A garbage collector (Martin Sheen) and his impressionable girlfriend (Sissy Spacek) kill her father when he disapproves of their relationship, and embark on a homicidal trail of destruction across the Midwestern United States. Based on the true case of Starkweather and Fugate in the 1950s, Terrence Malick's directorial debut has influenced many subsequent writers and directors - notably Quentin Tarantino whose screenplays for 'True Romance' and 'Natural Born Killers' owe 'Badlands' an obvious debt.