Emmett (Scott Glenn) is ambushed by three men while he sleeps in an isolated shack. In a brief gunfight, he kills all of the assailants. As he sets out for the town of Silverado, Emmett finds a man, Paden (Kevin Kline), lying in the desert, having been robbed and left to die.
Emmett and Paden stop in the town of Turley, where it turns out that Emmett's brother, Jake (Kevin Costner), is locked up and awaiting hanging for killing a man in self-defense. Paden is thrown in the same cell after he encounters and kills one of the men who robbed him. Emmett aids them in a breakout with the help of Mal (Danny Glover), a cowboy run out of town by sheriff John Langston (John Cleese).
After helping a wagon train of settlers recover stolen money from thieves, then leading them to Silverado, the four men part ways. Emmett and Jake visit their sister, whose husband, the land agent for the area, informs them that rancher Ethan McKendrick (Ray Baker) is attempting to maintain the open range, which he will dominate with his enormous herds of cattle, by driving all lawful claimants off the land. Emmett had killed McKendrick's father years earlier in a gunfight. Emmett also learns that McKendrick hired the men who attempted to kill him upon his release from prison.
Mal finds his father Ezra (Joe Seneca) left destitute after his home had been burned down and his land overrun by cattle. Mal has a sister, Rae (Lynn Whitfield), who has gone off on her own, taking up with Calvin "Slick" Stanhope, a shifty gambler (Jeff Goldblum) who works for McKendrick.
A ruthless sheriff named Cobb (Brian Dennehy), an old acquaintance of Paden's, is now on McKendrick's payroll. Cobb arranges for Paden to supervise the gambling in a saloon owned by Cobb and managed by Stella (Linda Hunt), an honest woman who despises Cobb and welcomes Paden's presence. Hannah (Rosanna Arquette), a young widow from the wagon train, has also caught Paden's eye.
McKendrick's men murder Ezra, burn the land office, and kidnap Emmett's young nephew Augie (Thomas Wilson Brown), so once again, Paden, Mal, Emmett, and Jake join forces to set things right. They stampede McKendrick's cattle to provide cover for a raid on his ranch, in which most of the bandits are killed and the kidnapped boy is rescued.
The men return to town, where, in a series of encounters, each defeats his own personal enemy. First, Jake is hunted by Tyree (Jeff Fahey), Cobb's right hand, whom he outsmarts and shoots dead. Mal rescues Rae from Slick and stabs him fatally with his own knife. Emmett and McKendrick battle on horseback; when Emmett rams McKendrick and his mount from a higher point, his horse's hoof strikes McKendrick in the head and he falls to his death. Finally, Paden faces off with Cobb in a showdown in the street, and is quicker to the draw.
Emmett and Jake leave for California, their long-stated goal, while Mal and his sister reunite and decide to rebuild their father's homestead. Paden is named the new sheriff of Silverado and settles there.
Who plays Tyree?
Jeff Fahey