The film is an expansion of a fake trailer of the same name published as a part of the promotion of Rodriguez's and Quentin Tarantino's 2007 Grindhouse double-feature.

[7] It additionally co-stars Steven Seagal, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, Don Johnson, and Robert De Niro.

In Mexico, Machete Cortez, a Mexican Federal and his younger partner are on a mission to rescue a kidnapped girl.

Michael Booth, a local businessman and spin doctor, explains to Machete that corrupt Texas State Senator John McLaughlin is sending hundreds of illegal immigrants out of the country, which would reduce the number of laborers.

Machete trains a rifle on McLaughlin from a rooftop during a rally, but before he fires he sees one of Booth's henchmen aiming at him.

It is revealed that Booth orchestrated the attempted assassination as part of a false flag operation to gain public support for McLaughlin's secure border campaign.

Machete, with the help of Luz, aka Shé, the leader of an illegal immigrant aid movement known as the Network, recruits Padre, his "holy" brother.

He also collects evidence from Booth's house linking McLaughlin and Torrez in a major drug trafficking deal.

Elsewhere, Booth, who is revealed to be working for Torrez, hires a hitman, Osiris Amanpour, to assist in the hunt for Machete.

A group of border vigilantes, sponsored by McLaughlin and led by Von Jackson, begin attacking anyone who may be harboring Machete and shoot Luz in the right eye.

In order to eliminate the people who double-crossed him, Machete gathers the Mexican Network and leads them to the base of the border vigilantes.

April shows up wearing a nun's habit after escaping from the church and shoots McLaughlin after figuring out that he has killed her father.

McLaughlin, injured, manages to escape, but he is later killed by the last remnants of his own border vigilante group, who mistake him for a Mexican.

James Parks reprises his role as Edgar McGraw from the From Dusk till Dawn franchise, Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2, and Grindhouse segment Death Proof in an uncredited cameo appearance.

He says, "When I met Danny, I said, 'This guy should be like the Mexican Jean-Claude Van Damme or Charles Bronson, putting out a movie every year and his name should be Machete'.

Woo and [actor] Chow Yun-Fat's Hard Boiled and The Killer really inspired me to make films that would create that feeling in the Latin arena".

[16] In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Rodriguez said that he wrote the screenplay back in 1993 when he cast Trejo in Desperado.

[18] He announced that it would be a bonus feature on the Planet Terror DVD, but the film ended up being produced as a theatrical release.

[19][20] During the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, he took the time to speak about Machete, including such topics as the film's status, possible sequels, and production priorities.

"Nobody really knew about Desperado, yet the local townspeople would flock to see Danny, thinking he was the star of the movie, even though his part was very small", Rodriguez remembers.

Tito Larriva did not reprise his primary role as the sniper who shoots Machete and was replaced by Shea Whigham.

[28] Jonah Hill was originally cast as Julio,[29] but was replaced by Daryl Sabara, who had worked with Rodriguez, Marin, and Trejo on the set of the Spy Kids franchise.

Jessica Alba said of her role of Agent Sartana, "My character is an Immigrations Officer and she hunts him (Machete) down, but finds out that he was double-crossed himself.

The trailer opened with Danny Trejo saying, "This is Machete with a special Cinco de Mayo message to Arizona", followed by scenes of gunfire, bloodshed, and highlights of the cast.

[42] The film is banned in Ukraine due to one of its co-stars, Seagal, visiting Crimea during the Russian occupation without permission from the Ukrainian authorities, causing him to be blacklisted.

[43] Machete opened in 2,670 theaters in the United States on September 3[45] and earned $14,102,888 for its four-day weekend, placing second at the box office behind The American.

Machete placed fourth at the box office by the end of the week after Resident Evil: Afterlife opened in theaters, totaling $20,916,709.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Machete is messy, violent, shallow, and tasteless -- and that's precisely the point of one of the summer's most cartoonishly enjoyable films".

[50] Jessica Alba won a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress, along with her other roles in The Killer Inside Me, Little Fockers and Valentine's Day.