Crystal, Kirby, and Stern are three forty-something men going through their midlife crises. Crystal's character, Mitch Robbins, feels especially depressed about his job and family. At a party, his lifelong friends (Kirby and Stern) show him a brochure for a Southwestern cattle drive that they've signed up to go on for two weeks.
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Then Stern's character, the manager of a grocery store owned by his father-in-law, is shocked by one of the checkout girls who he had an affair with, much to the chagrin of his wife who threatens to divorce him. Kirby's character, newly married to a woman with supermodel looks, faces the pressure of being a father.
The three men arrive at the cattle drive with other visitors and meet their trail boss, Curly (played by Palance). Curly and Mitch eventually bond when they go off to round up strays, and Mitch even asists in giving birth to a calf he names Norman. Curly dies soon after they return to camp, and it's left to the people who signed up for this trip to finish the drive because the cook has a broken leg and the trail boss' assistants ran off drunk.
Crystal, Kirby, and Stern's characters lead the herd back successfully to the Colorado ranch, and Crystal shares the last thing Curly taught him: what really matters in life is just one thing, and it's different for everybody. For all of them, but especially Mitch, it's family.
A sequel was released years later, City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly's Gold with Jon Lovitz taking the place of Kirby, but it wasn't received as well as the original.Plot Overview