Richie (Ken Wahl), Joey (John Friedrich), Buddy (Jim Youngs), and Perry (Tony Ganios) are members of the Wanderers, a 1960s Bronx gang. Their camaraderie is something that neither girls, the streets, nor school can match. Yet in this drama, that fellowship is repeatedly tested; in a rumble with the Fordham Baldies, a gang of head-shaven thugs; in a brief fling Richie has with an outsider, and in the violence that Joey's father inflicts upon him.

The Wanderers is based on a novel by Richard Price which was highly praised for its gritty urban textures, its perception of adolescent swagger and obscenity, and its mapping of youthful rebelliousness. Most of these qualities are suitably conveyed in this screen version of Rose and Philip Kaufman (Invasion of the Body Snatchers).

After a multi-gang orgy of destruction on a football field, the Wanderers attend a bachelor party for Richie who is about to marry his pregnant girlfriend. Joey and Perry then leave for the coast and new possibilities. We feel sorry for Richie; he seems to be trapped in a future that's a carbon copy of the past. His sad look in the final scenes of the film speak volumes about the plight of thousands like him who lack either the will or the chance to break into a larger world than the one they've known all their lives.