Dollars Trilogy

The first film has the Man with No Name arriving, for unexplained reasons, in the Mexico–United States border town of San Miguel, base of two rival smuggling families, the Rojos and the Baxters. The Man with No Name (referred to by the old undertaker Piripero as "Joe") decides to play them against each other by collecting prizes for giving information, capturing prisoners and killing men, while also helping a woman, her husband and their son, held captive by the ruthless Ramòn Rojo, to escape. He is discovered by the Rojos and tortured, but escapes. The Rojos massacre the unarmed Baxters while searching for him, but helped by Piripero he is hiding away from the town. The Man with No Name returns as the Rojos are preparing to hang the local innkeeper Silvanito, who had befriended him. He cold-bloodedly kills Don Miguel Rojo, uses his last bullet to free Silvanito, and engages and kills Ramòn in a gunslinging duel. After the last remaining Rojo brother, Esteban, is killed by Silvanito while trying to shoot from a window, the Man with No Name – knowing that the US and Mexican governments will investigate – departs from the now-peaceful town.

The second film introduces the Man with No Name (here nicknamed "Manco") as a bounty hunter killing bandits for money, as well as Colonel Douglas Mortimer, a more elder bounty hunter hunting for the same criminals. Both searching for the psychopathic Mexican bandit known as "El Indio", who just escaped from jail, they initially rival each other, but then understand that, in order to kill him, they must work together. Manco infiltrates El Indio's gang, while Mortimer acts from the outside. Manco discovers El Indio's elaborate plot to rob the Bank of El Paso, and is forced to take part in it, though he manages not to wound any innocents. Later, El Indio transfers his gang to Agua Caliente, Mexico, where Manco and Mortimer attempt to steal the money to take it back to the Bank. El Indio discovers their plot, but lets them escape as part of an operation to murder all but one of his associates in order to split the money in two instead of with the entire gang. Battle ensues between the bounty hunters and the bandits, according to El Indio's plan, as the two successfully kill all of them, and the one El Indio meant to spare is also killed. In the end, Manco discovers that Mortimer's hunt for El Indio is far more personal than his own, and lets him kill the bandit personally in a duel. Mortimer lets Manco keep all the money, and, now in peace with his past, rides away.

In the third film, set during the American Civil War, Mexican bandit Tuco Ramírez and the Man with No Name (whom Tuco calls "Blondie") work together to collect the bounties on the former's head and freeing him as he is to be hanged. Mercenary "Angel Eyes" is meanwhile searching for Jackson, a man who has stolen 200,000 dollars from the Confederate Army, and who now goes under the alias "Bill Carson", while also murdering the two fellow soldiers who helped him. After dissolving their "society", Blondie is being tortured by a vengeful Tuco, when they find a Confederate carriage, with the dying Carson on board. Trying to buy their help, he tells Tuco the name of the cemetery in which the gold is hidden, and Blondie the name on the grave in which it is buried, only to die in front of Blondie as Tuco has gone searching for water. The two start a long journey to the location, being arrested by Union Army soldiers and brought to a prison camp in which Angel Eyes is posing as a Sergeant. He spots Tuco (it is revealed that Blondie and Tuco previously met him) posing as Carson, and tortures him into revealing the name of the cemetery. The three then race to the location of the gold, parting ways and exchanging alliances various times. In the process, Blondie successfully tricks Tuco into revealing the name of the cemetery. They all arrive at their destination, where Blondie writes the name written on the tomb on a rock and the three engage in a Mexican standoff, resulting in the death of Angel Eyes and in Blondie (having previously removed all the bullets from Tuco's gun) taking his half of the money and leaving Tuco bonded in front of his. Blondie rides in the distance as an enraged Tuco curses him loudly.

The only actors to appear in all three films besides Eastwood are Mario Brega, Aldo Sambrell, Benito Stefanelli and Lorenzo Robledo. Four other actors each appear twice in the trilogy, playing different characters: Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonté, Luigi Pistilli, and Joseph Egger.

"I think [the Leone films] changed the style, the approach to Westerns [in Hollywood]. ... They made the violence and the shooting aspect a little more larger than life, and they had great music and new types of scores. ... They were stories that hadn't been used in other Westerns. They just had a look and a style that was a little different at the time: I don't think any of them was a classic story—like [John Wayne's 1956] The Searchers or something like that—they were more fragmented, episodic, following the central character through various little episodes."

— Clint Eastwood reflecting on the impact of the films.[5]

Composer Ennio Morricone provided original music score for all three films, although in A Fistful of Dollars he was credited either as "Dan Savio"[6][7] or "Leo Nichols", depending on the print.