Beaudray Demerille (Fonda) is a gambler and conman in The '50s. In a card game, he wins thirteen-and-a-half-year-old Wanda Nevada (Brooke Shields), an orphan who dreams of singing at the Grand Ole Opry. In a pool hall, the two encounter Texas Curly (Paul Fix), an elderly, drunken prospector who insists there's gold in the Grand Canyon, to the mockery of everyone else. As he leaves the hall, Curly drops a pouch containing gold and a Treasure Map, which Wanda takes. Shortly afterwards he's murdered by Strap Pangburn (Ted Markland) and Ruby Muldoon (Luke Askew), who want the gold for themselves. Beau and Wanda go prospecting in the canyon, following the map, pursued by Strap and Ruby.
Wanda Nevada contains examples of:
- A-Team Firing: When Wanda and Beau get into a shootout with Strap and Ruby, a great many bullets are fired at close range, but no one suffers anything worse than a nick.
- Bedroom Adultery Scene: Beau tells Wanda how his marriage ended. When he left the army after serving in World War II, he decided to surprise his wife instead of letting her know he was coming. He found her in bed with his best friend.
- Disney Death: Beau is shot in the chest with an arrow by the Apache ghost. He manages to remove the arrow before he passes out. Wanda cries over him and begs him to not die, but leaves him and ends up back at the orphanage. She thinks he's dead until Beau arrives to pick her up in a new car. It's never explained how he survived.
- Feathered Fiend: Wanda climbs down a cliff with a rope around her waist to search a cave for gold. An owl flies out of the cave and aggressively flaps in her face, causing her to fall off. Beau laboriously hauls her back up by the rope.
- Freeze-Frame Ending: Combined with Off-into-the-Distance Ending. The credits start to roll as Beau and Wanda drive away from the camera in the new car Beau bought with his new fortune. The image freezes when they've almost vanished behind a hill.
- Kids Driving Cars: When Strap and Ruby are pursuing Beau and Wanda in a car, Beau has Wanda take over the steering wheel while he shoots their tires out.
- Lens Flare: Visible in the final shot.
- Lost Him in a Card Game: Wanda thought her previous "owner" Slade (Larry Golden) loved her and was going to marry her, and is dismayed when he gambles her away.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Wanda. She tells Beau that her parents' identity is unknown and her real last name, McGinty, was selected by the orphanage. She later tells the ornithologist Bitterstix (Severn Darden) that her parents were murdered in front of her when she was nine, and the photographer Dorothy Deerfield (Fiona Lewis) that her father died heroically in World War II.
- My Parents Are Dead: Beaudray tells Wanda, "Your parents must be worried sick about you." Wanda replies, "My parents died."
- Orphanage of Fear: Wanda used to live in an orphanage staffed by nuns where she worked in the laundry room. She calls it a "hellhole" and is determined not to go back, although she never says exactly what was so horrible about it.
- Shock and Awe: The Apache ghost summons lightning bolts to form a ball of light in his hands, which he throws at Wanda and Beau. It explodes in front of them.
- Special Thanks: "The producers wish to acknowledge special thanks to:" followed by a list of organizations that starts with the Grand Canyon National Parks Services.
- There Is Only One Bed: Beau and Wanda sleep in motel rooms with one bed and no sofa. Beau makes Wanda sleep on the floor, but lets her take the bed when she gives him Curly's gold and map.
