Set in 1885, the same year as the Metis Uprising led by Louis Real, after the North-West Rebellion. Out of desperate hunger Almighty Voice (Gordon Tootoosis), a Cree Indian, steals then slaughters a government alloted cow without prior approval. This cow was owned by the queen.

Canadian North-West Mounted Police (the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Sgt. Dan Candy (Donald Sutherland) on duty in the plains of Saskatchewan, a goofball with some glaring character flaws, leads a carefree life. Candy and his best friend and partner, Sergeant Malcolm Grant (Kevin McCarthy), are assigned to find the Cree who has slaughtered a cow from the herd. The assignment is discussed in the family of Malcom Grant. Dan, who holds the rank of uncle to Edouard (James O'Shea), Grant's son, is integrated into the family as if he were a member of the family.

Eventually, the Mountie duo arrest Almighty Voice. But Candy makes a drunken decision to have the chains restraining Almighty Voice removed while in their custody. This directly leads to the Cree’s escape from jail, and the subsequent murder of Sergeant Grant.

Disgraced, Candy then sets out to capture Almighty Voice on his own, attempting to atone for his friend’s death by bringing this fugitive to justice, alone if need be. Obsessed with "getting his man", Candy goes about it with a certain level of stubborn incompetence.

Candy commandeers a train of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The Northwest Mounted Police post a reward of five thousand dollars. Sounding Sky (Chief Dan George) is Almighty Voice's father. The Cree Indians live at the Duck Lake Agency, are close knit and don't turn Almighty Voice in for the reward.

Candy's ordered more than once to come in, and the widow (Francine Racette) is also asking Candy to end his merciless hunt because she notices how Candy is beginning to change. But Candy refuses to stop because he's close to tracking down the now dangerous criminal, with little help from his fellow constables or the native people.

After a series of related domestic tragedies, and after insisting he has some power to effect matters for the better, Candy is left with the Indians to witness the end unfold.

A 1974 Canadian Northern historical western docudrama film (a/k/a "Alien Thunder") directed by Claude Fournier, produced by Marie-José Raymond and P. Michel De Grandpre, screenplay by George Malko, story by Fournier & Raymond, cinematography by Claude Fournier, starring Donald Sutherland, Chief Dan George, Kevin McCarthy, Jean Duceppe, Francine Racette, Jack Creley, James O'Shea, John Boylan, Lenny George, Ernestine Gamble, Vincent Daniels, and Sarain Stump. Screen debut appearance of Gordon Tootoosis. Released in the United States by AIP, through Cinerama Releasing.

Music by Georges Delerue.

Filmed in Saskatchewan's Battleford, Duck Lake, and Saskatoon.

Based on a true story about a Woods Cree who kills a North-West Mounted Police sergeant under desperate circumstances, but resented confinement and then escaped, and eluded the Mounties for over a year.

Starring the leads of both the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956) (Kevin McCarthy) and the remake "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978) (Donald Sutherland).

Donald Sutherland and Chief Dan George also appeared onscreen together in "Nothing Personal" (1980).

Director Fournier plays against genre expectations throughout the story. It is slow, in order to accommodate an elegiac visual style. Tone and effect, essentially of sorrow, and of powerlessness over the historic inevitability of it all, form the real substance of the movie, which many would find its greatest fault as such is not to the taste of many audiences. Donald Sutherland, a Canadian who never misses a chance to boost the film industry in his native country, called Mr. Fournier’s direction of the project “wretched".

The original screenplay was written by W.O. Mitchell but Mitchell removed his name from the final release due to changes that were made. The RCMP, which had originally seen the film as a centrepiece of its 1973 centennial celebrations, withdrew its backing.

An article in Luma found that "Though it laudably uses Indigenous (and principally Cree) actors and some of the Cree language, (this) is ultimately a film about Mounties and settlers; as sympathetic as it may be to the Cree, they are, as the native peoples of the Americas tend to be in Westerns, reduced to supporting players in their own story. "

While not a great movie, this slow somber period Western has its merits, featuring snowy Canadian landscapes and a tour de force performance by Donald Sutherland. This tragic docudrama is recommended not for its plot, which wears a bit thin, but for its vivid capturing of early Canadian pioneer life and Northern Cree culture. But eerie and beautiful moments appear occasionally, and the cinematography rises to the majesty that beautiful plains-state wilderness offers. Cold and raw, inviting to visit.