The film stars William Devane alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Haynes, James Best, Dabney Coleman, and Luke Askew in supporting roles.

The story follows a Vietnam War veteran who, after returning home to tragedy, sets out on a mission of revenge against the criminals who destroyed his family.

In 1973, U.S. Air Force Major Charles Rane returns home to San Antonio with U.S. Army Master Sergeant Johnny Vohden and two other soldiers, having spent seven years as a POW in Hanoi.

He finds a home very different from the one he left: his son Mark no longer remembers him, and his wife Janet is engaged to local policeman Cliff Nichols despite still having feelings for Rane.

Stoically accepting this, Rane focuses his energies on building a fatherly relationship with Mark, but privately self-imposes the same institutionalized regime he maintained while in captivity.

After Mark surrenders the dollars in an effort to save his father's life, the gang shoots the family and leaves them for dead; Rane survives, but his wife and son do not.

Upon discharge, he saws down the double-barrelled shotgun Mark and Cliff had given to him as a present, and sharpens the prosthetic hook which has replaced his right hand.

He leaves a sleeping Linda behind in the motel with a sizable sum of money, and despite her earlier insistence that she would call the police, she cannot bring herself to do so.

He signals to Vohden, kicking off a bloody shootout in which the Texan, T-Bird, Melio and several other men are shot dead before the final standoff between Rane and Automatic Slim.

"[4] In the original script, Rane was a "a Texas trash racist who had become a war hero without ever having fired a gun",[5] and the story ended in his death.

[5] Schrader's original script was also a companion piece to Taxi Driver (1976),[6][7] which contains several references to Operation Rolling Thunder, and included a cameo appearance by that film's protagonist Travis Bickle.

[10] Other actors considered for the lead role were Joe Don Baker and David Carradine, but both declined upon reading the script.

The producer, Lawrence Gordon, told me to shoot the garbage disposal scene like open-heart surgery, make it as bloody as I possibly could.

When we submitted Rolling Thunder to the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) for a rating, we expected deep cuts, but the censors passed uncut one of the most violent movies in the history of film.

[10]The production was denied permission to film at Lackland Air Force Base, so the opening sequence was shot at a nearby civilian airport instead.

In his book, Adventures in the Screen Trade, William Goldman characterized this as "the most violent sneak reaction of recent years ... the audience actually got up and tried to physically abuse the studio personnel present among them.

So, seeing it incited a (negative) reaction akin to the sneak of the original Exorcist ...Home is supposedly the place where everyone feels safest.

"[11] For reasons still not convincingly stated, the film was released in Spain in 1982 as El expreso de Corea ("The Korean Express"), sometimes spelled in the media with a hyphen (ex-preso), which translates as "The former prisoner [literally, convict] from Korea".

A possible reason could be the title's slight similarity with the hugely successful El expreso de medianoche (Midnight Express), which was released earlier in Spain.

However, the replacement of Vietnam by Korea is still left unexplained—even more so considering the fact that the time span of the Korean War, 1950–1953, conflicts with the alleged 7-year stay as POWs in the camp and the actual 1973 setting of the film.

Upon release, Rolling Thunder received praise for its action sequences, atmosphere, direction, music and cast performances, but was criticized for its pace and violent climax.

[15][16][17] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote in his review, "Flynn's crisp, laconic direction and evocative use of Southern Texas locations transform Rolling Thunder, now at area theaters, into a more distinctive exploitation movie than it deserves to be.

"[18] Vincent Canby of The New York Times noted that "the movie has some good things, but in the way it has been directed by John Flynn it moves so easily and sort of foolishly toward its violent climax, that all the tension within the main character Charlie has long since escaped the film.

"[20] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three stars out of four and wrote that "what I like about Rolling Thunder is not the predictable orgy of violence that concludes the picture, but what goes on before—the return of the veteran to his hometown and disjointed family.[21] ...