Episode 224: The Hitcher (1986)

Our mothers told us never to do this, but if we had to describe 1986’s The Hitcher in one word, we would use the word “mean”. Somehow this one manages to be very violent and simultaneously incredibly restrained. Rutger Hauer gives one of the most menacing performances in this very straightforward thriller that rivals Steven Spielberg’s Duel in its relentlessness. So light up a cigarette and make sure to buckle up too as we break down this cult classic, plus discuss what the Hitcher and penguins have in common, the one unfortunate film in C. Thomas Howell’s filmography, and of course Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel’s infamous scathing review.

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The Hitcher (1986) stars Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rutger Hauer, and C. Thomas Howell. Directed by Robert Harmon.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:27

I'm Justin goes to Hollywood, and when the truth comes down, I'll be just fine.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

I'm Nathan Simmons, and I want you to say two words. Say my wife.

SPEAKER_04 0:41

His wife.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

And this is this is the silver linings playlist, the podcast where we try to find the silver linings in some of Cinema's bleakest, driest, dustiest endings.

SPEAKER_06 0:54

Oh man. I gotta tell you, drink of the film, water, because you're gonna need some after this fucking movie. No kidding. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Ashley and I were trying to figure out what to eat for dinner last night before we watched the movie, and she said, Why don't we make soup so that we can eat something wet while we watch something dry?

SPEAKER_06 1:13

I would say soup, maybe the wettest of foods, maybe. I think you're right.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

I think in bold, but I think you're right.

SPEAKER_06 1:19

I'm brave enough to say it.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

That's all I'll say. Finally. Finally.

SPEAKER_06 1:23

So regular listeners of the show will know they're not hearing another voice on this show, and that's because Mally is not here. Lest I saw he was hitched with a ride from bus. Damn it, yours is better. God damn it. Uh yeah, so he's not here, but Nathan, the Hitcher from 1986, this is your pick. Fuck yes. Tell me about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

The Hitcher is one of my favorite movies of all time.

SPEAKER_06 1:49

I can see why.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

This will actually be the third podcast I've talked about The Hitcher on because it's one that I just I'm always chomping at the bit to talk about. I saw this for the first time in high school. I had um back in the day, I was a big fan of like Joblo.com and Arrow in the Head movie reviews. So I would get really into like the horror reviews on that site, and the Hitcher always came up as like a fave. And I'd never seen it until one night I was on a school trip, and this was playing on AMC at like one in the morning. I remember I was getting ready to go to bed. I had a theater competition the next morning, and the announcer goes, coming up next, The Hitcher, and I'm like, oh fuck, that's that movie I've heard of. And so I stayed awake until like three or four in the morning to watch The Hitcher. And as the credits rolled, my eyes are like closing, and I'm thinking that's one of the best movies I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_06 2:49

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

And I love how relentless this movie is, how mean spirited this movie is. It is so well directed, so sparing in its plot, and so complex in its performances. These actors are giving incredible performances with very little di like minimal dialogue. It's just one of those movies that is so incredibly watchable and try I'm transfixed from the moment it starts. It's just one that every couple of years I put this on and I'm blown away by how good it is. And then last year, when Second Sight finally put it out on 4K, because this movie was not did not get a home video release for years. I had this shitty pan and scan DVD copy of it that I've been watching for years. Finally got to upgrade. It's the most I've ever spent on a single film because I imported this shit from the UK. Okay. I just I adore this movie. And when you finally watched it last year and said something to the effect of that movie fucking rips. Uh-huh. I was not prepared for how incredible this was. I knew I had to put it on the schedule for the following season, and we're finally here. Hell yeah. And I feel like I have talked to JT about this movie back in the day, but I I I may be wrong about that.

SPEAKER_06 4:10

JT, was this your first time seeing it?

SPEAKER_04 4:12

This was. Oh, okay. This was. I don't know what, like, so when you look back at the I'm going back to the video store. Yes. You know, when you were a kid and you look down this horror, like the cover art top tier, right?

SPEAKER_05 4:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:25

I made the mistake of categorizing it with all like the other, like, not schlucked, that's not what I'm trying to say, but like the sleepaway camps. Like it was a themed horror movie. I put it in that box, and I, after watching it last night, uh really regret it.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Oh, I really like it's so good. People did that when it came out. I mean, the movie still, because this movie, Eric Redd, who also wrote Near Dark, yeah, put this uh screenplay out into the world with an open letter. He would just mail it to multiple studios with a letter that basically said, America will not sleep once they've seen the hitcher. And the very few studios that had a meeting with him and Robert Harman, the director, were basically like, Well, yeah, this is a slasher, right? And he's like, No, it's not a fuck like Robert Harmon was very dead set on this being more of a thriller.

SPEAKER_05 5:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

And yet, when this thing came out, the reception at the time was basically, this is garbage. This is a I mean, we'll I'm sure we'll talk about the Siskel and Ebert reviews. Oh, we will. Which are I still can't wrap my head around. I I get what Roger is saying, but he's going about it in a way that completely baffles me.

SPEAKER_06 5:35

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

This is just a lean, mean road movie, and I it's one of those movies that also I think is the very rare case of a little bit of a committee making a thing better. You know, we've talked in the Alien 3 episode about how Eric Redd wrote a really terrible screenplay for Alien 3. The original screenplay for the hitcher was 190 pages long.

SPEAKER_06 5:58

It's a fucking epic.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

It got whittled down over time into this very understated, which is weird for a movie where a guy shoots a helicopter out of the sky, but a very understated road movie.

SPEAKER_06 6:09

No, it's like it kind of was a slasher for a while there. Like there was a sex scene, there was a lot more violence and gore and everything.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

And then we on-screen like decapitation. I think he kills that family in the station wagon on screen in the original screenplay.

SPEAKER_06 6:23

Yeah, this is, as you said, very understated, and I think that's what makes it roll because less is more. And I love that I haven't seen it, but I love that the 2000s remake of this thing, from my understanding, is almost a one-to-one, but with just more gore.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Yeah. The problem with the remake is that the thing that's so great about this movie to me is there's so much ambiguity to John Ryder that you can play in the margins, you can let your mind, you know, really fill in the blanks of like, is this like a suicide by cop situation? Is this like a psychosexual obsession? And there's there's so many different things you can take from it. And then the movie makes a lot of that into text. Like, one of my favorite shots in this entire film is when you see Rudger Howers wearing a wedding ring, and you're like, Is this man married? Did he steal it from that couple in the station wagon? What's the deal here? And then in the remake, Sean Bean, who plays the hitcher in that version, is basically like, Yeah, I wear a wedding ring so I can make people, you know, trust me or whatever. Yeah. And it's like, enjoy the ambiguity. That's where the terror lies, right?

SPEAKER_06 7:30

I would almost say the hitcher in this movie. Kind of a scamp. Oh, yeah, sure. Kind of a scamp as well, but also a joker.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

Sure, he's kind of a joker, baby. I swear to God. Okay, I was just about to say, like, now that you say that a lot of the gore was taken out of it and null of these kills are off-screen, kind of makes him up in the top echelon of scamps. Like, it it's it's way up there.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

It's crazy. I mean, aside from the two sheriff deputies who get shot in the middle of the film, the goriest death in the movie is when our hero murders the hitcher in cold blood. Yeah. Yeah. Which is fascinating because that we're watching a movie about, I think, a serial killer who's trying to groom his replacement in a lot of ways. Like it's it's uh there's there's uh I mean, that's one read of the film. There's another read where this is just a guy who doesn't know why he does what he does and wants someone to stop him. I mean, you could just take what he says on at face value, but there's so many we've talked about a little bit off mic, but there's so many interesting, queer undertones to this film, too, that are both fascinating and potentially problematic, depending on how you want to read the relationship here. And it's interesting to see characters who pick up on this weird nebulous connection between our two main characters. You know, there's the bit where Jeffrey DeMunn towards the end of the movie is like, I don't know what's going on between the two of you, and I don't want to know. You know, it's uh it's a fascinating movie that I get something new from every time I watch it.

SPEAKER_06 9:04

Yeah, we'll certainly talk about the the way that Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel viewed this movie in terms of the themes they think it is trying to go for. Sure. I can see what they're talking about. I don't necessarily agree that's what the movie's about, but I'm happy to discuss it. Sure. And especially because this will be our second episode and final episode in our Pride Month. I think that is certainly a topic worth discussing. So we'll get there when we get there. But if this is your first time listening to the show, we are a podcast that watches movies such as The Hitcher that don't end on happily ever after endings. I mean, yeah, the hitcher is dead at the end of this thing, but I think Jim may be fucked.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

This is what I this is in the category of movies that I like to refer to as the what now endings. Like this kid's life is ruined. He's held a police off a police sheriff at gunpoint. He has killed a man, and there are like at least three other bodies in his vicinity whenever someone finds him later. There's no going back. And he lost his job. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 10:01

And he lost his job. Surely. He failed that Grand Theft Auto mission where you had to deliver a car from one side of the city to the other.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Nico is waiting for him.

SPEAKER_06 10:13

And if you've never seen The Hitcher, it does ask the age old question. Yeah, what if there was a hitcher? Great question.

unknown 10:20

God damn it.

SPEAKER_06 10:20

I can't really do a whole lot with these titles that are just the thing that they are. Anyway, let's get into the info dump. So the year is 1986. The director, as Nathan mentioned, is Robert Harmon. Listen to this shit. This guy found himself a nice little pocket from 2005 to 2015. Yeah. When he directed, and I'm gonna read a list here. Jesse Stone, Cold Blood. Oh yeah. Jesse Stone, Night Passage. Jesse Stone, Death in Paradise. He's Tom Selleck's favorite director. Jesse Stone, Sea Change. Jesse Stone, Thin Ice. Jesse Stone, No Remorse. Uh-huh. Jesse Stone, Benefit of the Doubt. And Jesse Stone, Lost in Paradise. All TV movies.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Jesus. And I think a bunch of episodes of Blue Bloods. Like he somehow became BFFs with Tom Selleck.

SPEAKER_06 11:17

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Also the same writer, Eric Redd, as you mentioned, Nathan, is near Dark. Blue Steel, and a movie I previously mentioned that I fuck with a lot, Bad Moon. Oh, yeah, that's right. And also, if you haven't heard of Eric Redd, I do have to bring up at least something that's worth talking about that happened to him. Yes, I know what you're sure you know about this, Nathan. Yeah. So following a car accident in May of 2000, he crashed his truck into a crowded bar in Los Angeles and he killed two patrons. And then after the incident, he apparently exited his vehicle and attempted suicide by slitting his own throat with a piece of broken glass. Yeah. He survived that and was taken to the hospital, and he was released a few weeks later. And we find out later then he was driving on a suspended license. And no criminal charges were brought against him, but a jury in a civil suit awarded monetary damages to the families of the two patrons that were killed.

SPEAKER_03 12:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 12:15

Awarding them a couple million dollars to the families of those two guys. That's fucking crazy. Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

It's wild. He had some kind of episode. Like I don't, yeah, I don't know all the details, but it's terrifying. Absolutely. And, you know, not for nothing, that kind of ended his career. Like he's he's worked here and there, but like that, yeah, he's he's not making big movies anymore.

SPEAKER_06 12:38

Yeah, not very employable, it seems like. No. But this movie, and I love that Roger Ebert lists her first, stars Jennifer Jason Lee, Rutker Howard, and C. Thomas Howell, and that's all he lists. Yeah, that's pretty much the main cast.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Yeah. Otherwise, Jeffrey DeMunn, uh, the always dependable Jeffrey Demon shows up for about five minutes.

SPEAKER_06 12:59

Some people may know C. Thomas Howell as Pony Boy from the Outsiders. Or the Soul Man. I was gonna say this kid also has a pretty great career until we get to Soul Man because he was in E.T., yeah, Red Dawn, the amazing Spider-Man. Yeah. Nathan, do you want to tell us what Soul Man is all about?

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Soul Man, if I'm not mistaken, is about a kid who does not get his basketball scholarship, but he finds out about a uh a diversity program at the University of his choice, so he decides to wear blackface and enter into college to become their star basketball player, and he has to continue pretending to be black while uh avoiding the suspicions of his professor played by James World Joe, who's mad at him for not applying himself as a as a strong young black man. It is a fucking crazy movie. Everyone who made it blocks in Jade Lord. It is it is buckwild. Uh-huh. And you know, it's one of those movies that I think everyone involved is like, we probably shouldn't have done that. I don't know that we should have done that. Yeah, not a great idea. Do you know who all was up for the role of the hitcher before Rudger Hauer was cast?

SPEAKER_06 14:13

I've heard some names, but please toss them out to me.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

So in Eric Red's original screenplay, the hitcher is described as a quote skeletal figure, just rail thin. And at one point, uh, in one draft of the screenplay, he only spoke using like an electronic voice box. So they were looking for little guys, like little scary, wiry guys. The number one name that kept getting thrown out was Harry Dean Stanton, which holy shit. I mean, Rudger Hauer is incredible in this movie, but Harry Dean Stanton would have been amazing. That's a very different energy. David Bowie was thrown out at one point. Oh yeah. They met with Terrence Stamp, and he turned it down after he read the screenplay. And then apparently Sam Elliott gave a read at an audition that was so scary that the producer didn't want to walk out to the parking garage alone after the audition. Hell yeah. Sam Elliott was attached, and then there was some kind of scheduling conflict, and he had to drop out. Judging from the time frame, I like to think that he quit the hitcher to do Roadhouse. Yeah. And then yeah, it got to Rudger Hauer, and Rudger Hauer is one of the great screen presences, but he's also a guy who famously comes to set with notes. Yeah. The guy's got ideas. You know, and sometimes it pays off for him, right? Because like this is the guy who improvised the Tears in Rain monologue. So like sometimes he knows what he's doing. Yeah. But reading his autobiography is so funny because every other chapter is him being like, and the director, you know, he had some thoughts about this scene, but here's what I did, and it's perfect. He does a lot of his own driving in this movie. He came up with a backstory for his character and just all kinds of weird uh shenanigans for John Ryder to get up to throughout the film.

SPEAKER_06 16:09

Hell yeah. It's a great performance. It sure is. Uh the budget was eight million dollars and it only managed to grow six million dollars worldwide. Damn. And currently sits at a criminally low 65% on Rotten Tomatoes.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Those have all got to be contemporary reviews, right? Dragon that down.

SPEAKER_06 16:29

Yeah. Speaking of reviews, Roger Ebert's written review, he did not give it a star rating, but he did give it a big old thumbs down. Yeah. And when he's talking about the theme of the movie, he says, at the end of the movie, there is, of course, a scene of vengeance in which the two men meet in final combat, and yet this showdown does not represent a fight between good and evil because the movie suggests that there is something sadomasochistic going on between these two men. The death of the villain is not the hero's revenge, but the conclusion that the villain has been setting up for himself all along. Yeah, I think I get the point, Roger. The hitcher wants to die, but he wants to be killed by someone who he feels is worthy of doing it. That's how I view the movie.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Yeah, I completely agree. I do think it's inescapable that there are some weird sexual undertones, right? Like there's um there's the scene where he plays with Jim's spit. There's he plays the scene with the scene when he gets into the truck with uh when Jim gets in the truck with John at the end of the movie and John has Nash captive. I feel like Rudger is playing that a little jealous. Like what, like, why are you getting this girl involved in our whole thing? I mean, I I don't know. It's I'm not saying I'm my read is the correct read because then we get into problematic territory of, you know, the the queer villain, right? Like the it's the Buffalo Bill of it all, right? But uh, it's an interesting read, I think.

SPEAKER_06 17:50

I'm not gonna sit here and tell anyone who watches this movie that it's not a homoerotic movie, that there's not these underlying tones of that. It's just not the way I view the movie. I can certainly understand that read of it. But when I watched it this time, that's what I took away from it was this is a guy, regardless of what his backstory is, regardless of what his story is, that wants to die, but he doesn't know where to put that energy. Right. And so that's why he's like careless. That's why he doesn't care that he's killing people. That's why he doesn't care if he gets caught. He's gonna kill himself one way or another, but he just wants someone who is worthy of doing it to be the one to put him down. And I think he's satisfied by it at the end.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Not for nothing. That's what Rudger Hauer says his idea was for the character. And that's also what Robert Harmon and Eric Red say. I just I think it is one of those movies that is the ambiguity at least lends itself to alternate readings, which I think makes it a very interesting movie.

SPEAKER_06 18:48

Yeah, again, I I don't fault anyone who that's their takeaway from this movie. Sure. It's just not how I personally read it. Sure, absolutely. And then yeah, he says in his review on its own terms, this movie is diseased and corrupt. I'm like, okay, dude, calm down. It's not cannibal Holocaust, get a fucking grip. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

Yeah, one of his rare zero-star reviews, I believe Siskel gave it a zero-star written review as well.

SPEAKER_06 19:12

Yeah, so okay, I guess we're gonna have to get into it now. So, JT, are you familiar with the At the Movies clip, the review of the hitcher between Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert?

SPEAKER_01 19:23

No.

SPEAKER_06 19:23

Okay. So this thing is kind of infamous, and we're gonna play a little bit of it here. I did cut it up a little bit for time, but this is a very famous review that they did of any movie, honestly, on their show. And you'll see why when we get into it. But here's uh Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel reviewing the movie back in 1986.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Here is a movie that pretends to say one thing and is really saying another thing altogether. The hitcher tells the story of a young man who's driving alone through the deserts of the southwest, and he picks up a mysterious hitchhiker, a man who was a mass murderer, and who has somehow decided to frame this kid with his crimes. Now it looks in that scene like the hitcher is a high-speed action movie, and it is technically, it's very well made. That scene was well made. But what is this movie saying? That older man tortures that boy all through the movie. He plays tricks on him, he tries to kill him, he frames him for murder, he kills his girlfriend, and he completely takes charge of that young boy's life. He is a big thing. There is the unmistakable implication that that kid sort of liked that treatment and that he might become the next hitcher.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

I don't get that at all. I disagree with that entirely. I I don't think Jim likes any of this.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Get a grip, dude.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

I mean it is it is heartless and cruel for sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_04 20:51

Is it just because it was the 80s and that's why he just goes to that? Yeah. They were always weird about horror movies.

SPEAKER_06 20:57

Well, they they despise the movement after Halloween of violent movies.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

And we saw that first scene, the dismemberment scene. Uh that's the hook. We're supposed to now get interested in this is the guy's tough. We didn't need the explicit. I don't I didn't even like the language.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

But that's the thing, is there's no dismemberment on screen. It's an urban legend. I mean, it's basically a set he might as well have a hook hand. He's like, I killed that guy back there.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

That's really all it's about. And there's a scene in here, and I want to get real specific about it, where a woman is tied up between two trucks, and I'm figuring there's no way that they're gonna actually have the guy. I never thought I would ever see that in a movie.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

You didn't see that. Like he's describing a scene that's not in the film.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

And the movie is not honest enough to admit it because it's between these two people, and they're using this violent game as some sort of perverted sex in a way that the movie will not acknowledge.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

And I think he's almost there. I feel like he's almost there. They're just like they haven't come out from behind the rock. And they're all new fresh money, and they've all been taken for a ride, and they're all taken out for a ride, they're putting garbage on the air. And that's what happens sometimes with these new people playing the movie game. I don't think we like this movie.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

It really looks like they they're arguing at each other.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Yep. Like all the time. And it also turns into these fucking kids nowadays. You know what I mean? Like it's just it's so it's such a bummer. I will say they also went on Johnny Carson shortly afterwards, and Carson talked to them specifically about the Hitcher review, and he's he asked if they were opposed to censorship. And Ebert said, quote, of course, the film should be made, it should be shown, and it should not be attended by anybody. Like he had it out for the hitcher. I was like, did the hitcher kill your mom?

SPEAKER_06 22:46

Like, what is the hitcher fucked his wife? I think yeah, they were just this is less than a decade after Halloween came out, and they loved Halloween. They did. But then when Friday the 13th came out, and then all the other sequels and all the other movies that are trying to piggyback off that and try to ramp it up by getting more and more violent. Like for this to be the one that they picked a bone with, it's so bizarre because there's there is violence in this movie. You do see people get shot in the head. You don't see people get dismembered, you don't see Jennifer Jason Lee get ripped in half. It's all implied. Yeah. And for some reason, this is the one they chose to dunk on, and they're wrong. They're just straight up wrong.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Like I said, it's a mean movie. But also I think I think a lot of what makes this movie interesting is how uncompromising it is. Yeah. Without being explicit. I mean, this move this is one of those, you know, you hear about movies that are rated R because of the vibes, right? Like there's that infamous Sakiva Goldsman interview where he talks about Constantine was written to be a PG-13 movie and it was rated R just because it made people uncomfortable. And I think the hitcher kind of falls into that category. Yeah. This is a mean fucking movie. I'm gonna keep coming back to mean because I think that's the easiest way to describe it.

SPEAKER_06 24:01

But I also would say it's a movie that knows that less is more. Yes, it knows to let you sit in the uncomfortableness. Like that opening scene with Jim and the Hitcher in the car goes on for so long. Yeah. And it gets to the point where, like, I don't want to be in this car anymore.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

No, it it is a you want to scream like out of relief with Jim when he shoves the hitcher out of the car. Uh-huh. Yeah, and and it's so funny because we've listened to Ebert reviews on this show where he said the thing that's great about movies like Halloween and Psycho is that you don't see the knife plunge in, right? Like that you it's all in the implication, it's all in the atmosphere, and then this movie delivers that. And I don't know if it's because it's also got a ton of action movie DNA laced in that people were ready to write it off as being kind of like boneheaded. I I just I don't know what the disconnect is there because for me I see a master class in suspense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:01

Well, they also said it's a big ripoff of duel, which is fine, I'll give you that a little bit, but I do think they are very different movies.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Duel is Jaws with a truck, and then the hitcher is duel with a guy.

unknown 25:13

Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_06 25:15

And duel also fucking rolls. Duel is so fucking good. Duel fucks.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

I watched it for the first time like last year, and it's like, holy shit, one of the best movies I've ever seen. It rips. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:26

Alright, let's go back and see a trailer from the 80s on how they marketed this thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen this trailer. God, he looks like a baby in this movie, too. I think he's like 17 when they're shooting this. Eric Red said this was inspired by the song Writers on the Storm by the Doors.

SPEAKER_06 25:58

Uh-huh. Wow, we're just kind of getting glimpses of set pieces to come. No voiceover. This is a great trailer.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

Dude, the car pulling out of the gas station on fire was so fucking remote. Oh my god, it's nuts. Do you believe me? Do I look like a killer to you?

SPEAKER_02 26:25

And again, it's really Rutger Hauer and C. Thomas Howell doing a bunch of the driving in this movie. Like, there's some shots that you can't fake.

SPEAKER_07 26:34

My mother told me never to do this.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

Immediately.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Alright, never mind. Look, get out. Yeah. Vibes are off. Oh, you're Roy Batty from Blade Runner. Get out. I'm sorry, I thought he was somebody else.

SPEAKER_07 26:51

The Hitcher.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

That's a sick font. That logo treatment is so good. That's a great trailer. Yeah, great trailer. Great trailer.

SPEAKER_06 27:03

Okay, so if you've never seen The Hitcher, first of all, stop this episode and go watch it and then come back.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

I don't say that often. It should be on HBO Max right now. It is an hour and 37 minutes and it moves, baby.

SPEAKER_06 27:16

It sure does. Okay, so here's what happened. So Jim is this young guy who's driving a car from Chicago to San Diego as a delivery. Like he's delivering the car. This was the concept of a driveaway car back in the day where people just deliver cars to people. And uh he's riding through the desert during a storm in uh West Texas when he picks up a hitchhiker waiting on the side of the road. And I gotta ask you guys, do you need to go through Texas to get from Chicago to San Diego? I gotta tell you.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Great question.

SPEAKER_06 27:44

I looked it up. You don't you don't have to go anywhere near Texas to get there.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

It was the 80s. Everybody went through Texas.

SPEAKER_06 27:52

Sure. You could actually go like completely around it. I thought it was so funny that he had to go through Texas. But anyway, yeah. Yeah, he picks up uh the hitcher and he says, My mother told me never to do this, and I'm like, boy, true words have never been spoken. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Falling asleep on the road in a long drive is so scary, right? Like the feeling of like, I can't do anything about this, and then it starts raining. Like you'll do anything to stay awake.

SPEAKER_06 28:16

I love that when we finally get the end of the movie when Jennifer Jason Lee is like, So why did you pick him up? And he says, I was asleep. I thought he'd keep me awake. And I'm like, that's a perfect screenwriting response for that character. That's all you need. You don't need anything else other than that.

SPEAKER_03 28:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:32

You don't need him having uh uh uh you know a moment where he's like, Well, you know, when my father was dying of cancer, like you don't need any of that shit to say I was falling asleep.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

Yeah, what if my father was dying of cancer? Someone needed to pick him up on the side of the road. It's also one of those movies. None of this happens to Jim if he has a cell phone. Like this is towards the end of when you can do movies like this because the set so much of this movie, a big chunk of it, is him just trying to find somewhere that has a payphone that he can use.

SPEAKER_06 29:05

Uh-huh. And then coming across 17 abandoned gas stations, I think, in route.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Oh, yeah. So I want to throw this out to you, fellas. Halloween four definitely reheated this movie's nachos. Like the middle of this movie is the gas station sequence from Halloween four. Uh-huh. I really gotta watch those Halloween movies.

SPEAKER_04 29:24

You gotta get around to it sometime. Brother, I think you'd like them. Really gotta I'll talk about him so much.

SPEAKER_06 29:31

So Jim and the hitcher uh come across a car broken down on the side of the road, and while Jim starts to kind of slow down to see what's going on, the hitcher pushes his foot down further onto the gas to avoid stopping. And Jim pulls over and tells him, All right, you gotta get the fuck out. And the hitcher tells Jim uh it was his car and that he just needed gas. Yeah. So Jim starts driving again, and the hitcher tells Jim he doesn't actually need gas, and that wasn't his car, but it was another guy who picked him up earlier that he dismembered, and he's gonna do the same to Jim.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

It's a perfect Urban Legend setup. And I love the combative dialogue here, right? Because like Rudger Hauer is so evasive during this opening sequence. You know, he Jim says, You want me to drop you off somewhere? And his answer is, I'm getting your car wet. He goes, Where are you headed? And he has says, You gotta smoke. And he goes, You're gonna tell me where you're going, and then he goes, Yeah, sure. And then just stares at him like fuck this. And then when he says, he says, I want you to get out, he drops his cigarette and he says, I'm gonna sit here and you're gonna drive. Yep. He's terrifying.

SPEAKER_06 30:36

I love that we get right into this fucking movie. We are less than 10 minutes in. Oh, God, it just starts when this guy's like, I cut off some other dude's head and his arms and legs, and I'm gonna do the same to you. Keep fucking driving. That's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

I paused it at the moment where Jim finds the abandoned station wagon, and it's like 15 minutes into the movie, and I was like, This is this is a masterpiece.

SPEAKER_06 31:02

It's moving, man. This is the one, like one of the few times that producer's not actually paid off of like, get rid of all the slasher elements, get rid of the sex scenes, get rid of all that shit. Just keep the bare bones of this thing, and it rips.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

And I love the moment where John says, I ran out of gas, right?

SPEAKER_06 31:19

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

And there is this relief that comes over C. Thomas Howell's face where he's just like, You need a gas station. Great. Okay, I can deal with this. I understand this.

SPEAKER_06 31:28

Yeah. And so there's construction on the road, but the hitcher pulls a switchblade up to Jim's crotch and tells him, Don't say shit. Right. And so they eventually get waved through. And when Jim asks what the hitcher wants, he says, I want you to stop me. Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

He puts this knife up to see Thomas Howell's eye.

SPEAKER_06 31:49

It rolls.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

I read this thing where uh it was in his autobiographies as I found out after the shoot, he calls him Tommy. He's like, Tommy was scared of me the whole time we were shooting this movie. And then you read interviews with the crew, and they're like, Yeah, Rudger's like a really nice, because you would think this guy's like super method, right? Yeah. They're like, no, he's just really sweet. He's like chopping it up with the crew in between takes. It was weird that he improvised the bit where he put the knife up to Tommy's eye.

SPEAKER_06 32:17

There's that story that Thomas Howell tells about like how he was on set and he was so afraid of Rucker Howard. And so Rucker Howard's like, hey, come have uh lunch in my trailer with me, and we you know we'll discuss things. Yeah. And he says he went to his trailer and all they did was smoke cigarettes, and then Thomas Howell finally had the nerve to like say something. He's like, So what's it like to play villains? And Rucker Hauer took a long drag of a cigarette and goes, I don't play villains. Yeah, and that was it, that was all at once.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Fuck, that's good. It's so fucking scary. Meanwhile, you've got Jennifer Jason Lee who's like, Oh, my old buddy from Flesh and Blood. I can't wait to see Rudger.

SPEAKER_06 32:55

No, he's tremendous in this movie. So good.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

It is like, I think, second only to his Blade Runner performance. He's incredible.

SPEAKER_06 33:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

And then I love he tells Jim, I want you to say something for me. And he tells Jim, I want you to tell me I wanna die, right? And Jim says, What? And when Rutger Hauer repeats I wanna die, he looks like into the middle distance because he's saying it for himself. Yeah, like it is it is such a great choice.

SPEAKER_06 33:24

Yep. And so Jim is able to knock the hitcher out of the car screaming, I don't want to die. Yeah. And man, the dolly shot, the simple dolly shot of just ramping up to the hitcher as he gets off the ground and stands up with the landscape behind him is Chef's kiss. It's so fucking good.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

That shot, the low angle of him as he stands up, that is the movie to me. Because the hitcher, there's there's an inevitability to this character. He's always gonna get back up, he's always gonna follow him. That is the film, this shot right here that we're looking at. It's so good.

SPEAKER_06 34:00

And then this is where the score kicks in, and this shit fucking rolls.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

Mark Isham just doing the Lord's work. It's like half synth, half like Western Wawa kind of stuff. It's so good.

SPEAKER_06 34:12

Like, look at these clouds, look at this shot. Like, they do so much with so little. Like, I I hear David Lynch in the back of my head screaming, it's interesting. Like, yeah. And so later on down the road, a car passes Jim with a family inside, and uh-oh, also the hitcher.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Where are these folks going with a boat in Texas?

SPEAKER_06 34:34

And so Jim tries to warn the family hey, you got a fucking psychopath in your car. Yeah, but he gets his car clipped by a bus and has to pull over. Man, the shot of Rucker Howard grabbing this little girl in the backseat and just kissing her on top of the head. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

If I'm that parent, I'm like, hey man, what? What are you doing? Buckle up, put the teddy bear down, stop smooching my kid. Put the bear back in the box.

SPEAKER_06 35:02

So later on, Jim finds that family's car parked on the side of the road. While we don't get to see what happened inside, it's nothing good. His blood trickles down on his shoes and he uh vomits violently.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Whatever he did in that station wagon was so horrible that there's blood pouring out of the trunk. Yep. Like that's fucking crazy. And then, yeah, and then see Thomas Howell just starts vomiting.

SPEAKER_06 35:26

Like so good.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

It's scarier that we don't see what's in there.

SPEAKER_04 35:31

Yep. Him getting the little girl to quote unquote shoot with a toy gun.

SPEAKER_06 35:36

Dude, yeah. So Jim stops at a uh gas station.

SPEAKER_02 35:42

Sorry, Jim rolls the window down and he's screaming at this couple, pull over, pull over. And all I could think of was Jeff Daniels and Dumb and Dumb are being like, no, it's a card again.

SPEAKER_06 35:53

Great bit. Good bit. Great bit. So yeah, Jim stops at a uh gas station that turns out to be a bandit. This thing looks like it's from like the Dust Bowl era. Someone's going on.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

It's in a sandstorm. By the way, this movie DP is John Seal who shot Mad Max Fury Road. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's why this movie looks fucking incredible.

SPEAKER_06 36:12

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

There's a sandstorm, he goes into this abandoned service station, and I'm just like, buddy, why would the phone here work?

SPEAKER_06 36:19

Dude, I know. Like Christine's in here somewhere. Get the fuck out of here. But inside, he finds the hitcher who gives him his car keys, his dude's car keys before leaving. That's crazy. That's so fucking scary.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

As if to say tag you're it.

SPEAKER_06 36:35

Yeah. And so the hitcher uh hitches a ride inside a pickup truck and drives off. If this were me, I simply would have driven back the other direction I came from at this point. There is there is no point. Just go home. Go home. There is no point in delivering this car. You already hit a bus with it. Yeah. Just go back. Go home.

SPEAKER_04 36:56

You've already gone the wrong way. You're in Texas.

SPEAKER_06 36:58

That's very true. You took a wrong turn.

SPEAKER_04 37:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:01

You fucked up. And so as Jim drives on, he's suddenly rear-ended by the hitcher in the pickup truck that he was hitchhiking in.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

Which, you know, great visual storytelling. You don't have to see the murder. You just know he's killed another family and continued on his way.

SPEAKER_06 37:16

Yep. And before anything else can happen, the hitcher just simply drives the truck over a ravine in the desert. I love that he does this a couple of times. He's just like, I fucked with you enough.

SPEAKER_02 37:27

Peels off.

SPEAKER_06 37:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

And every time he does, he's got like this kind of smile, like, oh hey, what's up? It's my buddy. Like that's his. He just wants to remind Jim that he's around.

SPEAKER_06 37:37

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So Jim comes across another gas station, yet again with no one inside. Yeah. And as he starts to return to his car, a truck burst out of the garage attached to it, driven by the hitcher, who nearly runs him over, but instead chooses to toss a match down on the spilt gasoline everywhere. Yeah. And blow this fucking gas station to Kingdom Come as Jim narrowly escapes in his car.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

And like JT said, he's driving down the street with the front of the car on fire. It's crazy. And like again, Halloween 4 steals this bar for bar, basically.

SPEAKER_06 38:17

This is like twisted metal. That's what this feels like.

SPEAKER_04 38:20

Do y'all know that crazy ass uh music sting in maximum overdrive every time like a truck like killed somebody? Yeah. I get that vibe every time he drives his truck either through a wall, through a building, something.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Listeners should uh check out Dustin's appearance on the uh cinema psychos podcast talking about maximum overdrive.

SPEAKER_06 38:40

Yep. But this is a great stunt, and I love that like we see like in slow motion, like the match almost hitting the gas, him running to his car to get out of there. Like, this is scary as shit, dude.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

It's well edited. It's yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:52

Also, I give it props that as soon as the match hits the gas, it doesn't just immediately explode. Right. Like that shit kills me. Like almost killed him. It depends, uh, of course, circumstances, but you see just a flame, and then as it travels, it's yeah, yeah, it's not like an immediate explosion.

SPEAKER_06 39:10

Yeah, it's an ascending fire to an explosion, it's not like instantaneous, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

Yeah, the shot from inside the gas station of the windows bursting inward from the explosion is just really good. Great. There it goes. God, that shit's so fucking cool. Look at that.

SPEAKER_06 39:24

The stunt's great. There it goes. It's Mad Max as hell.

SPEAKER_02 39:28

Yeah, Ashley, Ashley's big takeaway when she saw this for the first time, she's like, a lot more explosions than I expected from this movie.

SPEAKER_06 39:35

It's like child's play.

unknown 39:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 39:39

So outside a diner somewhere else, a young lady named Nash gets dropped off by a bus to start her shift as a waitress. Uh-huh. Jim shows up and asks to use the phone to call the cops, and as he waits for the cops to arrive, he cleans himself up in the bathroom while Nash cooks him up a burger and fries, and unbeknownst to both of them, a severed finger.

SPEAKER_02 39:59

Yeah, this is one of the moments where I'm like, the hitcher is supernatural. How the fuck did he get in here? Why did he do it? And like, look, Nash, this guy smells like gas and he's covered in shit. Don't let him in.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Don't let him use your phone.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

But I love the moment when C. Thomas Howell looks at himself in the mirror. He finally sees what he looks like and he just goes, Jesus. He's had a bad time.

SPEAKER_06 40:24

God, I love, I love Jennifer Jason Lee in this movie. She's great. She's so cute. She's so sweet. I love her accent. Her accent's great. Her haircut's a little much, but I'll take it.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

This fuck-ass bomb that she's got going on. I love the bit where she's talking to him about the town, and then she goes, Yeah, my uncle's uh from Mars. We're actually all Martians. Like, what planet are you from? And he's just staring into the middle distance. Like it's all very natural. It's one of the things I love about Jennifer Jason Lee is she'll play these sort of like big characters, but she's able to ground them. Yeah. The Hudsucker proxy is like one of the craziest performances that works for me for some reason. And I think it's just because she's so charming.

SPEAKER_06 41:05

So the cops show up and they arrest Jim because the hitcher has framed him for the family murder by putting the bloodied switchblade in his jacket pocket. Yeah. I gotta say, this one cop with the denim jacket is looking great in these tight jeans and cowboy boots. And I'm like, I might have to steal this man's look. I might have to do it.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

It's good look. And these cops, like, they're so cocky, even though we come to learn they know he didn't do it.

SPEAKER_06 41:32

Like well, they say anyone can look at him and tell he didn't do it, but the evidence points to him doing it, right?

SPEAKER_02 41:39

Right. But they're still gonna book him, they're gonna make jokes about his parents seeing his mugshot. Yeah. Look, you gotta admit, it all looks bad. He can't tell you who he's delivering the car to. The car is not in his name, he has no license and registration. Like it's all bad news.

SPEAKER_06 41:56

Mm-hmm. And he says, Call my brother, he can cooperate my story, but brother doesn't answer. And so, yeah, they're like, Look, uh, we don't think you did it, but we're gonna book you anyways, because we got nothing else we can do.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

Not for nothing, but this cop gets stuck when he pulls the switchblade out of Jim's pocket, and this is during the AIDS crisis. So, like, that's that's a big fucking deal that you just got stabbed with something that also has someone else's blood on it.

SPEAKER_06 42:21

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so yeah, he spends a night in jail trying to sleep, but when he wakes up, he notices his cell door is unlocked. Yeah. And as he wanders around the seemingly desolate police station, he spots a lone canine unit roaming the halls before eventually finding all of the police officers butchered.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

The shot of the dog walking into the hallway and just sort of whimpering is haunting. The dream sequence where Jim remembers the hitcher banging on his window and you hear the gunfire that's happening in the actual fight like outside. Yeah. Ashley also wanted to know who shit all over the walls in the prison. Because, like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_06 43:02

I want to know, is Kyle truly indeed fine? I wrote that down.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

I bet Kyle wrote that on the wall.

SPEAKER_06 43:10

I bet Kyle's a scam, honestly. Yeah, so yeah, he finds all these dead police officers, even the canine units like licking this guy's dead cut open throat. Ugh.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 43:21

Here's what I would do in this situation. Go for it. If I had not immediately turned around and drove the opposite direction, if I came out of this cell and saw this, you know what I would do? Put yourself back in the cell. As I'm hearing some police officers coming in, I'm walking back to that cell, I'm closing the door, and I am locking it.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

Sure. I'll know what to tell you, bud. Maybe my second favorite shot of the movie is the when the camera is panning over as the cops run up to the front door of the station and Jim is coming out the back door of the station at the same time. It is such a good shot. I love I I love it. And I love that Jim Jim is freaking out. He doesn't know what the fuck to do anymore. Like this is just this regular. Kid.

SPEAKER_04 44:00

He's not very capable. The officer that walked him back, I knew he looked familiar, so I just looked it up. He's the dead in critters. Oh, okay. Okay. Don't know why I have that knowledge, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:11

You know, if Redger Howard had been in critters, it wouldn't have gone down like that.

SPEAKER_06 44:16

So Jim steals one of the police officers' guns and runs out the back door into the desert hills. And after some time, he comes across another gas station. Yeah. And you would think, oh, great. At this point, he's gonna go inside, but he doesn't. He goes to the phone booth outside, and as two cops approach, he decides to pull his gun out and take these two officers hostage. Fucking crazy behavior. Forcing one of them to drive while he sits in the back. And I'm like, dude, if you're gonna take these guys hostage, by all means go for it, I guess. Take their guns. Yeah. Step number one. Yeah. Also, terrible trigger discipline on this kid, not for nothing. Yes. The whole time.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Well, and what kill what I love though is that we can tell he has no idea how to use a gun. Like later on in the movie, we watch him in real time teach himself how to reload it, which I think is a really important character moment that I don't think most most movies wouldn't have that. Like they'd they'd have him either, you know, find out the gun's empty and toss it, or they'd have him suddenly be great at shooting. Yep. And instead, this movie reckons with the idea that this kid's never shot anybody. He's not prepared to kill someone. And when he has them get on the radio to call their lieutenant, the guy on the other end is crazy chill. They're like, we've been hijacked by suspect. We'd like to speak to Sheriff Estridge. And he goes, Okay, Roger, that. I'm gonna see if I can find him.

SPEAKER_06 45:42

Jeffrey DeMont cannot be bothered raising his voice above like negative 10 decibels.

SPEAKER_04 45:47

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_06 45:48

So yeah, he he talks to Captain Estridge, that's who his Jeffrey DeMont character is, and he's pleading his innocence, and the captain assures him, look, I'll do everything you can to help you if you just come in quietly. And Jim's like, okay. And unfortunately, at that very moment, the hitcher shows up and shoots both these cops in the fucking head.

SPEAKER_02 46:06

And Jim starts screaming in the back seat. It is like a Tim Robinson moment where he's just like, What the fuck? Like trying to, he's trying to grab the wheel.

SPEAKER_04 46:15

I didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

And yeah, I love Jim sort of like relaxes into the seat and the hitcher comes up from behind him. Like it is, it's so well done. And it is one of those moments where it's like the second you start to breathe a sigh of relief, this guy's back. Like he he's the devil.

SPEAKER_06 46:33

Yeah, so the police car crashes and the hitcher drives off. Jim contemplates suicide right here, but can't bring himself to do it. I love the screams of anguish as he gets out of this car. This poor kid.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

And when the camera like moves far away, he's to show how isolated he is, right? Like there's nobody coming to help him.

SPEAKER_06 46:54

So after some more walking through the desert, he comes across a diner and he orders a coffee and plops down to one of the booths. And unfortunately for him, he's got a dinner date with the hitcher.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

The hitcher. He's so squirrely in this part of the movie. He starts to get like this weird, like sort of snarl on his face, and his eyes are twitching, and like he looks fucking crazy. Like he is ready to snap.

SPEAKER_06 47:17

Uh-huh. And so as the hitcher sits down, Jim pulls his gun out and holds it underneath the booth, but the hitcher can tell it's empty, and he's proven right. I love this little thing where he pretends to have a gun as well, and when he goes bang, bang bang bumps the bottom of the table. Yeah, and Jim just tries pulling the trigger like 27 times to no avail. And so he asks the hitcher, why is he doing this to him? To which the hitcher responds by, you know, the normal behavior of licking a couple of pennies and sticking them right on Jim's eyes, telling him, You're a smart kid. You'll figure it out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:50

And not for nothing, the reverse shot looks like he's gonna kiss him. Like he has his hand on the back of Jim's head, and like the reverse shot looks like an embrace. And then yeah, he leaves, leaves him with a napkin full of bullets.

SPEAKER_06 48:02

A napkin full of bullets and just a nice little crystal, like a little uh geode.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

That was interesting, right? I never was able to make out what that was in like previous releases of the movie, and then I was like, oh, it's he just he gave you a little little token, little trinket.

SPEAKER_06 48:17

Yeah, yeah. I I like it, it almost feels like it's like squirrely behavior of like, I got you these bullets, but also I got you a nice little treat while I was out in the desert.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

I also thought this was shiny, kid. Penguins do that, you know?

SPEAKER_06 48:30

Yeah, that's true. They give him the purple. Yeah, yeah. And then yeah, what more can you say about this scene other than it fucking rolls? It's so good. It's great. Uh so a bus pulls up and the riders empty into the diner, and while they do that, Jim boards the bus and hides in the bathroom and decides to load that gun with the bullets that the hitcher gave him. And the riders return and the bus departs with Jim stowing away in the bathroom and the hitcher following close behind.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

But luckily, Jim also realizes after eating at Roy's cafe, everyone's gonna need the bathroom. So he goes and finds himself a seat.

SPEAKER_06 49:02

And also, he spots Nash on the bus, and I'm like, did she get off her shift early? How long is the stay been?

SPEAKER_02 49:09

Ashley has so many questions about the bus route in this town. Is it one bus? Is it multiple buses? Does she take the bus to and from work every day?

SPEAKER_04 49:17

Is it just a tour to all the gas stations and diners in each town?

SPEAKER_06 49:23

Yeah. That's a pretty good tour bus. Like if it if it stops at all the buckies across Texas. The unleaded tour. And so yeah, he spots Nash on the bus and takes her hosses in the bathroom and tries to convince her he's innocent.

SPEAKER_02 49:35

He says, I picked this guy up this morning, and I'm like, Jesus Christ, what a day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:42

And she tells him she believes him, but he knows she doesn't and says, I wouldn't either. I do like that. That's a great moment.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

I also wish he asked her, like, do you still have that burger?

SPEAKER_06 49:52

That burger looked real good. It did. And so the cops pull the bus over, and Jim tells Nash he intends to give himself up because he's got nowhere else to go. Love this scene. And the arresting cop is trigger happy because he nearly shoots Jim dead, thinking he's responsible for his fellow officers being murdered. But Nash takes Jim's gun and forces the cops to rethink that decision. Man. And she and Jim steal the squad car and leave them and the bus while the hitcher follows.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

Because Jim says, like, I'm turning myself in and they don't want that. Yeah. The guy says, You sp you spit on my sleeve. I want you to wipe it off. Yep. He wants a suicide by cop. Yeah. The quiver in Jennifer Jason Lee's voice when she says, I can't believe you were gonna do what you were gonna do. You got the wrong man, Lyle. Like it she's she takes charge in this sequence. It's so good.

SPEAKER_06 50:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:43

He reaches for the gun again and she's like, Leave it. You're in enough trouble already.

SPEAKER_06 50:48

Well, there's like this small town familiarity because like she refers to him by a first name. She's almost like that guy would be like, Ah, I used to babysit you or something like that, you know?

SPEAKER_02 50:58

100%.

SPEAKER_06 50:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:59

Yeah. There's a whole lived-in world here.

SPEAKER_06 51:01

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so, yeah, this starts the first police chase in this movie. This chase is fucking crazy. It's great. So Nash radios in the other police officers and says, Look, we intend to give ourselves up peacefully, but the other cops ain't having any of that shit.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

Well, it's not clear if they're not listening or if they're on the wrong frequency because the other cops are still talking and she's just like, hello.

SPEAKER_06 51:25

I like to think that they're like, No, at this point. Like the cops are.

SPEAKER_02 51:29

You're gonna die tonight.

SPEAKER_06 51:30

We're not interested in a non-violent arrest. We're gonna Bonnie and Clyde this shit.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06 51:36

And so they attempt to shoot out the police car, like the tires, and she loses the gun in the process. I drop the gun. One officer accidentally shoots the other officer's tires out, and both these squad cars flip, and Jim and Nash remain unharmed. Again, the vehicle stunt work in this movie is fucking excellent.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

And again, Howell's really doing a lot of this driving when he pulls that uh Death Star trench run move of slamming on the brakes and letting them like run up alongside each other. It's pretty great.

SPEAKER_06 52:05

Uh-huh. I just love like the symmetry of these two like police cars flipping over like each other in front of her. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:12

Yes. And then the reveal of the helicopter.

SPEAKER_06 52:17

Oh, it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

Because we get this shot of Jim and Nash riding alongside like on this hill, and you expect like this is where normally the helicopter would come up behind them, right? Like this is like that's that's the classic reveal. But then it happens the net on the reverse shot.

SPEAKER_06 52:33

Or that it would be like, this is the end of this scene. So here's like our transition shot. We see them go over the hills. Next, we're gonna cut to whatever. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 52:42

But even after seeing this movie, the helicopter always shows up like three shots after I expect it to.

SPEAKER_04 52:48

It's it's so well done.

SPEAKER_06 52:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 52:50

As much as the hitcher just pops up when you least expect it for a second.

SPEAKER_06 52:55

You thought he was flying the helicopter?

SPEAKER_04 52:57

I thought he was flying the helicopter.

SPEAKER_06 52:59

You thought he was the T 1000. I'm in the sky now, kid.

SPEAKER_04 53:03

I was just like, Jesus Christ, this guy's relentless.

SPEAKER_06 53:06

Yeah, this does give off a lot of Terminator vibes. Sure. I'll say that. And so yeah, they they end up being chased by this police chopper, but the hitcher shows up and shoots this fucking helicopter out of the sky with his pistol. With a handgun.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

And I I love the pan over revealing the hitcher there with a cigarette in his mouth. He's got his gun uh uh held up and he looks bored. Yep. Like he's like, I gotta take care of these guys before I can deal with the kid again. And I just love that moment of Nash looking so confused when he he kills the cops and then just drives off. Like she turns to gym, like she's trying to piece it together. It's it's great silent storytelling.

SPEAKER_06 53:46

She's like, Oh, this guy's telling the truth.

SPEAKER_02 53:48

Yeah, it's real, but I don't understand any of this.

SPEAKER_06 53:51

And I fully believe a guy with a hang good could bring down a helicopter flying this slow. I absolutely believe this.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

He shoots it in like the fuselage or something like that. But it it is it is crazy. And they shoot the shit out of this car.

SPEAKER_06 54:07

Helicopters are not that well constructed. I will say that. They are it's amazing they're able to fly at all, especially at this time. Like they're very easy to bring down.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

Good to know.

SPEAKER_06 54:20

So the Hitra disappears over a hill, and Jim and Nash escape, eventually taking shelter in a motel.

SPEAKER_02 54:26

It's a hotel for truckers. And like, do they have a cuck truck? Is there what's the situation here?

SPEAKER_06 54:33

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 54:34

Would you rather stay at a hotel for dogs or a hotel for truckers?

SPEAKER_06 54:39

I don't know. I love Jim's explanation. We already talked about it, but when yeah, she's like, Why'd you pick up the hitcher? And she was like, I was tired. Yeah. It really is that simple. But sometimes the reality of why an answer is so simple is we do stupid things in life. We just do. Sometimes we do stupid shit.

SPEAKER_02 54:57

And also sometimes terrible things happen in the most mundane situations. I mean, that's what's realistic about it. He didn't, you know, he wasn't like, Oh, I stopped by a cemetery and did an incantation, or like, you know, I I told this old Romany woman that I was denying her bank loan. I was just about to say, I didn't tell Mrs.

SPEAKER_06 55:15

Ganu she couldn't have an extension on her mortgage.

unknown 55:19

Right.

SPEAKER_02 55:20

It it is just like, yeah, I was sleepy. I picked up a hitchhiker. Turns out he's the fucking devil.

SPEAKER_06 55:26

He's the devil. And so he's gonna prove how much of a devil he is right here because that night Jim takes a shower while Nash calls her father to let her know she's okay and to explain what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 55:37

Oh, that scene's so good. When she tells him, like, they got this thing all wrong, like it she's so natural. Yeah. I was also just puzzled by this hotel having a because she's pretending to be asleep, and Jim flips out for a second because he tries to find the light switch for the bathroom, and this hotel has a light switch that turns on the television. I would believe that. I think Oh, I believe it. I just have never seen it before.

SPEAKER_06 56:00

Oh, my house has like outlets that don't work until you flip on a light switch, like a specific switch. So I believe that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 56:07

So this was shot at your house? It sure was. So that night, Jim takes a shower while Nash, yeah, like we said, calls her father, and the hitcher is waiting in the shadows of this hotel room. The scene where he gets into bed and she thinks it's Jim. Oh, and like he kind of just sits there for a minute and observes her. Yeah, the hard cut of him putting his hand over her mouth before she can scream. Yeah, it's exactly the right amount of frames it needs to be. It's perfect.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

You get a slight beginning of a yelp from her, and then it cuts to Jim in the bathroom. That whole scene is just immaculate because there's the reveal of the hitcher from the headlights outside. He lays down next to her in the bed, and his face, it's like he doesn't know why he's doing this. And you also get this feeling of like, this is a man who is not maybe hasn't slept in weeks, right? Like this is a guy who like has not been comfortable in a very long time, and he just looks puzzled when he does it. Like he's just like, I'm just going with the motions. And I I love her taking his hand is like truly the only inkling of like an attraction between her and Jim. Yeah. Otherwise, there's really no like hint of a romance, but she does seem like comforted by it before she realizes it's not him.

SPEAKER_06 57:24

Oh, I love that there's no there's no scene of them two like expressing anything. There's no trace, there's nothing. I mean, in the original script there was, yeah. It doesn't need to be there. It's perfect as is. No, I agree. I wonder what the significance is of because we see when Jim wakes up from his nap, he, you know, we see Nash asleep next to him, but then when we see the side shot, she's awake, but she pretends to be asleep.

SPEAKER_02 57:49

It's because he's told her she can't call anybody and she's waiting for him to be out so he she can call her dad.

SPEAKER_06 57:55

I wondered if there was maybe something more to that, though.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_06 57:58

Because you don't need to keep your eyes open even if you're pretending to be asleep.

SPEAKER_02 58:02

I think that's just for the audience, but I see what you mean.

SPEAKER_06 58:05

I suppose. I I'd like to think there's maybe something more to that, but I don't know. Like maybe she's waiting for him to say something to her or like comfort her, like you know, I got you into a world of shit.

SPEAKER_02 58:17

That's what's so interesting and tragic about Nash, right? Is that like you said, there's no romantic tension there. She's just a good person who tried to do the right thing and it ended her life. Like that's the tragedy of the movie.

SPEAKER_06 58:32

Yeah. And so Jim finds Nash missing from the hotel room, and he, assuming the worst, he rips the metal wall towel bar out of this hotel bathroom as a weapon, yeah, and starts like lurking around outside amongst like a bunch of big rigs, but he's like immediately apprehended by Captain Estridge and some other officers. And this was so cool on the first watch of oh shit, he's arrested. He's not gonna be able to say I thought what we were leading to is a third act where it's him trying to convince the officers, oh, she he's kidnapped this girl.

SPEAKER_02 59:07

We gotta go save her. Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 59:09

I expected this to cut to them in the police station booking him and him like, you gotta believe me. Yeah, the fact that he immediately tells Jim, Officer Estridge does that, look, we need your help. Only you can be the one to help us. I was like, where is this movie going? I love it. And then when we cut to the shot of Jennifer Jason Lee tied up with her arms connected to the front of a tractor trailer and her feet tied to the back of the front of the rig to the hitch, yeah. I was like, holy shit, yeah, where is this movie going?

SPEAKER_02 59:43

It's incredible. I Jeffrey Demon is immediately so compelling too. Like, I love I love his delivery of I'm Captain Estridge. We spoke on the radio. Like he's just like, I gotta give you the bullet points because we got a situation over here. And yeah, and Jim gets in the truck with John, and the first thing John says is, She's sweet.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:09

JT, did you know this was coming in this movie, this scene?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:12

Um, so I knew about the predicament, like the being tied.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:18

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:18

I did not know how it played out.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:20

Okay. I feel like this is the thing people know most about this movie, is this scene.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:24

Yeah. The only reason why I know is because of I I had never seen the remake, uh, but that's what everybody was talking about back in high school when the shit came out.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:33

They're like, yo, sure, sure. Because I think the remake moves this to like the middle of the movie. Because there's there's Jim and then there's his girlfriend played by Sophia Bush. And the remake kind of throws a wrench in things by killing Jim, and then Sophia Bush is the protagonist of the film, if I remember correctly. I it might be conflating things.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:55

Well, my understanding is we get basically this scene, but then they actually show the girl getting ripped in half. Yeah. You know? I think so. Which I don't I don't need. Yeah. And I think it's tough because I love this scene. My only problem with it is the fade to black. I don't know if it works. I think it works better. Maybe if you just see like we kind of see it a little bit, but like the chains go completely taut. Yeah. And then like maybe you cut out all the sound and you just sit there for a minute and like slow-mo, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:23

Or you cut it on see Thomas Howell leaping for him, like he does in the in this one shot. Yeah, the the fade to black is very commercial break, yeah. Kind of coded. But also in any other movie, he saves her, right? Like, I think even in another slasher film, he would save her. And this, it's just the cruelty is the point.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:44

Well, it's also like the villain of the movie, an hour and 20 minutes in, is making himself known in the biggest possible way when he didn't have to. Right. And that's a statement of intent. And so if you haven't seen the movie, what it is is he's got his foot on the clutch. If he releases his foot off the clutch, the truck will lean forward, and therefore Jennifer Jason Lee will get ripped in half. Yeah. And so he says, I want Jim to come in here in the car and talk with me. And Jim goes in. Yeah. The hitcher puts a gun down on the seat and says, Pick it up, point it at my forehead, and pull the trigger. Yeah. And when Jim can't do that, because I think it's like kind of like a double-edged sword. It's almost like the Joker in the Dark Knight of like, if you do the thing he says you want to- That guy's so scary. If you do the thing he says he wants you to do, either way, he's gonna win. Because if he shoots the hitcher, his foot comes off the clutch. Right. If he doesn't shoot the hitcher, he's gonna take his foot off the clutch anyway. So Jennifer Jason Lee is almost she's dead either way. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:39

Yeah, you know, he's put him in an impossible situation. And like you said, it is it is such an escalation, right? Like up until now, he's been playing this game where he's trying to frame Jim and put Jim in these terrible situations, and now he's like public enemy number one. He's revealed himself to the police. He's trying to commit suicide in this grand fashion. And to your point, maybe John didn't think it through like that Nash is gonna die either way. Like he just wants to die, and this is like his Hail Mary attempt at it.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:12

Yeah, this shit took my breath away the first time I watched this movie. It's incredible. I somehow managed to avoid knowing anything about this scene or anything at all. And the movie had been violent up to that point. I mean, we've seen a couple police officers get shot in the head and everything. I truly did not think it could go to this like this takes it up another level so intensely, so quickly. And when you hear her scream as he lets his foot off that clutch, and you see the her hands, you know, get tighter and you see the chains go tighter. Like, yeah, I I I felt like a whimper leave my fucking mouth. And I was like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:46

And also, to your point, you know, mentioning the Joker, this is supposedly one of Christopher Nolan's favorite films.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:53

I can see the inspiration.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:54

There is a nod to this movie in the dark night because they bring in the Joker, they have no name, there's nothing in his pockets but knives and lint. And we basically get that from Jeffrey Demond in this sequence. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:06

And they send in the hero without any kind of training on interrogation. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:11

And see Thomas Howell in a deleted scene throws a dog off of a scaffolding. Watch a skyscraper. What? No, I'm just kidding. Oh, I was about to say. Isn't that the craziest thing? In The Dark Knight, Batman murders like five dogs. He sure does.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:26

He sure does, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:27

I re-watched that movie recently for the first time in a very long time and forgot that Batman just kills a lot of dogs. And like, that's like his journey in the movie. The movie starts with he gets bit by a dog, and he's like, damn, my armor's not good enough. And then at the end of the movie, he throws a dog off of a skyscraper, and it's like, that's he did it. He's the dark knight, he kills dogs.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:52

That's character growth right there.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:53

They should have called him Doberman instead of Batman. Guys, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_06 1:05:00

So at the police precinct, yeah, they have a doctor evaluate Jim and they're integrating the hitcher. And as you said, the hitcher's got no records, no identifiable name, seemingly no history. And so they're like, Jim, why don't you come in?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:13

He's being interrogated by the principal from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:17

That's who that is. Yeah. I love this line where he goes, Where are you from? And he goes, Disneyland. I was like, Oh, he's got jokes. He does. And so Jim says he wants to ask him a question, and when he goes in there, he shakes the hitcher's hand and then just spits right in this dude's fucking face. He sure does.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:34

And then John plays with the spit a little bit. But he kind of likes it. He does. Yeah, he likes it.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:39

I don't know. This is it's a very interesting choice.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:41

That smile, like he's so scary.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:43

Mm-hmm. And so the police perp walk the hitcher to a bus for escort while like the local news reporters are swarming for questions. Yeah. Jim rides with Estridge as they follow the bus to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:56

And Jim's whole demeanor has changed, right? Now he's wearing a leather jacket. He's like flicking a cigarette away. He sachets into getting into the sheriff's truck. Like he he kind of has transformed through this experience. And I think Howell does a really great job of like changing his body language and kind of tonality for this sequence.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:17

Mm-hmm. And so yeah, Jim does not believe the police are gonna be able to hold him. So as they're driving, he takes Estridge's revolver out of his holster. He loves taking police guns in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:28

He loves it. I love that he's like, Can I have one of your cigarettes? And he goes, sure. And then he just grabs the gun. Like there's no centterfuge there. He's just like, I'm gonna get it.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:37

And so he kicks Estridge out of the truck and leaves him on the side of the road. Yeah. And by this point, he's proven right because the hitcher has already escaped his chains, stolen a shotgun, killed all the police in the car.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:50

This is the first time I've ever caught this. John is humming bicycle built for two to himself, where it's the, you know, he's like, Give me your answer, true. Oh, crazy, all for the love of you. Like he's sort of humming it very slowly. Uh-huh. Again, absolutely a Rudger Hauer choice.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:07

Love it. And uh, yeah, when Jim finally pulls up behind the bus, the back door of the bus swings open, and this crazy fucker leaps out of the bus through Jim's windshield and just goes, hiya kid.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:20

There's like a tiger growl sound effect when he does it too. This was really a Rudger Hauer doing this stunt. He jumps through the windshield. Crazy fucker. According to his autobiography, he knocked out one of his teeth with the butt of the shotgun. Like he nailed the jump and then knocked out one of his own teeth with the gun. God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:40

And so yeah, the bus crashes, and man, it's a great stunt where Jim slams on the brake and the hitcher flies out the fucking windshield onto the road. Oh. It's so good. It's real good.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:51

And the way every time he has to like pull himself back up, Redger Hauer knows exactly how to lay in a way that looks wrong. Like his limbs are always at a weird angle. Like he he acts like an alien sometimes. There's just something like he's putting himself back together.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:10

He flaws out of this truck and he looks like that meme of Peter from Family Guy when he gets hurt and he just like all discompopulated the room.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:18

This is worse than that time I forgot how to sit down.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:22

Or the um in Men in Black, the sugar water guy. I'll put my hands on my hand on the phone.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:32

So yeah, Nathan, this is your pick. Tell us what happens at the end of 1986's The Hitcher.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:38

Well, Redger Hauer gets back up, picks up the shotgun, Jim gets the car cranked while Redger Hauer's firing at him, and rams this man at full speed, knocks him down, and Jim gets out of the car, grabs the shotgun, and blows this man away. Yeah. The hitcher gets up uh before this, tosses the handcuffs at him, like as one last little you know, sign of rebellion, and Jim shoots him over and over again. And I think it's worth noting the last shot is in the back. Yeah. Like he is making sure this man is fucking dead. According to Rudger Howard, as scripted, Jim was supposed to shoot him while he was laying down. Like it was meant to be an execution, and they they were like, This is the only way we're gonna get away with an R rating, is if we have it be a slight self-defense. And I think they split the difference there because he absolutely makes sure to murder this man. Yeah. So the hitcher is dead. Jim walks back over to the car, lights a cigarette, and puts his head down. Credits. It is a perfect ending.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:46

It is, I will say, I wanted just a few seconds more before those credits start to roll. Because it's it's so quick.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:53

I also never noticed this uh until the last viewing, but um, the opening shot of the film is Redger Hauer striking a match and lighting a cigarette, and the ending is Jim doing the same thing with the exact same sound effect.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:08

Yep. Roger Eber pointed that out and said that that's supposed to imply, yeah, that he's becoming the hitcher. I don't see that at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:15

I don't think so. I think he's proven that he's not going to play his games. Like he's just making sure this man is dead.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:22

Yeah. I love the wide shot too of the desert as he kills him. It's so good. All the landscape shots are fucking phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

Well, and that's how you, you know, this is built-in production value, right? Like you're just shooting in this incredible looking vista.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:37

Mm-hmm. And yeah, that's pretty much the end of the movie. I like that there's no there's no postmortem. There's not like a scene of him talking to like Nash's dad or the cops finally showing up, like Estridge helping him, you know, put a blanket over him in the back of an ambulance. We just get right the fuck out of there.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:55

Apparently, the producers tried to convince uh Robert Harmon to shoot a funeral scene for Nash. Nope. Just to like try to soften everything, and he's like, no, one, that would kill the pacing of the movie. And two, that's not really the point. The point is that this horrible thing happened and he has to be stopped.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:12

Yep, yep. It's a perfect ending.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:14

We don't get catharsis. There's no catharsis here. The only relief is that the hitcher is dead.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:19

Yeah, it's a great ending. It's a perfect ending.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:21

It's great.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:22

Yeah, that's the hitcher. Any final notes, fellas, before we get to the wrap-up stuff? I think that was all of my notes. All right. Well, without further ado, let's get over to Prop Cop. So for new listeners, Prop Cop is where we're gonna take one prop, hypothetically, of course, from the movie as our own personal prop. So, Nathan, this is your pick. What prop do you want most from the hitcher?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:42

They get kind of a hero shot when uh Jim is running away from the hitcher dropping the match, but I want his black Nikes.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:50

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:51

Those things gonna work out in this movie.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:53

Sure, sure. I'll take that uh I've already mentioned them, but that arresting officer's sweet denim jacket.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:00

JT?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:01

I will take the pennies that he put on his eyes.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:04

Oh, sure. Uh all right. Well, there's a a lot of smaller characters in the movie. Who should we play in the hitcher as a bit part?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:12

Just jerked off in your French toast.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:15

Wait, what is that from? That's from not another teen movie. Oh man, I haven't seen that in so long.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:21

That one was also submitted by Jordan, but I also like to think that that's Nash when she gives him the burger and fries.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:27

Just jerked off.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:28

That's good. So who should we play? JT?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:31

I was gonna go with the uh in the the same scene with the pennies, the owner who just just it's random frames of him, but as soon as like he looks at the bullets and the napkin, he just comes out of the kitchen and just looks. Yeah. It seemed like something was cut, like there should have been something there, but he didn't say a word or nothing else was brought up. I love when he's like, uh, hey, what happened to you?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:54

And Jim's just like, nothing. Son, I'm gonna need I'm gonna need you to answer my question. You smell like shit. You're covered in blood and doo-doo.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:05

I want to be the construction worker who thinks Jim and Hitcher a couple. He's like, All right, get out of here, sweethearts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:13

Get going, sweethearts.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:15

What about you, Nathan?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:16

Um, when John Ryder hitches a ride in the sandstorm when he first gets his truck.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:21

When Day Rude shows up.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:22

Yeah. There's a lady in the middle seat who looks at him like, so what the fuck is your deal? She's on screen for like half a second, and I'm just like, that that's the one character that has sense.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:34

Excellent choice. Uh all right, fellas. I I think we definitely need one for the hitcher. So let's talk about it. What is the silver lining? I can go ahead and start. Yeah. Much like uh we talked about uh a joker, I'll talk about another one. The hitcher got what he fucking deserves. What do you think, Nathan?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:56

Presumably, Captain Astridge is fine. Yeah. And uh he knows that Jim didn't do this, so there's a chance that Jim doesn't go to jail forever over this.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:06

Yeah. Man, could you imagine the trial for this thing? Like Nash's dad in the courtroom. Oh god damn.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:13

It's just the dad from Black Christmas. It's just like, where the fuck is my daughter?

SPEAKER_06 1:14:18

Uh-huh. JT, what about you?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:20

Okay. So though he is traumatized, it would be so much worse. This is what I thought the movie was going to gear towards, because he's been trying to frame him for all these murders and stuff. Yeah. That it's going to end like that. He's going to be framed, he's going to be in prison for all of it. So I guess like he was able to prove his innocence. Yeah. Even though it at the cost of Nash's death, I mean, yeah, he's completely fucked up, but he's not in prison.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:44

Well, I also like to think that, like, regardless of everything that happened, Jim did kind of save the day because if he didn't, you know, hijack Estridge's truck and drive up to that bus, the hitcher would have escaped and he would have just been on the loose. So for better or for worse, he did kind of save the day by running this fucker down and shooting him in the back.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:02

Right. Do you guys know there is a terrible direct-to-video sequel to this?

SPEAKER_06 1:15:06

I did.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:07

It's uh called The Hitcher 2. I've been waiting. Good title. Backstars see Thomas Howell, uh-huh, who gets killed, I think, 30 minutes into the film, spoiler alert.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:16

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

And the new hitcher is played by Jake Busey, and it is implied through dialogue that he might be the same. He might be John Ryder somehow. Like it is it's terrible. It's so do not do not bother.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:30

Okay. Alright. Well, let's say this, let's say you're bummed out by the ending of the hitcher. What's a movie you could watch as a double feature with our pick me up? So I initially was gonna pick one because I thought it'd be funny just to say it. I was gonna say Joe Dirt because of that one scene where he's hitchhiking and he's got that sign that says, I promise not to kill you.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:51

Well, and there's that there's that scene where uh Jim finds a space peanut in this movie, too.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:58

I am gonna go with a movie we talked about earlier, which is this movie but with a much happier ending, and I'm gonna go with Steven Spielberg's duel.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:05

Hell yeah. Great choice.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:07

Fucking rolls. What are you gonna watch, Nathan?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:10

So when the movie started and the tristar logo popped up on the screen, my wife went, fuck yes. Okay. And it made me immediately think of another movie where the tristar logo is burned into my brain, and after we rolled credits on the hitcher, we watched Labyrinth. Okay, alright. Which I think has been my pick me up before, but uh it remains one of my faves. Okay. Also the same year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:38

I was thinking about that too when we started the movie. Why is the tri-state logo so nostalgic for all of us? It makes me feel so good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:46

I'd like to seeing that horse just run in from off-screen. I'm like, okay, all right.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:50

Dude, you gotta see Seabiscuit.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:53

Holy shit, you're telling me there's a movie about horses?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:56

Oh, yeah. They got horses and they got a lot of other stuff too.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:00

Is that horse as folkable as the one from War Horse?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:07

Oh man, why wasn't Warhorse my pick-me-up for the last episode?

SPEAKER_06 1:17:14

Uh, so I would call this somewhat of a horror movie, and we like to talk about this with horror movies. I don't think there's any debate though. I think Nash is probably the best kill of the movie, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:17:24

It's the most impactful for sure. Yeah, yeah. My pick-me-up is almost famous, by the way.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:30

Oh shit, sorry, I forgot.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:32

Sorry. Why almost famous? Another road trip movie. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:36

I mean, they're on tour.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:37

All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:37

Yeah, I'd say Nash is the most impactful. Otherwise, the um the two state troopers getting shot in the head while Jim is in the backseat, I think, is pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:47

That's a good lyric. Two officers in the head getting shot in the head with Jim in the backseat.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:53

I'm working on it. That's my favorite Bob Dylan song. Why are you doing a Bob Dylan though?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:58

I don't know. I'm working on it. Two officers getting shot in the head while Jim's in the backseat. See, Nathan knew how to do it better than me. He's got a girl tied up on his truck. He's got his foot on the motherfucking clutch.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:13

There you go. There you go. You know how Bob Dylan says motherfuck all the time. I sure do.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:19

I sure do. I don't think I need to ask this, but do we recommend the hitcher?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:23

Oh, absolutely. Hell yeah, brother. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:25

More like the bitcher. This movie fucking rules.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:28

I think the absence of a lot of surface level substance is filled with a lot of subtlety and nuance. I feel like there's a lot you can pick apart from this movie, things you could project onto it. And like we talked about, there's many different reads of the movie, and I think that's the sign of a good movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:46

And the acting across the board is exceptional. And that that kind of makes it a better movie. It is somehow greater than the sum of its parts, and its parts are impressive. Like I it is one of those movies where every single element is firing on all cylinders, and I just I come back to this one maybe once a year, and I just I love it more every time I see it. Like there were multiple times in this movie where something terrible happened, and Ashley would start laughing because I had this big smile on my face, and I'm just like, everything about this movie is so well made and so well executed.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:24

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:25

And it's horrifying. Uh-huh. Yeah, no, uh, 100%. Go watch it. If you haven't watched it, if you've listened to this episode without watching it, I'm slightly disappointed in you, but you still have a great journey ahead of you. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:39

Don't be so easy on them, Nathan.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:40

Tell them how you feel. Hey, fuck you guys.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:44

We told you.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:45

By the way, this is our we marathon recorded. We never do this. This is our second episode in a row. So we're all a little slap happy. And I've drank two uh giant beers. So uh I'm I'm having a good time.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:59

I had two small beers.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:02

Like 12 Negronies.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:04

That's true. Uh yeah. So if you haven't already, please subscribe, rate, and leave feedback wherever you're listening to us right now. We would greatly appreciate that. Yeah. Follow us on the usual social media sites, Blue Sky, Instagram, TikTok, and Liminate. You can also check out our website, tslppodcast.com, for links to all that stuff and more, as well as you can get in touch with us on the contact us form or by emailing us at thesiverlinings playlist at gmail.com. You can also join the free Discord if you want, where you can talk to us, other listeners of the show, and just have some good conversations. And lastly, check out our Patreon if you want more of the show at Patreon.com slash silverlinings playlist, where this week on the pod we're talking about the Will Them DeFriends movie draft. It's so stupid and sweaty. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:52

It's my favorite thing we've ever done. We haven't even recorded it yet.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:56

Uh-huh. Uh, and then this is a big announcement. Coming up on August 15th, we will be celebrating our 10-year anniversary as a podcast. And on that date, we are releasing a celebration/slash retrospective episode detailing the past decade of the show, of which we couldn't have done without the support of listeners like you. Yeah. And with that being said, we want to hear from you. So call us at the brand new TSLP hotline at 423-403-8757. Again, that's 423-403-TSLP and leave us a voicemail detailing your favorite moments from the show's history. Wish us well or not, your choice. Or ask us a question you've always wanted an answer to. Whatever you want to say about us or the show in general, this is the perfect time to do so. Get your call in before July 15th so we can assure it'll appear on the episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:52

And we're taking votes. If you think we should kill ourselves at the end of the recording to fulfill the prophecy, let us know.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:00

And also, if you want to share your thoughts on the show or ask a question, but you don't want to call in, you can still email us at the seven linings playlist at gmail.com, or you can comment wherever you're listening to us right now, and we'll read your response on the episode. So, yeah, that's it for the hitcher. That's it for all the uh wrap-up stuff here. The last little bit of business we gotta do here, fellas, is I gotta give you a clue for what we're talking about on our next episode. And our next episode comes out just two days after this country's 250th anniversary. If we're still a country by then, who fucking knows at this point? We'll find out. But my clue for that movie, which is very related to the uh anniversary of this country, but I will say sometimes a movie spawns a franchise for all the wrong reasons. And uh yeah, that's all I got. So uh until next time, where we're talking about uh our country's history and uh maybe some people that uh have been negatively affected by that experience. Rest in peace, oatmeal, and as always, gas stations have cigarettes. I want you to stop this episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:07

I don't want to stop it, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:47

But someone has written a One Tree Hill fanfiction called The Hitcher. Oh which I guess is about Sophia Bush's character meeting The Hitcher.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:56

Oh boy. Hey, did you check our girl? Did she write any Hitcher fanfiction?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:00

She did not. No, there's no there's no story about Glim Halsey.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:06

Jib's passenger for this delivery that's in the backseat. Jennifer Halsey. This isn't in the episode, right? I can stop recording.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:13

No, no, no. This is going in at the very end.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:16

You know, I did look it up. I was very sad.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:19

That's okay. I did not expect her to be writing stuff about the hit. I mean, I don't know. She did write stuff about Medea, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:25

Who knows? And Mark Wahlberg's four brothers. That's true, very true.