| Bilgi :Alan Squier, a failed, world-weary British writer, hikes into an isolated, weather-beaten desert café in Arizona owned by Jason Marple. Jason's daughter, Gabrielle is immediately taken with the disillusioned intellectual, since they share idealistic dreams of escaping the stark reality of their lives. Her mother left to return to France when she was a child, and Gabrielle wishes to go to Paris to study art. Her interest in Alan brings out jealousy in her gas-pumping boyfriend, Boze, but although Alan finds her optimism refreshing, he hitches a ride, leaving with a wealthy businessman, Mr. Chisholm, and his wife. But their car is stolen by some hoods who head in the direction of the diner. Alan eludes them and sets out to warn the Marples but is too late, and he too ends up being held hostage by the gang. Unlike the others, Alan relates to the threats of the gangster's leader, Duke Mantee, with an indifference to his own fate, as if realizing that they both he and Duke are doomed by the inevitable failure of their lives. Squier privately asks Duke to kill him so that the money from his insurance policy will allow Gabrielle to travel to Paris, but as the police close in and Duke decides to use the Chisholm's as a shield, Alan attempts to intervene. |