The El Wray character is taken from the amazing "Planet Terror" movie of Robert Rodriguez (segment of "Grindhouse") and played by the talented and gorgeous Freddy Rodriguez.

The name "El Wray" may be a reference to the place "El Ray" mentioned in Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn, and borrowed as a reference from Sam Peckinpah's classic actioner The Getaway. It also may be a nod to the late guitarist Link Wray whose songs have been featured in both Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's films.

In a rural town in Texas, go-go dancer 'Cherry Darling' (Rose McGowan) decides to quit her low-paying job and find another use for her numerous 'useless' talents. As she meets her ex-boyfriend El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) at the Bone Shack, a restaurant owned by JT Hague (Jeff Fahey), a group of military officials, led by the demented Lt. Muldoon (Bruce Willis), are making a business transaction with a scientist named Abby (Naveen Andrews) for mass quantities of a deadly biochemical agent known as DC2 (codename "Project Terror"), but when Muldoon learns Abby has an extra supply on hand, he attempts to take Abby hostage and as he does, Abby intentionally releases the gas into the air. The gas reaches the town area and turns its residents into deformed bloodthirsty psychopaths, mockingly referred to as "sickos" by the surviving humans. The infected townspeople are treated by the sinister Dr. William Block (Josh Brolin) and his abused, neglected anesthesiologist wife Dakota (Marley Shelton) at a local hospital.

As Cherry and El Wray are attacked by the sickos, Doc Block learns of his wife's plans to abandon him and reunite with her lesbian lover, Tammy (Stacy Ferguson), who was brutally killed by the sickos earlier. Doc Block attacks Dakota with her own anesthetic hypodermic needles, inflicting multiple puncture wounds on her hands as she tries to defend herself. He then locks her in a closet before returning to the overwhelming amount of infected patients, including Cherry who has lost her right leg in a sicko attack. El Wray is detained by Sheriff Hague (Michael Biehn) based on past encounters between the two men. As the patients transform into sickos, El Wray escapes the police station and arrives at the hospital, attaching a wooden table leg to Cherry's stump. As El Wray and Cherry fight their way out of the hospital, Dakota escapes to her car but in trying to open its door with her numbed hands, accidentally breaks her wrist. Meanwhile, Doc Block becomes infected by one of the first sickos, Joe (Nicky Katt), and the others take refuge at the Bone Shack.

Dakota rescues her son Tony and takes him to her father, Earl McGraw (Michael Parks). Tony, who had been given a handgun and was told by his mother to shoot "anyone who isn't me" shoots himself, after being told to be careful where he pointed the gun. Panicking, due to Tony's death and approaching sickos, she pounds on the door and Earl lets her in. Meanwhile, the survivors, including Cherry, El Wray and some of the police, hole up in The Bone Shack. Cherry and El Wray make love in J.T.'s bedroom, and the film catches fire and skips to the next part. After the missing scene, Sheriff Hague has been shot in the neck, sickos have amassed outside and The Bone Shack is burning to the ground. Also, El Wray's past has presumably been told to the sheriff, who has much more respect for him. Dakota, Earl, and Tony's crazed babysitter twins (Electra and Elise Avellan) arrive at the Bone Shack. With Sheriff Hague critically injured, the group decides to flee to the Mexican border, before being stopped by a large mob of sickos. Muldoon's men arrive, and kill the sickos before arresting the rebels. They learn from Abby that the officials are stealing Abby's supply of the gas because they are infected with it and the only treatment is by constant inhalation of the gas, which delays the effects. They also learn that a small percentage of the population is immune to the gas, suggesting a possible treatment, which is why Muldoon quarantined the survivors.

As Cherry and Dakota are taken away by two soldiers who intend to rape them, the others defeat the security guards, with JT receiving a fatal gunshot wound in the process, and search for Muldoon. Discovered by El Wray and Abby, Muldoon explains that he killed Osama bin Laden before he and his men were infected with DC2 and were ordered to protect the area. After killing a mutating Muldoon, El Wray and Abby arrive and save Cherry and Dakota, ultimately replacing Cherry's wooden leg with a custom-made M4A1 carbine assault rifle/M203 grenade launcher. In the final battle, Sheriff Hague dies of his injuries as JT sacrifices himself to eliminate the sickos, shortly before Abby is killed in combat. Doc Block then arrives and is killed by Earl, shortly before the survivors use a nearby helicopter to defeat the remaining sickos. However, while saving Cherry from a sicko, El Wray is shot to death, and the remaining survivors flee. In the epilogue, Cherry (now sporting a Gattling gun prosthetic leg) leads the group to Tulum, Mexico, where they start a new society. In the final moments of the film it is revealed that Cherry Darling has given birth to El Wray's daughter.