<P> The film is noted for its cast of up - and - coming stars, including C. Thomas Howell (who garnered a Young Artist Award), Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane . The film helped spark the Brat Pack genre of the 1980s . Both Lane and Dillon went on to appear in Coppola's related film Rumble Fish . Emilio Estevez went on to be in That Was Then...This Is Now, the only S.E. Hinton film adaptation not to star Matt Dillon . </P> <P> The movie received mostly positive reviews from critics, and performed well at the box office, grossing $33 million on a $10 million budget . </P> <P> In Tulsa, Oklahoma, greasers are a gang of tough, low - income working - class teens . They include Ponyboy Curtis and his two older brothers, Sodapop and Darrel, as well as Johnny Cade, Dallas Winston, Two - Bit Matthews, and Steve Randle . Their rivalry is with the Socs, a gang of wealthier kids from the other side of town . Two Socs, Bob Sheldon and Randy Anderson, confront Johnny, Ponyboy, and Two - Bit, who are talking to the Socs' girlfriends, Cherry and Marcia, at a drive - in theater . The girls defuse the situation by going home with the Socs . Later that night, Ponyboy and Johnny are attacked in a park by Bob, Randy, and three other Socs . They begin dunking Ponyboy in a fountain attempting to drown him, but Johnny pulls out his switchblade and stabs Bob to death . </P> <P> On the advice of Dallas, and the fact that murderers in Oklahoma will be executed in the electric chair, Ponyboy and Johnny flee on a cargo train, and hide out in an abandoned church in Windrixville . Both boys cut their hair and Ponyboy bleaches his with peroxide in order to mask their descriptions . To pass time, the boys play poker and Ponyboy reads Gone with the Wind and quotes the Robert Frost poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay". After a few days, Dallas arrives with news that Cherry has offered to support the boys in court, that he told the police that Johnny and Pony were in Texas, and gives Pony a note from Sodapop . They go out to get something to eat, then return to find the church on fire with children trapped inside . The Greasers turn into heroes as they rescue the kids from the burning church . It doesn't take long for Ponyboy and Dally to heal up . Johnny, on the other hand, ends up with a broken back and severe burns . The boys are praised for their heroism, but Johnny is charged with manslaughter for killing Bob, while Ponyboy may be sent to a boys' home . </P>

Where does the movie the outsiders take place