Along the way, Smith meets up with professional gunfighter Thomas Van Leek (Gossett), who helps him recruit a team to take down the outlaw and save the girl.
While Billy Ray reads a story to the class by his favorite author, Kid Durango, the town is invaded by a gang of outlaws led by El Diablo, who kidnaps Nettie.
Next, the group interrupts a hanging orchestrated by the preacher/con artist Autolycus who is about to execute two men: an explosives expert named Roberto "Bob" Zamudio and a criminal known as Pitchfork Napier.
After retrieving a cache of dynamite Zamudio had buried in the desert, the party stops at a saloon where Billy Ray is finally introduced to Kid Durango.
However, he is shocked to learn that Durango (a mild-mannered fellow whose real name is Truman Feathers) is not the hero he was expecting, and that all of his stories were in fact based upon Van Leek's exploits.
Although terrified, Billy Ray stands his ground until the two draw their guns, with Van Leek secretly sniping the henchman from a nearby bell tower.
Laughing maniacally, Bebe crashes into the hideout, the explosion serving as a distraction for Dancing Bear and Van Leek to open fire on Diablo's henchmen.
Afterwards, the deceased group members are buried and Billy Ray pays his final respects to Kid Durango before returning Nettie home to her mother.
According to a 1980 issue of Cinefantastique magazine, it was originally intended for co-writer John Carpenter to direct El Diablo himself in 1980 as his next film after completing The Fog.
[1] That same year, writer and producer Debra Hill discussed the movie in an interview with the Courier Post saying, "My Western is called El Diablo and I see it as being in the Howard Hawks vein, a combination of The Searchers and Journey to the Center of the Earth.