PLOT! Wellman Anthony Santee is a former race car driver who has turned to a life of crime since the death of his mother. Santee and his friend Eddie Turner bend the law for profit by hauling exotic stolen cars.
Santee’s latest assignment is to transport such goods across the desert, but a Highway Patrol officer pulls him over. The officer notices that Turner carries a gun hidden behind his back and prepares to arrest him, when suddenly a pair of cops named Frank Severance and Jack “Rudy” Rudisill arrive. After a brief gun battle, Turner and the officer are killed, and Santee is left wounded.
After recovering in a prison hospital, Santee escapes during transfer to the fictional San Gorgonio Penitentiary after correctly sensing that his guards intend to murder him. Wounded and on the run, Santee abducts Rita Marrick from a nearby gas station, unaware that she is a police officer.
Rita’s partner Michael Agnos leads the search for Santee and Rita. As Santee eludes capture with the help of Eddie’s widow and child, Severance and Rudisill continue their investigation. Rita’s attempt to escape, which forces Santee to violently disable nearby police officers (as opposed to kill) causes her to begin to doubt Santee’s guilt. Santee releases Rita and invades Severance’s home, forcing his wife, Esther, to provide the phone number of former associate Jimmy Shoeshine, from whom he demands payments due to him and Eddie. There Santee is rejoined by Rita, who finds evidence in the house supporting his claims, and they escape, barely evading gun blasts from Esther and a highway patrolman.
