Two truckers, Rafe and Vic, David Paul have a long streak of bad luck: missed deadlines, mounting debts, and the relentless pressure of a loan shark named Sweeney, David Carradine. Their boss gives them one final assignment to clear the slate: haul barrels of toxic waste for the company Tech Star to a ship docked somewhere off the coast of California. To force the clock against them, he mounts a digital countdown on the truck’s dashboard, a device he dubs the foul-up clock to remind them how tight the schedule really is.
Tech Star is portrayed as a place that thrives on exploiting child geniuses as slave labor. Among these hidden workers is Holly, Ari Meyers who has invented a curious device that looks like a plain remote but can activate and deactivate electronics by code. When the brothers arrive to load, Holly secretly stows away in the cab, understanding that the shipment is headed to a place where her fiancé lives. She is soon discovered, and while Rafe and Vic vow to protect her, they do not fully grasp the power of her invention. The trio ends up spending the night in a Texas motel, with Dr. Bruekner, Martin Mull, the CEO of Tech Star, and his hired goons closing in to recapture Holly as Tech Star property.
The chase resumes, and trouble intensifies when the truck stalls on railroad tracks with an approaching train. Holly scrambles to remember the correct code to restart the engine using her device, managing a last-minute restart, but the moment also reveals a crucial error: she unintentionally inputs a sequence that reprograms the foul-up clock two hours back. They press on toward California, but the clock’s delay gnaws at their time.
Upon reaching California, Holly destroys her device just before the capture, unaware that it was actually a simple remote swapped with the brothers’ invention at the motel—an act of misdirection meant to throw their pursuers off the scent. They present Holly with her invention and drop her at her boyfriend’s house, but the realization hits: the countdown has effectively been sabotaged by the earlier swap, leaving them with too little time to reach the dock before the ship sails. Sweeney, ever the opportunist, successfully repossesses their truck.
The worst moment arrives when Sweeney drives the truck reckless enough to rupture the barrels, releasing the toxic chemicals. The accident not only contaminates the vehicle but also causes Sweeney’s hair to fall out in tufts, a grim slapstick reminder of the temporary fate that his greed invites.
In a surprising turn, Holly markets her invention and teams up with Rafe and Vic to launch their own transportation company. The film closes with Holly reaching out via CB radio about a new client, and the two brothers setting off in a brand-new tractor-trailer, ready to take on the road with a fresh start and renewed optimism.
