Der Ranger - Paradies Heimat: Himmelhoch (2022)

Jonas is out with cone pickers Laura and Florian, hoping with their help to ensure the survival of the silver firs threatened by forest dieback. When Laura tries to move from one tree to another, she nearly falls, and is lucky that the safety rope slows her down. Her ex-boyfriend Alex watches from a distance through binoculars. Afterwards, while she is tending to herself at her camper van, he suddenly turns up and tries to persuade her not to move to Canada with Florian, but to take up sport climbing again. Lukas is an intern at the ranger station and wants to watch lynxes with Emilia. As they pass a young forest plantation, they see that wild boar have destroyed the fence and rampaged through it. Emilia spots a lone wild boar in the patch of woods opposite and follows it. Rike happens to learn from farmer Olli that Karl Nollau plans to build a biogas plant near the sawmill, and tells her mother. Her mother confronts Karl, who explains that he needs the subsidy money to plug the hole in the hotel’s finances caused by its construction. Florian discovers how Alex found Laura: he tampered with her phone so it would constantly send him her location. When Jonas hears from Emilia that a wild boar is on the move, he wants to shoot it, but she persuades him to install an electric fence around the young plantation instead. The whole Waldeck family meets to discuss the biogas plant. They look for ways to stop it, and need to get hold of its plans. The next morning, when Laura is about to climb the trees again, she has no strength in her hands. Jonas suspects a tick bite followed by Lyme disease and forbids her to climb until she has seen a doctor. Monika has obtained the plan and worked out how far the plant would have to be from her house. She gives the measurements to Rike, who intends to check them. Emilia advises Laura to talk things through with Alex so she can put the whole episode behind her. When Laura goes to the hospital for her tests, Alex suddenly appears and insists on talking to her right away. But she sends him away. Their conversation later goes badly: Alex claims Florian is only with her because he wants to get over his late girlfriend. Unfortunately, the measurements show that the plant would be far enough from the house, so the family has to find another way to stop it. Jonas is supposed to speak to his father about it. When Jonas meets Karl at the hotel, he runs into Alex by chance. He brings Laura the good news that Alex has checked out. When Lukas goes to see Jonas, a wild boar chases him. Emilia has to shoot it to save him. Since it was the lead sow, Jonas fears there will now be trouble with the rest of the sounder. Alex has not left and tries to get the test results at the hospital. Afterwards, he turns up at Laura and Florian’s and tells them he has found out that Laura has multiple sclerosis. Jonas drives Laura to the hospital, where the doctor confirms the diagnosis. Old memories of his late girlfriend Jenny come back to Florian as he talks to Laura about the illness. He is afraid he will not be able to bear it if she has to suffer. Monika and Rike try to convince Karl to withdraw from the biogas plant project, but he is convinced it will be built even if he does not get involved. After the wild boar get into the young plantation again despite the electric fence, Jonas decides to shoot the sounder. Farmer Harry digs in his heels when Monika and Rike ask him not to sell his land to Karl. So the two borrow Olli’s slurry tanker and drive it to Karl’s hotel to show investor Russmann what he is doing. It seems their conversation with Harry has worked after all, because he now decides not to sell. Jonas argues with Florian because he cannot accept that Laura now needs his support. He thinks she is going back to Alex. But Jonas makes it clear to him that she wants to face this on her own. Florian tries to call Laura, but she does not answer. As she declines the call, she trips and falls down a cliff. Florian runs into Alex, who also has no idea where Laura might be. They call Jonas, who has just called off the driven hunt because the wild boar have disappeared. Knowing which way Laura might have gone, they split up to search for her. Emilia is looking for her dog, which ran off when the signal for the driven hunt sounded, when she hears Laura calling for help. She calls Jonas because she cannot help Laura on her own. Alex gets there first and climbs down to Laura. With Florian’s help, they manage to pull her up. Laura and Florian decide to go to Canada after all. Emilia is glad that the hunt for the wild boar was unsuccessful, since the sounder seems to have moved on to the Czech Republic. Karl has realized that he needs to listen to his family more, and assures them he will not invest in projects like this again.