Nightmare at Noon (1988)
A couple in an RV and a hitchhiker stop in a town stricken with a chemical which makes the inhabitants go crazy.
Genre
Characters/Groups
Sheriff Hanks - George Kennedy
Cheri Griffiths - Kimberly Beck
Dr. Miller - David Christiansen
Woman in Curlers - Tabi Cooper
Insane Mother - Sheri Griffith
Terrified Child - Christi Griffith
Albino's Henchman - S.A. Griffin, Perry Husman, Scott Mallon, Kim Milford, Herman Poppe, Terry D. Seago, John Stewart, Allen West
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
Detailed Synopsis
The Albino sits in the control center of his van overlooking the town of Canyonland, population 963. The Albino then initiates an experiment. He and another van with the logo, Agency for the Protection of the Environment, drive to the local water reservoir. As The Albino is about to shoot a capsule full of green liquid into the water, Cowboy drives up. Cowboy greets the Albino's Henchman and they shoot and kill him. Albino's Henchmen push Cowboy's truck into the water and The Albino fires the capsule into the water. Sheriff Hanks is woken up by his alarm and makes a pot of coffee. Billy plays country music over the radio and gives the weather report. Ken Griffiths and Cheri Griffiths are driving towards Canyonland in their RV. They see Reilly hitchhiking and Cheri suggests they pick him up and Ken offers him his soggy croissant. They introduce each other and Ken pulls over at the Canyonlands Cafe. Lori takes their order and Ken and Reilly order a beer, while Cheri just has water. Charley walks in and takes a seat after greeting Lori. He starts to shake and grabs Lori's hand and stabs it with a knife. Ken goes up to Charley and Charley starts to choke him. Cheri grabs a pitcher and smashes it on Charley's head and Reilly punches Charley in the face to no effect. Both Ken and Reilly start fighting Charley and Julia arrives. Charley then starts to attack Julia and takes her gun from her. As Charley is about to shoot Julia, Reilly shoots him in the leg.
The Albino continues with the experiment and jams any signals from coming out of Canyonland. Julia tells Reilly he will have to wait to speak with Sheriff Hanks and takes his gun from him. Ken and Cheri leave in the RV. Sheriff Hanks arrives and Julia updates him on what is going on. The Albino turns on a magnetic field which shuts off electrical equipment in Canyonland and Ken's RV stalls. Ken and Cheri decide to walk back into town. After Sheriff Hanks gets Reilly's backstory, Charley breaks free and steals Sheriff Hank's vehicle. Ken and Cheri hitch a ride with a local after finding out there are no rental car places in town. Charley rams into the parked car of Woman in Curlers and when she gets out, he crushes her by ramming her with the police car. Charley starts shooting at vehicles with a shotgun and Sheriff Hanks and Julia arrive. Deputy drives up and Sheriff Hanks tells him Charley has gone crazy. Deputy goes up to Charley and asks him to give him the shotgun and Charley shoots and kills him. Sheriff Hanks then shoots and kills Charley.
Sheriff Hanks tells Ken, Cheri and Reilly about finding Cowboy's truck shot up. Ken asks if there are any rental car places and Sheriff Hanks refers him to Floyd. Julia tells Sheriff Hanks she had Charley's blood checked at the hospital and it was some kind of acid. After some time, Sheriff Hanks and Reilly go to check on Ken, while Julia stays behind with Cheri. They separate when they arrive and Floyd hits Sheriff Hanks in the back with a crowbar, knocking him unconscious. He then attacks Ken and Reilly, until Reilly shoots him with Ken's shotgun. Cheri starts acting crazy and attacks Julia. Reilly and Ken find Sheriff Hanks and he tells them to go back to the Sheriff's Department while he tries to get help. When Ken and Reilly arrive at the Sheriff's Department they find Cheri about to shoot Julia, and they grab her and put her in a prison cell. Dr. Miller arrives and tells Sheriff Hanks about Johnny Haggers' son, who just tried to strangle a nurse. He and Ken inject Cheri with a tranquilizer. Sheriff Hanks, Julia and Reilly guess everything happening must be due to contaminated water. Sheriff Hanks asks Dr. Miller to check on his patients and see how many of them drank water that morning. Dr. Miller mentions even drinking coffee might lead to infection and Sheriff Hanks lies and says he didn't drink any. Chaos starts to engulf Canyonland as people start attacking each other.
Sheriff Hanks and the others arm themselves and Sheriff Hanks tells Julia to get on her vehicle's PA system to tell the people not to drink the water as he, Ken and Reilly search the town. Sheriff Hanks starts to show symptoms of the contamination. A Minister charges at Sheriff Hanks with a knife and he shoots him. As he is walking away, Minister gets back up and is about to stab Sheriff Hanks, when Dr. Miller injects Minister with a syringe. Julia sees Terrified Child running and screaming and Insane Mother charging after her with a knife. Julia finds Terrified Child hiding and as she goes to help her, Insane Mother starts to threaten both of them with a knife and Julie shoots and kills her. The Albino continues to watch from the cliffs as the townspeople kill each other. Reilly gives a note to Billy to send out if he manages to reach anyone. Sheriff Hanks goes to the hospital and after the last injured patient arrives, he tells them to barricade inside. He then barricades himself in the Sheriff's Department with Julia, Reilly and Ken. Cheri starts to scream and as Ken is about to shoot her, Reilly takes his gun away. As night comes the town is silent, and Dr. Miller lies dead with a knife through his chest on the hood of a car. The Albino and Albino's Henchman drive into Canyonland. Two of Albino's Henchman start to burn the town down with flamethrowers. Sheriff Hanks recommends they pin The Albino and Albino's Henchman down at the old drive-in. He goes on his own to lead the vans towards the drive-in as a decoy. He and the others ambush Albino's Henchman, but Sheriff Hanks is set on fire and dies. Reilly picks up Sheriff Hanks revolver and offers it to Julia, but she tells him to keep it and removes her deputy badge and pins it on Reilly's chest.
The next morning they get on horses and ride into the canyons looking for The Albino after Reilly determines it must be a foreign government agency that sent The Albino. They find The Albino's van, but it is empty and full of explosives, and eventually blows up. Billy notices his phone has a dial tone again and calls the number Reilly gave him to request Army back up. Reilly and the others are ambushed by a pair of Albino's Henchman and Ken is shot in the chest. Reilly eventually kills the pair. The Albino looks at a device and then kills the three remaining Albino's Henchman. Reilly tells Julia to stay behind with Ken while he goes after The Albino and she gives him a kiss and wishes him luck. He finds the dead bodies of Albino's Henchman and eventually catches up to The Albino. They have a shootout and Reilly acts like he has been shot and The Albino comes out into the open. As Reilly reloads to shoot him, a helicopter pulls up behind The Albino and a U.S. Army helicopter pulls up behind Reilly. The helicopters chase each other and Reilly shoots The Albino in the knee. Reilly walks up to The Albino and shoves a vial of the green liquid into The Albino's mouth. The helicopter chase continues until the U.S. Army helicopter blows up the other helicopter. Later, Julia sees Reilly hitchhiking and she invites him to stay, but he tells her he has to leave. Ken and Cheri pull up in their RV and invite him to ride with them and he hops in after saying goodbye to Julia.