PASSENGER

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens as two friends, Daniel (Alan Trong) and Lucas (Miles Fowler), are driving down a dark road at night. Lucas makes Daniel pull over so he can go pee, to Daniel’s annoyance. After Lucas relieves himself, he is annoyed to hear what sounds like Daniel laying on the car horn, only to discover that Daniel is nowhere near the car, and all the doors and trunk have been opened. Lucas calls out for Daniel but doesn’t see him or notice three claw marks slashed across the trunk. Lucas tries to call Daniel’s phone but sees it’s inside the car. Suddenly, Daniel’s body smashes through the windshield before getting dragged out by an unseen force. Lucas freaks out and drives away after confirming Daniel is dead. On the road, he sees a mysterious entity (Joseph Lopez) who then appears next to him and shrieks.

Elsewhere, a couple – Maddie (Lou Llobell) and Tyler (Jacob Scipio) – are getting ready to hit the road and live out of their van. After six weeks on the road, the two struggle to find things to do. They pull over on a residential street so that Tyler can propose to Maddie, which she accepts before the two have to get sent on their way by a neighborhood watch guy.

When the two hit the road again at night, Lucas speeds ahead of their van frantically. Moments later, Maddie and Tyler pull over when they see Lucas’s car crashed against a tree. As they go to investigate, Maddie sees Lucas trying to crawl out of the passenger seat, only to get pulled back inside. Tyler goes to check it out and opens the door to see Lucas’s airbag explode with enough force to fracture his neck and kill him. The couple waits for emergency services to arrive before leaving.

The couple stops at a motel for the night. In the morning, they see that their van has three claw marks on it, like what Maddie saw on Lucas’s car. The fruit in their van has also spoiled at an alarming rate. Tyler then drives them to a gathering of other van-lifers, where he meets a guy that he’s followed on YouTube and is able to get his van fixed up for free. Meanwhile, Maddie goes through the other tents and sees pictures of missing people, as well as a stick figure with three lines going through its body. She meets a woman named Diana Marsh (Melissa Leo) and mentions stopping for a car accident the night before. Diana’s tone becomes ominous, as she warns Maddie not to stop on the road at night. Later, the couple joins the other groups for a Burning Man-style celebration, but Maddie sees the same mysterious figure from earlier hidden among the crowd.

Maddie and Tyler later stop at a gym. As Maddie is walking back to the van in the mostly empty parking lot, she starts to get haunted by noises and seeing the van as though it is getting farther and farther away from her. Once she makes it back inside the van, she looks at the dashcam footage of Lucas’s car before the crash and sees the figure sitting next to him in the car. She then looks at the security cameras and sees the entity’s hideous face smiling at her. The figure enters the van and tries to strangle Maddie with her seatbelt, but she takes a St. Christopher medallion that Tyler brought along, and she uses it to burn the figure’s hand. Maddie rushes out of the van and into Tyler’s arms since she was texting him frantically, but he sees no sign of the figure.

The couple continues their drive in the morning. After stopping at a gift shop, Maddie grabs a book called “The Hobo Code” and sees a mention of the three lines being a warning sign for travelers to stay away. Tyler is dismayed to see the three claw marks on the van yet again. Maddie does her research and sees that there have been other incidents of travelers going missing after their vehicles have been seen with the claw marks. The entity that she saw has been described by others as “The Passenger”, an evil entity that haunts and kills travelers.

Tyler surprises Maddie by setting up a projector so they can watch “Roman Holiday”. They start talking about life on the road, which Maddie thinks is not sustainable for a long term plan, which causes a bit of a rift between her and Tyler. Not long into the screening, they see what looks like a figure behind the screen. They both come face-to-face with The Passenger, who roars at them before they hide in the van. The entity begins shaking and thrashing the van around. Tyler has to run outside to grab the keys that he dropped, before they get the hell out of there.

The two stop somewhere as Maddie explains to Tyler what she has learned about The Passenger. Realizing it won’t be so easy getting rid of the entity, Maddie suggests to Tyler that they get to Flagstaff to find Diana, as she may know how to get rid of The Passenger.

Maddie and Tyler resume their drive and vow to not drive at night. The Passenger makes it so that they drive until it’s dark without them realizing, and then they lose a tire on the road. Tyler tries to change it as quick as he can, but The Passenger makes the bolts roll under the van. The Passenger grabs Maddie and pulls her away, while also trying to crush Tyler under the van. He gets out but suffers injuries to his leg. Maddie wakes up in the woods near another car accident. Tyler seems to find her, but it’s The Passenger playing tricks on her. Maddie runs until the actual Tyler does find her.

The couple buy a bunch of St. Christopher medallions to hang around the van as they make it to Flagstaff. They find a van camp and ask for Diana. When the people realize what is going on, they take shelter in their vans per Diana’s orders. She tells Maddie and Tyler that there was a rumor of a traveler who was haunted by The Passenger but sought refuge in the Church of St. Christopher. It is not on any map, and those seeking it have to know how to read the signs. Maddie and Tyler resolve to find the church themselves. When Diana tries to join them to help, The Passenger pulls her hair back with enough force to split her neck open. Maddie and Tyler flee.

The two struggle to find anything that might lead them to the church, and they are close to running out of gas. Maddie then notices a symbol on a billboard and figures it’s one of the signs. They make it onto a road and follow it to a field full of corpses covered in sheets. Knowing it’s one of The Passenger’s tricks, they drive ahead. The entity eventually catches up to them and pulls Tyler out of the van. Maddie keeps driving until they get close enough to the church that The Passenger is flung through the windshield, his powers having been weakened. Maddie rams the van into The Passenger so that he slams into a St. Christopher statue. She does this repeatedly until she manages to impale The Passenger through St. Christopher’s spear. The Passenger melts until his body explodes and sets the entire place on fire. Maddie escapes.

Tyler finds Maddie, and they sit and watch the church go up in flames, along with their van. Maddie then shows that she recovered the engagement ring from the van, and Tyler vows to go back to a normal suburban life. They then see emergency vehicles arriving since Tyler use an SOS device to call for help.

Maddie and Tyler are a couple who have decided to live life on the road in their van. They witness a car accident and are soon haunted by a mysterious entity known as "The Passenger", a demon who haunts and kills travelers that stop on the road at night. The Passenger kills two friends, Daniel and Lucas, before targeting Maddie and Tyler.

The couple gets help from a woman they met named Diana, who tells them to locate the Church of St. Christopher since the holy ground will weaken The Passenger and possibly kill him. The Passenger kills Diana when she tries to help the couple.

Maddie finds the signs leading to the church and drives towards it. The Passenger ejects Tyler from the van (non-fatally) but Maddie makes it to the church, where The Passenger's powers are weakened. She uses the van to ram into him hard enough to send him flying and get impaled on the spear of a St. Christopher statue, causing him to melt and explode. Tyler finds Maddie and promises to go back to a normal life in the suburbs as they wait to be rescued.