Plot

In 1844, a British mercenary helps the revolting slaves of an Antilles island colony gain independence from Portugal, but later returns to hunt down a local rebel leader and former protégé.

The professional mercenary Sir William Walker instigates a slave revolt on the Caribbean island of Queimada in order to help improve the British sugar trade. Years later he is sent back to deal with the same rebels that he built up because they have seized too much power that now threatens British sugar interests.—Anonymous

Sir William Walker arrived on the island of Queimada in the middle of the 19th century on a secret mission from the British Crown. The Antillean island has borne its name - "the burnt one" - since the warlike attacks of the Portuguese. The Portuguese exterminated the indigenous population with fire and sword and then brought blacks as slaves to the sugar cane plantations, to which the island owes its wealth. In order to enrich themselves from the sugar business, the English now want to bring the island under their influence. In the young black José Dolores, the British adventurer Walker finds a man who seems suitable for his plans. José becomes the leader of an uprising without suspecting that he - like the ambitious Teddy Sanchez - is only a tool of the British and his employers. When Walker has achieved his goal and the British have consolidated their power, he leaves the island. Ten years later he is brought back - this time as a military advisor to an unsuccessful general. Walker is to help him destroy José Dolores and his guerrillas, who have been robbed of the fruits of their struggle.

In 1844, the British Admiralty sends Sir William Walker (Marlon Brando), an agent provocateur, to the island of Queimada (literally "Burned" or "Burnt"), a Portuguese colony in the Lesser Antilles. The British government seeks to open the island to economic exploitation by the Antilles Royal Sugar Company. Walker's task is to organize an uprising of enslaved Africans against the Portuguese regime, which the British government intend to replace with a government dominated by pliable white planters. When he arrives in Queimada, Walker befriends the charismatic José Dolores (Evaristo Márquez), whom he entices to lead the slave rebellion, and induces leading landowners to reject Portuguese rule. Dolores's rebellion is successful, and Walker arranges the assassination of the Portuguese governor in a nighttime coup. Walker establishes a puppet regime beholden to the Antilles Company, headed by the idealistic but ineffectual revolutionary Teddy Sanchez (Renato Salvatori). Walker convinces Dolores to recognize the new regime and to surrender his arms, in exchange for the abolition of slavery. Having succeeded in his mission, he moves on to his next assignment in Indochina. In 1848, Dolores --- disgusted by the new regime's collaboration with the Antilles Company --- leads a second uprising, aiming to expel British influence from Quiemada. After six years of the uprising, in 1854, the Company returns Walker (after finding him in Plymouth, England) to Queimada with the consent of the Admiralty, tasking him with suppressing the revolt and pacifying the island. Resentful of the company's exploitation of Queimada, President Sanchez is uncooperative. Sanchez is ousted and executed in a coup engineered by Walker, who establishes a regime wholly beholden to the company. British forces are invited to the island; guided by Walker, they rapidly quell the rebellion and capture Dolores. Walker attempts to save Dolores's life due to their past camaraderie, but the rebel leader rejects his assistance, asserting that freedom is earned, not received. The government executes Dolores by hanging. Soon after, Walker, guilt-stricken, is accosted as he prepares to depart Queimada. A man greets him just as Dolores did when Walker first arrived on the island, and then stabs him to death. Before dying, Walker looks around and sees himself surrounded by accusatory or passive looks of the poor people in the port.

In the 19th century, the cynical, pragmatic British agent William Walker arrives in Queimada, a Portuguese colony in the Antilles, to promote a revolution and benefit the sugar trade with England. He finds in the water-and-luggage-carrier José Dolores the necessary potential to be the leader of the slave revolt, and the Portuguese troops are expelled from the island; then the provisional government of President Teddy Sanchez assumes the power with the support of the British government. Ten years later, William is hired by the Royal Company that is exploring the sugar cane plantations and the Queimada government to chase José Dolores, who is disturbing the economical interests of England in sugar cane with his army of rebels.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Sir William Walker (Marlon Brando) is called to the island of Queimada in the Antilles to foment a rebellion against Portuguese rule, to benefit British sugar traders. He singles out a porter named José Dolores (Evaristo Márquez) and tries to insult and humiliate him to goad him into betraying some rebellious spirit. When this eventually works, Walker beings to fashion Delores into a revolutionary leader. At the same time Walker meets with the colonial leaders (ethnic Portuguese) and encourages them to lead the revolution, lest the slaves lead the revolution on their own, which would threaten all white infrastructure, and lives, on the island. The revolution succeeds, the Portuguese are expelled, subtle power struggles ensue between the former colonials and the freed black slaves, and the future of sugar exports is uncertain. Having completed his mission, Walker returns to England.

10 years later representatives from a sugar company are trying to find Walker with a business proposition. They find him in the slums of an English city, apparently not living a lifestyle becoming a gentleman of his status, his clothes notwithstanding. He is then charged with ending a rebellion on Queimada between the former slaves and the white rulers.

Upon arriving on Queimada, Walker gives an expository on the phases of rebellion and truce that have transpired on the island in the last 10 years. He sends an envoy to Delores (the same leader as before) inviting him to dialogue. He also sends a familiar alcoholic drink. Delores responds by sending a wagon to a government fortification with three dead soldiers, and the alcohol, making it clear that he is not prepared to talk.

Walker then sets out to destroy the rebellion. First, however, he takes the time to lecture the government leaders that the rebels are desperate and destitute while the government forces are comfortable and have much to lose. This makes the rebel guerrilla far more formidable then that government soldier. The rebellion is crushed with a scorched earth policy which alarms a plantation owner. This also causes the forced relocation of impoverished mountain villagers, whose starvation has probably not been well-known until this point. Delores is captured. While his fate is being decided, a soldier suggests that Delores might not be executed, but jailed, and one day, freed. Delores then pontificates that true freedom is never given freely–it can only be taken by force. At the same time the governor is discussing which form of execution they will use to dispatch the rebel leader. Walker convinces him not to turn him into a martyr but a traitor. When the governor presents Delores with a bribe to leave Queimada forever, the offer is sardonically refused. The next morning, when Walker sees soldiers building a gallows, there is little doubt as for whom it will be used. He helps one of the soldiers make the noose, then proceeds to find Delores unguarded, and cuts his bonds. When Delores meets Walker's instructions on how to escape with stone silence and inaction, he is left to guess the reason for it. Walker's best guess is that it is a kind of "revenge".

As Walker is preparing to leave the island, he is approached by someone from behind who greets him with the same line that Delores greeted him when he first arrived on Queimada. Walker turns around with a smile, expecting someone whom he should know is dead, but his expression changes when their eyes meet. Walker is then knifed in the belly, and collapses.