
He insults them, and they quickly knock him out. While he is walking a short distance away, Sailor encounters a gang whose members surround him. When they meet Sailor, he reveals he will be leaving them both, having decided that mother and son are better off without his influence. Rejecting her mother's objections over the phone, she throws water over her mother's photograph and goes to pick up Sailor with their son. Upon his release, Lula decides to reunite with him. While Sailor is in jail, Lula has their child. Sailor is arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. Chasing Sailor out of the store, Peru is about to kill him when the sheriff's deputy opens fire on him and Peru blows his own head off with his own shotgun. Peru then admits to Sailor that he has been hired to kill him, and Sailor realizes he has been given a pistol with dummy ammunition. The robbery goes spectacularly wrong when Peru unnecessarily shoots the two store clerks. Over beers, Peru enlists Sailor's help in robbing a nearby feed store, which allegedly keeps $5,000 in cash on hand. Not knowing about Peru's abuse of Lula, Sailor agrees to accompany him to a bar. This traumatizes Lula, who was also raped as a child. Peru enters the room and threatens to sexually assault Lula, forcing her to ask him to have sex with her, before leaving, stating he has no time. While Sailor is changing their car's oil, Lula waits for him in the hotel room. Lula, who has been feeling ill, tells Sailor she is pregnant with his child. At an outdoor party, Lula and Sailor meet Bobby Peru, a career criminal. With little money left, Sailor heads for Big Tuna, Texas, where he contacts his old acquaintance, Perdita Durango, who might be able to help them, although she secretly knows Lula's mother has a contract out for his murder. Unaware of all of the events happening back in North Carolina, Lula and Sailor continue on their way until they witness-according to Lula-a bad omen: the aftermath of a two-car accident, and the only survivor, a young woman, dying in front of them. Santos's minions capture and kill Farragut, sending Marietta into a guilt-fueled psychosis. But unbeknownst to Farragut, Marietta also hires gangster Marcello Santos to track them and kill Sailor. Marietta arranges for private detective Johnnie Farragut-her on-off boyfriend-to find them and bring them back. Later, back in their hotel room, after making love again, Sailor and Lula finally decide to run away to California, breaking Sailor's parole. At the club, Sailor gets into a fight with a man who flirts with Lula, and then leads the band in a rendition of the Elvis Presley song " Love Me". They go to a hotel where she reserved a room, make love and go to see the speed metal band Powermad. Upon Sailor's release, Lula picks him up outside prison, where she hands him his snakeskin jacket. Lovers Lula and Sailor are separated after he is jailed for killing a man who attacked him with a knife the assailant, Bobby Ray Lemon, was hired by Lula's mother, Marietta Fortune. The film has been positively reevaluated by critics in the years since its release.

Ladd was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture at the 63rd Academy Awards and the 48th Golden Globe Awards, respectively. At the 6th Independent Spirit Awards, Dafoe was nominated for Best Supporting Male and Elmes won for Best Cinematography. The film was theatrically released in the United States on August 17, 1990, to polarizing reviews from critics and grossed $14 million against its $10 million budget.

Wild at Heart won the Palme d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, which at the time was considered a controversial decision. Early test screenings for the film were poorly received, with Lynch estimating that at least 300 people walked out due to its sexual and violent content.

The film is noted for its allusions to The Wizard of Oz and Elvis Presley. He disliked the ending of the novel and decided to change it to fit his vision of the main characters. Lynch intended to only produce the film, but after reading Gifford's book, he decided to write and direct it as well. Starring Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, Crispin Glover, Diane Ladd, Isabella Rossellini, and Harry Dean Stanton, the film follows Sailor Ripley and Lula Fortune, a young couple who go on the run from Lula's domineering mother and the criminals she hires to kill Sailor. Wild at Heart is a 1990 American romantic crime drama film written and directed by David Lynch, based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Barry Gifford.
