Repo Man

In the Mojave Desert, a motorcycle cop pulls over a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu being erratically driven by Dr. J. Frank Parnell. Despite warnings from the space-out Parnell, the policeman opens the trunk, sees a blinding flash of white light, and is instantly vaporized, leaving only his boots behind. Parnell drives off, continuing his erratic driving. Otto Maddox, a young punk rocker in L.A., is fired from his job as a supermarket stock clerk when his manager nitpicks his work placing products in displays. He goes to a punk rocker party where he catches his girlfriend cheating on him with his best friend Duke. Depressed and broke, Otto is wandering the streets when a man named Bud drives up and offers him $25 to drive a 1978 Olds Cutlass Salon out of the area, saying it's his wife's car. Bud tells Otto that his wife is at the hospital about to deliver twins and that he needs to get her car out of the bad neighborhood. Otto follows Bud in the car to the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation, where he learns that the car he drove was being repossessed and Bud's story was a ruse. After defiantly pouring out the beer they give him, he refuses to join Bud as a "repo man," and goes to his parents' house. He learns that his burned-out ex-hippie parents have donated the money they promised him for finishing school to a crooked televangelist. He decides to take the repo job. Bud teaches Otto what he calls the Repo Code and about the lifestyle of a repo man which involves dressing like a cop, working very late hours, getting little sleep and snorting speed to keep awake. Bud also tells Otto about the Rodriguez Brothers, Hand Acceptance's chief competition in the repo business. They engage the brothers in a brief race in the LA River with Bud yelling insults as the Rodriguez' speed off. After repossessing a flashy red 1976 Cadillac, Otto sees a girl named Leila running down the street. He gives her a ride to her workplace, the United Fruitcake Outlet. On the way, Leila ducks down in the footwell when she spots two men in the next car who dress like government agents. She shows Otto pictures of aliens that she says are in the trunk of a Chevy Malibu. She claims that they are dangerous because of the radiation that they emit. Meanwhile, Helping Hand is offered a $20,000 bounty notice for the Malibu. Most assume that the car is drug-related, because the bounty is so far above the actual value of the car. Parnell arrives in L.A. driving the Malibu, but he is unable to meet his waiting UFO compatriots because of a team of government agents led by a woman with a metal hand. When Parnell pulls into a gas station, Helping Hand's competitors, the Rodriguez brothers, take the Malibu. They stop for sodas because the car's trunk is so hot. While they are out of the car, a trio of Otto's punk friends, Duke, Debbi and Archie, who are on a crime spree, steal the Malibu. After they visit a night club, Parnell appears and tricks the punks into opening the trunk, killing one of them and scaring the other two away. Later, he picks up Otto and drives aimlessly, before collapsing and dying from radiation exposure. Otto takes the Malibu back to Helping Hand and leaves it in the lot. The car is stolen from the lot by an unidentified thief, and a chase ensues. By this time, the car is glowing bright green. Eventually, the Malibu reappears at the Helping Hand lot with Bud behind the wheel, but he gets shot by government agents who arrive on the scene in a helicopter. The various groups trying to acquire the car soon show up; government agents, the UFO scientists, and the televangelist. Anyone who approaches it bursts into flames, even those in flame-retardant suits. Only Miller, an eccentric mechanic at Helping Hand, is able to enter the car. He slides behind the wheel and beckons Otto into the Malibu. After he settles into the passenger seat, the Malibu lifts straight up into the air and flies off, streaking around downtown Los Angeles at high speed. Otto happily says the ride is "intense" and Miller replies