There’s something spectacular about cowboys of the 1800s wielding high-tech cannons, flying machines, and massive tanks.

By taking an era that’s still decades away from the first car and adding engineering feats such as these, the film takes an already action-packed genre and turns it into something even more exciting to watch.

The absurdly awesome plot of Wild Wild West revolves around Kevin Kline and Will Smith’s mission to stop an evil scientist from annihilating the United States with a giant flamethrowing mechanical spider (fabulous, right?). The two use a host of gadgets to battle Dr. Loveless, and these gadgets take center stage.

Though the film was a dud with critics, that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable to watch. The banter between Smith and Kline is humorous enough, and the blending of high-tech machines with Western movie staples is pretty fantastic. For instance, at the end of the movie it appears that Kline and Smith are riding off into the sunset, Lone Ranger and Tonto style, after saving the day, but as the camera pans out we see it’s not horses the two are riding on, but Dr. Loveless’s hydraulically powered spider.

It’s scenes like this that make Wild Wild West a fun ride for audiences, and there’s a lot of them.

From cannons strapped to locomotives to giant steam-powered tanks shooting at ex-Confederate soldiers, the film combines imaginative technological wonders with what we’ve come to expect from the normal Western genre.

— by Jennifer Downing