In the late 60s, college student Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson) discovers that his mother (Barbara Hershey) has suffered a stroke, and he needs to get back home. Desperate for transportation, he starts hitchhiking his way to his mother's bedside, with horrific results. Already paranoid and death-obsessed from his father's death when he was young, Parker is picked up by a series of creepier and creepier drivers, and his own visions of death and terror multiply as he experiences a series of near-collisions on his Halloween night ride. In his mind's eye, Alan sees the parallels between his hitchhiking journey and the Bullet, a thrill-park ride from his youth that also placed him at the brink of harm's way.