The River Rat is a 1984 independent family film directed by Thomas Rickman and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Martha Plimpton. It was filmed on location in Hickman, Kentucky, on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Plot

Jonsy is a teenager who meets her father Billy, who has just been released from prison, for the first time. The two slowly forge a relationship as they rebuild a boat named The River Rat. The father cannot escape his criminal past, being blackmailed by the prison psychiatrist Doc Cole, who believes he knows the location of a large amount of cash stolen before imprisonment.