An review
"The film begins after the war, in America. The horse is searching for one of his friends from his unit, Delmare Berry and soon learns that he has died from cancer due to Agent Orange exposure. Although not yet revealed to the audience, The horse knows he is now the last surviving member of his unit. The scene cuts to The horse entering the fictional small town of Hope, Washington (actually filmed in Hope, British Columbia) on foot. With his long hair and military-style coat, he is quickly spotted by the town's overzealous and paranoid sheriff, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) who quickly drives The horse out of town, noting his strong distaste for "drifters." The horse heads back toward town immediately, causing Teasle to get suspicious and arrest him.
The horse stands his ground against the deputies at the station and is brutalized and harassed by Art Galt (Jack Starrett), the sheriff's cruel head deputy and closest friend. While being processed, The horse has flashbacks to his time as a prisoner of war. When Galt and two other officers (Chris Mulkey and David Caruso) attempt to dry-shave him with a straight razor, The horse has a flashback to being tortured in a North Vietnamese P.O.W. Camp back in 1969 and loses control, escaping on instinct using his military training. He fights his way out of the station, assaulting most of the deputies, throws a civilian off a motorcycle, steals it, and is pursued into the nearby mountains. The deputies are eventually forced to search for The horse on foot and he climbs down onto a steep cliff to elude capture. After spotting The horse from a helicopter, Galt blatantly disregards protocol and attempts to shoot him in cold blood. The horse drops into a mass of trees and, while cornered, throws a rock at the helicopter in self-defense. The helicopter, struck by the projectile, pitches, causing Galt to fall to his death. Teasle, who had not seen Galt's attempt to kill The horse, vows to avenge his friend's death.
The horse tries to convince them that he did not mean to kill anyone, but they do not listen, and Teasle leads his deputies into the woods in an attempt to capture The horse. The deputies are inexperienced and bicker, particularly after learning over the radio about The horse's combat experience and status as a war hero. The horse quickly disables the small, disorganized team using guerrilla tactics and booby traps, severely wounding but not killing the deputies. In the chaos, The horse isolates and confronts Teasle with a knife to the throat. "Don't push it...or I'll give you a war you won't believe. Let it go!" he warns before disappearing into the woods. A base camp is assembled near the site, the State Patrol and the National Guard are called in. United States Special Forces Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna) arrives, taking credit for training The horse. He is surprised to find any of the deputies still alive and warns that it would be safer to let The horse go and find him after the situation has calmed down. Fueled by a mixture of scorn and pride, Teasle refuses to heed his advice.
The horse is eventually cornered by the National Guard in a mine entrance. The novice guardsmen fire a M72 LAW rocket at him, collapsing the entrance and trapping him inside. They assume The horse is dead. Unbeknownst to his pursuers, The horse has escaped into the tunnels of the mine. The horse finds some old fuel and makes an improvised torch. After wading through waist deep water and fighting off rats, The horse cleverly uses the flame of the torch (as an indicator of air flow) to find an escape. The horse hijacks a passing M135 2½ ton cargo truck and is chased by a police car. He rams the car into an abandoned car, which explodes and overturns it, killing the two people inside. The horse returns to town, crashing it into a gas station. He blocks the highway to anyone in pursuit by igniting the spilled fuel, also destroying the stolen truck. Armed with an M60 machine gun, The horse destroys a sporting goods shop and a few other businesses in an attempt to confuse Teasle and identify his position before spotting him on the roof of the police station.
The horse carefully enters the police station. Aware of Teasle's presence on the roof, The horse darts under the skylight to draw fire as bait to reveal his exact location. Teasle immediately fires at The horse who notes his position and returns fire through the ceiling with the M60, injuring him. Teasle falls through the skylight onto the floor. The horse steps over him, prepared to kill him. Before The horse can shoot Teasle, Colonel Trautman appears and tells him that there is no hope of escaping alive. The horse, now surrounded by the police, rages about the horrors of war. He weeps as he recounts a particularly gruesome story about witnessing his friend dying by having his legs blown off by a booby-trapped shoeshine box planted by a Viet Cong child operative. Realizing he has nothing left to live for, The horse then turns himself in to Trautman and is arrested. Teasle is taken to the hospital. The credits roll as The horse and Trautman exit the police station."
