Jacob Tremblay as Joe Kane leads a tense, tightly wound life under the sway of his father’s sovereign citizen beliefs. The pair survive on a nomadic routine built around public talks, a precarious home life, and the constant pressure of a foreclosure notice that gives them just 30 days to come up with the money. The story follows a boy trying to hold onto a sense of normalcy while the world around him seems to bend toward his father’s radical worldview.
Nick Offerman plays Jerry Kane, Joe’s father, a charismatic but volatile figure who shepherds their travel-heavy existence and makes a living by hosting seminars that defend their self-styled ideology. He clings to the life they’ve built, even as debt and danger close in, and his teachings pull Joe deeper into a world where rules feel optional and loyalty is all but worshipped. The tension between affection and intensity marks their bond as they move from town to town, and a routine custody of beliefs becomes the backbone of their journey. During a tense moment, Jerry is pulled over and arrested for driving without a license or registration, and Joe is briefly held at a juvenile detention center where he’s questioned about his father’s ideological views.
After Joe’s release, the Kanes press on with their seminar circuit, crossing the country with Jerry’s persuasive energy driving them forward. Jerry befriends Leslie, a regular attendee who becomes part of their uneasy orbit, and they spend a night gambling at a casino, chasing a fleeting sense of triumph amid mounting pressure. When they refuse to pay the bank, eviction becomes inevitable, and the pair retreat to their now fragile home base. They drive on, with Jerry’s agitation intensifying as he contemplates the fragile future ahead, buying more firearms along the way while Joe clings to a fragile thread of doubt and fear about where this path ends.
Parallel to the Kanes’ story, Adam Bouchart—recently graduated from the police academy—begins his professional path, buoyed by his father, John Bouchart, a police chief whose expectations loom large over their family. On duty, the two intersect in a grim confrontation when Adam and his partner pull over the Kanes and detain Jerry, a moment that spirals into a devastating act.
In a flash of violence, Joe exits the car and, overwhelmed by fear and a spiraling sense of loyalty to his father, opens fire on the two officers, killing them. John and his wife arrive at the scene to discover their son’s death alongside the officers’ fatalities, and a statewide manhunt is launched to track the Kanes. The chase drives them into a local department store, where they attempt to alter their appearance and stock up on more ammunition as they try to erase the trail they’ve left behind.
Joe is horrified by what he has done, his pain spilling over into tears as his father yells and urges him into a dangerous calm. The two are eventually surrounded and killed by police in the parking lot, a violent end that feels both personal and part of a broader tragedy. Their deaths echo through the communities that had previously honored each side: police officers celebrated by their city, and the Kanes remembered by the attendees of Jerry’s sovereign citizen gatherings.
That night, the human cost of the sequence of choices rests on the shoulders of those left behind. In the final, somber image, John Bouchart—Dennis Quaid in the role—carries Adam’s infant son out onto the porch, gazing up at the night sky with a weighty, quiet despair that lingers long after the last echo of gunshots has faded.
