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Major Charles Rane comes back from the Vietnam war and is given a number of gifts from his hometown because he is a hero. A group of sadistic thugs decide that they want to steal a number of silver dollars from him and in the process kill his wife and son and destroy his hand. The Major wants revenge so he enlists the help of his war buddy Johnny to meet the thugs in a final showdown.
William Devane plays a rare sympathetic role in ROLLING THUNDER, though his behaviour is just as cold-blooded and sharkish as in any of his villainous assignments. Devane is cast as Maj. Charles Rane, a recently released Vietnam POW who is given a hero`s welcome in his Texas hometown. Things sour pretty quickly, however: Rane`s wife has lost all love for him, his son doesn`t recognize him, and there are those in town who consider him a loser or baby-killer. All he really has to show for his ordeal in Nam is a cache of silver coins bestowed on him by the more sympathetic townsfolk. A scumbag gang of thieves decides to relieve Rane of his money; they kill his family, then torture and disfigure Rane to ascertain the whereabouts of the coins. Now living only for vengeance, the taciturn Rane heads to Mexico to exact his own brand of justice on the fleeing crooks. Tommy Lee Jones co-stars as Rane`s best friend, Johnny Vohden, who unquestioningly agrees to help Rane in his mission of revenge.
