The Car - Plot

Plot

The film is set in the fictional Utah community of Santa Ynez. Two bicyclists are cycling on the canyon, and a mysterious black car is following them down the road. At the bridge, the car rams them at the back, causing them to fly over the bridge, killing them on the spot.

The police are called to the first of a series of hit and run deaths, apparently caused by the same car that appears heavily customized and has no license plate, making identification difficult. Sheriff Everett Peck (John Marley) gets a lead on the car when it is witnessed by Amos Clemens (R. G. Armstrong) after it runs over a hitchhiker. After the car claims the sheriff as its fourth victim, it becomes the job of Captain Wade Parent (James Brolin) to stop the deaths. During the resulting investigation, an eyewitness to the accident states that there was no driver inside the vehicle.

Despite a police cordon being placed around all roads in the area, the car enters town and attacks the school marching band as it rehearses at the local show ground. It chases the group of teachers and students, among them Wade's girlfriend Lauren (Kathleen Lloyd), into a cemetery. Curiously enough, the machine will not enter onto the consecrated ground as Lauren taunts the purported driver that any of the townsfolk have yet to see. Seemingly in anger, the car destroys a brick gate post and leaves. The police chase the automobile along highways throughout the desert before it turns on them, destroying several squad cars and killing five officers in the process. Wade confronts the vehicle and is surprised to see that none of his bullets put a dent on the car's windshield or tires. After trying to open the door (when it is revealed that the car has no door handles), Wade is injured, and the car escapes.

The hunt for the car becomes a personal vendetta for Wade when the automobile stalks and eliminates Lauren by driving straight through her house, right when he is speaking to her over the phone. Wade's deputy Luke (Ronny Cox) puts forward the theory that it acted in revenge for the insults hurled on it by Lauren and notes it cannot enter hallowed ground. Wade concocts a plan to stop the car by burying it beneath a controlled explosion in the canyons that lie outside of town. After discovering it waiting for him in his own garage, he is forced to carry out his plans post haste. He is pursued by the car into a mountainous canyon area where his fellow officers have set a trap for the machine, and a final confrontation settles the score with a demonic visage appearing in the smoke and fire of the explosion, shocking the police officers.

The final scenes show Wade refusing to believe what the group saw in the flames, despite Deputy Johnson's insistence about what he saw. The film concludes, in some cuts, with the car prowling city streets, clearly having survived.