Miguel is a middle-class young man living in Mexico City, and he is in love with Johnny, a glue-sniffing skater whose mother is Miguel’s family house maid. Together, they navigate a dangerous circle where they help arrange for people to give blood that ends up in illegal trafficking deals orchestrated by their associate Gabriel. The dynamic between them is complicated, blending affection with jealousy and mistrust as their world grows increasingly tense and morally gray.
The film opens with these two in conflict, outside the tank truck where Johnny lives, as a tense argument spirals into a precarious routine. Johnny accuses Miguel of spreading rumors that they are sleeping together, a charge that colors every subsequent interaction. Their volatile bond heats up when they briefly share a moment of intimacy in the truck, even as Johnny’s girlfriend Adri is asleep nearby, a detail that adds a layer of hidden tension to their relationship. After that night, Miguel quietly steals Adri’s clothes and abandons them on a pedestrian bridge, a small act that foreshadows the reckless choices to come.
Gabriel calls them to organize a quick job at dawn, laying out the grim reality of their enterprise. In a private moment, Gabriel reveals a troubling development: a blood bag brought in by Johnny tested positive for hepatitis C, and he questions Miguel about his own status. This revelation deepens the sense that they are playing with real danger, not just for themselves but for everyone caught up in their scheme. Gabriel presses for a larger haul, asking Miguel to assemble fifty people for a job that promises significant payment, further entangling their fates with those who traffic in blood and power.
Tensions escalate when Miguel locates Johnny and Adri at the jai alai court, and the two vie over the consequences of their choices. Miguel raises the hepatitis C result, probing Johnny about fidelity and trust, while Johnny deflects and insists he doesn’t mind dealing with drug lords if necessary. He even suggests the possibility of living together at the jai alai court, an idea Miguel quickly rejects as impractical and dangerous for their fragile alliance. The mood shifts as they confront the prospect of working with narcos, revealing a willingness to push moral boundaries in pursuit of money and a sense of escape.
On the day of the deal, fifty participants—from very young teens to the elderly, many of whom are friends and relatives of the two young men—are assembled. David, the intimidating buyer who will seal the deal, arrives with a large truck and a crew of armed men, casting a menacing shadow over the operation. The participants voice their fear when they realize they will be transported in a big box truck to an unknown destination. When many voices insist they want to back out, David’s threats silence them; Miguel frantically tries to hold the line, fetching water and snacks to calm everyone, but by the time they return, the lot is empty and the crowd has vanished.
Desperation drives Miguel and Johnny to chase the truth through the city, but their calls to Gabriel go unanswered. They break into Gabriel’s studio, where a brutal confrontation ensues and they batter him to death, a shocking turn that robs them of a straightforward exit from their crime and leaves them to skate through a city that now seems suddenly claustrophobic and hostile. The murder binds them in fear as they wander the city’s underground and transit systems, a stark reminder of how far they have fallen from ordinary life.
The aftermath intensifies their sense of isolation. They drift between a hotel room and public spaces, wrestling with the money they’ve accumulated and the future it promises. In a pivotal moment, Johnny reaches out to his mother for help, but the call reveals the fragility of their plans and the widening gap between desire and reality. Miguel’s mother Miguel's Mother becomes a critical, if uneasy, anchor in this storm of adrenaline and fear. The tension culminates as Brenda—Miguel’s mother’s presence in the narrative—returns to confront the consequences of Johnny and Miguel’s actions, driving Miguel to a stark choice about his next steps.
Brenda pushes Miguel toward an airstrip of necessity, offering a brutal but practical path: fly to Texas and work with one of his father’s friends, effectively pulling him out of the city’s dangerous maze. She doesn’t sugar-coat the risks or pretend everything will be easy; she simply insists on a way out that won’t leave them both broken in Mexico City’s shadowed streets. Miguel accepts the plan with a heavy heart, unsure of what fate awaits Johnny but unable to resist the pull of a chance at something resembling safety and distance from the violence they’ve waded into.
In the end, the film lingers on Miguel’s melancholy and longing as he searches for solace in skating and glue sniffing, a haunting reminder of the connection he shared with [Johnny]. The closing image is an imagined scene of the two of them skating together in Texas, a bittersweet fantasy that refuses to erase the memory of their choices or the cost they paid. The story closes on a note of unresolved longing and the sense that, for these two, escape may always feel just beyond reach, even as the possibility of rebuilding a life somewhere far away remains tantalizingly real.
