The De La Vega's are a wealthy and prestigious family known throughout the territory. When the youngest son of Don Alejandro de La Vega (Monteczuma), Diego(Rodolfo de Anda), returns from his 4 year stay in Spain, he finds him hometown oppressed by the corrupt military forces. The farmers are being run out of their homes and their land is being used as military camps and/or sold off to pay for military supplies and wages, along with taking the poor villagers and using them as slaves.
Le territoire est sous dictature militaire. Les fermiers voient leurs biens saisis et les villageois sont utilisés comme esclaves. Zorro est le seul à oser s'opposer à l'armée et il a juré de restaurer l'ordre et de libérer les opprimés. Cependant, pour la plupart, Zorro est un mythe.
Set in an indeterminate year of the 1840s, the film opens in a villa in Madrid, Spain, where Don Diego Vega (George Hamilton), the archetypal Spanish Don Juan, is in bed with a beautiful woman who, we learn shortly, is not his wife, but someone else's. The couple are caught by her husband, Garcia, who "is not in Barcelona", as they had previously thought. Diego, with considerable panache, fights Garcia and his five brothers with swords. During the fight, Diego's mute servant Paco (Donovan Scott) reads a letter (via gestures) from Diego's father requesting that Diego return to California [then a part of Mexico]. Diego and Paco escape by jumping from a high wall directly into a waiting carriage.
In 1850 (nine years after the events of the first film), California is voting on whether to join the United States of America as a state. A wild gunman with wooden teeth, Jacob McGivens, attempts to steal some ballots, but Zorro chases after him and recaptures the votes. In their scuffle, McGivens pulls off Zorro's mask. A pair of Pinkerton agents recognize him as Don Alejandro de la Vega. Zorro fashions a makeshift mask from his costume and rides off on his stallion, Tornado, to deliver the votes to the governor. Upon returning to his mansion, Alejandro is greeted by his loving wife, Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Elena believes that Alejandro can now up give his alter ego, but Alejandro is sure that the people will still need him. The next day, after sending their son Joaquin to school, Elena is confronted by the Pinkertons, who disclose their knowledge of Zorro's identity. Soon after, Elena is forced to have Alejandro served with divorce papers.
Californie, 1840. Le vicomte de Texmelucan organise une fête pour recevoir son fils de retour de ses études d'escrime en Italie. Mais le jeune homme s'avère être un lâche fuyant à la moindre occasion. Alors qu'il fuyait un duel, il sauve une sorcière. Pour le remercier, celle-ci lui donne une pommade qui le rend invincible pendant une heure. Le jeune Tin aura seulement trois chances pour sauver son père des injustices du gouverneur Marcelo.
It's 1865 and the telegraph is heading west. George Crane, wanting to keep law and order out of his territory, is out to stop the construction. One of the main engineers on the job is Ken Mason, the grandson of the original Zorro. As Crane hires his men to stop the work, Mason finds himself in the legendary role his ancestor originated.
A man returning home after having fought in the Civil War discovers that corrupt politicians have taken over the county and are terrorizing and shaking down the citizens. He dons the costume of his ancestor, the famous Zorro, and sets out to bring them to justice.
Le jeune Flem Mascaslim ce soit un obstacle à Bill Warner et, comme son père a fait, essayer de se débarrasser de celui-ci de reprendre son ranch. Avec son directeur élabore un plan: sera arrêté sur des soupçons de cambrioler une banque et présenter des faux témoins de sa peine. Mais la Fox parvient à libérer le garçon, le mettre en toute sécurité à la maison d'un ami et sa fille.
In 1821, Don Diego De La Vega (Anthony Hopkins) fights against the Spanish in the Mexican War of Independence as Zorro, a mysterious swordsman who defends the Mexican peasants and commoners of Las Californias. Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson), the governor of the region, learns of De La Vega's alter ego, and attempts to arrest him. De La Vega's wife is killed during the scuffle. Montero imprisons De La Vega and takes his infant daughter, Eléna, as his own. Twenty years later Montero returns to California as a civilian, alongside Eléna (Catherine Zeta Jones), who has grown into a beautiful woman. Montero's reappearance coincides with De La Vega's escape from prison. He encounters a thief, Alejandro Murrieta (Antonio Banderas), who, as a child, once did Zorro a favor. De La Vega decides that fate has brought them together, and agrees to make Alejandro his protégé, grooming him to be the new Zorro. Murrieta agrees to undergo De La Vega's training regimen in order to be able to take revenge on Captain Harrison Love (Matt Letscher), Montero's right-hand man, who was responsible for killing Murrieta's brother, Joaquin.
The Mark of Zorro tells the story of Don Diego Vega, the outwardly foppish son of a wealthy ranchero Don Alejandro in the old Spanish California of the early 19th century. Seeing the mistreatment of the peons by rich landowners and the oppressive colonial government, Don Diego, who is not as effete as he pretends, has taken the identity of the masked Robin Hood-like rogue Señor Zorro ("Mr. Fox"), champion of the people, who appears out of nowhere to protect them from the corrupt administration of Governor Alvarado, his henchman the villainous Captain Juan Ramon and the brutish Sergeant Pedro Gonzales (Noah Beery, Wallace Beery's older half-brother). With his sword flashing and an athletic sense of humor, Zorro scars the faces of evildoers with his mark, "Z".
Don Diego Vega (Tyrone Power) is urgently called home by his father. To all outward appearances, he is the foppish son of wealthy ranchero and former Alcade Don Alejandro Vega (Montagu Love), having returned to California after his military education in Spain. Don Diego is horrified at the way the common people are mistreated by the corrupt Alcalde, Luis Quintero (J. Edward Bromberg), who had forced his father from the position. Don Diego then adopts the guise of El Zorro ("The Fox"), a masked outlaw, who becomes the defender of the common people and a champion for justice. Meanwhile, he romances the Alcalde's beautiful and innocent niece, Lolita (Linda Darnell), whom he grows to love. As part of his plan, Don Diego simultaneously flirts with the Alcalde's wife Inez (Gale Sondergaard), filling her head with tales of Madrid fashion and culture and raising her desire to move there with her corrupt husband. In both his guises, Don Diego must contend with the governor's ablest henchman, the malevolent Captain Esteban Pasquale (Basil Rathbone). He eventually dispatches the Captain in a fast-moving rapier duel-to-the-death, forcing a regime change, Don Diego's plan all along.
The plot follows the 1940 version almost scene-for-scene. In the 1840s, the foppish Don Diego Dela Vega returns from Spain to his family in California to find that his father has been replaced as ruler of the area by the cruel ruler Don Luis Quintero. Despite being a skilled swordsman, Diego downplays his skills in front of the evil Captain Esteban and shows himself to be rather a clown in front of his family. However, Diego secretly picks up the sword of justice as Zorro and fights to return justice to the region and his people.