Young Guns is a 1988 American Western action film[2] directed and produced by Christopher Cain and written by John Fusco.

It stars Emilio Estevez as Billy, and Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, and Casey Siemaszko as the other Lincoln County Regulators.

[1] The first film to be produced by Morgan Creek Productions, Young Guns opened at number one at the US box office and eventually grossed $56 million against an $11-million budget.

In 1870s Lincoln County, New Mexico, English cattleman John Tunstall hires a wayward young gunman named William “Billy the Kid” Bonney to join the "Regulators" who lived and worked on his ranch: Doc Scurlock, Jose Chavez y Chavez, Dick Brewer, "Dirty" Steve Stephens, and Charlie Bowdre.

Tunstall tries to educate and civilize the young men in his employ, and clashed with rival rancher Lawrence Murphy, a well-connected Irishman in league with the corrupt House.

As New Year's Day started, Murphy's men kill Tunstall, leading his lawyer friend Alexander McSween to arrange for the Regulators to be deputized and given warrants for the killers' arrest.

Chavez reveals that Murphy's corruption led to the brutal murders of his mother and her Navajo tribe, and urged the others to abandon their need for bloodshed, but Billy takes charge as their new leader, determined to avenge Tunstall.

Trapped in the burning attic, the gang throws Alex's possessions out of the window, including a trunk with Billy inside, allowing him to surprise their attackers.

In addition, Tom Cruise briefly appears in a nonspeaking cameo role as one of Murphy's henchmen that is shot and killed by Charlie during the climatic shootout.

[8] Screenwriter John Fusco developed an interest in Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War while living in the American Southwest in the 1970s.

Cain committed to the project after reading just sixteen pages of Fusco’s first draft, and suggested Emilio Estevez for the leading role, following their collaboration on That Was Then...

James Horner, whom director Cain had previously worked with on The Stone Boy (1984) and Where the River Runs Black (1986), was originally hired as the film's composer.

New Mexico historian Paul Andrew Hutton called Young Guns the most historically accurate of all Billy the Kid films as of June 1990.

[citation needed] Artistic licenses include the age of John Tunstall, who was 24-years old at death, but is played by then-49-year old Terence Stamp and is depicted as a father figure to the Regulators, when in fact he was only six years older than Billy.

The AFI Catalog notes that characteristics of Regulators John Middleton and Yginio Salazar are absorbed into the film’s depictions of Stephens and Chavez.