Sailor (good period Nicolas Cage in a role that would absolutely not surprise you) is in love with Lula (Laura Dern). Lula loves Sailor. So far, so good. Throw in Lula’s completely wackadoo mother, Marietta (Diane Ladd), who is out to kill Sailor for reasons we eventually learn and now the story starts cooking with kerosene.

The couple go on the run after Sailor gets paroled from prison for manslaughter. They get the hell out of Dodge and head west. First stop, the big NO. Marietta wants her daughter back with her and wants Sailor dead so she sends not one but two people to accomplish the task. One, her lover and private dick Johnnie Farragut (Harry Dean Stanton) and the other, her lover from another mother, Marcello Santos (J.E. Freeman), a local crime boss. Farragut tells Marietta he’ll get Lula back but he doesn’t want anything to do with killing. Santos is happy to murder anyone and everyone. Sailor and Lula manage to get away from New Orleans without being caught but not before they have a hell of a lot of sex.

Back on the road, they drive through Texas and stop in Big Tuna. Yeah, it looks exactly how you’d picture a town in Texas called Big Tuna, replete with the weirdest mix of characters staying at the local motel you’re likely to find, even for a Lynch film. Among the guests are both Jack Nance and John Lurie. Honestly, had Tom Waits shown up to sing a song and murder a bunch of hobos, it would not have surprised me. Also, among the crew is Mr. Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe), one of the vilest characters to ever appear on screen. He manages to rope Sailor into robbing the local feed store but not before grossing out everyone in the process. Some bad shit goes down in Big Tuna before it’s all over and the couple is, once again, split apart for a time.