Ralph Nader spends the 1960s as the country's most effective consumer advocate, publishing "Unsafe at Any Speed" in 1965 and forcing General Motors to answer for the Corvair's design flaws after the company is caught having him tailed by private investigators. The film follows that early career through the seatbelt laws, safety agencies, and regulations Nader's work produced, then turns to the 2000 presidential race, where his third-party candidacy draws Green Party votes in Florida and becomes, for many former allies, an unforgivable act that helped hand the election to George W. Bush. Over forty on-camera interviews carry the argument, including longtime colleagues, critics who once admired him, and Nader himself, unapologetic about the spoiler charge. Archival footage runs from Senate hearings to campaign rallies, tracking how a man once called the second most powerful person in Washington became, to much of the political establishment, a pariah. The film lets both verdicts stand side by side: the reformer who built real institutions, and the purist whose refusal to compromise cost the people who once fought beside him.