DAMNATION ALLEY

First Lieutenant Jake Tanner shares ICBM silo duty at a US Air Force missile base in the Mojave Desert in eastern California with Major Eugene "Sam" Denton. Denton notifies Tanner he's requesting that command reassign him, considering Tanner an unsuitable partner. The pair interact with Sergeant Tom Keegan while passing through base security checks. During Denton and Tanner's procedure drills, the US detects incoming nuclear missiles from the Soviet Union. Tanner and Denton launch their silo's missiles, part of a massive retaliatory strike. Despite the work of interceptor missiles, the United States suffers heavily from the Soviet attack.

Two years later, the Earth has been tilted off its axis by the nuclear detonations of World War III, the planet is wracked by massive storms, and the sky is in a perpetual aurora borealis-like state. Tanner has resigned his commission and has been scouting nearby Barstow, California, while Keegan has also resigned to become an artist in one of the base's out-buildings they've been relegated to. Mutated giant scorpions menace the area, requiring Tanner and Keegan to defend the area with high-powered rifles. Airman Haskins starts a small fire by falling asleep and dropping a lit cigarette. A resulting explosion kills most of the barracks' inhabitants including the base commander, General Landers. Keegan, Tanner, Denton and Lieutenant Tom Perry survive.

Denton suggests traveling to Albany, New York, to investigate a lone radio transmission that has aired weekly since the war. The survivors set out in two large 12-wheel Landmaster armored personnel carriers, in which they must cross Damnation Alley, "the path of least resistance" between intense radiation areas. Perry is killed in a storm which disables one of the Landmasters, and they encounter mutated cockroaches in the ruins of Salt Lake City that trap and eat Keegan alive. Denton and Tanner pick up two survivors: a woman in Las Vegas, Janice, and a teenage boy, Billy, discovered in an abandoned house in the High Plains. They fight gun-toting mountain men in the ruins of a gas station in the Midwest, and Denton destroys the madmen's buildings with the Landmaster's rocket launchers.

The Landmaster suffers drivetrain trouble near Detroit and enters a large wrecking yard in search of replacement parts. A hemisphere-wide storm breaks, and the group shelters in the vehicle as a megatsunami washes them away, leaving them adrift in a large body of water. It appears the Earth has returned to its normal axis as the sky is suddenly clear.

They drive the amphibious Landmaster onto land, and they hear a radio broadcast with music and an attempt to reach survivors. After Denton makes radio contact, Tanner and Billy set out on Tanner's dirt bike to locate the source of the broadcast. In the final scene, they reach a surprisingly intact suburb of Albany, New York, where they are greeted by its inhabitants.

After a final storm washes the survivors adrift, they discover the Earth's axis has returned to normal and successfully reach their destination using the Landmaster's amphibious abilities.

The conclusion offers an unexpected note of hope after relentless hardship, suggesting that even after apocalypse and mutation, nature (and possibly humanity) can recover. The survivors are rewarded for their persistence and ingenuity as the environment stabilizes and the promise of a new beginning emerges beyond 'Damnation Alley.'