In 1890, Frank T. Hopkins and his mustang, Hidalgo, are part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, advertised as "the world's greatest endurance horse and rider."
A famous long-distance racer, cowboy, and dispatch rider for the United States government, Hopkins is plagued by guilt for having carried a message to the 7th Cavalry Regiment authorizing the Wounded Knee Massacre of Lakota Sioux.
Wealthy Sheikh Riyadh sends his attaché Aziz, accompanied by Rau Rasmussen, to challenge Hopkins and Hidalgo to enter the "Ocean of Fire": an annual 3,000-mile race across the Najd desert region for a $100,000 prize.
Hopkins’ fellow performers raise his entrance fee, and he encounters unscrupulous English horse breeder Lady Anne Davenport.
The race begins, and Hopkins and Hidalgo face grueling conditions and contempt for an "infidel" riding an "impure" horse, and survive sabotage and a sandstorm.
The Sheikh prepares to have Hopkins gelded as punishment, but his outcast nephew Katib raids the camp, seeking control of the al-Khamsa line.
Unbeknownst to him, Davenport is in league with Katib; they plan to kill Hidalgo and steal Al-Hattal, allowing her mare to win the race and breed with the Sheikh’s horse.
Hidalgo collapses, and Hopkins considers shooting him in mercy, but a vision of Lakota elders and his mother appears to him as he chants a prayer to Wakan Tanka.
An epilogue reveals that Hopkins went on to reportedly win 400 long-distance races and was an outspoken supporter for wild mustangs until his death in 1951, while Hidalgo's descendants live free in the wilderness of Oklahoma.
Johnny Depp revealed during a sworn testimony at his defamation trial against Amber Heard that Disney offered him the lead role in Hidalgo, but, after reading the screenplay, he turned it down, saying, "I just didn't think it was for me."
[2][3] But, Nakota filmmaker Angelique Midthunder said during the controversy that "the story of the half Indian who took his pinto mustang across the sea to race in the big desert has been told to children of the northern plains tribes for generations.
"[4] Based on Hopkins' account of his mixed-race ancestry, the movie production employed Lakota historians, medicine men, and tribal leaders as consultants to advise during every scene that represented their culture.
[7] The film says that descendants of the horse Hidalgo, for which the movie was named, live among the Gilbert Jones herd of Spanish Mustangs on Blackjack Mountain in Oklahoma.
Fusco offered quotes from surviving friends of Hopkins, notably former distance riders Walt and Edith Pyle, and Lt Col William Zimmerman, along with information found in horse history texts, as verification.
"[13] Gemma Tarlach of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gave it a two-and-a-half out of four rating, calling it "an entertaining but far-short- of-epic popcorn romp that's equal parts Indiana Jones and The Last Samurai.