Posted in 1963 in Texas, the plot was followed by Batch Haynes (Costner) while escaping from state prison with his moronic and nasty classmate, Terry (Keith Sharabaka), and they run. This "partnership" is not of the choice: Butch hates the boy's intestines and plans to miss it as soon as possible. However, before he can do so, Terry is breaking into a home and trying to abuse a single mother of three, and Butch should intervene. The management awakens the young Philip, along with neighbors, who wander in the kitchen to find two strange men there. The gun is right in front of him on the floor, and Buch asks him to collect and bring him. But instead of grabbing him from the boy, he told him to tell him and say, "Get him."

It is a crucial moment between the two, as Butch is not trying to threaten or frighten, but comforting, establishing confidence even though he has no reason to do so. He does not plan to kidnap the child, but when his neighbor enters them with a loaded rifle, he decided to take Philip to escape the scene.

When order (Eastwood), Texas Rangers chief, learns about fiasco, he treats him as kidnapping. He goes for two convicts with a team joined by an inexperienced criminologist (Laura Dern) and FBI Marxman (Bradley Whitford) trafficking to capture them before doing so on the Texas border.

Butch never intends to hurt Philip; In fact, he treats him as a son he never had. It is unusual, but charming dynamics between the convicted and innocent child, especially since the first opens the child to a world full of choices and opportunities. He gently deals with him as a young human being whose future is not predetermined by the type of upbringing and the parents he has. Butch inherently understands that the child needs confidence (first and foremost) before he can believe and rely on an adult. And the more kindness and freedom gives Philip, the faster that initial fear in it will fall apart and turn into excitement and nessub.

It is something that works deeply in Butch, rooted in his complicated past - to be the son of a prostitute and a violent/absent father - and whenever he sees what kind of wrong thing he has done to him, he acts with moral ferocity. All that Philip will make is twice as big and exciting, as he is grown as Jehovah's Witness, and deleting the restrictions on that belief is astonishingly exciting for such a young mind. And therefore, Philip learns to trust Butch and understand that he is free to leave when he wants.