Zabriskie Point

White and Black students argue about an impending student strike in a university meeting. Mark leaves the room after declaring that he would die for the cause, but not from boredom, sparking criticism from the young white radicals. The scene sets up tensions over race and politics on campus. The meeting ends with a sense of unresolved conflict.

Following a mass arrest at the protest, Mark goes to a police station to help bail his roommate. He waits, then goes to the lock-up area and asks about bail, only to be rebuffed. He calls out to arrested students and faculty and is arrested himself, giving his name as Karl Marx, but a duty officer types it as Carl Marx.

After being released from jail, Mark and a friend buy firearms in a Los Angeles gun shop, claiming they are for self defense and to protect their women. The purchase reflects the film's rising tension and sense of impending violence. The encounter foreshadows the characters' later actions.

In a downtown LA office, real estate executive Lee Allen reviews a television commercial for Sunny Dunes, a new desert resort development. The ad features mannequins instead of models, highlighting the glossy, impersonal portrayal of growth. Lee and an associate discuss the rapid development of the greater Los Angeles area as they drive through crowded streets.

Mark takes part in a bloody campus confrontation between students and police, with tear gas and gunfire. A police officer is fatally shot, though it is unclear who fired the fatal shot. After the clash, Mark flees the campus and rides a city bus toward Hawthorne.

Mark travels by bus to Hawthorne and is turned away when attempting to buy a sandwich on credit. He then walks to Hawthorne Municipal Airport, steals a Cessna 210, and flies off into the desert. The theft launches his lone flight across the Mojave.

Daria drives across the desert toward Phoenix to meet her boss, Lee, who may be her lover. She is seeking a man who works with emotionally disturbed children from Los Angeles. Along the way she encounters a group of young boys near a Mojave roadhouse, who taunt and harass her, testing her resolve.

While filling the radiator, Daria is spied from the air by Mark, who buzzes her car and flies just above the sand. He tosses a T-shirt out of the airplane window for her to pick up, creating a brief, surreal connection between the two. Daria shifts from upset to curiosity as she watches him.

The two meet at an old man's desert shack, where Mark asks for a lift so he can buy gasoline for the aircraft. They then wander to Zabriskie Point, where they make love under a sky full of desert dust and the presence of other naked youths.

A California Highway Patrol officer questions Daria. Hidden behind a portable toilet, Mark aims at the officer but Daria steps between them to block the shot, seemingly saving the officer's life. Mark reveals his desire to shoot, but claims someone else fired first and that he never fired.

Mark returns to the stolen aircraft and repaints it with political slogans and psychedelic colors. Daria pleads with him to leave the plane and run away, but he insists on returning to Los Angeles despite the risk. The police are waiting as the plane lands in Hawthorne, and a chase ends with Mark being shot dead by a police officer.

Daria learns of Mark's death on the car radio and drives to Lee's lavish desert home near Phoenix. She sees three affluent women by the pool and mourns Mark by dousing herself in the house's waterfall. Lee, absorbed in a Sunny Dunes business meeting, notices her briefly before resuming work.

Seeking solitude, Daria encounters a young Native American housekeeper and leaves quietly. She drives off, glancing back at the house and imagining it exploding in orange flames and chaos. The ending emphasizes her detachment and the film's foreboding mood as the dreamlike desert lingers.