A sprawling crime-thriller set against the sultry backdrop of Mobile, Alabama, where a string of grotesque murders plagues the city and a shotgun-wielding killer stalks women through the night. A young race car driver, Ted Prior as Jimmy Clayton, goes straight to the police to report his troubling visions of the killer. He speaks with Jan-Michael Vincent as Lt. Bruce Ellis and Glenn Ford as Captain Gavin, but the authorities dismiss his warnings and, to his shock, lock him up as the prime suspect. The setup pits a troubled young man against a system that doesn’t listen, casting a pall over a city already on edge.
Enter Gloria Freedman, played by Sandahl Bergman as Gloria Freedman, a tenacious reporter and Ellis’s ex-wife who becomes morally entangled in Jimmy’s case. She senses there’s more to the murders than a single deranged killer and resolves to clear Jimmy’s name while chasing down the truth. Her investigation threads through crime scenes, hospital visits, and late-night stakeouts, painting a portrait of a city desperate for answers and justice.
Meanwhile, a rogue biker named Blake Garrett, portrayed by Randall 'Tex' Cobb as Blake Garrett, learns of the killings and fixates on Jimmy’s potential guilt. He shadows Gloria, warns her to stay away from Jimmy, and soon escalates his ominous interference. The tension spikes when Blake abducts Jimmy’s younger sister Gina, Traci Lords as Gina Clayton, and schemes to slip the country with her in tow. He claims he is “protecting her,” a line that hangs in the air with a troubling ambiguity.
> "protecting her"
The gun-and-suspicion narrative shifts as Lt. Ellis begins to doubt the initial certainty about Jimmy. He negotiates a risky move: Jimmy is released, but under strict surveillance, and Ellis orders him followed to uncover the truth about Blake and the killings. The chase culminates at an airport, where Blake tries to flee the country with Gina. The pursuit spills into the open, then to the vertiginous ledge of a parking garage, where a desperate exchange ends with Blake taking his own life after a wrenching choice to drop his vehicle off the edge. Forensic tests later confirm the murder weapon as the shotgun found in Blake’s truck, seemingly sealing the case—yet the truth remains unsettled, hovering like smoke over the city.
As the narrative barrels toward its final act, Gloria’s instinct for truth meets a dark, intimate revelation. She visits Jimmy’s home for what seems like a hopeful first date, only to confront a chilling shift in his behavior that nearly costs her life. It becomes clear that Jimmy’s turmoil runs deeper than anyone suspected: a dissociative identity disorder forged by years of abuse has split him into personas, with Billy the killer lurking within. Blake’s earlier knowledge of Jimmy’s condition hints at a loyalty born of fear and protection, complicating loyalties and blurred motives. In the climactic confrontation, Billy’s presence resurfaces with deadly intent as Gloria faces a lethal danger, and Lt. Ellis bursts in to end the nightmare by shooting Billy/Jimmy, bringing a brutal close to a layered case that leaves the audience pondering the fine line between protection and peril, truth and deception.
