Who’ll Stop the Rain movie storyline. A jaded journalist, John (Michael Moriarty), and a Vietnam vet, Ray (Nick Nolte), are adrift after returning home from the war. With not much to lose, they hatch a scheme to smuggle heroin from Vietnam into the U.S., which stands to make them a fortune. Instead, the pair and John’s wife (Tuesday Weld) find themselves on the run from drug dealers and a crooked DEA agent (Anthony Zerbe). Along the way, Ray shows their opponents some of the useful combat skills he picked up in the war.
Who’ll Stop the Rain is a 1978 American crime film directed by Karel Reisz and starring Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Michael Moriarty, and Anthony Zerbe. It was released by United Artists and produced by Herb Jaffe and Gabriel Katzka with Sheldon Schrager and Roger Spottiswoode as executive producers. The screenplay was by Judith Rascoe and Robert Stone, based on Stone’s novel Dog Soldiers (1974), the music score by Laurence Rosenthal, and the cinematography by Richard H. Kline. The movie was entered in the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.
The film opens in Saigon at the height of the Vietnam War. John Converse, a disillusioned war correspondent, approaches Ray Hicks, a merchant marine sailor and acquaintance of Converse from the U.S., for help in smuggling a large quantity of heroin from Vietnam to San Francisco, where he will exchange the drugs for payment with Converse’s wife Marge, who has become addicted to Dilaudid.
When Hicks gets back to the U.S. and discovers he is being followed by thugs connected either to Converse or his suppliers, he goes on the run with Marge and the heroin, and eventually they are pursued by corrupt DEA Agent Antheil, who initially set the deal in motion. As Marge is separated from her supply of Dilaudid, she experiences withdrawal, and Hicks decides to help wean her off her addiction by using the heroin. Hicks also attempts to find another buyer for the heroin before his pursuers can catch up to him
Who’ll Stop the Rain (1978)
Directed by: Karel Reisz
Starring: Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Michael Moriarty, Anthony Zerbe, Richard Masur, Ray Sharkey, Gail Strickland, Charles Haid, David Opatoshu, Joaquín Martínez, James Cranna
Screenplay by: Judith Rascoe, Robert Stone
Production Design by: Dale Hennesy
Cinematography by: Richard H. Kline
Film Editing by: John Bloom
Costume Design by: William Ware Theiss
Set Decoration by: Robert De Vestel
Music by: Laurence Rosenthal
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: August 11, 1978
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