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Breakdown (1997)
Despite a couple of dangling plot points, 1997's Breakdown is a tidy little nail-biter that demands viewer attention thanks to a very durable hero, a very hissable villain, and an experienced creator of action films behind the camera.
Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan play Jeff and Amy, who are traveling across country from Massachusetts to California when, shortly after a brief stop at a gas station, their vehicle breaks down on the highway. A trucker (the late JT Walsh) happens by and offers to drive the wife to a nearby diner so that she can call a tow truck while Jeff stays with their vehicle. About half an hour later, Jeff is able to get the vehicle started and drives to the diner where no one claims to have seen his wife or the trucker. Jeff leaves the diner and spots the truck going the opposite direction and when he flags him down, the guy claims to have never seen Jeff before and has no idea where his wife is.
Director/screenwriter Jonathan Mostow does have experience mounting credible action films with later projects like U-571 and Terminator #: Rose of the Machines, but he was still cutting his teeth as a filmmaker with this project and his inexperience in setting up a suspense story comes through in both his writing and direction, which both do a little too much foreshadowing what the viewer is about to see. The way the thug played by MC Gainey approaches Russell at the gas station and the instantaneous and unjustified hostility of the bartender at the diner were dead giveaways as to what was going on here and if a little more subtlety had been employed with these scenes, suspense could have been sustained a lot longer than it was. Not to mention the one thing I really couldn't reconcile in my mind: After the trucker grabs and stashes Ann, why does he go right back out on the highway in order for Jeff to flag him down?
If you can let this stuff slide, this story becomes a nightmarish journey for Jeff that actually has him questioning his sanity initially, but fortunately Mostow had the wisdom not to make Jeff a complete moron and he does catch on pretty quickly to what's going on, though he does play a little fast and loose with the kidnappers about that money, which was kind of a dangerous thing to do, which could have cost Ann her life? And that brings up another point....before they even demand the money, several attempts are made on Jeff's life including a deadly highway chase which ended with his vehicle in a river...how did they expect to get the money they wanted from him if he was dead?
Mostow does show an affinity for creating atmospheric suspense and he really puts the viewer on the bottom of that 18-wheeler with Jeff at the beginning of the final act and I was literally holding my breath during the final ten minutes. Russell is solid as Jeff and Walsh made a bone-chilling antagonist in this riveting cat and mouse thriller. It's an exciting little thriller as long as you don't think about it too much.
Despite a couple of dangling plot points, 1997's Breakdown is a tidy little nail-biter that demands viewer attention thanks to a very durable hero, a very hissable villain, and an experienced creator of action films behind the camera.
Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan play Jeff and Amy, who are traveling across country from Massachusetts to California when, shortly after a brief stop at a gas station, their vehicle breaks down on the highway. A trucker (the late JT Walsh) happens by and offers to drive the wife to a nearby diner so that she can call a tow truck while Jeff stays with their vehicle. About half an hour later, Jeff is able to get the vehicle started and drives to the diner where no one claims to have seen his wife or the trucker. Jeff leaves the diner and spots the truck going the opposite direction and when he flags him down, the guy claims to have never seen Jeff before and has no idea where his wife is.
Director/screenwriter Jonathan Mostow does have experience mounting credible action films with later projects like U-571 and Terminator #: Rose of the Machines, but he was still cutting his teeth as a filmmaker with this project and his inexperience in setting up a suspense story comes through in both his writing and direction, which both do a little too much foreshadowing what the viewer is about to see. The way the thug played by MC Gainey approaches Russell at the gas station and the instantaneous and unjustified hostility of the bartender at the diner were dead giveaways as to what was going on here and if a little more subtlety had been employed with these scenes, suspense could have been sustained a lot longer than it was. Not to mention the one thing I really couldn't reconcile in my mind: After the trucker grabs and stashes Ann, why does he go right back out on the highway in order for Jeff to flag him down?
If you can let this stuff slide, this story becomes a nightmarish journey for Jeff that actually has him questioning his sanity initially, but fortunately Mostow had the wisdom not to make Jeff a complete moron and he does catch on pretty quickly to what's going on, though he does play a little fast and loose with the kidnappers about that money, which was kind of a dangerous thing to do, which could have cost Ann her life? And that brings up another point....before they even demand the money, several attempts are made on Jeff's life including a deadly highway chase which ended with his vehicle in a river...how did they expect to get the money they wanted from him if he was dead?
Mostow does show an affinity for creating atmospheric suspense and he really puts the viewer on the bottom of that 18-wheeler with Jeff at the beginning of the final act and I was literally holding my breath during the final ten minutes. Russell is solid as Jeff and Walsh made a bone-chilling antagonist in this riveting cat and mouse thriller. It's an exciting little thriller as long as you don't think about it too much.