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Walk the Line
The film begins in 1968 with Johnny Cash performing at Folsom State Prison. As the audience of inmates cheer him on, Cash waits backstage near a table saw, which reminds him of his early life. Two decades earlier, in 1944, 12-year-old Johnny is raised on a cotton farm in Dyess, Arkansas, with his brother Jack, his abusive father Ray, his mother Carrie, and his two sisters. One day, Jack is killed in a sawmill accident while Johnny is out fishing. Ray blames Johnny for Jack's death, saying that the Devil "took the wrong son". In 1950, Johnny enlists in the U.S. Air Force and is stationed in West Germany. While there, he purchases a guitar and finds solace in writing songs, including " Folsom Prison Blues ", which he develops in 1952.
After his discharge from the military in 1954, Johnny returns to the United States and marries his girlfriend, Vivian Liberto. The couple moves to Memphis, Tennessee, where Cash works as a door-to-door salesman to support his growing family, but with little success. One day, Johnny walks past a recording studio and is inspired to form a band to play gospel music. He and his band audition for Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, and Phillips signs them after they play "Folsom Prison Blues." The band tours as Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, along with other rising stars Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Johnny meets country music singer and songwriter June Carter while on tour and is immediately smitten. He tries to woo her, but she gently rebuffs his attempts. Despite this, they become friends. As Johnny grows up, he begins abusing drugs and alcohol, and over the objections of Vivian, he persuades June to go on tour with him. The tour is a success, but backstage, Vivian becomes critical of June's influence over Johnny. After one performance in Las Vegas, Johnny and June sleep together. The next morning, June notices Johnny taking pills and begins to doubt her choice to be with him. At their concert that evening, Johnny is upset by June's apparent rejection and behaves erratically, eventually passing out on stage. June is upset with Johnny's behavior and decides to dispose of his drugs. She begins to write " Ring of Fire " as a way to describe her feelings for him and the pain she feels as she watches him descend into addiction.
After returning to California, Johnny travels to Mexico to purchase more drugs and is arrested. Soon after, Johnny's marriage to Vivian implodes; they divorce, and he moves to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1966. Johnny buys a large house near a lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee, in an attempt to reconcile with June. Ray and other members of the extended Carter family arrive for Thanksgiving, where Ray and Johnny get into an argument, and June's mother urges June to help Johnny. Johnny goes into detox and awakens next to June, who says they have been given a second chance. They begin a tentative relationship, but June resists Cash's marriage proposals.
Later, Johnny records an album live at Folsom Prison after discovering that most of his fan mail is from prisoners. The performance is a success, and Johnny embarks on a tour with June and his band. At the end of the film, Johnny invites June to join him for a duet but stops in the middle of the song and tells her that he can't sing " Jackson " anymore unless she agrees to marry him. June accepts, and they share a passionate embrace on stage. Later, Johnny and his father reconcile their relationship while they are with their families.