When a veteran father is suddenly deported to a foreign land, his unwavering resolve drives him to navigate back to his estranged daughter, striving to avert the permanent rift that looms over his family.

SYNOPSIS:

Alex Galvez had already faced death once. As a Marine deployed in Afghanistan, he survived an ambush that wiped out his entire unit, clawing his way out of the warzone against impossible odds. But nothing could prepare him for the war he would face on his own soil.

Years later, in 2025, Alex is no longer a soldier—he’s a single father in Texas, raising his young daughter while caring for his aging aunt. Haunted by memories of war and struggling to adjust to civilian life. But one bad night changes everything.

Pulled over on his way home, a routine traffic stop turns into a nightmare when police find five grams of cocaine in his friend’s car. Despite not knowing of the drugs, Alex is arrested. When the system turns against him, his past and identiy unravel as he discovers he is not a citizen and that being a decorated veteran means nothing. His entire life has been a lie. His citizenship, his identity, his very existence in the only country he’s ever known—is not as he intended.

Within weeks, Alex is deported to Mexico. A country he has never set foot in. He doesn’t speak the language, doesn’t know the culture, and has no one waiting for him. Stranded and desperate, he roams the chaotic streets of a border town until he meets Vladimir, a streetwise local who offers him a way back into the U.S.—for a price. With no other options, Alex agrees.

But the deal goes south. Instead of making his way home, he’s betrayed and sold to the Sinaloa cartel, thrown into the brutal world of cartel operations deep in Mexico - as a slave laborer at a hidden drug lab deep in the Mexican desert.

Then, after careful planning, he makes his move. Explosions rip through the jungle lab as Alex fights his way out, leaving behind a trail of bodies. But his escape isn’t the end of the battle—it’s just the beginning. Alone and without supplies, he wanders through the Mexican wilderness as eventual dehydration and exhaustion threaten to claim him. Just as death seems certain, salvation comes in the form of a small caravan of migrants, families hoping to cross into the U.S.

Among them is Manuela, a brave little girl hoping to reunite with her family in Arizona. She reminds Alex of his daughter, and in her, he finds yet another reason to cross — something worth fighting for. But the cartel isn’t done with him. They’ve tracked him, and they want revenge.

On the outskirts of the border, the cartel ambushes the caravan. A brutal fight enrages when a rival cartel steps in. When the dust settles, both cartel members are wiped out—but at a devastating cost. The caravan’s leader, Kique, the man who saved Alex’s life, is dead. With his dying breath, he begs Alex to get Manuela across. Alex swears on his life that he will.

After separating and taking only Manuela, the two find the desert and its lack of water and other resources lessen. Due to the heat, Manuela suffers heat stroke as he pulse plunges. Alex finds a migrant water drop but in his haste is bitten by a venomous viper, just as he gets Manuela some water. Her tiny body weakens fast, and with no time to waste, Alex seeks help from an unlikely source—a lone hunter and good samaritan who risks himself to get them over the border and to a hospital.

Finally making it over the border and to a hospital north of it, Alex understands he must still deliver her to her extended family. He leaves their info on a contact sheet for hospital paperwork, but soon thereafter, his body is overcome by the poison of the snake and dies in the waiting room, never able to return to his family, though saving another.

Twenty years later, there is a Senate committee meeting in Washington, DC, and now grown up Manuela, a distinguished Staff Sargeant in the Army, fights for legal representation for undocumented Veterans of Foreign Wars. She follows Alex’s footsteps in the military and finds him a place in Arlington Cemetery, where he reunites with Sophia, Alex’s own daughter.

ECHOLAND