When a struggling single mom cons her way into the life of a reclusive NASCAR legend, an unlikely bond offers them a final lap at redemption - if the past doesn’t spin them out first.

SYNOPSIS:

Wilder is a character-driven drama about two people at the end of their rope who find meaning not by escaping their pasts, but by finally facing them.

Sophie Waters is a struggling local reporter and single mother whose life has stalled in a town that has already decided who she is. Pushed out of her newsroom and fighting to hold onto her children, Sophie sees one last chance to prove her worth when she crosses paths wi...

Wilder is a character-driven drama about two people at the end of their rope who find meaning not by escaping their pasts, but by finally facing them.

Sophie Waters is a struggling local reporter and single mother whose life has stalled in a town that has already decided who she is. Pushed out of her newsroom and fighting to hold onto her children, Sophie sees one last chance to prove her worth when she crosses paths with Eli Wilder, a legendary NASCAR driver days away from his final race. She stretches the truth about her access and future prospects to secure his trust—not to deceive him, but to earn the opportunity she’s never been given.

Eli Wilder is sixty-one, famous, and quietly hollowed out by regret. Once a hero of the sport, he now feels like a relic in a racing world that has moved on. Beneath his public persona is an unspoken guilt tied to the death of his best friend Jimmy decades earlier—a moment Eli has spent his life refusing to confront. In Sophie, he recognizes someone else pretending to be unbreakable.

As they travel together, Sophie pushes for the story Eli has never told, while Eli forces Sophie to reckon with the cost of half-truths and running from responsibility. When Sophie’s lie collapses and her children are taken from her, both are forced into a reckoning: Sophie must decide whether she’s willing to tell the truth no matter the consequences, and Eli must finally face the past he’s buried.

On race day, Eli enters his final race from the back of the pack—not chasing victory, but closure. As Sophie watches, Eli drives not for legacy, but for peace, carrying the memory of the friend he lost and the forgiveness he never allowed himself.

In the aftermath, Sophie publishes the story that changes her life—not because it’s sensational, but because it’s honest. Eli’s legacy is sealed not by the win, but by the reckoning that finally set him free.

Wilder is a film about flawed people choosing meaning over escape, about living with pain instead of outrunning it, and about the courage it takes to tell the truth—on the track, on the page, and in life.