going down into the river too. Mario enters Diego's car through the trunk and gets a lit rag into the gas tank, while the two fight inside the car. As the tow truck driver arrives on the scene, and sees nothing on the road or shoulder, the car blows up. When the police arrive, they see two charred bodies that appear to be holding each other and theorize that it might be a "crime of passion".

"Bombita" (Spanish: Little bomb) features Simón Fischer, a demolitions expert whose car is towed away for parking while he's picking up the cake for his daughter's birthday. Fischer goes to the towed-car lot and argues but to no avail. He pays the fee but arrives home as his daughter's party is ending. When he goes to pay the parking ticket, he argues again, attacks the glass partition, and is hauled away by security as other people in line cheer him on. The story gets on the news and the company Fischer was working for fires him. Meanwhile, his wife seeks a divorce and full custody of their daughter. Fischer then goes to an office to apply for a new job and comes out to find that his car has been towed again. He then packs his trunk with explosives, watches as his car is towed again, and detonates the explosives while the car is parked in the towed-car lot. The explosion doesn't kill anyone, which was Fischer's plan, but he is arrested and placed in jail. During the trial the corruption of the towing company and the city are exposed, so the public and his fellow inmates laud him as an urban hero, calling him "Dynamite". At the end, his wife and daughter visit him with a birthday cake with a toy tow-truck on it.

"La Propuesta" (Spanish: The proposal) features a kid from a rich family who hits a pregnant woman with his dad's car and drives away without helping her. The young man drives home and wakes his parents to tell them what happened. Mauricio Pereyra Hamilton, his father, calls his lawyer and they hatch a plan to have their groundskeeper, Jose, take the blame and go to jail for the crime, in return for payment. The accident is all the rage on the TV news, where it is reported that the woman and her unborn child have both died. The police and local prosecutor arrive, and the prosecutor sees through the scheme because the mirrors were not adjusted for the caretaker in the car. But the lawyer negotiates to include the prosecutor in deal, for more money. The caretaker then also asks for an apartment along with his money, and the prosecutor asks for an additional payment to pay off cops, the police chief, and others as needed. The guilty son says he wants to confess to the gathered crowd and media, as it's the right thing to do. The men refuse, but the father gets fed up and walks away, calling the deal off, and yells to his son that he should confess and go to jail. The lawyer continues to talk with the father, and they eventually agree on a price. The caretaker walks out front to get into a police car and go to jail, when suddenly the husband of the dead woman attacks him with a hammer.

The final story, "Hasta Que La Muerte Nos Separe" (Spanish: Until death do us part), takes place during a wedding party. The wife discovers that her new husband had been cheating on her with a girl who is at the wedding. She confronts him with this as they dance in front of everyone, and she eventually leaves the party and goes up on the roof of the building, where a kitchen worker comforts and advises her. When her husband reaches the roof, she's having sex with the hotel worker, and says that she'll sleep with every man who shows her any interest or kindness and take him for all he's worth if he tries to divorce her, or when he dies. They return to the party and continue with some of the dancing and festivities, but the bride pulls the woman her husband slept with out onto the dance floor, spins her round and round, and slams her into a mirror. She continues to behave erratically, eventually yelling at her husband and his mother, as he's crying, slouched on the floor. His mother attacks her and is pulled off by her husband and the bride's father. The groom picks up the knife for the wedding cake, but just cuts and eats a piece of cake. Finally, he approaches his new wife, they slowly begin to dance and kiss, and then begin having sex on the table alongside the wedding cake, as their guests file out of the room.