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The narrative begins with a father-daughter road trip. Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) is driving his teen daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), to a remote location in the Canadian Rockies. They could use the time together, given that he lost his wife and her mother, but this is a business trip, not a holiday one. Elliot is a tightly wound lawyer who has been invited to spend a long weekend with the rich Leopold family to finalize plans to become a proxy for ailing pharmaceutical magnate Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant). Elliot collides with an animal in the middle of the road while distracted by inconsistent cell service and an allergy attack. To his amazement, Elliot finds what appears to be a unicorn on the road when he and Ridley exit the vehicle to investigate what their SUV struck. Ridley demonstrates compassion by leaning in close and touching the unicorn's luminous horn, ultimately creating a psychic connection while Elliot looks for a means to end the near-dead creature's suffering. This action takes her on a cosmic mental voyage that she is unable to comprehend or express. The unexpected use of a tire iron by Elliot to kill the juvenile creature, leaving its purple blood all over the place, breaks that rapport.
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