The film tells the story of surly oil rig worker Bobby Dupea (Nicholson), whose rootless blue-collar existence belies his privileged youth as a piano prodigy.

When Bobby learns that his father is dying, he travels to his family home in Washington to visit him, taking along his uncouth girlfriend (Black).

He spends most of his time with his girlfriend Rayette, a waitress who has dreams of singing country music, or with fellow oil worker Elton, with whom he bowls, gets drunk, and philanders.

At dinner, Bobby meets Catherine Van Oost, a young pianist studying under and engaged to his amiable brother Carl, a violinist.

Shortly into the trip, they stop for gas and coffee; while Rayette's view is obstructed, Bobby hitches a ride on a truck headed north.

[7][8][9][10] Screenwriter Carole Eastman based the scene on a real incident she witnessed at Pupi's Bakery and Sidewalk Café in Los Angeles,[11][12][13][14] where an aggrieved Jack Nicholson pushed all the plates and cups off of a table, and on Rafelson frequently asking for substitutions at restaurants.

Bobby decides to leave both girlfriend and family and abandon life entirely...a truck driver gives him a ride to a place where 'it is very cold': the country of death.

Rafelson and his cameraman László Kovács fix the scene in our minds forever: the filling station and its discreet restroom; the grey surrounding buildings; the dripping autumnal vegetation of the Pacific Northwest; the parked truck waiting to go to Alaska; the face of Nicholson, already aging and filled with premonitory shadows, fixed behind the windshield.

The site's consensus states: "An important touchstone of the New Hollywood era, Five Easy Pieces is a haunting portrait of alienation that features one of Jack Nicholson's greatest performances.

[28] In 2022 retrospective review, Polish writer Jacek Szafranowicz called the film "flawless" and "one of the masterpieces of the New Hollywood era".

[29] On November 16, 1999, Columbia TriStar Home Video released the film on two-sided DVD-Video, featuring both fullscreen (4:3) and widescreen formats.

[39][40] The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection in November 2010 as part of the box set America Lost and Found: The BBS Story.