A rodeo rider decides to quit his line of work after a serious injury, but when he visits his family and finds out that his dad is not well, he'll have to risk it one more time.
The film begins with a scene of a bull-riding event at a rodeo in Rock Springs, Texas. H.D. Dalton (Scott Glenn), a former champion bull rider, is filling in for a friend as a barrel man. As a contestant bucks off the world-famous bucking bull 'Thunderbolt', H.D. escapes the barrel to try his hand at bullfighting. Thunderbolt sets his sights on H.D. and promptly runs over the bull rider-turned-bullfighter. H.D. receives several lacerations to his back and injures his kidneys, forcing him off the rodeo trail.H.D. returns home to Tulsa, Oklahoma, only to find that things have drastically changed. His family farm is abandoned, his high school sweetheart, Jolie (Kate Capshaw) is now a widowed mother with a fourteen-year-old son, Jud (Balthazar Getty), and his sister Cheryl (Tess Harper) has relocated their father, Jesse, (Ben Johnson) to an assisted-care facility. H.D. visits the nursing home to bring his father back to the farm, much to the chagrin of his sister.While H.D. is in town visiting Jolie, his father calls upon Cheryl to take care of him for the afternoon. This action infuriates Cheryl, who threatens H.D. to sell the farm and return their father to assisted living. Still injured, H.D. seeks a high paying job to purchase the family farm. With the Bull-mania event coming up at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma, H.D., and his father begin relentless physical training, from first light to last light. After H.D.'s body is healed, they begin to work on the mental side of bull riding. Following his father's advice, H.D. sits high atop the roof of their barn all day long, free arm raised high in the air, riding a two-story bull.One rainy night, while practicing on a makeshift mechanical bull, H.D. slips off the barrel. The forward momentum of H.D. falling sends the barrel backward at high speeds, which crashes into Jesse's head. While H.D. is waiting for the news of his injured father at a local hospital, Deputy Sheriff Virgil (Clearance Williams III), informs him that Cheryl and her husband have placed a restraining order against him.However, H.D. has no time to fight the restraining order; Bull-mania is the following weekend. Jolie and Jud are in attendance to support H.D. in his first competition since his injury. H.D. successfully rides his first three bulls, which launched him into first place, but injures his left leg while dismounting his final opponent. H.D.'s father, who drove out to the event to watch his son, pushes him to get on the bonus bull 'Thunderbolt', the same bull that injured H.D. the previous summer.
H.D. grits his teeth and lowers himself onto the back of the 1,800-pound Brahma bull that has never been bested. All the training that H.D. and his father have put in all comes down to the next eight seconds.Thunderbolt busts from the chute and begins with a counter-clockwise spin, away from H.D.'s riding hand. At the five-second mark, with H.D. still perched high atop his back, Thunderbolt reverses and turns back into H.D.'s hand, to the right. The seconds climb up - six, seven, and finally, eight. H.D. has ridden the undefeated bull and wins the $100,000 prize.The Rocky-style ending to the film teaches the lesson that hard work, determination, and perseverance will pay off in the end. My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys is a true western sports film classic.
