Arch Hall Sr.

Three high school teachers, Ed (Richard Alden), Doris (Helen Hovey), and Carl (Don Russell), are driving through California's Antelope Valley on their way to a Dodgers game in Los Angeles. The group's Chevrolet Bel Air has some trouble and they are forced to pull off to a gas station/junkyard on the side of the road. After examining the vehicle Ed concludes that the fuel pump will need to be replaced. Doris and Carl search the junkyard looking for the owner, but they cannot find him. In the residence Carl finds a warm meal with a table set for four, but oddly enough nobody is in the house. The three realize this is very peculiar and start to seriously worry about their situation. At this point Charlie Tibbs, (Arch Hall, Jr.) a rather tall young man wielding a Colt .45 pistol, and his semi-mute teenage girlfriend Judy (Marilyn Manning) show up. Charlie and Judy have spent the past several days heading west from Arizona, leaving a trail of corpses behind them. Law enforcement is on the hunt for them, but Charlie has managed to stay a step ahead by changing vehicles frequently and then killing the people who offer their help. Charlie demands that Ed finish repairing the car and informs him that he and Judy will be stealing the Belair and taking off when Ed is done. Charlie threatens that if the three don't cooperate "it'll be the end of them." During the next hour, Charlie and his girlfriend verbally and physically torment Ed, Doris, and Carl; Doris calls Charlie an inhuman monster, and he rips her dress and smacks her, then forces Carl to kneel in the sand and plead for his life until Charlie finishes drinking a soda, after which he shoots Carl in the head. Ed begins to try to work out how many shots Charlie has left in the gun, and asks Charlie a lot of questions about the people he's killed on the way to their current location. Charlie reveals he has two reloads left, and reloads the gun while taunting Ed gleefully. Doris hears the hum of a motor and thinks the police are coming, and Charlie becomes paranoid. He makes Ed hide in the trunk of a car while Judy holds Doris at knife-point. Two motorcycle policeman pull in. After a tense few moments, Doris screams for help while Ed bangs on the lid of the trunk, but to no avail; Charlie has shot both cops dead. Charlie continues to try and force Ed to fix the car; Ed formulates a plan to run Charlie over with the car. Charlie switches on the radio, and he and Judy begin to kiss as the music switches to updates from the baseball game the teachers were on their way to. Doris gets in the car to try to run it, but Ed's plan to run over Charlie backfires when Doris can't muster the courage to step on the gas pedal. Charlie continues to coerce Ed into fixing the car, then orders him to put gasoline in the carburetor. Ed sprays gasoline in Charlie's eyes, then flees, and Charlie's damaged vision causes him to accidentally shoot and kill Judy. After mourning Judy's death and screaming like an animal, he vows to murder Ed and Doris. Doris and Ed are able to evade Charlie until Doris screams when she discovers two dead bodies of the junkyard owners next to her where she is hiding. As Charlie shoots at her while she flees, Ed approaches with a heavy tool to try to knock him out. They pursue each other until Charlie corners Ed and kills him with one of the cops' guns, as one his own has run out of bullets. Charlie steals the car Ed had been working on and drives after Doris as she runs. However, the car stalls repeatedly in the sand, and the baseball game begins playing on the radio again as Charlie abandons the car and runs after Doris with a knife. Doris spots a stone cottage in the distance and runs inside to hide. However, she soon sees Charlie approach, and runs out again. She ducks behind the walls of an unfinished house nearby, where she is discovered again by Charlie, but as she flees once more, Charlie falls into a pit of rattlesnakes, where he is bitten to death. The film concludes with a traumatized Doris listening to the end of the first inning of the baseball game before turning and wandering away on the trail into the desert.

Bud Eagle (Arch Hall Jr.), a young singer-songwriter, arrives in Los Angeles, California on a motorcycle and rides through Hollywood, while dreaming of making it big. At Marge's Koffee Kup Cafe, he meets Vickie (Nancy Czar), an aspiring dancer, who quizzes him about his "gimmick" and promises to give him the "inside dope" on the music industry. He attends her performance at a television variety show later that night. When the scheduled saxophonist is unable to perform, Bud steps in with a ballad that earns him a standing ovation. Bud's performance also earns the notice of talent scout Mike McCauley (Arch Hall Sr.), who offers him a record deal. Bud accepts the McCauley's proposal. McCauley immediately installs Bud in a penthouse apartment, providing him with tailored suits, a Fender Jazzmaster, a mini tape recorder, and a new backing band ready to record his songs. Bud's music career takes off in spite of his mounting doubts about the unscrupulous McCauley, who pays high school students to promote his music at their schools. Bud attempts to leave McCauley more than once, but relents when McCauley reminds him of the money he's owed. Bud performs "Vickie" live on television, and Vickie sees the broadcast. She runs to the television studio where they joyfully reunite. They spend the night ice skating in Vickie's uncle's rink. When Bud returns to his penthouse apartment, he is confronted by Don Proctor, McCauley's previous client. He warns Bud that McCauley is cheating him, and manipulating him. McCauley's henchman, Steak (Ray Dennis Steckler), arrives with a girl, Daisy, who begins to dance seductively, distracting Bud while Steak and Proctor go outside to fight. Steak throws Proctor down a staircase. As Daisy kisses Bud, Vickie walks in, and runs out again in tears. Bud chases after her but is kidnapped by a trio of comical bums from Marge's Koffee Kup Cafe. Eager to take advantage of McCauley, Bud helps the kidnappers to plan the crime, encouraging them to ask for more ransom money. They try to share the money with him, but he refuses. Steak breaks into the kidnappers' hideout, the group scatters, and Bud goes into hiding. He takes a job as a dishwasher at Marge's Koffee Kup Cafe, where he and Vickie reconcile, but are quickly apprehended by McCauley and Steak, who threaten violence if Bud does not return to them. After a climactic fist fight between Steak and Bud, Steak flees, and Bud demands that McCauley reform his dishonest business. McCauley refuses. Bud reveals that he has recorded the incriminating conversation using the mini tape recorder, and he threatens to make the recording public. McCauley relents, promising to manage Bud's career fairly from now on. The film closes with scenes of Vickie and Bud dancing together on the beach as Bud sings "Twist Fever."

Jack 'Cruiser' Bryan (Arch Hall Jr.), a spoiled and wealthy teenager, steals some hubcaps for his homemade hot rod vehicle. Encouraged by his success, he steals more automobile parts and soon organizes four high school friends into a gang of thieves, whom make up of John 'Torch' Lester (Robert Padget), Snooper, Flip Johnson, and Ben Shore. The four punks operate out of a drive-in restaurant and steal items items from peoples cars during the evenings. A minor subplot has Torch dealing with his alcoholic and abusive father who does not know where Torch is making a large amount of money, but accepts it by confiscating most of the cash to purchase more whiskey for himself. Cruiser also meets and begins dating Gypsy (Dee Dee Green) a fellow student who is also unaware of his extracurricular activities. The police name Cruiser's gang "The Choppers," and insurance investigator Tom Hart (Tom Brown) is called to investigate the claims for stolen car accessories. The Choppers dispose of their loot through a fence, junk dealer Moose McGill (Bruno VeSoto), but the case is broken when Hart's car is stripped at the gang's headquarters. His secretary, Liz (Marianne Gaba), finds chicken feathers at the scene of the crime, and this leads to the discovery of the use of a poultry truck as part of the gang's operation. The police set up a decoy broken down car along a highway outside Los Angeles and the gang in their poultry truck takes the bait. When the police close in, Cruiser radios them on his mobile walkies-talkie about the police approach and the gang flees back to the junkyard only to get betrayed by Moose McGill and his partner, Cowboy, who plan to turn them into the police. When the police arrive, Cruiser shoots and kills Moose and a shootout happens where Cowboy, Snooper and Flip are killed, while Ben is wounded. Cornered in the junkyard, Torch shoots and kills a few cops who try to overrun their position. When a bulldozer is brought in, Cruiser, Torch and Ben surrender to the police and are taken away to jail.