Rolling Thunder is a 1977 American psychological thriller film directed by John Flynn, from a screenplay by Paul Schrader and Heywood Gould, based on a story by Schrader. It was produced by Norman T. Herman, with Lawrence Gordon as executive producer. The film stars William Devane in his first lead role alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Haynes, James Best, Dabney Coleman, and Luke Askew in supporting roles.
Rolling Thunder was released on October 7, 1977, in United States and it was also released in seven more countries. Upon release, the film received generally positive reviews from critics. The film received praise for its action sequences, atmosphere, direction, music, and cast performances. However, it was criticized for its pace and violent climax.
Plot
In 1973, U.S. Air Force Major Charles Rane returns home to San Antonio with U.S. Army Master sergeant Johnny Vohden and two other soldiers, having spent seven years as a POW in Hanoi. He finds a home very different from the one he left: his son Mark no longer remembers him, and his wife Janet is affianced to local policeman Cliff Nichols despite still having feelings for Rane. Stoically accepting this, Rane focuses his energies on building a fatherly relationship with Mark, but privately self-imposes the same institutionalized regime he maintained while in captivity. At a grand homecoming ceremony, Rane is presented with a Cadillac and 2,555 silver dollars – one for every day he was captive, plus one for luck – by Linda Forchet, a "Texan belle" who wore his ID bracelet every day he was in Vietnam. Linda later makes advances toward him, but Rane has difficulty returning her affections.
When Rane returns home one day, four border outlaws are waiting for him: "The Texan", "Automatic Slim", "T-Bird" and "Melio". Having seen a report about his homecoming ceremony on television, they torture Rane for his silver dollars. Rane is unresponsive, having flashbacks to his torture in Hanoi. The gang resorts to shoving Rane's hand down a garbage disposal, mangling it. Upon their return home, Janet and Mark are immediately taken hostage. After Mark surrenders the dollars in an effort to save his father's life, the gang shoots the family and leaves them for dead; Rane survives, but his wife and son do not.
Rane recuperates in a hospital, where Linda and Vohden visit him. Uncertain about what to do with his life, Vohden has signed on for another ten years in the Airborne Division. Rane withholds the identities of his attackers from Cliff and prepares to take revenge. Upon discharge, he saws down the double-barrelled shotgun Mark and Cliff had given to him as a present, and sharpens the prosthetic hook which has replaced his right hand. Before Rane leaves for Mexico, Linda agrees to accompany him, unaware of his true intentions. He sends her into a seedy Mexican bar to look for "Fat Ed". She is taken into a backroom where Lopez, a sleazy lowlife, immediately harasses her; Rane rescues her while extracting some information. Realizing Rane's scheme, Linda begrudgingly continues to help. In a bar in a nearby town, they find Automatic Slim. A vicious fight ensues; Rane escapes only by wounding Automatic Slim in the crotch with his hook hand.
Meanwhile, Cliff discovers Rane's plan after finding the shotgun's sawn-off barrel. Using his police contacts to trace Rane's car, he travels to the town where Rane encountered Lopez. He is led to Lopez, and they scuffle. After Lopez leads Cliff on a foot-chase through a stockyard into an abandoned house, a gunfight follows. Cliff kills Lopez and two other attackers before Automatic Slim sneaks up from behind and shoots him dead.
Linda and Rane grow close while on the road; Linda describes her tomboy past, and Rane talks about the things he liked before the war. In a motel in El Paso, the pair share a moment of intimacy, during which Linda tries to talk Rane out of revenge one last time. He leaves a sleeping Linda behind in the motel with a sizable sum of money, and despite her earlier insistence that she would call the police, she cannot bring herself to do so.