1959 yılında, pek çok insanı öldürmüş bir katil olan Kit (Martin Sheen) ile yeni kız arkadaşı Holly (Sissy Spacek), Güney Dakota'dan Montana'ya giderken suç ve cezanın hayal alemine dalmış kendi halinde bir çifttir. Gerçek mermi kullanırlar ve insanları öldürürler ama herşey aslında onlar için bir oyundur.

In 1959, Kit (Martin Sheen), who was killed several people, and his new girlfriend Holly (Sissy Spacek), who watched him do it, adrift in a double fantasy of crime and punishment across South Dakota and Montana. They're playing make-believe but the bullets and bloodshed are very real. The first of writer / director Terrence Malick's three landmark films (1978's Days of Heaven and 1998's The Thin Red Line are the others) was inspired by a real-life 1958 Midwestern killing spree. Malick imaginatively transforms their story into a provocative study of people alienated from everyday life - but fascinating to us. Beautifully shot and memorably acted, Badlands is a spellbinding journey.