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Turtles in Movies   El Mariachi (1992)   Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.   This is the feature film debut of Texas filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. In this movie, a traveling mariachi is hunted by a gang who want to kill him because they think he's someone else. At the beginning of the movie we see the mariachi holding a guitar case on a country road trying to thumb a ride as a truck passes him. In a voiceover about his past, he talks about seeing a turtle walking on the road just like he was doing. Both were taking their time getting to where they are going, but what he didn't know then is that his time was running out. At the end of the movie, we see the mariachi in front of the same road sign we saw in the beginning. This time he is sitting on a motorcycle with a dog, talking about how with the dog and the weapons he is carrying, he's prepared for the future. Then we see a tortoise walk in front of him as he rides away on the motorcycle. I can't tell for sure, but I suspect the turtle is a Texas Tortoise due to the location of the shoot. But I suppose they could have brought any species to the set.