American Fallout

Penny Brinkman, a lone wolf doomsday prepper, builds her fully stocked doomsday bunker in the middle of the desert. Casper Crabb owns a gas station close to Penny's bunker. He lets customers push him around on price and desires to retire to see the wonders of the world with a special lady he hasn't met yet. Then, a global incident threatens to get the U.S. and Russia involved in a conflict that could lead to nuclear war. Penny goes to Casper In need of water, knowing he can get it to her the fastest. Not wanting to be bullied, Casper refuses to reduce his price, which Penny can't afford. He suggests she mentor him on prepping his station for a discount. She refuses, as he fails a test of his toughness should the world end. Then an incoming-missile alert that turns out to be a false alarm leads a panicked Penny to agree to be Casper's mentor. Penny, all business, coaches Casper on how to prepare for nuclear war, including whipping him into shape and showing him how to fight. She treats a biker gang and its leader with suspicion, pissing him off. She connects with a doctor, another lone wolf survivalist, and his tween daughter. She insists Casper has an underground bunker to protect him from radiation. He asks if she would share her bunker and she refuses. Penny mock-kidnaps Casper to test his fortitude, then shows him how to survive in the desert. Around the campfire after beers, Penny reveals the personal reasons why she's so isolated and then sneak attacks Casper to test him. He gets out of it, they kiss, and she rejects him. As the international incident spirals, leading to an ultimatum between the superpowers, Penny dismisses their kiss as nothing. She is intent on bunkering down, alone, but still agrees to be Casper's mentor because of their agreement. He asks her to take one of his walkie-talkies and be part of his network, and she refuses. Penny almost gets into a shootout with the biker gang leader after he orders the same amount of water, but Casper suggests she have a shooting match for it and she wins. After she rejects the doctor when he asks her to bunker down with him, she then confronts him for slapping his daughter after she reveals that Casper likes Penny. When Penny's water arrives, taken with Casper's progress, she invites him to her bunker to help with the water. He gives her his last walkie, and they go back to her bunker with the water and make love. The next day Penny insists on Casper bunkering down with her. Then the U.S. and Russia call a truce bringing the world back from the brink. Casper asks Penny to join him in his retirement to see the world. She gets scared, insists on being by herself, and breaks things off. Then, after tensions seem to diminish, nuclear war occurs. Penny, recognizing how emotionally unprepared she is, runs back to her bunker as Casper begs her to stay. Penny holds up in her bunker and Casper tries to coax her out, leaving a walkie. As she waits out the aftermath, a mother and child get caught in her booby traps. No longer the paranoid lone wolf, she takes them in and ensures they survive. Numerous survivors from a nearby town come upon Casper's station. He provides for them in his newly prepped station. He calls the doctor to help, but the doctor shows up with a humvee full of armed goons and threatens to take his station. Seeing this, the biker gang approaches Penny to help Casper. Penny arrives at Casper's station, armed, attempting to save him and the others. With the doctor taking both her and Casper hostage, Penny expresses her love for Casper, which infuriates the jealous doctor. His daughter disarms her father with a lollipop, as Penny showed her previously, giving Penny and Casper the upper hand. With the help of the biker gang hiding in Penny's truck, they take the doctor and his goons captive. Penny and Casper help the survivors into Penny's bunker, proclaim their love for each other, and prepare themselves to survive the end of the world.