The film opens in Dallas during the Great Depression at the home of Bonnie Parker. Clyde Barrow tries to steal her car, but she finds him on her way to work at a diner and he convinces her to come with him and commit some little crimes that soon turn into bank robberies. After robbing a few banks, they get on the road, stealing cars all the way through Texas. At a gas station, they encounter C.W. Moss, who joins their operation.
After being on the road for a bit, the group meets up with Clyde's brother, Buck, and his wife, Blanche, a preacher's daughter. Bonnie and Blanche are very different and do not get along at all. As the "Barrow gang" continues to rob banks and stores, their exploits get increasingly dangerous and they soon have the law breathing down their necks. When Clyde shoots a bank manager in the face, a Texas Ranger named Frank Hammer goes looking for them. When he finds them, the group handcuffs him and takes pictures with him seeking to humiliate him, before escaping.
On the way, Bonnie and Clyde hit some personal problems, as Clyde is unable to perform sexually while Bonnie misses her mother, who is getting older. When they go back to visit Bonnie's mother, she tells her daughter that she has to make a run for it, and essentially disowns her because of all the trouble she's gotten into.
Later, when the group is staying at a cabin, the police apprehend the gang and a huge shootout takes place. Buck gets shot in the head and eventually dies, and Blanche is blinded by a gun wound and taken into police custody. While she is locked up, she accidentally gives Frank Hammer C.W. Moss's name, which the authorities have not known until now.
Bonnie, Clyde, and Moss stay at Moss' father's house. While he acts like he is keeping their location secret, Moss' father ends up letting Hammer know of their whereabouts, striking a bargain that if he gives up the criminals, Moss will be spared by the law. Hammer and Moss's father set up a trap, and when Bonnie and Clyde are returning to the house from town one day, the police kill the criminal duo.
