Joshua Tree
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. Turner tries to reason with the cop but then a pair of cops named Frank Severance and Jack "Rudy" Rudisill show up. There is a gun battle in which Turner is killed, and Santee is wounded. Severance murders the highway patrolman, and pins it on Santee.
After recovering in a prison hospital, Santee escapes during transfer to the fictional San Gorgonio Penitentiary in order to escape another murder attempt on him by Severance and takes a hostage named Rita Marrick, not suspecting that she's a cop, while Rita keeps her identity a secret from Santee.
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 home in on the investigation. Rita's sole escape attempt fails and nearly forces Santee to shoot law enforcers, as she begins harboring doubts about 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.
At Jimmy Shoeshine's warehouse, Santee handcuffs Rita out of harm's way and in a firefight he decimates the car thieves' lethal mechanics. Finally he gets the money from Jimmy through force. He, however can escape and joins Severance and Rudisill, who arrive. It turns out that Severance and Rudisill are the leaders of Jimmy´s car smuggling ring and that they killed the patrolman because he was on the verge of finding out at that moment. They also killed Eddie and attempted to kill Santee for knowing too much about the crime. They are forced to kill the interfering Michael and Jimmy for knowing too much. Rita, devastated by Michael's death she has witnessed, joins Santee in a desperate race for life. As Severance and Rudisill close in, a crime scene officer discovers a surveillance tape that recorded Severance killing Michael.
Santee kills Rudisill while pointing at a wounded Rita during a cliff-side struggle. Later, just as he is about to execute Severance with a large stone in this fight for the murder of Eddie, the police arrive. They separate Santee form Severance and Severance is arrested and taken away. Later, a wounded Santee is vindicated through Rita. After these events Santee returns to his former life before his mother´s death and he and Rita fall in love.
revenge, murder, violence