The River’s Edge

Ben Cameron is a struggling rancher in New Mexico who is devoted to his wife Meg. Meg is on parole for a ten-year prison sentence and struggles to adjust to ranch life, still haunted by her former partner, Nardo Denning. After an argument, Meg begins preparing to leave Ben.

Denning arrives and asks Ben to help him cross the border to Mexico. Ben refuses to assist him, insisting on staying within the law. Meg and Denning depart for town together.

Ben finds a photograph of Denning and Meg together, realizing that they were lovers. The discovery deepens his sense of betrayal and suspicion. He confronts the emotional fallout of their past relationship.

Denning apologizes for deserting Meg and reveals that he has $1 million in cash from a recent job. The revelation shows the danger and volatility surrounding them. Ben is left weighing his wife's safety against Denning's predatory demands.

A police officer stops their car and looks into the trunk. Denning backs over the officer several times, then crashes into a boulder. Meg braces in terror as Denning drives toward her before the crash.

Ben returns to the ranch to find Meg and Denning; he urges Meg to go to the police, but she refuses to avoid parole violations. Denning offers Ben $10,000 to escort them across the border. The trio's fragile dynamic grows more perilous.

Denning kills a friend of Ben, revealing that he is a cold-blooded killer. Meg begins to see the true danger Denning poses. The incident escalates the sense of imminent threat.

During an attempt to escape, Meg cuts her arm on a barbed wire fence. She tells Ben that she no longer loves Denning, signaling a shift in allegiance and danger to Denning.

Meg collapses from the infected injury, and they shelter in a cave. Ben uses the $10,000 to start a fire and boil water for her arm, while expressing that he would wait forever if she returned to jail.

The next morning, Denning and Ben fight. Ben is pinned under a boulder and gives Denning a choice of routes: an airport or a village that will send help for him and Meg.

That night, Denning is knocked into a gorge while trying to stop a truck. The fall renders him out of the picture as Ben and Meg consider their next moves.

Ben and Meg find the money and Denning's broken body, discovering that he was going for help. They bury him and return home to face the consequences of the past few days.

Ben and Meg return home to face the consequences of the past days. The immediate danger has passed, but their relationship and future remain uncertain.