The film features Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern.

As an example of a director casting against the norm, Blue Velvet is also noted for re-launching Hopper's career and for providing Rossellini with a dramatic outlet beyond the work as a fashion model and a cosmetics spokeswoman for which she had until then been known.

[3] The film centers on college student Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan), who, returning from a hospital visit to his ill father, discovers a human ear in a field in his hometown of Lumberton.

He proceeds to investigate the ear with help from a high school student, Sandy Williams (Dern), who provides him with information and leads from her father, a local police detective.

Jeffrey's investigation draws him deeper into his hometown's seedy underworld, and sees him forming a sexual relationship with the alluring torch singer, Dorothy Vallens (Rossellini), and uncovering psychotic criminal Frank Booth (Hopper), who engages in drug abuse, kidnapping, and sexual violence.