Park Chang-yi, The Bad (Lee Byung-hun)—a bandit and hitman—is hired to acquire a treasure map from a Japanese official traveling by train.

Tae-goo hopes to uncover the map's secrets and recover what he believes is gold and riches buried by the Qing dynasty just before the collapse of their government.

He reveals the thick metal sheet he hid under his quilted jacket and limps over to demolish the corpse of Chang-yi, The Bad.

Over the credits, Tae-goo sets off to continue hunting for the treasure with his bounty multiplied sevenfold, while The Good, Do-won, vindictively pursues him.

Club gave it a B+ saying that "The story's many advances and reversals can be hard to follow at times, but this isn't really a movie where plot is paramount.

[16] The New York Post gave it a four star rating out of five stating that "The Good, the Bad, the Weird may owe a lot to other films but it is always fresh and never boring".

[17] Empire magazine gave it a three star rating out of five commenting that "A tangled narrative and damp -squib ending detract from an otherwise joyous Spaghetti Eastern Western.

"[18] Time Out critic Tom Huddlestone stated that "This is filmmaking as rodeo ride: bruising and ultimately pointless, but thrilling as hell while it lasts" and awarded the film four out of five stars.

[19] The Hollywood Reporter gave it a positive review declaring the film "a jaunty, happy-go-lucky adventure that packs a fistful of dynamite in the spectacular showdown."

In particular, the Village Voice's Nicolas Rapold mentioned that "Kim's filmmaking is generally cartoonish in a bad sense, as he squanders his set pieces, flashbacks, and other attention-getting with sometimes downright wretched staging"[20] while The Boston Globe wrote that the film "goes for shallow pop instead of narrative depth.

"[21] Additionally, Robert Abele from the Los Angeles Times mentioned that "Knives, explosions and knockabout humor have been added to taste.

As vigorously staged as it all is -- sometimes confusingly, occasionally with camera-torqueing flair and impressive stuntwork -- the urge to thrill grows wearisome.