When the state places Lou Jean's (Goldie Hawn) son in foster care, she breaks her husband Clovis (William Atherton) out of prison, and the two start a cross-country trek to free their child and move to Mexico. Along the way, they take trooper Slide (Michael Sacks) hostage, and pick up an entourage of several hundred police cars, led by the jaded but human Captain Tanner (Ben Johnson). Their plight catches the fancy of hundreds of common folk, who form parades and shower them with gifts as they pass through on their way to Sugarland.

In Steven Spielberg's second film, and first big-screen effort, common people like Lou Jean and Clovis are pitted against a faceless State that seeks to break up their family and kill them. The faceless bureaucracy of the government is symbolized by the hundreds of identical police cars piloted by hundreds of identical troopers behind mirrored sunglasses. We are led to sympathize with the protagonists, who are just average people who get in a little over their heads. Even Slide, the trooper, roots for them in the end, offering advice on how to steal cars and avoid getting killed.

A cynical viewer could point out that the two are actually criminals, both having served time in prison, and Clovis being an escaped convict. They could point out that Lou Jean was unemployed, and may have dabbled in prostitution, and may not be the most fit mother around. They could mention the Stockholm Syndrome, where hostages start to sympathize with their captors, as Maxwell Slide does. However, the film does not invite cynicism. We can see a little of ourselves in Lou Jean and Clovis, and we wish them the best.

Critics who dismiss Spielberg as the manipulative and goody-goody director of sentimental Hollywood fluff would be hard-pressed to see that aspect of him in this film. However, it is obviously a Spielberg film, dealing with many of the same themes as his later, more popular films: absent parents, difficult journeys, faceless evil, etc.