Helplessly trapped inside the troublesome vehicle by a mob that has now closed in around them, the pair forces a clear path through the crowd by brandishing a gun, before making their escape into the street.

Spotting an attractive waitress named Ángela at a local cafeteria, Pablo is immediately captivated by the receptive (and equally restless) young woman, who soon becomes his lover, promising to stay together always.

Alternately spending their idle time at discothèques and video arcades, acting on their impulsive whims, and succumbing to the intoxication of drug use, the emboldened quartet begins to stage an ever-escalating series of hold-ups throughout the city.

[2] Two members of the principal cast were arrested for separate criminal incidents during the filming, causing a stir in their Spanish homeland.

[3] It is this dichotomy that is reflected in the recurring image of passing trains that bisect the horizon - a perennial view from the public housing suburb outside the city where Pablo and Ángela live - a visual bifurcation that illustrates, not only their socioeconomic marginality, but also exposes their irreparable moral fissure.

[4] The film captures the rootlessness of a morally stunted, lost generation that has come of age at a time of profound political and cultural transformation.

[7] The film opened to excellent reviews in Madrid and was producer Elías Querejeta’s largest grossing production of the fifteen years of his collaboration with director Carlos Saura.

In France and West Germany there was talk of its being banned due to the view that the film glorified violence and drug culture.

[8] In Spain, the conservative newspaper ABC criticized the film's social realism and accused Saura of paying his cast in hard drugs.

[9] Saura denied the accusation, saying that his cast of real life delinquents, including Jesús Arias who was on day release from prison, had a much better idea than he of where to get drugs.