Thunder Road is a 1958 American Southern Gothic road-thriller film noir directed by Arthur Ripley and written by James Atlee Phillips and Walter Wise, who based the screenplay on a story by Robert Mitchum. Mitchum based the story on an alleged incident that occurred in Knoxville, Tennessee involving a bootlegger transporting moonshine being pursued by law enforcement along a section of highway from Harlan, Kentucky to Knoxville known infamously as "Thunder Road."

Plot

Lucas Doolin works in the family moonshine business, running liquor his father distills to clandestine distribution points throughout the South in his hot rod. However, Lucas has more problems than evading government "revenuers".