The First Auto

Set during the twilight of the horse-and-buggy era, The First Auto chronicles the stubborn decline of Hank Armstrong, a champion horse breeder who views the burgeoning internal combustion engine as a personal affront to God and nature. As the dusty roads of his rural town begin to rattle with the cough of early Fords and Oldsmobiles, Armstrong’s livelihood and social standing crumble. The conflict is not merely economic; it is generational. His son, Bob, finds himself seduced by the mechanical allure of Detroit’s assembly lines, leading to a bitter domestic schism. The film navigates the friction between tradition and progress, culminating in a high-stakes emergency where the very technology Armstrong despises becomes the only hope for his family’s survival. It is a story of a man being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 20th century.