THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS

In Yucca Flats, Nevada, Soviet scientist Joseph Javorsky has defected from the USSR and arrives in America with a briefcase carrying various military secrets, including information on the Soviet Moon landing. Javorsky and his American contacts are suddenly attacked by a pair of KGB assassins, who kill Javorsky's associates and bodyguards. Javorsky flees into the desert, and after walking a great distance, decides to discard much of his clothing due to the searing heat. Presently, the radiation from a nearby nuclear weapons test transforms the bewildered Russian into a mindless beast with an uncontrollable urge to kill. He proceeds to murder a couple in their car on a nearby road, prompting police officers Jim Archer and Joe Dobson to pursue him.

Meanwhile, a vacationing family ventures along the same road. After stopping at a service station, the family's two young sons wander off into the surrounding desert, where they eventually encounter and escape from the mutated Javorsky. Their father searches for them but is mistaken for the killer by one of the police officers, who is searching for their suspect from the air in a light aircraft. The officer opens fire with a high-powered rifle on the innocent man, who manages to escape.

Eventually the family is reunited, and the police shoot and mortally wound Javorsky. Dying and with little strength left, he caresses a nearby curious jackrabbit before succumbing to his wounds.

The police shoot and mortally wound Javorsky, who dies after caressing a jackrabbit, ending his rampage.

Javorsky's tragic transformation concludes with his death at the hands of law enforcement, symbolizing the destructive consequences of unchecked atomic power and Cold War suspicion. The film closes on a note of bleak irony, as the once brilliant scientist is reduced to a beast, finally showing a moment of gentleness in his last act.