The Hitcher is a 1986 American horror thriller film directed by Robert Harmon and written by Eric Red. It stars Rutger Hauer as the title character, a murderous hitchhiker who stalks a young motorist (C. Thomas Howell) across the highways of West Texas. Jeffrey DeMunn and Jennifer Jason Leigh appear in supporting roles.

Released in the United States on February 21, 1986, the film was originally met with tepid critical and commercial response, grossing $5.8 million on a $7.9 million budget. In later years, it has been reappraised as a cult classic. It is the first installment in The Hitcher film series and was followed by a sequel, The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting (2003), which featured Howell reprising his role, and a 2007 remake.

Plot

Jim Halsey, a young man delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego, spots a man hitchhiking in the West Texas desert and gives him a ride. The hitchhiker, who calls himself John Ryder, forces Jim's leg down on the accelerator when they pass a stranded car. Ryder states he murdered and dismembered the driver and intends to do the same to Jim, threatening him with a switchblade. Terrified, Jim asks what Ryder wants. He replies, "I want you to stop me." When Jim notices that Ryder's seat belt is unbuckled and the passenger door is ajar, he shoves Ryder out of the moving car.

Relieved, Jim continues his journey. When he sees Ryder in the back of a family car, Jim tries to warn the occupants, but has a minor accident. He comes across the family's blood-soaked car and vomits. Ryder corners Jim but simply tosses him the keys from Jim's car. Ryder leaves with a trucker and nearly runs Jim down with the truck, which crashes into the pumps of a gas station. As Jim flees, Ryder causes the station to explode.

At a roadside diner, Jim meets Nash, a waitress who cooks him lunch while he calls the police. He finds a severed finger among his French fries, indicating Ryder's proximity. The police arrive and arrest Jim, whom Ryder is framing for his murders. Though the police doubt his guilt, they lock him up overnight as protocol. Jim wakes to find the cell door unlocked and the officers murdered. He panics and flees with a revolver. At a gas station, he sees two officers, takes them hostage, and forces one of them to drive. Jim speaks on the radio to Captain Esteridge, the officer in charge of the manhunt. As Esteridge convinces Jim to surrender, Ryder pulls alongside and kills the two officers.

The patrol car crashes, and Ryder disappears again. After briefly considering suicide, Jim reaches a cafe, where Ryder confronts him. He points out Jim's revolver is unloaded. Ryder leaves him several bullets and departs. Jim boards a bus, where he meets Nash and explains his situation. After a police car pulls the bus over, Jim surrenders. The furious officers accuse him of killing their colleagues and are about to kill him. Nash appears with Jim's revolver, disarms the officers, and flees with Jim in their patrol car. As the police chase after them, Ryder joins the chase and murders the officers by causing a massive car accident and shooting down a police helicopter.

Jim and Nash abandon the patrol car and hike to a motel. While Jim is in the shower, Ryder abducts Nash. Jim searches for her. Captain Esteridge discovers Jim and enlists him to negotiate with Ryder, who is at the wheel of a large Mack truck. Ryder has gagged and tied Nash between the truck and its trailer hitch, and is threatening to tear her apart. Esteridge tells Jim that his men cannot shoot Ryder because his foot would slip off the clutch, causing the truck to roll. Jim enters the cab with Ryder, who gives him a revolver and tells him to shoot, but Jim is unable to do so. Ryder, disappointed, releases the clutch, killing Nash.

Ryder is taken into custody. Esteridge gives Jim a ride, but Jim, believing the police cannot hold Ryder, takes Esteridge's revolver and vehicle to chase down Ryder's prison bus. Ryder kills the deputies and leaps through Jim's windshield as the bus crashes. Jim slams on his brakes, sending Ryder through the windshield and onto the road. Ryder challenges Jim to run him over, which he does. When Jim leaves his car to look at Ryder's body, Ryder jumps up, but Jim shoots him repeatedly with a shotgun, killing him. Jim leans against Esteridge's car in a daze and smokes a cigarette as the sun sets.

Cast

Production

Development

When writer Eric Red was 20 years old, he made a short film entitled Gunman's Blues in the hopes of getting the opportunity to direct a feature-length film. When no offers came, he moved from New York City to Austin, Texas, taking a drive-away car cross-country. While driving from one city to another, he got the idea for a film from The Doors song "Riders on the Storm". He found that the "elements of the song – a killer on the road in a storm plus the cinematic feel of the music – would make a terrific opening for a film". Red had a lot of time to think about the song and it inspired ideas for the story. During his seven-month stay in Austin, he drove a taxi cab and wrote The Hitcher. In 1983, he sent a letter to several Hollywood producers asking if he could send them a copy of the screenplay for The Hitcher. His letter concluded: "It (the story) grabs you by the guts and does not let up and it does not let go. When you read it, you will not sleep for a week. When the movie is made, the country will not sleep for a week". Singer mentioned Dutch actor Rutger Hauer. While in L.A. for a short visit, Hauer read the script. Even though he was looking for non-villainous roles, the script "really got a hold of me ... I thought, 'If I do one more villain, I should do this.' I couldn't refuse it." Furthermore, Red felt that the character should have an electronic voice box.

For the role of Jim Halsey, the producers mentioned Matthew Modine, Tom Cruise, and Emilio Estevez.

Jennifer Jason Leigh agreed to do the film because she wanted to work with Hauer again (they co-starred in Flesh + Blood), and loved the character of Nash because "there was a real person there".

Home media

The Hitcher has been released on VHS, laserdisc and DVD, though the film did not receive a high-definition release until 2019, when a Blu-ray and DVD mediabook set was released by Alive Fernsehjuwelen GmbH. This release presented the film uncut for the first time in Germany, though picture quality was not ideal, as the remaster was sourced from a 35mm German release print, the best film element known to exist at the time. However, British label Second Sight Films, while preparing a release of their own, discovered the original film elements to be held by Warner Bros. Pictures, owners of the HBO Films library, and were ultimately able to complete a 4K restoration of the film supervised by director Harmon. This restored version was released in both 4K and standard Blu-ray formats by Second Sight in the UK on September 30, 2024, and by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in North America a few weeks later on October 22.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Hitcher holds a 63% approval rating based on 46 critic reviews. The consensus reads: "Its journey is never quite as revelatory as it could be, but The Hitcher stands as a white-knuckle vision of horror, bolstered by Rutger Hauer's menacing performance.” On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert awarded it zero stars, arguing that the identification of the film's hero with the killer is hollow because the killer has no backstory or even a motive. Gene Siskel also gave the film zero stars, calling it "a nauseating thriller" and "a thinly veiled but more gruesome ripoff of Steven Spielberg's Duel". In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin criticized the film's lack of intensity and originality, and wrote, "Mr. Harmon, making his feature debut, displays a much surer hand for action than for character, though even some of the action footage here looks meaninglessly overblown". Variety called it "a highly unimaginative slasher ... with a script that has many holes." In his review for The Washington Post, Paul Attanasio wrote, "The script (by Eric Red) is laconic in a dull way, much Cain but hardly able. And Harmon and his cinematographer, John Seale, have shot the movie in such brown murk, you can hardly make anything out. By the end, you're willing to forgive Ryder his worst if someone would just change the light bulb". In his review for The Globe and Mail, Jay Scott interpreted the film as a "slasher movie about gay panic, a nasty piece of homophobic angst for the age of AIDS". A rare positive review came from Newsweek magazine's Jack Kroll who called it, "an odyssey of horror and suspense that's as tightly wound as a garrote and as beautifully designed as a guillotine".

While most reviewers criticized the sadistic nature of the film's violence in general and Nash's death in particular,

Hauer would go on to say that critics misunderstood the film, calling it an allegory in which Ryder represents evil. The film has since been acknowledged as a cult classic and one of Hauer's most iconic roles.

In 2024, filmmaker Christopher Nolan cited it as one of his favorite films, saying "As a teenager, I never questioned the logic of this 80’s chiller, but now it seems mind-bendingly arbitrary plot-wise ... However, it does feature the criminally under-appreciated Rutger Hauer in his finest and most influential Euro-psycho performance this side of Blade Runner."

In 2013, GamesRadar+ named John Ryder one of the "50 Creepiest Movie Psychopaths.

Other media

Sequel

The film spawned a sequel, The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting, in 2003, with Howell reprising his role as Jim Halsey.

Remake

The Hitcher, produced by Michael Bay and directed by Dave Meyers, was released on January 19, 2007, starring Sean Bean as John Ryder, Zachary Knighton as Jim Halsey, and Neal McDonough as Esteridge. The remake eliminated the character of Nash in favor of Jim's girlfriend, Grace Andrews, portrayed by Sophia Bush.

See also

  • List of cult films

References

  • The Hitcher at the TCM Movie Database