Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis took a fake trailer from Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's 2007 Grindhouse and metaphorically and literally ran with it. The trailer turned into the 2010 feature Machete, which follows a former member of the Mexican Federales, Machete Cortez (Danny Trejo). His corrupt chief double-crosses him and a ruthless drug lord (Steven Seagal) kills Machete’s wife and daughter and leaves him for dead. Three years later, Machete is an illegal immigrant and a renegade living in Texas. A local businessman hires him to assassinate the Lone Star State’s dirty Senator McLaughlin (Robert De Niro), who wishes to close the Mexico-Texas border. Machete is double-crossed again, shot, and learns that he was used as a pawn—labeling an illegal Mexican immigrant as the would-be assassin would drum up support for McLaughlin’s border-closing campaign. Machete soon finds himself on the run from the cops, a sultry U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent (Jessica Alba), and the businessman’s and McLaughlin’s men.