Based on Nicholas Sparks' 2013 novel of the same name, the film stars Britt Robertson, Scott Eastwood, Jack Huston, Oona Chaplin, and Alan Alda.

Professional bull rider Luke Collins meets Sophia Danko, an art student at Wake Forest University, after she attends a PBR event.

On the way home from their first date, they spot a car crash in the woods and help rescue an elderly man from the vehicle, along with a box full of letters.

He explains the letters are what he wrote as a teen to his late wife, Ruth, and she offers to read them to him, which tell the story of how they met and fell in love in 1940.

In flashbacks, Ruth tells a young Ira that she wants a big family, and he eventually proposes to her before leaving to fight in World War II.

In flashbacks, it is revealed that Ruth, a school teacher, became attached to a young student named Daniel McDonald after finding out she and Ira wouldn't have children of their own.

In April 2014, Fox 2000 Pictures set a film adaptation to be released on April 10, 2015, with George Tillman Jr. in final talks to direct, Craig Bolotin adapting the screenplay, and Britt Robertson as Sophia Danko, Oona Chaplin as Ruth, Scott Eastwood as Luke Collins, Jack Huston as Young Ira, and Alan Alda as old Ira.

The site's critical consensus reads, "The Longest Ride is less manipulative than the average Nicholas Sparks film, but it's still saccharine and hopelessly contrived — not that it'll matter to the target audience.

"[16] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 33 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".