Cop Car

Sheriff Kretzer removes his uniform shirt and leaves his handgun in the back seat, then drags a body from the trunk and dumps it into a covered pit in the woods. He pours quicklime over the remains to hasten decomposition and hide the crime. This brutal disposal establishes his willingness to kill and conceal evidence.

Travis and Harrison discover Kretzer's cop car and, believing it to be abandoned, hijack it for a reckless joyride. They speed along a rural road, weaving through traffic and narrowly avoiding oncoming vehicles. Their impulsive theft thrusts them into a dangerous chase with the armed officer’s vehicle.

Back in his own car, Kretzer tells dispatcher Mary Allen that his radio is down and that he should be contacted by phone. He orders Allen to ignore a report of a stolen sheriff's car and has deputies switch to a different channel. When he tries to reach the boys on the regular channel, they do not answer, leaving him without a reliable link to them.

The two youths, armed with Kretzer's weapons, race down the road on the wrong side of traffic and nearly collide with a woman driving in the opposite lane. Their joyride grows more dangerous as they test the stolen vehicle's limits. The situation intensifies as the car careens through the night.

At a trailer park, Kretzer steals another car to continue his escape, hoping to shake pursuit. He evades immediate arrest and keeps moving toward home, where he plans to rely on his own vehicle. The theft marks another rung in his escalating criminal flipbook.

On arriving home, Kretzer dumps bags of cocaine into the toilet and begins packing a bag of cash. He then tunes into a radio message from Harrison and attempts to contact the boys. The dual concealment of drugs and money reveals the scale of his crime.

Mary Allen informs Kretzer that there is a report of a stolen sheriff's car driven by two boys under age 10. The warning creates a sense of imminent trouble and narrows the focus of the pursuit. It also heightens the stakes for everyone involved.

The man from the trunk reveals his betrayal, forcing Harrison to disclose the boys' location to Kretzer so he can exact revenge. He and the dead body from earlier are tied to a drug deal gone wrong, and they lock the boys in the car's backseat while planning retaliation. They move to a windmill area to lay low and plot.

Bev, the woman involved earlier, shows up and spots the man in the trunk. Kretzer pretends to be injured and asks her to search for his keys, but the concealed man shoots Bev, triggering a gunfight. Kretzer kills the intruder but is badly wounded in the process.

The boys manage to shoot out a window and escape the car; Travis is struck by a ricochet. Harrison then takes the cop car and drives toward town to get help for Travis, while Kretzer recovers and taunts them over the radio. The escape marks a shift from captivity to a desperate bid for aid.

Not knowing how to operate the car’s headlights, Harrison presses on as Kretzer closes the gap and tries to ram them off the road. Harrison swerves to avoid a cow, but Kretzer crashes, continuing the pursuit into darkness. They press on toward the faint glow of town lights ahead.

With the town lights on the horizon, Allen tries to reach Kretzer over the radio, and Harrison answers just as they speed toward civilization. The imminent arrival of town signals the endgame of the chase and the potential for outside help to arrive. The radio exchange underscores the tension between pursuit and communication.