Panic (2021)

The newly graduated seniors await the kickoff signal from this year's judges, and tensions build as old friends become new competitors. Heather has sworn she will never play the game, but she may not have a choice.

Twenty-three players are in, and the stakes are high--literally. Panic's second challenge takes the players sky-high, even as the game attracts the attention of the sheriff and his deputies who are dead set on stopping it. The new kid's odds are looking up until a bit of surprise sabotage.

The town celebrates the fourth of July with a parade, but one float carries an old ghost, and coded instructions that call the players to a third challenge. A nighttime raid on a dangerous property and some surprise alliances mean Heather will have to seriously watch her step.

Narrow escapes take on literal meaning as a disastrous series of events at the third challenge puts all the players' lives in danger. Luckily, the players get a short break at the annual Player's Ball, where sparks fly unexpectedly between competitors, and old trouble returns to cause new problems.

The players brave a night at the local haunted house, where ghosts new and old make themselves known. The answer to a riddle reveals the game's troubled legacy, Heather's goals almost go up in smoke, and we learn that one of Panic's loudest detractors has a secret connection to the game.

The annual demolition derby provides some much-needed distraction from the troubling revelations of the previous episode. With the cops closing in on the judges, no one is sure the game can continue. Heather repairs one relationship, and ruptures another, in a dramatic ending that proves the game must go on...but not for everyone.

Trust falls get literal meaning in the game's fifth challenge, where an abandoned train bridge forms the backdrop for revealing footage of our players-and the unintentional outcome of their secrets, and their lies. This challenge will determine who goes onto Final Four. The truth may set our players free...but not before it returns to haunt them.

The judges get personal when they announce the first of the four individual challenges that will establish the game's finalists. Past and present collide in the unexpected exposure of our player's motivations--and enmities. The sheriff gets closer to making an arrest, and Heather has her heart broken.

One of our Final Four players is disqualified, opening the door for a surprise upset, and a dramatic showdown. As outside pressure on the game escalates, the consequences are wild...literally. Our players learn the hard way what's really at risk when you gamble it all on a game.

Someone is dead set on making sure that Joust, the final challenge, ends with the right winner-and Heather realizes that for at least one person, Panic isn't a game anymore. An explosive conclusion brings the game to a permanent end...or so, at least, it seems. This year's players may be finished with the game. But it may not be finished with them.