Excited by his experience, but not knowing the meaning of his new-found obsession, he recklessly races through the night east toward Harper Valley on US Route 40.The story was taken from Dashiell Hammett""s 1934 detective novel of the same name, with a married couple that was supposedly modeled on the author""s relationship with longtime love and playwright Lillian Hellman.As a title,Badlandsis both a geographic area and a descriptive indictment of the senseless behaviors (and empty interiors) of the wo juveniles.She saw a large tattered baby stroller with rusty wheels slowly move in front of her, and then stop at the foot of another staircase.