Synopsis for
Nacho Libre (2006) More at IMDbPro »

Ignacio(Jack Black) is a young orphan boy dreaming of becoming the world's greatest luchador(Spanish wrestler) and decides to test his fighting skills in a monastary graveyard. He is discovered by monks and is taken to be cleansed and made into the orphanage chef. This does not bode well with young Ignacio, but he does his duty even after almost fifteen years, although not entirely successfully..

As an adult, Ignacio still dreams of becoming the ultimate luchador, but has been taught that wrestling is a sin. To make matters worse, he meets his soul mate, a nun, Sister Encarnacion(Ana de la Reguera) who has been hired as the orphans' teacher. He is smitten with her, but knows the relationship will never work for they both have take an oath of celebacy. Nevertheless, he goes to speak with her and invites her to have toast with him in his quarters, but is interrupted by the lead monk(Eduardo Gomez) who tells him to visit a man sick with influenza. Ignacio reluctantly obeys.

Upon arriving at the man's house, Ignacio meets the man's wife and notices that man appears to be deceased. He begins to give a eulogy, only to be interrupted by the sound of the man awakening from his slumber. This terrifies Ignacio and he leaves to take care of other errands. As he traverses through the village on his trademark chariot(motorized chariot-like shopping cart), he stops at a local eatery to pick up the free chips that the restaurant's owner leaves each day for the orphans. He is unexpectedly attacked by an extremely skinny street urchin(Hector Jimenez), who steals the chips and leaves Ignacio bruised and digraced.

That night, on the way back to the orphanage, Ignacio witnesses a luchador, the great Ramses(Cesar Gonzalez), being adored and worshiped by his many fans. Ignacio finds out that a tag-team tournament will be offered to new luchadors, and this grabs the attention of our dismayed hero.

Ignacio and Encarnacion later enjoy toast in Ignacio's quarters and he sheds some light on his past. He then goes on to tell Encarnacion about his feelings of the monastary, and tells her of the luchador he encountered in the village. She tells him that luchadors are false idols, and to be patient, for his hunger to fight should soon pass away.

The next day, the monks complain about the missing chips. Ignacio tries to explain the situation, but his efforts fall on deaf ears. Angered, Nacho leaves the monastary and heads to the village with a handful of leftover chips. He throws them into the alleyway on which he was previously attacked. He waits behind a wall for the homeless assailant to pounce. He almost succedes in sneaking up on him, but gives himself away after breaking wind. He tackles the man and they begin to fight. During the fight, Ignacio asks this man if he would join him in the tournament. At first, Steven, the homeless man, ignores the propostion, but after hearing that there is a grand prize of two-hundred pesos, he decides to team up with Ignacio. They make two makeshift luchador uniforms out of stolen items, train themselves with unusual methods, and then enter into the tournament.

Ignacio and Steven now go by Nacho and Esqueleto(Nacho is a nickname for Ignacio; Esqueleto means "skeleton" in Spanish which suits malnurished Steven perfectly), and face their first two opponents, El Semental(Ignacio Camarena) and El Pony(Carlos Barroso). Esqueleto is struck down by El Semental, but Nacho gives El Pony a run for his money. At one point, it seems that Nacho and Esqueleto are nearing victory, until Nacho is knocked unconcious by El Semental.

Although they failed to win the tournament, Nacho and Esqueleto are given a well-portioned consolation prize. Nacho spends his portion of the winnings on better food for the orphans' meals, and begins to draw out plans for a new uniform, a baby-blue and red one. Luckily, Steven has a knowledge of sewing and helps Ignacio create their new outfits. Chancho(Darius Rose), an orphan child, catches Nacho trying on his outfit in the monastary, but promises to never tell a soul.

As Nacho and Esqueleto prepare for their next fight, Nacho hastles Esqueleto about his beliefs in science, and not in the Lord. He unofficially baptizes him, and then they head on to the fight. This time, they are pitted against two midget wrestlers known as Satan's Cavemen(Agustin Rey and Ricardo Castillo). Although they may be small, they prove worthy adversaries for our heroes, and after much struggle defeat Nacho and Esqueleto. Once again, however, the duo are paid a hefty consolation prize.

This time they spend their cash polishing up their physical appearances. Ignacio buys new clothes and boots, and Steven gets a pedicure and a charicature. Ignacio tells Steven about his feelings for Encarnacion, and Steven concocts a plan. He proposes that Nacho should take Encarnacion on a date, and that he would show up with some of his hobo buddies to beat Nacho up, but that they would let him win. Ignacio likes the sound of this idea.

That night, Ignacio takes Encarnacion out, by telling her that he wants both of them to minister to a bum he claims he saw previously. Once they get there, Nacho says a few cheesy lines, but then notices two gentlemen walking down the street. Thinking that they are Steven's friends, he challenges them to a fight. They ignore him, but he runs up to the two men and rips one of the mens' jackets. They turn and face Ignacio, but he is already in his fighting position. However, he hears Steven's voice far off and sees him with his real hobo friends. This distracts Nacho, giving the two men enough time sucker-punch Ignacio, knocking him unconcious.

The next day, Nacho is humiliated and expresses his anger at Steven for being late. Steven feels bad for Ignacio, and tells him about a secret water gypsy who uses magical eagle eggs to grant peoples' desires. Nacho sees this as an opportunity to gain power as a luchador and the two embark on a journey to see the gypsy. When they arrive, they sail over to a cliff in the water where an eagle's nest is precariously pearched. The gypsy tells Nacho to climb the cliff and to eat one of the eggs, and that this will give him the strength he needs. Ignacio makes the strenuous and difficult climb to the cliff's peak, and cracks open an egg and swallows the yolk inside. He then dives off the cliff into the sea below.

Contrary to the gypsy's promises, Nacho and Esqueleto's next fights against the luchadors Paradise (Albert Madrid), Sage(Lauro Chartrand), and many others prove disastrous. Nacho feels that he was lied to and tells Esqueleto that they need to go pro if they wish to advance in their wrestling careers. He makes a plan to go to a party being thrown by Senor Ramon(Enrique Munoz), the best manager in wrestling.

The next day, Ignacio takes the orphans on a field trip to see the village. He humorously gives insight into the town's various locales, and then he and the orphans see Ramses and other luchadors leaving the gym. The orphans ask Nacho to get Ramses's autograph, but after trying to persuade the wrestler for his signature, Ramses gets annoyed and shoves Nacho into a melon cart. Nacho then gives up trying.

That night, after Steven once again sews new duds for himself and Ignacio to wear to the party, Ignacio tells Encarnacion not to worry about getting the orphans food, but that he would do this himself. Nacho and Esqueleto then head to the party. After failing to get past the party's bouncers, Ignacio boosts Steven over a wall so that he can get in. Although Steven cannot lift Nacho, he is able to sneak in by pretending to be a member of the hired mariachi band. Steven strikes up a conversation with Senor Ramon, who who tells him about an oncomming tournament known as the Battle Jam. The winnner of this competition receives eight-hundred pesos, and is given a chance to fight against the current champion, Ramses. Steven accidnetly attracts the attention of Ramon's plus-sized daughter, Candidia (Carla Jimenez), and she is instantly love-struck.

Meanwhile, Ignacio tries his best to pretend to play the bass guitar with the band. Steven goes upstairs to relax and finds Candidia's extensive doll collection. He accidentally beaks one of the dolls, but is suprised to find Candidia sitting right next to him in the room. She instantly forgives him. Naturally, Steven asks how she got upstairs so fast. Her reply is that she installed secret tunnels throughout the house. Obviously creeped out, Esqueleto makes a mad dash to leave, but Candidia travels down her secret tunnel.

At the same time, Ignacio is asked to sing a song, so he makes one up right on the spot. However, his compostion doesn't go over well, and Ramses shows his disapproval by pouring out his wine on Nacho's shirt. Screams can be heard over the crowd though, and Nacho goes over to see what the matter is. He finds that Candidia is trying to pull Steven into her secret tunnel, and tries to help by slamming her with his bass. He misses, and accidentally hits Steven. The two are then kicked out of the party.

As they travel back to the chariot, they see two rival luchadors, whom Nacho and Esqueleto almost beat, slashing their tires. They engage them, but keep their disatance because their foes have knives. Steven uses an ear of corn he had been munching on as a projectile, and lands it in his foe's eye socket. The duo push the cart back to the orphanage, and then Nacho remembers that he forgot to the get the groceries. It's too late to go back however, because it is now approaching daybreak, so he takes his anger out on Steven. He blames him for his shortcommings and Esqueleto replies by saying that he hates all the orphans in the world.

Later that day, Ignacio attends mass and prays for forgivness and that God would bless him in battle so that he could win money for the orpans. He goes to light a candle at the alter, but accidentally sets his robes on fire. The congregation sees the luchador outfit Nacho was wearing underneath his robes, and soon realizes what he has been doing. Nacho tells the monks and Encarnacion his plan to win the Battle Jam and give his winnings to the orphans for all of their needs. He leaves the orphanage to go to the Battle Jam, where he must fight a variety of fighters all at once. The fighters include Silencio(Donald Chambers), El Snowflake(Craig Williams), Dynasty (Brett Chan), El Chino(Mike Ching), Muneco(Abelardo Hernandez), Carlos Rosales(Emiliano Quiroga), and his trusty companion, Esqueleto. Dynasty, El Snowflake, Muneco, and Carlos Rosales are defeated in the beginning, and Silencio takes out El Chino and Esqueleto at the same time.

Nacho approaches Silencio but for some odd reason, Muneco trips Nacho from outside of the ring causing Nacho to fall in front of Silencio. Silencio picks Nacho up and then drops him, once again knocking our hero unconcious, also once again leaving him defeated. Nacho sullenly returns to the orphanage and decides to give up wrestling and spend the rest of his days in the wilderness. Chancho gives Nacho his lucky machete(his mother gave it to him before she died) and then Nacho heads into the wilderness.

Ignacio creates a makeshift shelter and lives off of cactus water. The next day, however, Steven drives into the wilderness on the chariot and tries to persuade Nacho to come back to wrestling. As it turns out, it was easy for him to find Nacho because although he thought he was in the wilderess, Nacho was really right next to a small village. Esqueleto tells him that Silencio cannot fight Ramses because he got injured(which is humorously shown in a clip where Esqueleto runs over Silencio's foot with the chariot after Silencio was mean to a poor orphan child) and that Nacho gets to fight Ramses because he came in second place. Nacho is reluctant at first, but agrees to fight him.

Ignacio writes a letter to Encarnacion which Steven delivers, which tells her of his love for her and of the fight he will be in against Ramses. While in the locker room, Nacho sings a very comical song to Esqueleto which he wrote for Encarnacion, but he is interrupted by an arena worker who tells him that the fight will now begin. Nacho goes into the ring and the battle against Ramses commences.

Although there are many close calls, Nacho makes it to the second round. Ramses ignores the bell and begins an all-out street fight against Nacho. Ramses seems to have Nacho pinned until Encarnacion enters the arena with the orphans. The sight of his lover gives Nacho the strength to fight back, and he eventually flings Ramses out of the ring. Nacho then climbs up one of the corner pillars of the ring and dive-bombs towards Ramses. It is here that the eagle powers finally kick in and give Nacho the needed air time to reach Ramses and put him into an unbreakable submission. Against all odds, Nacho comes out victorious and is declared the luchador champion.

A week later, Nacho takes Encarnacion, Steven, and the orphans on a field trip to see the Mayan pyramids of Chichen Itza in a newly-purchased bus and closes out this movie with a somewhat disturbing smile.