A nurse practitioner with a checkered past relocates to her hometown, where she investigates a spate of road rage incidents, and discovers a corporate conspiracy putting her patients’ lives at risk.

SYNOPSIS:

Eden Davidson (31) drives her blue sedan, packed with belongings and her cat Hypo, onto the exit for the small town of Progress. She’s moving back to her hometown after years away. Heat shimmers off the asphalt. A large, late-model red pickup tailgates her, flashing its lights and sounding its horn. The truck passes her, and the driver gives her the finger. Rattled, Eden pulls over at a turnoff for a local mining company. A semi for a mining company called “ORE” heads toward the freeway.

Arriving in Progress to take over management of a local clinic, she spots the red pickup. She confronts the driver, Pasco Carbone (45), who brushes her off. In the clinic, she announces herself to Millie White (42), the temporary director. Eden sees her first patients, a woman with a broken arm, and a man with a severe laceration. Both appear to be road rage incidents. The man is brought in by Deputy Sheriff Mason Ruiz (33). Eden tells Mason that road rage is a problem in his jurisdiction. Mason says the road has a bad reputation. Pasco arrives at the clinic. He runs the mine, which produces rare earths. As a peace gesture, he invites her to a community breakfast at the mine offices.

At the breakfast, Pasco introduces Eden to local leaders and presents a gift of $10,000 to the clinic. Mason is at the breakfast, and Eden explains her belief about an unknown, hidden cause of the road rage incidents. She learns that ORE upgraded the suspect road to handle heavy trucks. Stopping at the grocery store for coffee, an enormous black pickup almost kisses her bumper, as if intimidating her. On her way to work, another car tailgates her, then blows past. A police cruiser driven by Mason zooms by, lights flashing. Eden soon comes across an accident scene. She stops to help, but the driver is raving, and he attacks Mason. Eden tackles the man and saves Mason.

Eden tells Mason that she’s reviewed the clinic records and believes the spate of road rage incidents goes back to the upgrade a few years prior. Later, she calls the mine and speaks to Chris Jacobs (24), whom she met at the breakfast. She asks to see safety records, but Chris is nervous. At the clinic, she gets a voice mail from someone who claims to know her past. At her previous job, she was caught stealing prescription drugs. Chris calls and asks to meet her. At a midnight meeting, Chris advises Eden to “look at the road.” Taking Chris’s advice, Eden examines the road surface itself, collecting samples. Mason arrives, and Eden asks him to send the samples to the state crime lab. Instead, behind her back, he throws them away.

Eden secretly receives documents from the mine’s research lab, which show how trace elements increase aggression in mice. Eden deduces that the mine added something to the road. She asks Pasco about it. Pasco threatens to expose her background. Later, an arsonist torches the clinic, nearly killing Eden, though she manages to rescue the lab reports. Mason apologizes for destroying the samples. He sends more to the state lab, which finds elevated levels of the metals that caused aggression in mice. The local media start calling. Chris tells Eden he’s been fired.

After a media interview, Eden is driving the tainted road. She learns that Chris is dead, run over by a large vehicle. At night, on her way home, the monstrous black truck tailgates her. She tries to get away, but the truck threatens her. She gets angry and pulls out her gun. She fires, but the truck won’t stop. She realizes the road is affecting her. After an extended chase, the truck loses control and crashes. The driver is thrown from the vehicle and killed. It’s Millie from the clinic.

Eden’s exposure of the dangerous road product – intended to extend the road’s life – results in a state investigation and prosecution of ORE and Pasco. The arson and attempted murder is tied to Millie, who was once Pasco’s lover. Eden and Mason mark their victory with a lunch at a local cafe.

THE ANGRY ROAD