Tucker's Cry

“A good story gives a man hope, a woman affection, and a child a future.” These are the words cynical reporter, Natasha McKinlay, 30, must abide by if she’s to keep her job at C. B. R News, Los Angeles. In a desperate effort to keep her job, she takes a less-than-worthy story about a trucker who tells stories to his kid over the CB radio nightly. She’d rather report on the wildfire that is consuming hundreds of acres in the Canadian forest as it sweeps towards the US border, but her editor, George Ryan, 70, does not give her the option. Following every lead she can acquire she comes across Gina, 38, a truck stop waitress who not only knows of the trucker, but his story. Billy Black, otherwise known as Tucker, has been on the road for as long as Gina can remember. She recaps the day twelve years ago that Tucker was talking on the radio with his daughter, Amber, when an explosion interrupted their communication and lives. Amber was with her mother in Anaheim, CA. when the connection went dead, caused by a gas explosion in their hotel. Amber and Tucker’s wife were killed instantly in the very place they were all to be reunited the next day. It was never to be. Natasha asks, “If Tucker’s daughter is dead, then why all of a sudden the stories on the radio?” Gina’s not sure, but joins Natasha as the two follow Tucker’s voice across country. They’re not the only ones interested in Tucker. The FBI has been following him too because of his sudden association with a multi million dollar businessman known as Jeffrey Banks, the man Natasha almost lost her job over when she reported on his seemingly dirty deals with toxic environmental endangering chemicals. In a Diner, Natasha and Gina put together pieces of the puzzle, when a young waitress offers to take their order. Her face has been badly burned, leaving her smile crooked, and eyes dim. But when the radio crackles and Tucker’s voice begins telling stories to his little girl, they realize it’s more than a coincidence. The waitress is Amber, 17, Tucker’s little girl, who’s body was mistaken in the fire and who has been in an orphanage for the past twelve years. She too is searching for her father, following his voice across the country. Befriending the two oddball characters, Amber joins Natasha and Gina and they set out to find the only person who may know where Tucker is, Pops, Tucker’s father. Once he realizes that Amber is alive, he’s not going to miss out on the adventure as he joins “Thelma and Louise,” and Amber on a trek across country. It’s a race against the clock as the FBI moves in on Tucker and Banks in an effort to uncover the contents of his rig…followed by a convertible of mishaps as our four heroes plan out how they’re going to reveal that his daughter is still alive. Everyone in pursuit, it’s only a matter of time before Tucker crosses the Canadian border and drives his rig into the heart of the blazing wildfires. Natasha, Gina, Amber and Pops follow, but are diverted by the fact that they just crossed the border illegally and are now being pursued by Canadian troopers. They make their way to the top of a nearby mountain where emergency crews and reporters watch the devastation unfold. It’s there, that Natasha sees Banks and his entourage of investors who watch the fires with great anticipation. Tucker’s voice breaks over the radio, as he tells one last story to his little girl, and we realize that this was a one-way trip and the end of the grief he has carried for the past twelve years. Natasha approaches Banks, and we learn the truth about the tanker’s load. Loaded with an experimental substance, when the flames reach the tanker it will explode, acting as a retardant and extinguish the flames…but killing Tucker in the process. Suddenly, Amber’s voice breaks over the airwaves and is heard on every radio on the mountain. She tells her father that she is alive and that she loves him. Tucker stops and listens, but can’t believe his ears. Everyone races to the edge of the mountain as she pleads with Tucker to come back to her. Tucker’s Cry is a heart pounding road trip with spinning heart and humor that takes its viewers to the very last second in a blaze of anticipation…will father and daughter be reunited?!