Genre: Drama/Western/Romance
Director: Taylor Sheridan
Writer: Dwight Gallo
Cast: Tom Cruise, Kate Mara, Glen Powell, Danny McBride, Lynn Collins, Peter Weller, Stacy Keach, Steve Zahn, Brec Bassinger, Jon Bernthal
Plot: Lucy Granger (Kate Mara) sits in a mostly empty old greyhound bus as it makes its way across the border from New Mexico into the western regions of Texas. She sits with her head against the window as the arid scenery passes by.
Jack Wheeler (Tom Cruise) sits in a trailer. He bandages up some nasty bruises on his ribs. Jack rummages through a pile of clothes in boots on the floor until he finds a small bottle of pills. He pops a fistful of painkillers and washes them down with a swig of beer. Jack grabs his hat and exits the trailer.
Lucy gets off the bus in Odessa, Texas. She looks around until a pickup truck honks at her. She gets into the truck, greeting her brother Luke Granger (Glen Powell). He speeds away from the station, saying he's got to get back quickly as he's due to ride after Jack Wheeler.
Jack walks through the set-up of a rodeo. Fans wave at him and ask for pictures. He tells them to ask after the event as he's due up next. Lucy and Luke arrive as Jack is mounting a bull in the chute. Luke tells his sister he has to hurry and gear up. Lucy watches as Jack struggles with the bull, who is already fighting in the chute. The gate of the chute suddenly opens. The bull burst out, with Jack hanging on for dear life with his riding hand as it bucks and kicks. The crowd begins counting toward the required 8 seconds, but Jack is bucked off after 7.5. Jack grimaces in pain as he hits his already bruised-up side onto the dirt. The lead rodeo clown, Jimmy Hoyt (David Spade), runs into the ring to distract the bull, allowing Jack to limp off. When he sees that he failed to last 8 seconds, Jack throws his hat down in disgust and storms back to his trailer. Luke is up next, and it looks more effortless for him. After 8 seconds are passed, Luke stays on for a couple extra seconds to show off before hopping off and sauntering out of the ring. Jack’s frustration at failing on his turn is made worse by Luke’s show-boating.
That night, Jack is drinking in the rodeo's beer tent. He pops a few more pills as he watches Luke and Lucy walk by. They walk to the office of the rodeo producer, Dick Arbus (Danny McBride). Luke reminds Dick that they talked about Lucy being a singer on the tour. Dick says he trusts Luke's word on her voice, but the big man - West Texas Rodeo general manager Owen Marchand (Peter Weller) - is not going to sign off on a new singing hire without hearing her sing in front of an audience. Luke is frustrated as he thought there was already a deal in place for his sister. Lucy says it's fine and points out the window toward the beer tent, suggesting she sing in front of whatever audience is there.
Jack is still drinking when his ex-wife Sara Arbus (Lynn Collins), who has since remarried to Dick, sits next to him. She tells him that he looked rough out there tonight. Lucy is brought out to sing in the beer tent. Dick sits down next to Owen, who has entered to hear the singing. Lucy sings. Jack watches Lucy sing intently. Owen doesn't seem particularly impressed, but agrees to hire her anyway.
Dick and Sara show Lucy around the rodeo just as everything is shutting down for the night. They introduce her to the ever-chipper Amber Aldeen (Brec Bassinger), the West Texas Rodeo Princess - an ambassador of sorts for the circuit. They continue showing her around the various stables. Sara asks what brought her to the rodeo. Lucy says she needed to make a change for the better.
Owen talks with Luke, saying that the rodeo hiring his down-on-her-luck sister will help convince him that the West Texas Rodeo is the best place for his talents. Luke looks Owen straight in the eyes and tells him that he'll go where the money takes him. Owen admits that he may not be able to pay him as much as other circuits could once his contract is up, but he hopes Luke remembers who gave him his first real shot.
Jack wakes up in the morning still in the beer tent, with an empty bottle of whiskey on the table in front of him. He stumbles past Amber giving a tour of the rodeo grounds to a group of girls. Amber points Jack out to the girls as a famous bull rider, but only one recognizes him - mentioning that her dad was a big fan back in the day. Jack makes his way to the stables where Sara is feeding the horses. Jack asks Sara to put in a good word for him with the new girl. Sara laughs at the idea and tells Jack to go sober up so that maybe he can last longer than 7 seconds on a bull that afternoon.
At the end of the day, Jack is drinking beers with Jimmy and the other rodeo clowns when he hears Lucy begin a sound check for her first singing performance at the rodeo. After her sound check, Lucy walks over to Jack and asks how he liked the song. Jack smiles and says he liked it. Lucy comments that it's funny that she's meeting him now since Luke used to always have posters of Jack on his bedroom wall growing up, not that he'd ever admit to it now. Lucy's ex-husband Cole (Jon Bernthal) shows up demanding to talk to her. While yelling for Lucy, he recognizes Jack from a past rodeo in New Mexico. Jack thanks Cole for remembering him as not many do these days. He talks with Cole for a few minutes and manages to talk him down, convincing him to come back some other time when things aren't quite so tense. On his way out, Cole yells for Lucy that he’ll be back another day.
After the tense situation with Cole, Jack grabs a drink in the beer tent. Lucy enters to thank him and apologizes for Cole. They have a drink together. Lucy explains that she left Cole a while back, but he clearly is unable to move on. Jack jokes that he sees his ex-wife every single day. Lucy is surprised by that until he says he used to be married to Sara, but she’s found a much better situation for herself with Dick. Lucy then asks Jack to dance with him. Jack says he isn’t much of a dancer. She jokes that he can simply wrap his arms around her and sway. Dick and Sara enter the tent and see the two dancing. Dick jokingly asks Sara which is going to break the other’s heart. Sara looks at them dancing and says it will probably be both of them.
During the next show, Luke gets thrown off a new bull the rodeo has acquired. Jimmy runs out to distract the bull and allow Luke to get out of the ring. Jack tells Luke that he needs to loosen up his hips a bit extra with this bull from the looks of it. Luke angrily asks why he would take advice from a has-been. Jack shrugs off the insult and gets ready for his turn. Jack hangs on tight as the bull twists and turns, trying to shake him off. When Jack hears the 8 second buzzer blare, he expertly hops off the bull and hustles out of the ring as the crowd erupts in cheers.
Jack sits down for a beer and watches Lucy sing. Owen sits down next to him and commends him on a good ride earlier. Owen then notices how Jack is paying attention to Lucy and says that if all it takes is a cute redhead to get Jack riding like a champ again he could have done something about that a long time ago. Owen can tell Jack isn’t in the mood for talking to him so he gets up, but reminds Jack that they are moving along to the next town in the morning.
In the morning, everyone is loading up for the next leg of the rodeo. Lucy asks to ride with Jack up to Amarillo. As they drive, Jack has trouble keeping his hands steady and pulls over his truck. Lucy asks what’s wrong. He admits that he hasn’t been taking painkillers lately like he usually does. She asks why not, and he tells her that the pills make everything feel numb - physically and emotionally - and he didn’t want to feel that way around her.
The rodeo arrives in Amarillo. Sara asks Jack if he’s going to visit his father this time around. Jack admits that he isn’t sure as things didn’t really go great last time. Sara says that she thinks he should man up and do it. During the show, Jack continues to improve and slowly sober up as he bonds more with Lucy. As they lay in the bed of a pickup truck looking up at the stars, she asks him why he hasn’t retired like most of the other riders he came up with. Jack thinks about it for a moment. He then says that he’s only ever been good at two things: riding bulls and drinking.
Luke rides the same new bull again and is once again bucked off early. This time he hits and ground and hears a snap in his ribs. He is unable to get up on his own. Jimmy works at distracting the bull while Dick leads the paramedics into the ring to quickly carry Luke out of the ring on a stretcher. He is taken off in an ambulance to the local hospital.
Jack and Lucy visit Luke in the hospital. Amber has already surrounded Luke’s bed with flowers to make him feel better. Luke broke three ribs and fractured his hip in the fall. Jack advises Luke to go easy on the painkillers so he doesn’t get addicted to them. Before Jack leaves, Luke says that he was right about the bull - he should have loosened his hips more, but he didn’t want the advice at the time.
When Jack and Lucy return to the rodeo grounds, they find Cole waiting. He tells Lucy that he’s given her all the time in the world, but now she needs to come home with him. He then notices Lucy holding Jack’s hand. This enrages him. He calls her a whore and grabs Lucy by the arm. Jack shoves Cole away from her. Cole throws a punch at Jack, which he just manages to dodge. Jack tells Cole that he doesn’t want to fight. Cole then comments that he wouldn’t want to find himself either and swings another punch at Jack, this time landing and knocking Jack to the ground. Jack gets back up and fights back, landing several punches against the bigger, stronger Cole. Dick and Sara come upon the scene and ask Lucy what’s going on. She explains the situation. Dick tries to de-escalate the situation, but Cole gains the upper hand over Jack and knocks him back to the ground. Dick inserts himself into the fray, insisting that Cole leave or he’ll call the police. Cole laughs at the idea and punches Dick. Cole then goes to grab Lucy again, but Owen emerges and pumps his shotgun. He tells Cole to get away from his workers at once. Cole wipes a bit of blood from his mouth and stares down Owen. Jack manages to get back up onto his feet and lands a clean punch to Cole’s face, knocking him out. Lucy runs over to Jack and Sara runs over to Dick. Owen asks Amber to call the police to take Cole away.
Lucy nurses Jack’s wounds in the medical trailer. He jokes that it’s been a while since anything other than a bull beat him up, then apologizes for his inability to protect her from Cole. Lucy kisses Jack and tells him that she wants to be with him.
In the morning, Lucy drives Jack out to a ranch outside Amarillo. She asks Jack if he wants her to come inside with him, but Jack says she should wait in the truck for now. Jack goes to knock on the door, where he is greeted by his father Chance Wheeler (Stacy Keach). As they awkwardly catch up, Jack asks his father why he bought a ranch out in the middle of nowhere that he’s too old to be working now. Chance tearfully tells Jack that he bought it to give to him when he retired from bull riding, but that was nearly two decades ago. Jack smiles and says that he really should have taken his advice and retired a long time ago - but everything seems to work out the way it does for a reason. The advice made him angry when he was younger, but he gets it now.
Jack and Chance leave the house, where Jack introduces his father to Lucy. Together they walk the land of the ranch. When they get back to the house, Chance asks Jack if he wants it. Jack asks what the rush is. Chance says he’s an old man and his health isn’t what it once was, so he doesn’t know how much time he has left, but he wants to know that Jack will be alright before he kicks the bucket. Chance holds out his hand for Jack to shake. Jack pushes the hand aside and gives his father a hug instead.
Jack and Lucy drive back toward the rodeo. Jack smiles at Lucy, and she holds his hand.
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