Sunlight 2025

Roy Belvedere, Shenoah Allen, attempts to end his life in a dim Albuquerque motel, but his plan is interrupted by a surreal sight: a woman in a monkey suit who treats the outfit as a living persona. The woman speaks in a calm, persuasive voice and presents herself as Jane, Nina Conti, explaining that the monkey suit is more than a costume—it is a split in her own identity. She insists she needs to reach a lake in Colorado, and though Roy is wary, a bargain forms: he will escort her to Colorado after he first reaches his mother’s house. In turn, he asks for a clear target to hold onto, something that gives him a reason to keep moving forward.

Gail, Roy’s mother, Melissa Chambers, greets him with a heavy mix of worry and sorrow at her home. She has been drinking to cope with the note Roy sent, and their reunion becomes a tense, tense exchange about the life Roy has left behind. During their argument, Gail drops a painful truth: the gold watch his late father gave him was a fake, and the real watch—worth a great deal—was buried with his father. The revelation lands hard on Roy, shaping the urgency of what comes next. In a desperate bid to keep moving and to salvage something from a broken situation, Roy offers Jane half of the watch’s estimated value, roughly twenty thousand dollars, in exchange for her companionship to Colorado. Jane agrees, but only on one condition: she must be driven to Colorado after Roy’s agreed stop at his mother’s house.

As they press on, the two develop a fragile, tentative bond. Jane opens up about the man she’s run from—Wade, Bill Wise, her abusive stepfather who runs a nightclub and treats her as a possession as much as a performer. Wade is relentless in trying to reclaim what he sees as his property, and he begins tracing Jane by following the trail of her credit card transactions. Wade’s pursuit is relentless, and his bicycle becomes a metaphor for the slow, stubborn chase he imposes on her. Jane’s explanations deepen the mystery of the suit, revealing that Wade’s control is a core part of her past, and that the suit is her shield against being fully owned by someone else. The dynamic between Roy and Jane grows warmer even as danger closes in, and Roy learns more about the person inside the mask—someone who fears exposure as much as she fears losing the person she’s learned to be with him.

The journey also brings a confession: Jane’s real name is, indeed, Jane, and the “Monkey” persona is a guarded version of herself that keeps Wade at bay. The two spend a night under the stars where they share a quiet, intimate closeness, with Jane admitting she wants to repay Roy someday and hoping he will stay with her. The moment is tender, even as it treads carefully around the precipice of desire, and Roy’s willingness to protect Jane deepens their connection. The next morning, Jane’s advances toward Roy reveal the complexities of their bond—their closeness triggers a difficult internal negotiation, as Jane explains that she has an “other self” that can act impulsively; she wants to avoid anything that would complicate their fragile trust, fearing that Jane’s sudden emergence could threaten the care Roy offers.

Their path finally leads to the cemetery where Roy’s father rests. Over the course of a long night, they dig up the grave, hoping to recover the hidden real watch. The groundskeeper, Dyron C. Thompson, keeps watch and adds a tense layer to the scene as they extract the coffin and uncover the truth beneath the earth. In a moment both ceremonial and defiant, Roy retrieves the real watch and pays his respects to his father, while the uneasy night gives Wade another chance to close in. The pair narrowly escape discovery, and Jane confides that she fears what might happen if she cannot maintain her disguise. Roy reassures her with a quiet, steadfast embrace, and Jane clings to the hope that their bond will survive whatever comes next.

At a motel, Roy tries to salvage something practical from their luckless situation: he washes Jane’s suit and attempts to pawn the watches at a pawn shop. The shopkeeper tells him the watches are fake—an empty clue that unsettles Roy further. In a moment of peak fragility, Roy buys a wolf suit instead, a symbolic shift that underscores how far he has fallen into this odd, perilous journey. The swap of hope for illusion bites hard when the shopkeeper’s swindling is revealed, leaving Roy to confront the reality of his losses.

Wade finally closes in. He finds Jane at a laundromat, where she slips back into the monkey suit and seizes control of the situation to protect herself. Roy arrives just in time to rescue Jane. The trio—Jane, Roy, and Wade—engage in a frantic chase as Wade pedals furiously to catch up. The RV is heavy, and their speed is no match for Wade’s relentless persistence. In a dramatic moment, Monkey (Jane) makes a desperate leap from the moving vehicle, crashing into Wade’s bicycle. The collision is fatal for Wade, and Roy rushes Jane to the hospital, where she survives the crash by a narrow margin.

The aftermath leads Roy back to the cemetery, where Gail arrives and arrests him for desecrating a grave and disposing of a body. Roy’s actions, though born from a desire to protect Jane, have consequences that land him in prison for two years. During a prison interview with Vashti, Roy and a recovered tape from his RV reveal Monkey’s perspective once more, and Jane steps forward as the one who has worn the mask and guarded her truth. Jane explains why she refused to shed the suit and come fully into Roy’s world, admitting that fear shaped her choice and that she is grateful for the man who stood by her. Gail retrieves the watches and visits Roy in prison, and a cautious, uneasy peace settles over their relationship.

Two years later, Roy completes his sentence and makes his way to Colorado, where he finally finds Jane. She has realized her dream of running a pontoon and banana-boat ride business along the lake, and she removes her mask at last to reveal her face to Roy. Their reunion is quiet but radiant, a shared acknowledgment of everything they’ve endured. They embark on a lake ride together, confessing their love as the water glides beneath them. The film closes on a note that mixes triumph with tragedy: Roy experiences a fall from the banana boat, leaving the final image poignant and unresolved, even as the couple professes their love and steps forward into an uncertain future.