Rolling Thunder

1977
X
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

13K

YOUR RATING

Tommy Lee Jones, William Devane, Luke Askew, and James Best in Rolling Thunder (1977)

Play trailer2:31

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77 Photos

Crime Drama Thriller

A recently-returned Vietnam POW loses his family and his right hand during a violent home invasion, and seeks retribution against those responsible.A recently-returned Vietnam POW loses his family and his right hand during a violent home invasion, and seeks retribution against those responsible.A recently-returned Vietnam POW loses his family and his right hand during a violent home invasion, and seeks retribution against those responsible.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

13K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer 2:31

Rolling Thunder

Photos77

+ 69

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
James Best initially turned down playing the role of the Texan because he objected to the profanity in the script. However, he eventually agreed to play the part after he learned that both William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones were attached to the movie. Best put ice cubes under his cowboy hat to convey that his character was always sweating.

Goofs
When Rane threatens to shoot Lopez, it is clear that his missing tooth is just a black cap, as it shines in the light.

Quotes
Major Charles Rane: I found them.
Johnny: Who?
Major Charles Rane: The men who killed my son.
Johnny: I'll just get my gear.
Major Charles Rane: They're in a whorehouse over in Juarez right now. There's the four that came into my home, and there's eight or ten others.
Johnny: Let's go clean em' up.

Connections
Featured in Sneak Previews: Take 2: Vietnam Movies (1980)

Soundtracks
San Antone
Written by Barry De Vorzon (uncredited)
Sung by Denny Brooks

User reviews110

Review

Featured review

9/10

A powerful revenge movie, sadly obscure.

Screenplay of "Rolling Thunder" was co-written by Paul Schrader, who had just written "Taxi Driver". I feel this is William Devane's best movie, and a powerful start for Tommy Lee Jones. This is one dark movie, almost as dark as "Taxi Driver", and it misses by "not much". Basically, a gang of no-neck Bubbas do in Devane's wife and child, yet he survives the robbery. It is then revenge time, and the remainder of the movie is "out to kill", and kill it does. Devane and Jones, as recently returned inmates of the Hanoi Hilton are, in their own ways, tightly wrapped around the axle. At the movie's end, let it suffice to be known, they indeed find the bad guys. It is a real squeaker about just who the bad guys really are in this post-Vietnam movie.