Description
When millionaire industrialist Donald Carson III breaks his leg during a trip through the Mojave Desert, his wife Gerry and mining engineer Joe Duncan tell him they will seek medical aid. Yet they never return, and it isn't long before Carson realizes his predicament—he is stranded alone in the desert. Carson vows to survive in order to exact revenge on his adulterous wife and her accomplice, who have flown to Carson's mansion in Los Angeles, while waiting for him to succumb to either desert heat or suicide. Carson, however, does neither. Instead, he fashions a splint for his leg, enabling him to limp through the desert. At one point, he successfully digs a well; he also slays a deer and transforms it into strips of dried meat that will last for days.
Law enforcement officers had hoped to find the missing Carson; but after several unsuccessful attempts, it is decided to call off further search efforts. Just to be certain Carson is dead, though, Joe flies a small plane over the region and spots the remnants of a fire Carson had apparently started to keep warm the previous evening. Suspecting now that he is still alive, Joe and Gerry drive back into the desert to look for and/or finish off Carson once and for all. But just as Joe discovers his prey and is about to shoot him, an old prospector, Elby, driving a jalopy, encounters Carson and gives him a ride back to his desert shack. Returning to his own car, Joe discovers that Gerry has driven it over a large rock by accident, which has ruptured the vehicle's oil pan. The damage now makes it impossible for them to drive out of the desert. Joe suddenly realizes her real intention, when she moved the car, was to abandon him as they both did Carson. Joe angrily walks away, leaving Gerry to fend for herself alone in the Mojave.
That evening at Elby's shack, the prospector prepares supper for Carson, who confesses to his rescuer that although revenge is what sustained him while lost in the desert, the treachery of his wife and lover no longer seem important. As Elby goes outside to his well for water, he is knocked cold by Joe, who spotted the light coming from his shack. Joe then shoots at Carson but misses. The two men engage in a desperate, brutal fistfight. A toppled stove causes the shack to catch fire. With both men inside barely conscious, a recovered Elby drags Carson to safety while Joe perishes in the blaze. The next day, as Elby drives Carson to the nearest town, they spy Gerry walking alone on a long, remote stretch of desert road. Elby stops his dilapidated car beside her, and Carson calmly tells Gerry that she can either wait for the authorities to find her or ride into town with them. She gets into the car.
