Logline:
A father and his newly discovered daughter go in search of the famed Lost Dutchman mine.
Synopsis:
Robert is busy trying to make a career as an actor happen, when he gets a life-changing phone call. An ex girlfriend has died and left him a mysterious item in her will. The catch, he must travel to New Mexico to accept it in person.
Along the way he stops for gas in Apache Junction, Arizona and meets Sam, the beautiful proprietor of the local tourist attraction, Gold Field Ghost town. After almost getting his butt kicked while defending her from local roughneck brothers Greens and Digger, she invites him to visit the ghost town. Although he would love nothing more then to get to know her, he’s due in New Mexico later that day. They reschedule for a couple days later.
At the reading of the will, he’s stunned to discover the mysterious item his ex-girlfriend left him is a ten year old daughter Kat, he never knew he had. She will be turned over to foster care if he doesn't agree to adopt and be her legal guardian.
With little real thought, he declines and heads out. His car is forced off the road in Apache Junction and damaged, forcing him to stay a few days, until replacement parts arrive. Rupert, the local mechanic working on his car, discovers Kat stowed away in Robert’s trunk.
After checking into the local motel, Robert and Kat join Sam for dinner at The Mining Camp restaurant. Barnaby bursts into the room and collapses on the dining table, an arrow sticking out of his back. He’s looking for his adopted daughter Sam to give her a map to the Lost Dutchman mine. As he loses consciousness he shoves the map into Kat’s hand, muttering about “the needle.”
After giving their statement to Matthew, the local sheriff they head back to the motel. Kat keeps the map a secret. In the morning, Robert wakes to find Kat missing. After some phone calls he discovers that she’s gone after the treasure on her own.
Enlisting Sam’s help, they gear up and head into the famed Superstition Mountains after Kat, with local trouble-makers Digger and Greens in hot pursuit. And a mysterious figure is tracking them all.
A series of mishaps lands Kat and Robert trapped in an ancient mine shaft. They follow a series of mysterious clues in an effort to find their way to out. Sam, meanwhile, is attacked and knocked out on her way to get help.
While visiting Barnaby, Matthew is told a fantastic story that dates back through the ages and culminates in a fierce Vietnam firefight. Part of the true mystery of the Lost Dutchman mine is revealed to him.
Meanwhile, Kat and Robert, unaware they are being followed by a sinister figure, continue following the maps clues. They are stunned when the final clue leads them to an ancient underground city inhabited by a mystical tribe of Indians.
It is here that the mysterious figure stalking them is revealed to be Rupert, the gas station mechanic. Learning of the fabled mine from his father who fought in Vietnam with Barnaby, he has obsessively sought its location for the last twenty years.
A showdown between Rupert and Robert turns deadly in the lost city. Rupert escapes, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. After everything has settled down Robert must make the decision to return Kat to foster care or stand up and be the father she so desperately needs. He makes the decision to stay and help Sam run the Gold Field Ghost town while he learns what it takes to be a father.