The Hitcher Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
The terror starts when he stops!
Out on the desert highway, the rule of thumb has a different meaning...
Never Pick Up A Stranger.
He came from hell. Don't ask him where he wants to go.
Whatever you do, don't stop for The Hitcher
A young man transporting a car to another state is stalked along the road by a cunning and relentless serial killer who eventually frames the driver for a string of murders. Chased by police and shadowed by the killer, the driver's only help comes from a truck stop waitress.
| C. Thomas Howell | Jim Halsey |
| Rutger Hauer | John Ryder |
| Jennifer Jason Leigh | Nash |
| Jeffrey DeMunn | Captain Esteridge |
| John M. Jackson | Sergeant Starr |
| Billy Green Bush | Trooper Donner |
| Jack Thibeau | Trooper Prestone |
| Armin Shimerman | Interrogation Sergeant |
| Gene Davis | Trooper Dodge |
| Jon Van Ness | Trooper Hapscomb |
| Henry Darrow | Trooper Hancock |
| Tony Epper | Trooper Conners |
| Tom Spratley | Proprietor |
| Colin Campbell | Construction Man |
| Robert Harmon |
6.90 out of 10 (5298 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Hypnotic, Shocking, Atmospheric, Brilliantly-Made Deranged Killer In The Desert Thriller
posted on 24 Aug 2009Jim Halsey is a young man driving from Chicago to San Diego who picks up a hitchhiker in the deserts of Texas. Big mistake - the guy is a psycho, who first tries to kill Jim, then follows him, killing those he comes into contact with. Can Jim escape from this lunatic and prove his innocence ?One of the most gripping thrillers of the eighties, with an intriguing storyline, cartloads of suspense, near-flawless direction and a must-see enigmatic performance by Hauer, this is a twisted treat from start to finish. I think one reason I like it so much is the old Aristotle theory of classical unity; keep it simple, keep it focused and keep it short. Way too may movies (especially costume dramas and war films) have far too much plotting, too many characters, too much complexity, too much everything. This is a perfect example of how by paring everything down to the absolute minimum - there's really only one location (the desert), three characters and no subplots - the drama, the tension and the atmosphere get cranked up to the max, with nerve-shreddingly juicy results. Eric Red's story is in the classic pulp style of Richard Matheson or John D. MacDonald - the premise is both real and fantastic at the same time; the Hitcher seems like a superhuman phantom but also has a used-up, earthy, weariness to him. When Jim asks him why he's doing this, he responds with a sardonic, "You're a smart kid - you figure it out.", teasing us into constructing our own rational interpretations rather than weigh the movie down with stodgy psychobabble. Hauer is unforgettable in the role, something of a cousin to his equally famous psychotic self-destructing android in Blade Runner, but both Howell and Leigh also shine in the more conventional parts. The construction of this film is a lesson in technical skill from a bunch of young filmmakers who went on to great things - composer Mark Isham (Cool World, Mrs Parker And The Vicious Circle) with an unsettling minimalist score, designer Dennis Gassner (Miller's Crossing, The Truman Show) with amazingly evocative use of locations, and cameraman John Seale (Gorillas In The Mist, City Of Angels) whose photography is scary, beautiful and somehow seems to make the desert a character of itself, like a live-action version of the old Wile E. Coyote cartoons (it was shot in Death Valley, appropriately enough). It also has spectacular stuntwork by Eddy Donno, with a hair-raising set-piece chase sequence in the middle. The only downer for me about The Hitcher is that Robert Harmon has not made more films. For a debut feature it is simply stunning, and I can think of few better. His subsequent career has been sporadic, with a few offbeat features and some quality TV work. I suspect he is like Robert Bresson or Terrence Malick; he doesn't want to deal with soulless executives and would rather not make films than make poor compromises. If so, it's his gain and our loss. Followed by a straight-to-video sequel in 2003 and an unnecessary remake in 2007 - avoid these, but don't miss this peerless atmospheric thriller.
ALWAYS loved this movie
posted on 15 Aug 2009I have always thought is one of the most aggressively frightening films I have ever seen. Rutger Hauer is one scary dude and proves it continuously throughout the movie. My heart fell into my stomach when I first saw JJL tied to the tractor-trailer, and it is just one of those scenes I will NEVER forget. You are kept wondering, right to the very end, if he was going to get away or not.I think that this is one of those movies that you just DO NOT remake, and was not happy to see the recent trailer for the remake. I thought remakes were for movies that were very, VERY old, and not being all that old myself and knowing when the original came out, I think they must be having a hard time coming up with new and original screenplays in Hollywoodland to remake something so fairly new. It's not like it's a 40 year old movie that needs to be updated.
first-rate slasher horror
posted on 12 Aug 2009This film was in the news recently (Sept 2000) when it was revealed that George W Bush had invested in the production company that funded it. It was described in the press as a horrible, unimaginative slasher flick. Well, it is a slasher flick, but it is anything but unimaginative. It stands out from the rest of the genre because it is so atmospherically creepy. Rutger Hauer plays the serial killer, but the real story behind the movie is his relation to the hero--Hauer never tries to kill the hero, but kills everyone the hero loves, and tries to draw hero into some sort of complicity for the crimes. This is what gives the film its psychological edge, and makes it much more disturbing than the mere depiction of violence could do. The film is also well-directed; beautifully atmospheric.
one of my favorite movies
posted on 29 Jul 2009I just saw this movie last week on AMC and I was surprised at how good it was! Normally I don't watch many movies from the 80's, because they're kind of dated (I mostly grew up in the 90s), but this one could have taken place in any year. It's about a kid (C. Thomas Howell) who is driving from Chicago to San Diego. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, he picks up a hitch-hiker (Rutger Hauer) to keep himself from falling asleep at the wheel. Almost as soon as the hitcher gets into the car, you know that something is not right. You later find out that he cuts off the limbs of the people that pick him up. The kid is able to throw him out of the car and thinks he is free of that psycho when a station wagon with the hitcher inside passes his car on the interstate. Throughout the rest of the movie, the hitcher plays mind games with the kid and won't let him go until he is pushed to his breaking point. This movie is so good because it keeps you on the edge of your seat, wanting to see what happens next. What is also great is that you see hardly any blood and guts. It is scarier when the gruesome scenes are only implied. I absolutely love this movie!
Enough to put you off french fries forever
posted on 16 Jul 2009The Hitcher is a film with an exceedingly simple premise. A cleancut, All-American boy cruises down the highway when, against his better judgement, stops to pick up a hitchhiker. This hitcher is anything but sane, and holds a knife to the boy's throat. But he gets the upper hand and tosses the psycho out into the road. But that's not the end. Its just the beginning. No matter where this lad goes, the hitcher keeps finding him. Torturing him. Tormenting him.As long as you're prepared to ignore Rutger Hauer's near-magical ability to appear anywhere in the story, you will enjoy The Hitcher considerably. It all operates on the level of a relentless continuing nightmare. One that refuses to stop. Say what you will about the film's lapses in logic and enormous plot holes, The Hitcher is one of the finest sustained psycho-thrillers of the 1980s.Directed by Robert Harmon (another excellent filmmaker who just seemed to vanish), he does a superb job plonking us right into the middle of this urban nightmare. Using the desert highways as a backdrop, The Hitcher becomes one long, extended game of cat and mouse. And Harmon's direction is so fluidic it practically glides.It all begins with a thin sense of normalcy. Then suddenly and without warning the psycho plot takes us right along with it. Harmon doesn't even allow us the time to catch up. He ensures the plot moves inexorably forwards, with no chance at all of things going back. And there's a wonderful strain of black humour that underscores the film.The french fry scene is a genuine shocker. And so effective for the way Harmon sets it up. Consider this, C. Thomas Howell is sitting in a restaurant thoroughly exhausted after his encounters with Hauer. The camera lingers on Howell eating french fries while he sits there lost in thought. His hand picks up a human finger that he unknowingly puts to his mouth. Its a scene where the audience is way ahead of its hero, and can only sit there and squirm while Howell is about to eat the thing. Gives a whole new meaning to finger food!An equally squeamish scene comes earlier in the film that is almost Hitchcockian in its audacity. After Howell has booted Hauer out the car, a few minutes later, Howell is driving and sees Hauer in the back seat of another car with a family. Again a scene where the audience (and in this case the hero) is ahead of the characters, this innocent family having unknowingly picked up a psycho, while Howell is frantically trying to warn them. There's an especially skin-crawling moment when Hauer kisses the little girl sharing the back with him, while her parents are distracted by this nutter trying to pull them over.The scene is capped marvellously a few minutes later when after the other car has headed down the highway, Howell discovers it on the side of the road, with the whole family murdered and Hauer nowhere to be found. Harmon constantly keeps you on a seat-edge of unease. Even when Hauer isn't around, his presence hovers and lingers over Howell every step of the way.Eric Red, who would pen the equally brilliant backroads epic Near Dark the following year, almost deliberately creates an utterly contrived scenario. Hauer is almost one step ahead of Howell, even when it seems inhumanly possible. The people he turns to for help only think he's a lunatic, even blaming him for the crimes Hauer has committed. In fact Hauer is given such scant motivation, it all seems like deliberate malice on his part. Howell even flat out asks him at one point, "why me?" To which Hauer responds, "You're a smart kid. You figure it out!"C Thomas Howell is unremarkable to begin with, but maybe that's the whole point. Much like Dennis Weaver's Everyman in the like-minded Steven Spielberg classic Duel, Howell is just this ordinary, average Joe dragged kicking and screaming into this nightmarish tale. Towards the end, his acting shows some impressive modulating. He goes from a slack-ass kid who couldn't stay awake at the wheel to a determined, sure of himself road warrior. Just listen to the assured click when he cocks a gun at a cop.But really the film belongs to Rutger Hauer. He has seldom had so much fun in a part. He looks like he's having the time of his life. Its a performance filled with snide sneers and wide-eyed dementia, but Hauer plays it to the hilt. He's given no chance to redeem himself. He's a psycho as much at the end of the picture as he is at the beginning. Something he knows all too well.In a minor but effective role is the underrated Jennifer Jason Leigh as Nash, a waitress who becomes the only one who believes in Howell. She adds an additional human face to the nightmare world Harmon has surrounded Howell with. In a really unbearable (and genuinely distressing) scene, Hauer kidnaps Nash, and ties her between a truck and trailer. Hauer is in the cab of the truck, and if his foot slips off the clutch, she'll be torn in half. Its a gruelling and very well sustained scene that ratchets up the tension superbly. And when Hauer finally carries out his threat, its gut-wrenching and very saddening. It will leave you depressed for hours after the film has ended.The Hitcher is a really quite excellent thriller. Everything about the film works in some way or another. The action scenes are breathless and kinetic. In particular the exploding petrol station and slow-mo police car pileups. And best of all, Harmon never allows things to slow down for too long. I have yet to see the remake, but something tells me Sean Bean can't play the part of an eye-rolling psycho the way Rutger Hauer can. A minor classic.
Ryder In The Storm
posted on 04 Jul 2009Jim Morrison's foreboding lyrics say it best. "If you give this man a ride sweet memory will die, killer on the road." Traveling alone in a car on a desert highway, Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) picks up a man named Ryder (Rutger Hauer), and the terror begins.A hauntingly desolate landscape, a thunderstorm at night, and minimal dialogue make the first few minutes of "The Hitcher" a chilling atmospheric thriller. Unfortunately, although the thrills continue, the thick atmosphere soon goes away, and we're left with a long series of contrived encounters, one after another, between Halsey and Ryder. We never really get to know either man, so it's hard to care about, or understand, them. Whatever their motivations might be, their behavior seems unrealistic at best. Indeed, my biggest complaint with this film is the superhuman powers of Ryder. He's more of a nightmarish bogeyman, a psychological extension of the demon side of Halsey, than a credible film character."The Hitcher" has a great premise with lots of potential. But, as is, the cinematography, not the story, is the film's main strength. The script is unnecessarily weak, owing to a redundant plot, lack of realism in the action, and the lack of a character arc. If the screenwriter had made more of an effort to import a symbolic message, via more realistic action, more cryptic dialogue, and better editing, "The Hitcher" could have conveyed more cinematic force, and be remembered now as a classic, along the lines of "Psycho".
Highly intense scenes; Rutger is superb! two thumbs up!
posted on 02 Jul 2009The movie builds to peak frenzy, as you discover the truth about the hitcher's activities. It shows how a nobody can get caught up in someone else's life and death stuggles, with no alternative but to take the matters into his own hands. A great psychological thriller!
Where should I start?
posted on 28 Jun 2009The Hitcher fascinates on more than one level. First of all, there's very little dialogue. Most of it's force is achieved through its pictures and underlying sense of sadism and senseless violence. Several scenes indicate there's a special relationship or bond between the Hitcher and his victim Jim Halsey. Some say it's a homoerotic-sadomasochistic thing , others think the Hitcher symbolizes the dark counterpart of Howell's character (the shadow, so to speak, in Jungian psychology). I guess it has something of both. Maybe the Hitcher killed off Nash out of jealosy, trying to gain Halsey's unshared attention? The movie's surrealistic and kafkaesque (God, I sound like an "art fag"...) mood indicates there's a deeper layer to be explored. Is the Hitcher just a projection of Halsey's own dark side? And by finally defeating the Hitcher he overcomes his own shadow? Or did Halsey succumb and lose the battle against evil by killing the Hitcher and becoming like him? All in all a true masterpiece from the 80s: disturbing, quiet, yet powerful. Roger Ebert gave this film ZERO stars: I couldn't agree less with this usually sensible critic, his analysis of The Hitcher however is surprisingly good nonetheless.
Surreal, dreamy, and absolutely thrilling
posted on 18 May 2009This is probably Rutger Hauer's best known role - and *the* perfect example of how good an actor he is. His magnificent performance adds to the film's strange and surreal atmosphere and creates one of the most chilling movie villains of all time. A mysterious modern Flying Dutchman, shadowy and coming from nowhere, undead and cursed to roam not the sea but a desert and kill over and over again, Rutger Hauer's "John Ryder" cannot be liberated unless *he* himself is killed... and this is the favor that he asks a young driver he meets to do. The movie is not standard, down-to-earth thriller. It creates its own world and you can only understand it when you watch it and have the Flying Dutchman's story in mind. Only then will you see that what some people thought to be mistakes and holes in the script are in fact deliberate and well-thought elements of the plot. Watch the movie thinking of "John Ryder" as the Flying Dutchman, and you will understand every comment he makes, every line he says, and every action he takes. And, hopefully, you will appreciate the genius of Rutger Hauer and director Bob Harmon.
Revenge of the 80's: C. Thomas Howell superstar.
posted on 20 Apr 2009The Hitcher (1986) was a nail biting thriller filled with homo eroticism that starred C. Thomas Howell as a young man who's driving his brother's car cross country. He makes the mistake of picking up a bored psychopath (Rutger Hauer) who develops an immediate crush for the kid. C. Thomas ditches the nut job at the first chance he gets. But the crazy psycho wont give up on chasing his sweet heart even if he has to track him down in the middle of the southwestern wastelands.C. Thomas doesn't put enough miles between him and his secret admirer. The crazy nut job catches him and makes the rest of the cross country trip a living hell. He sets him up for several capital murders and brutally murders a girl (Jennifer Jason Leigh) he falls in love with. After getting caught red handed and treating the kid to some authentic finger food, the bed bug doesn't let a prison bus or a pair of heavy shackles stop him from having a desert shown down with his "lover'. A brutal fight ensures with C. Thomas blowing away Rutger with a pump action police issued riot shotgun with an extend clip. Followed by a sequel.A tense game of cat-and-mouse. Rutger Hauer plays a role that he knows and fits in like a well worn glove. C. Thomas plays a naive and dumb kid like he was custom made for the part. Great stuff from the enigmatic Eric Red.Highly recommended.
Brilliant.
posted on 20 Apr 2009The phrase "ahead of its time" is too often thrown around in attempts to praise something that was mis-understood or never all that popular. In the case of The Hitcher, this phrase could not possibly ring any more true. Critically lambasted (more on that later), and a box office dud, this film has somehow been kept alive by the diminutive number of people who were jolted by it when they first saw it. Now, nearly twenty years after its release, the film still makes for a great evening of nihilistic escapism.Our story concerns the plight of a young man named Jim Halsey (Howell) who is driving a new car across the country to San Diego where he will drop it off to its new owner. In what appears to be west Texas, he makes the mistake of picking up a hitchhiker during a pouring rain storm, and the rest is movie history. After surviving the initial encounter with the "Hitcher" (Hauer), Halsey is pursued by, terrorized by, and sometimes even helped by this mysterious man. The story keeps you guessing, and it can be completely open to interpretation as far as just what the Hitcher wants with Halsey. Personally, I think he gets his wish and then some at the end.The acting is very good. Hauer is unforgettable as "John Ryder", the mysterious demon who kills anything in his path. Howell is better than most people give him credit for. We witness him change from a scared young man to a man potentially more dangerous than Hauer's character. Jennifer Jason-Leigh is terrific, as well. Her demise in this film is something you will never forget.The stunt work is on par with anything George Miller ever accomplished in his early works. Isham's score is haunting, and blends in wonderfully with the barren landscape.Many of the critics who didn't understand this film would probably praise it now that we all know what the word "nihilism" means in our vocabularies. Roger Ebert in particular really missed the boat and give this film zero stars. Perhaps in 1986, people were just not ready for a character describing in such matter-of-fact detail what he has just done to the last guy who picked him up to a terrified young man sitting next to him. Maybe people weren't ready for a severed finger to turn up in a plate of french fries. Or a woman ripped in half by a tractor-trailer for that matter.So why a remake? Is our society more prepared for such carnage a mere two decades later? Somebody must think it will make some $ this time around.9 of 10 stars for The Hitcher. The Hound feels that no remake is necessary!
Chilling
posted on 02 Apr 2009O yeah now this is what i call a film. With a blood chilling performance by Rutgeur Hauer this is with out doubt one of the most chilling and violent films you will ever see.A truly excellent movie and a roller coaster ride of fear,loathing and hatred. Sit back and enjoy
Don't Pick Up Strangers
posted on 24 Mar 2009This is an Excellent Thriller!! all the way through.Jim Halsey (Thomas C. Howell) is transporting another car to cali, when he picks up a Hitcher along the way, the mistake of his life. At first the Hitcher seems like your average traveller with a cold, his name is John Ryder. After a few scares in the car Jim asks John to get out, but that is only giving John the upper hand of the game, John has plans for Jim. John tells Jim he's going to cut off his arms,legs and head as he done to the previous guy, but first Jim has got too say four word "I-want-to-die" after Jim pushes John out the car, he thinks he's safe, but cat and mouse has just started.The acting is great and polished, the plot is original, and Rugter Hauers Prefromance as the Hitcher is Excellent, Scary and slick. from great settings and action holes this is a top thriller from the later 80's, The eerie music keeps you on the end of your seat.10/10 FANTASTIC!
Intriguing in its own way
posted on 24 Mar 2009Only Kastore (among imdb reviewers) appears to have noticed Ryder's wedding ring. Did whoever was symbolized by that ring go through what the kid here goes through with Ryder? When he tells the kid to repeat "I want to die," after him, Ryder says it like he wants to die himself. Is this a bizarrely drawn out case of suicide by cop? Or is the film more metaphoric than that?
The mayhem Ryder causes in this film is performed so affectlessly that it seems almost inappropriate to refer to it as evil. Ryder is more like a force of nature, impersonal and devastating.This certainly isn't some cruddy little exploitation picture. It has style and atmosphere, and three fine performances from its leads. Those reviewers who have pointed out that movie violence has moved far beyond "The Hitcher" are right, but it is the anomic quality of the violence that is most disturbing here, not its actual degree of grisliness. The average viewer may find this difficult to deal with.The most unsettling thing about this movie is that Rutger Hauer brings to it his special talent for giving psychos a quality of soft-spoken tenderness.
This injects a great deal more dimension into the developing relationship/duel between him and Howell, and makes the encounter in the diner perhaps the key scene in the film.
Killer On The Road
posted on 03 Mar 2009C. Thomas Howell portrays a young man driving a car from Chicago to San Diego who soon lives to regret picking up a sinister hitchhiker (Rutger Hauer) on a rainy night in the west Texas desert in this 1986 horror film, which has become something of a cult classic.When Hauer threatens Howell at knifepoint and regales him with gory tales of his crimes, Howell bodily ejects the hitchhiker. But Hauer keeps reappearing in his life over the next several days, littering the highway with the grisly corpses of his victims, and making it appear like Howell killed these people. Jennifer Jason Leigh portrays a local restaurant waitress who comes to sympathize with Howell's plight--not that it does her much good in the end, of course, as she falls victim to Hauer. The final desert showdown between Hauer and Howell is very reminiscent of Sergio Leone's 1960s spaghetti westerns.Like the latter 1997 film BREAKDOWN, THE HITCHER takes inspiration from such classic thrillers of the 1970s as DUEL, STRAW DOGS, and DELIVERANCE, with Howell's performance as the frightened auto motorist very convincing, and Hauer's evil hitchhiker being particularly cunning, cool, and sadistic. The film is marred only by the somewhat extreme violence of the murder scenes, a mistake on the part of both screenwriter Eric Red and director Robert Harmon to appeal to slasher film freaks. Otherwise, THE HITCHER is worth the '7' rating I'm giving it.
Never pick up a hitchhiker
posted on 23 Feb 2009This film will make you swear off picking up hitchhikers forever. A young man gives a hitcher a ride resulting in unremitting, episodic violence as the hitchhiker, played by Rutger Hauer, follows the boy and creates havoc. Violent and terrifying film. Recommended. By the way, this film is head-and-shoulders above the recent remake!!!
in my top 10
posted on 31 Dec 2008I love this movie. It falls into one of my top favorites. Very suspenseful. I'm not going to rehash plot, you can read it from others. There is no other than Rutger Hauer to play the roll so CREEPY. He truly does a wonderful job. C Thomas Howell does too. There is a part where the sheriff says "I don't know what the connection is between you two?" And you don't till the end. The ending for me always has me questioning is John Ryder (Hauer) Just a man or a little supernatural?? My only complaint is quality of DVD could be a little better. Choose this over remake.
One of the best thrillers ever made.
posted on 03 Dec 2008In brief: maniac-killer is on the road! Will the young man stand against him?Great psychologic thriller. Not much amount of blood scenes, but they're impressive enough. Rutger Hauer as great as he can, and all the rest main actors too.Verdict: 10 out of 10 in its category. Watch and train your nerves!
Underrated B-movie thriller
posted on 03 Dec 2008Some movies have depth to them. Some are just entertainment. This is simply well done entertainment hence me giving it the B-movie nomenclature. The film has contrast. It is pleasantly languid at times, so in the action parts. You actually feel something. The acting is solid if a little cheesy. But thats part of the fun. Despite that the film sucks you in to the point that you're right there with everything.Thats the main point that a quality B-movie must have IMO. It has to suck you in. Once you're in it also must not make you irritated by jigsaw pieces that don't fit. This film never irritated me.Its a good movie to watch on your day of rest, sit back mellow out and get sucked in.Bravo to all involved in this picture, I enjoyed it.
Hitcher, or hitch her?
posted on 25 Aug 2009THE HITCHER came out several years before THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, the latter of course being much better-known. The psychotic hitch-hiker Rutger Hauer portrays in THE HITCHER will make you lose just as much sleep at Anthony Hopkins did in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. THE HITCHER dares to risk upsetting the audience with the tractor-trailer scene, so you've been warned. Up until that moment, the suspense makes THE HITCHER well worth viewing; after that moment, it's up to you.