Malone 1987

Richard Malone, a covert CIA operative who specializes in assassinations, has grown disillusioned with his line of work and abruptly resigns, much to the chagrin of his superiors. He drifts aimlessly until his Ford Mustang breaks down in a rural Oregon valley. He pushes the car to a small gas station and garage run by Paul Barlow and his daughter Jo Barlow. Paul Barlow suggests towing the car 60 miles to a larger service station, but Malone opts to wait for the necessary parts and stays in the spare room. The two men form a tentative friendship as they swap stories about their experiences in the Vietnam War.

On the edge of town, the landscape is controlled by Charles Delaney, a superficially respectable and affluent businessman who, in truth, is a white nationalist leading a network of terrorist cells. He buys up property to force people off their land and has built havens for his cause. A group of Delaney’s thugs harasses Malone and Jo on a bridge, insisting they cannot pass. Malone defends himself and delivers a brutal beating to the ringleader, Dan Bollard, sending him to the hospital. Dan’s brother, Calvin Bollard, is goaded into killing Malone by Delaney’s right-hand man, Madrid, Madrid. Calvin tries to shoot Malone at the barber shop, but Malone shoots and kills Calvin instead.

While Sheriff Hawkins holds Malone at the jail, Delaney strides in to make his introduction and later orders Madrid to arrange a hit on Malone. The next day, two hitmen come to the service station; Malone kills both with a shotgun he had concealed in his room, though he is badly wounded in the process. Hawkins instructs a deputy to drive Malone to the hospital. The deputy drives off-road, and Malone, realizing the deputy intends to kill him, wrests control of the vehicle and crashes it.

Back at the hospital, Malone’s CIA handler Jamie arrives—sent to poison him before he recovers. They hole up in a safe house, where their romance is rekindled. When Malone goes to pick up his car from the Barrows, Madrid leads an attack on the safe house. Jamie shoots one attacker but is captured by Madrid and his group. Madrid tortures Jamie to learn Malone’s location, and she refuses to break; Madrid murders Jamie by suffocating her with a plastic bag. Malone returns to find Jamie’s body.

Fuelled by rage, Malone infiltrates Delaney’s sprawling compound, cutting down the henchmen, including Madrid, to avenge Jamie’s death. Delaney retreats to a secret command center and reveals that he is part of a larger conspiracy of like-minded “patriots” who are buying land and electing Congressmen to retake the country from those he calls mongrels. Malone pursues him, killing Delaney and blowing up the compound, then walks away, burning his Virginia driver’s license.