A legendary mob enforcer and a double-crossed girlfriend chase redemption and stolen diamonds on an eerily empty road through the Arizona desert, while something terrifying chases them.

SYNOPSIS:

A sleek, black Dodge Charger thunders through the Arizona night, driven by a hard-edged, wounded TONY MARTELLO, 25. For a few adrenaline-soaked minutes Tony tries desperately to evade something unnatural and deadly chasing him at 140 mph down this desolate road. But despite his considerable driving and cursing skills, the chase ends when the Charger launches off the road and flips into the desert, Tony’s final fate unknown.

Later, in the daylight of LA, RENO SAMMS, 23, tosses Tony’s apartment, looking for him. The only thing she finds is PARKER, 30-45, a near-legendary badass and the right hand of Tony’s employer, ARMITAGE SHANKS.

Tony was wheel man in a diamond heist gone bad and he was the only one who got away, unless you count a bag of diamonds. Reno claims ignorance, but she knows Tony’s habits and rumor has it that she might be an even better driver than Tony, so Parker forces her to take Reno’s beat-up ’67 Mustang and go after Tony.

Finally, they arrive at a run-down diner in Arizona, where, sure enough, the owner remembers Tony just like of all the doomed souls who stop for a last meal before heading onto Route 18. According to the diner folks, this disused road calls people to it, and if you’re on the road after dark, you probably deserve to be there.

Reno doesn’t buy their Twilight Zone bullshit, but Parker seems to understand it at some deeper level. So when he decides to go after Tony, he plans to go without Reno. About to lose her only remaining possession, her beloved Mustang, Reno grabs the shotgun from behind the counter and demands to go with Parker. Finally, Parker sees some kind of worthwhile spark in her and takes her along.

Out on the cursed highway, they find Tony’s gun and two fingers in the road. But it’s now dusk and there’s no way they’ll get off the road before dark. Fresh hope arrives when an Arizona Highway Patrol car and an armored truck surprisingly roll up. The driver of this truck is REGGIE, 60’s, who turns out to be their savior when a whip-like tail lashes out of the darkness and yanks the cop away. The other three manage to escape in Reggie’s truck.

Reggie takes them to his place; an abandoned missile bunker. Reggie believes that the road summons evil to it and the Demon snuffs out just enough to maintain the balance in the world. So why are Parker and Reno out there? Before that question gets answered, Reno shows them that she has repaired the Demon damage to Reggie’s truck. But when he leaves, she convinces Parker to take the truck with her and go after the diamonds.

Back on the road, they find Tony’s car flipped over, but no sign of him or the diamonds. When they go back to the truck, the Demon has climbed inside it. Suddenly, Reno’s Mustang races up and slams the door shut, trapping the Demon. Driving the Mustang is… Tony! They jump in and race back to Reggie’s.

Back at the bunker, Tony, missing two fingers, tells them how he couldn’t lose the Demon at over 120 MPH. Even after his story, they all set out in the only remaining vehicles they have; Reno’s Mustang and Reggie’s pick-up truck, to the abandoned silver mine where Reggie thinks the Demon lives, to try to find the diamonds.

Eventually, they find the diamonds, but in the meantime, the Demon escapes, and when they head to the exit, they run right into it. After a deadly cat and mouse chase through the cavern, they manage to trap it with some of Reggie’s explosives and escape. With Parker badly wounded, Reno steps up to lead them.

Once again however, the Demon escapes and chases them on the road with furious intensity, finally killing Tony. With Parker too weak to help, Reno faces the Demon alone, trying to buy the others time to get back to the bunker. With her Mustang mortally wounded, she rigs it to explode, then lures the Demon into it where they will both die. But when she sets off the explosion, Parker triggers the kill switch on the Mustang, throwing Reno into Reggie’s pick-up, leaving only the Demon to be obliterated.

Back at the bunker, Parker succumbs to his wounds and dies, leaving Reno heartbroken at the loss of the man who had become her mentor and guide on her journey to heroism.

A year later, violent, brutal crime is rampant throughout the southwest. So Reno and Reggie go back to the cavern and, with Reggie’s explosives, release a new Speed Demon. Afterward, we see the monument in the desert that Reno has built to Parker. It is made of parts of her Mustang, Parker’s gun and one of the diamonds.

SPEED DEMON